Page 66 of Scorched Secrets

“The sedan is passing me,” Kyleigh said a few minutes later. “The driver didn’t slow down at all as he passed by.”

“So maybe not our guy,” Aiden said.

Colin knew there would likely be several false alarms before the arsonist showed. His stomach rumbled with hunger, but he ignored it.

“I see a kid walking down the street from the south,” Joe said. “Wearing a baggy hoodie and a backpack over his shoulders. I don’t see anything in either hand.”

He thought about the kid on the boat and was about to take the binoculars when Faye took them. “I’d like to see.”

He bit back a protest as she used the glasses to focus on the kid. She sucked in a harsh breath and shoved the binocs into his stomach. “It’s Annie. We need to get her out of here!”

“Hold on—” But it was too late. Faye darted from the shelter of the trees, running straight toward her half sister.

Colin rushed after her, his stomach tied in knots. They were far from Brookland where Annie lived with Claire and Dorian Kimble.

What was she doing here?

Chapter Fifteen

“Annie!” Faye shouted to get her sister’s attention. For a moment, she thought the teenager would ignore her, but then she stopped and waited for Faye to catch up. A strange smile creased her features.

“Fancy meeting you here, sis.” Annie’s tone reeked of sarcasm. She lifted her hand and flicked a lighter. On, then off. On and off.

A chill snaked down Faye’s spine as realization sank deep into her bones. No, it couldn’t be.

“Faye, stay back!” Colin’s urgent tone came from behind her. “Don’t go any closer. She might be armed.”

“He’s right.” Annie’s lips thinned in a grim smile. She opened her hoodie revealing a can of some sort tucked against her. Instantly, she had the can in one hand with the lighter in the other. “I am armed. This wasn’t what I’d hoped to use, I have more in my backpack. But it will do in a pinch. It’s time to end this once and for all.”

“It was you?” Faye could barely comprehend what was happening. “You’ve been the one starting these fires? Why? What did I ever do to you?”

“You’ve been the golden girl for years,” Annie hissed in a low, angry voice. “Dad has always loved you better than me. And you know what? He should love me more! I’m his real flesh-and-blood daughter, while you’re just a stray kid he brought home and adopted from some lame family killed in a fire.”

Faye gaped at her. “What are you talking about?”

“DNA,” Annie spat. “Yours and mine. No genetic match. Not one little bit of shared DNA, which explains why you’re so smart and I’m so dumb!” Annie was shouting now, her face contorted in a mask of rage.

Faye had no clue what Annie was talking about, although now that she thought about it, she didn’t really resemble either of her parents. The DNA news was a shock, but that wasn’t the pressing issue.

Talking her sister off the ledge was.

“You don’t want to do this, Annie.” Faye held her hands up, palms facing forward. As if that might stop the teenager from zapping her with accelerant and fire. “I never knew I wasn’t my dad’s biological daughter. You’re incredibly smart to have figured that out.”

“Don’t patronize me!” Annie flicked the lighter on and off again. “I hate you!”

“I can understand how much you must resent me. But this isn’t going to change anything, Annie. It will only hurt you. Please, don’t do this. Hand the canister, lighter, and backpack to me, okay?” Faye continued talking to her in a calm voice, hoping and praying the Finnegans and the members of Rhy’s tactical team could grab Annie without hurting her.

Or getting burned themselves.

“Stop it!” Annie’s wide eyes looked wild. “I don’t want to hear you talking!” She lifted the hand with the container and aimed it toward Faye as the other hand flicked the lighter.

“No!” Faye shouted. Colin ran forward, slapping Annie’s hand holding the lighter upward. The lighter tumbled through the air, landing somewhere out of sight.

Colin slammed Annie against the ground, squashing the backpack beneath her. Instantly, the scent of lighter fluid enveloped them. Annie wrestled under Colin’s weight, squirming as she tried to escape.

No, not escape. Faye watched as Annie pulled something out of the pocket of her jeans.

“She has another lighter!” She rushed forward to pull Colin off her sister just as Annie flicked the lighter on. The fluid must have leaked onto Annie’s clothes, and Colin’s too, because the flame raced along their damp clothing.

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