Page 56 of Scorched Secrets

A stab of guilt hit hard. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

She waved a hand. “You didn’t. My sleep schedule is all messed up from working so many night shifts in a row.”

“Go back to bed, Faye. There’s still plenty of time to rest before morning.”

She shook her head and dropped down at the table. “I tried. My brain started going through each of the attacks against me. It’s depressing to realize someone hates me enough to do this.”

“Hey, they don’t necessarily hate you personally.” He sat beside her, even though his instincts were warning him not to get too close. He was supposed to be on guard duty, not thinking about kissing her. “If Jayson Sanders is the one behind this, he’s mad at your father. Maybe even at women in general since his sexual harassment is what got him fired in the first place.”

“I hadn’t thought about it from that perspective, but you could be right. I might be the person he targeted because he knows he can’t go after all the female firefighters he harassed.”

“Exactly.” He lightly patted her arm, then abruptly stood. “I need to make rounds. You should really try to get some sleep.”

“Rounds?” She looked at the binocs in his hand. “Oh, you’ve been spying out the windows.”

“Not spying.” She made him sound like a kid playing a game. “Being on alert for danger. I already saw a young kid rowing his boat down the lake.”

“At this hour?” Her eyebrows levered upward. “That’s odd.”

“Yes, which is why I need to continually make rounds.” He didn’t add that the more distance he kept between the two of them, the better. He moved to the front window. It took a moment for him to get the binocs and the night vision lenses focused.

He moved the glasses slowly so that he wouldn’t miss anything. Then he abruptly stopped. Was that a car?

He zoomed in to get a better look. Yes, there was a car sitting several yards down the road. He lowered the glasses with a frown. There had not been a car there fifteen to twenty minutes ago.

The kid in the rowboat?

An abrupt flash of light blinded him. He dropped the night vision lenses, blinking to clear his vision. The lenses were only good in the darkness, and for a moment, he wondered if the driver of the car had known that he was using them.

Impossible, but the paranoia remained.

“Look out!” Faye shouted.

He instinctively jumped backward as the sound of breaking glass echoed around him. The acrid scent of accelerant hit hard.

When his vision cleared, he saw the fire.

Chapter Thirteen

“Colin!” Seeing fire, she lunged forward, desperate to reach Colin.

“Stay back!” Colin’s sharp tone stopped her cold. Hearing more breaking glass, she understood what was happening.

They were under attack!

She shrank back from the fire that was quickly spreading wherever the accelerant had spilled. Aiden’s footsteps pounded as he came down to see what was going on.

A third window shattered. Glancing down the short hall to the master suite, she realized the bed was on fire.

The lake house would be destroyed if the arsonist kept this up.

A fourth window shattered. Soon the entire house would be engulfed in flames!

“Colin, we need to get down to the lakefront.” Aiden’s calm tone helped calm her nerves. “There are too many points of entry. You can’t put the fire out by yourself.”

“I know.” He abruptly turned from where he was attempting to smother the flames licking the floor and chair with a throw blanket. Darting between the steadily growing flames, he quickly joined them. He held his left arm awkwardly against his body. It took a moment for her to realize his arm had been injured.

“You’re burned!” Faye stared in horror. All the hair on his arm was gone, singed from the fire. She quickly turned and grabbed a towel from the kitchen drawer. She took precious seconds to thoroughly douse the hand towel in icy cold water. Then she came over to gingerly wrap it around his reddened arm. “This will help draw out the heat to slow the burn process. But we need to get you to the hospital ASAP.”

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