Page 58 of Scorched Secrets

“We’ll have to call Rhy,” Aiden said as they climbed out of the vessel. “We can’t risk going back to the lake house for our vehicles. We have to assume the arsonist has damaged my truck in some way. And your SUV is in the garage, too close to the fire for comfort.”

“Yes, I noticed there were several gas cans in the garage, probably for the boat. We don’t want to be anywhere nearby if the fire reaches the garage.” Colin shook his head. “But it will take at least two hours for Rhy to get here.”

“I know.” Aiden gestured toward the path leading to the road. “Let’s go.”

She and Colin followed his lead. But even as they walked along the side of the road, listening as Aiden made the call to Rhy, she fought an overwhelming wave of despair.

How many more fires would the arsonist start in his thirst for revenge?

How much longer before this nightmare came to an end?

His arm hurt, but Colin did his best to ignore it, knowing it could have been much worse. He hated knowing he’d made so many mistakes in his quest to keep Faye safe.

And this was why he wasn’t a cop. He tried to approach this the way his older brothers would, but he’d failed miserably.

Based on this most recent incident, he knew staying at the homestead and dropping Faye at her father’s house were both out of the question. They were walking magnets for this arsonist. If he didn’t know better, he’d think this guy had superpowers.

“Okay, Rhy, Devon, Tarin, and Joy are all on the way, they’re bringing two cars,” Aiden said.

“Why so many?” Faye asked.

Aiden shrugged. “The guys don’t want to leave their wives home alone. I can’t say that I blame them.”

“Yeah, especially Devon as she’s pregnant.” Colin felt awful for waking them up in the middle of the night. “I wish we didn’t have to put them out like this.”

“They assured me they’d rather be here to help,” Aiden said. He met his glance. “Speaking of which, I think you should call Mitch Callahan too.”

“I was planning to wait until morning.” He waved a hand at the homes within the Fish Lake community. “It’s not as if this is his jurisdiction.”

“I get it, but he may want to examine the scene regardless,” Aiden said.

He dug out his phone, then looked at Faye. “I don’t suppose you have your new phone with you.”

“I do.” She lifted the phone. “It’s still off, though. I double-checked to make sure we weren’t tracked that way.”

“Good.” That was one less problem to worry about. Not that there weren’t plenty of other hurdles to overcome. With one hand, he thumbed the screen to reach his recent calls. Mitch was near the top. He squashed a flash of guilt for waking him up, knowing his second cousin had two small kids at home.

There were several rings before he heard Mitch’s groggy voice. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry to wake you, but there’s been another attempt against Faye. Unfortunately, we’re well out of your jurisdiction; we’re in Wautoma at Fish Lake.”

“Fish Lake?” Mitch’s tone sounded more alert now. “Oh yeah, the rental property. What happened?”

He quickly filled Mitch in on the details. “This time the arsonist came prepared with multiple firebombs, either Molotov cocktails or something similar. Each one was tossed through a window. The fire spread rapidly after that. We escaped by boat and are currently still sitting out here waiting for Rhy and Tarin to arrive.”

“I don’t like it,” Mitch muttered. “How did this guy find you?”

“I wish I knew. We thought it would be safe since the property wasn’t in Dorian’s name. But maybe the rental property was easier to find than we realized.”

“Maybe. Anything is possible,” Mitch agreed.

“Colin?” Faye placed her hand on his uninjured arm. “I’ve been thinking about that. It could be that Claire has been blabbing about the lake house. She’s active on social media; she may have posted pictures there too. It may not have been as much of a secret as we thought.”

“I heard that,” Mitch said. “Faye could be right. If someone had taken the time to research the chief’s life before lashing out in revenge, they may have followed his wife on social media and found out about the lake house.”

“Yeah, well, we need to reconsider our plan to use the American Lodge.” Colin swept his gaze over the area but didn’t see anything concerning. “We can’t risk Gary losing his business to this guy.”

“What we need is a place with bulletproof windows, something to prevent forced entry,” Mitch said with a sigh. “I’ll think about that more, but in the meantime, what do you need from me?”

---