The Fire Still Burns Read online

  Adam handed her the boots Jamie Lee had left specifically for her to borrow, knowing she'd never fit into the spares they kept in the fire truck, and she yanked them on. “I take it we've been cleared to do a walk-through.”

  “Just as long as you don't go stomping through the building,” Adam chided her in an attempt to pull a laugh out of her, but he didn't get so much as a grin. Something was wrong.

  “Is everything all right with your son?” They walked toward the building as the late afternoon sun beat down on them. The temperature wasn’t uncomfortable, but it seemed that way in the turnout gear.

  “Why wouldn't it be?” Brynn cast him a glance. It was the first direct look she'd given him since returning to the scene and it lasted a whole five seconds.

  “I saw you with him earlier.”

  Brynn tripped, and Adam barely caught her before she took a nasty spill.

  “Whoa, you all right? Jamie Lee left those boots for you but if they're too big—”

  “They're fine,” she said quickly, brushing off his hands. “I guess I'm just a bit clumsy at the moment. I've got stuff on my mind.”

  “Well, it'd be best if you clear it out of your head before we start stepping through this house. I need you alert and focused.” He looked at her pointedly.

  “Yeah, I know. I'm all right. Let's do this,” she said, jutting her chin out as she continued her trek toward the house.

  The damage to the white wood-paneled house appeared minimal, only the back of the structure and the front of the second floor showed any external charring, but Adam knew it would be a different story for the inside. The heavy scent of wet ash alone told him it would be nasty in the building.

  Adam followed Brynn, shoving aside his need to grab her and pull her away from the house, the scene of her greatest nightmare. That had to be why she was acting odd.

  She was walking right into a house, which had surely haunted her for the past thirteen years¾after seeing her son, the product of the worst moment of her life, standing so close to it. That would rattle any woman in her position.

  They entered through the front door and carefully inspected the large main room. Adam forced memories of making out with her in that very room out of his mind. He needed to focus. His brother's killer was still on the loose, still setting fires.

  Debris mixed with water coated the floor, sloshing under his booted feet. Black coated the majority of the walls, indicating each place the fire had touched before being stopped in its tracks.

  “Look at these burn patterns,” Brynn murmured, indicating two inverted cone patterns in separate corners of the room. They started on the floor and crept up the wall.

  She squatted before one. “Appears to be gasoline again, same accelerant.”

  “No surprise there.” Adam observed one of the patterns, noting the distinctive markings of a gasoline-fueled fire and agreed with her assessment. “I guess it would be too much to ask for the arsonist to use something not so damn common.”

  “Just because something's uncommon doesn't make it easy to trace.” Brynn glanced toward the staircase, bit into her lip and turned away.

  Adam cursed silently, realizing what she saw. There were multiple points of origin downstairs, and, judging by the condition of the staircase along with evidence of a fire upstairs on the exterior front wall of the house, there could very well be another point of origin on the second floor, possibly in the room Brynn had been raped in. He couldn't let her view that room again.

  “I'll check the upstairs while you finish up this floor,” he volunteered, already making his way toward the staircase.

  “Sure.” She gave a nonchalant shrug to look as though it didn't make any difference to her either way, but relief flooded her face moments before she scrunched up her nose and looked in the opposite direction, saying something about a nasty smell.

  Adam cautiously worked his way up the stairs, careful not to step down too hard on the fire-damaged wood. He made it to the second floor without incident and checked the hallway. No point of origin.

  Sucking in a breath, foul with the scent of smoke and wet ash, he counted his blessings that he didn't know which room the rape had occurred in. He couldn't stand stepping into it, knowing what had happened there.

  Unfortunately, he realized too late that not knowing was even worse because every room he stepped into, he had to wonder, was this it? Horrible images popped into his mind as he opened doors, imagining Brynn being violated, thinking she was with him only to find herself with an enemy she hadn't even known she had. Something niggled at the back of Adam's mind, but, before he could analyze it, his attention was captured by another point of origin.

