Page 23 of Scorched Secrets

She smiled wryly. “Thanks, I think.”

He mentally smacked himself as he finished his water bottle. He stood and gathered their garbage together. “Okay, let’s walk back to the hotel.”

“Too bad we can’t sit outside the courthouse.” She lifted a hand to block the sun from her eyes. “I didn’t realize there was a park area here.”

“You need to get down here more often.” He wanted to ask her to attend the Irish Festival down at the lakefront with him. He and his siblings attended the festival each year if they could. He didn’t think there had been an Irish Fest that a Finnegan hadn’t been in attendance. But their schedules made it impossible for everyone to attend at the same time.

“I do,” Faye agreed. “Let’s walk across the park, okay?”

“Sure.” He took her hand again because he wanted to, not because he was concerned about anything going awry. “Hey, there’s Bax now.” He waved at his brother-in-law.

“Hi, Colin.” Bax wore one of his expensive suits, not a tuxedo this time, but a nicely tailored suit that probably cost more than his weekly paycheck. “What brings you to the courthouse?”

“Bax, this is Dr. Faye Kimble. Faye, this is Kyleigh’s husband, Bax. Otherwise known as Penguin.”

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Kimble.” Bax ignored the nickname they’d dubbed him when he’d shown up at Rhy and Devon’s small wedding wearing a tux. Even the groom hadn’t worn one. Much less a tuxedo that was owned, not rented.

“Please call me Faye.” She elbowed Colin in the side. “Be nice.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who started it.”

“I don’t mind,” Bax said with a grin. “I’ve come to respect penguins. Have you seen them at the Milwaukee Zoo? They’re amazing birds. And they mate for life.” He pinned Colin with a look. “Something you and the rest of your family should be grateful for.”

“You mean Kyleigh should be grateful,” he shot back.

“No, I have a feeling if anything went wrong between us, you and your family would squash me like a bug,” Bax said. Then he lowered his tone. “They’re more brawn than brains, you know.”

Faye laughed, a musical sound Colin wished he could hear more often. He shook his head in mock dismay. “You make it hard to tease you, brother.” He noticed Bax looking at his watch. “We’ll let you get back to work. Tell Kyleigh hi from me.”

“Yeah, I will. Sorry, I have to meet with a witness.” Bax smiled at Faye again. “Good luck with this hotshot. If he gives you any trouble, call me.”

Colin moved aside so Bax could get back to work. He watched as his brother-in-law strode quickly away. When he turned back toward Faye, a glow of fire caught the corner of his eye.

What in the world?

A flaming bottle was flying toward them. His brain registered it as a Molotov cocktail even as he threw himself at Faye. They tumbled to the ground, his body covering hers.

He felt the sear of heat as the flaming bottle flew past, missing them by a fraction of an inch.

Chapter Six

Her head hit the grassy earth with a bouncing thud. Her breath tangled in her throat as Colin’s heavy weight pinned her down. Smelling gasoline, Faye tried to lift her head to see what was going on. She hadn’t heard gunfire, but nearby pedestrians screamed, their footsteps pounding the ground as they ran away as if there was some sort of impending threat.

“What happened?” She pushed the question through her tight throat.

“Keep your head down.” Colin jumped to his feet. She didn’t follow his orders but pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, her gaze fixated on a spreading fire roughly six feet away. For a moment, she was confused as to why the green grass was burning, then she remembered the gasoline scent.

Someone had chucked a firebomb at them. Granted, it was a small one, but if the gasoline had drenched her clothes and Colin’s, they’d have suffered bad burns.

Colin’s quick reflexes had saved their lives.

“I told you to stay down,” Colin barked as he cleared the area around the fire. “The arsonist might return with another Molotov cocktail!”

Having grown up with a firefighter father, she knew what a Molotov cocktail was, a bottle filled with gas or some other flammable liquid with a wick shoved inside. The cotton wick was started on fire and tossed at something you wanted to burn.

Logically, she knew how it worked, but she’d never seen one up close.

Or been nearly struck by one.

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