Page 13 of Into the Fire

Only because her boss had requested ATF assistance.

But she didn’t want him hanging around today.

Fine. He could take a hint.

“In that case, I’ll head out. You want any help carrying the evidence to your car?”

Not that there was much of it. A section of the burned rug and a piece of flooring from underneath for accelerant testing, the items they’d found beside the chair, and a scorched laptop. There’d been nothing obvious to suggest arson was a factor. Nothing to fingerprint that wasn’t already ash covered. No sign anyone but the victim had been in the house. Nor had there been anything else suspicious.

Except that odd piece of glass next to the garden, which likely had no bearing on the case.

“No. I can manage.” She straightened her shoulders. “Thanks for your help today.”

“Happy to assist.” With no excuse to linger, he turned and exited the room. Paused in the hall. Swung back to offer one final thought.

She was bent slightly, massaging her leg between her knee and thigh, features pinched.

The instant she realized he was watching her, she stood and neutralized her expression. “Forget something?”

“No. I just wanted to give you a heads-up about the bottom step in the basement, in case you venture down there again. The riser collapsed on my last circuit.”

“Duly noted. Thanks.”

So what’s wrong with your leg?

The question hovered on the tip of his tongue, but he bit it back.

He did, however, ask the next one that came to mind. “Are you certain I can’t carry those to your car for you?” He motioned to the small pile of evidence containers. “Or haul out some of the equipment?”

She did that chin-lift thing again. “I’ve got it covered.”

No thank-you was tacked on this time.

Unaccustomed as he was to walking away from anyone in need of a helping hand, his gut said that was the wisest course with Bri Tucker. The woman oozed independence with a capitalI.

And as he’d told her earlier, he listened to his gut.

“Okay. Talk to you soon.”

No response.

Yet much as she might resent his intrusion into her investigation, she’d get in touch with him again to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, if nothing else. She was too new on the job here to risk miffing a boss who’d brought in the ATF.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean he’d have any further opportunity to find out what made her tick or what had caused her limp.

Too bad.

Beautiful, intriguing women didn’t enter his orbit every day.

He picked up his pace as he left the house and struck out toward his car, trying not to let her lack of interest and encouragement dent his ego. In truth, he should be glad for her coolness. In a few months, after he settled into life in St. Louisand Nan was in better shape, he could think about reentering the dating game.

For now, though, it would behoove him to forget all about his social life in general and Bri Tucker in particular.

Marc stopped beside his car, removed his hard hat and safety goggles, and unzipped his jumpsuit. The early finish at the scene would give him a chance to log a few hours at the office and continue getting up to speed on local cases, protocols, and personalities.

But as he slid behind the wheel and put the car in gear, his gut told him one more thing.

It wasn’t going to be easy to forget about the enigmatic blond fire investigator whose intuition was prodding her to keep digging in a burned-out room that, as far as he could tell, had already yielded all the clues it was going to relinquish.

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