  It was in the fifth room he'd checked. It appeared that gasoline had been poured over a mattress and ignited. The burn pattern wasn’t as clear, the mattress was next to gone, burnt right down to the melted box-spring, but the air was full of the sweet smell. He glanced around for any other clues he might be missing, but found nothing.

  A shriek from downstairs sent him racing out of the room and down the stairs. His heart left its normal home to lodge in his throat. He prayed the woman hadn’t fallen through floorboards again. The steps groaned under his weight as he threw caution to the wind and pounded down them but he made it without harm. “Brynn?”

  “In here.”

  He followed the sound of her voice, a foul stench not related to the fire hit him as he pressed further into the house, passing through two rooms to find her covering her mouth with the back of her wrist. She used her free hand to support herself against a wall. She'd been pale earlier. Now she was on the verge of green.

  “What is it? What the hell is that smell?” Adam glanced around the small room, which, judging by the furnishings, appeared to be a study. His gaze rested on a board which had been lifted from the floor.

  “Fortunately, the fire didn't reach this room and destroy the evidence,” Brynn croaked, sounding dangerously close to a full-on hurl. “The boards were loose.”

  Adam stepped closer to the small cavity in the floor, breathing through his mouth so he wouldn't find himself as green as Brynn, and looked down into the small hole. He knelt down to remove a couple more floorboards and cursed.

  “Well, Rachel Wood definitely didn't light this fire,” he stated, staring down at the decomposed body wearing a necklace bearing the girl's first name.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “You all right?” Adam studied Brynn as she rejoined him by the fire truck.

  She hadn't even been able to get out of the turnout gear before she'd had to make a run for the bushes and spill the contents of her stomach. She'd seen dead bodies before but none that ripe. The smell would haunt her until the day she died.

  “Better.” She shrugged out of the turnout jacket. Adam helped her out of it and made her sit while he tugged Jamie Lee's boots from her feet. A couple of members from his fire station stared in their direction.

  Brynn quickly stood, shooing him away while she finished removing the turnout gear she'd worn over her clothes.

  “I don't give a damn what anyone says about us,” Adam stated, looking in the direction of the two men she'd noticed watching them. “You don't have to be so skittish.”

  She picked up on the hurt in his tone and felt like an ass. Her son already thought she was ashamed of him, she didn't want Adam thinking the same about himself.

  “Adam, I'm leaving this town eventually and I don't want to leave you behind to be scrutinized. I don't want you to go through that again.”

  “Then stay.”

  “I can't.” She looked into his clear blue eyes, so beautiful and sincere, and felt the anger she'd suppressed since arriving at the house rising to a boil. She had to get away from the house, away from memories she wished she could purge from her mind forever.

  “You mean you won't,” Adam said, his tone bordering on angry. “If you don't want anyone to know what happened to you here, then fine. Nobody has to know. Your son will never know.”
>
  “It's not that simple. I don't want to hurt you, Adam, but I can't stay. I just can't.”

  He looked down at her, his jaw clenched and his eyes reflecting a pain so raw it tore at her. Guilt and shame washed over her, thick and heavy. How could she have been so stupid to follow his brother to that room thirteen years before?

  All the pain he carried inside was because of her, the fact that her son would never know the dark secret hanging over him was her fault as well. Others may have tricked her, but she had been the one who hadn't even recognized that the man she was having sex with wasn't the man she supposedly loved. She couldn't put the blame on anyone but herself.

  “Brynn.”

  “What?”

  “Why do I get the feeling you haven't told me everything?” He peered at her, and she felt like a bug under a microscope.

  “Just stop it, Adam,” she snapped, more angry at herself than at him. “I've told you what happened. I'm not giving you the full play by play or is it the details you want? Would that make you happy?”

  She expected him to get angry, so mad he wouldn't talk to her, wouldn't ask her any more questions.

  Instead, he looked at her with those caring eyes and said, “I'm sorry, Brynn. I know this isn't the place to talk about it. I was being insensitive.”

  He stepped away, putting space between them without knowing he'd just made her feel even more like a complete ass. Damn him. Whether he intended to or not, he was going to make it harder than she'd thought possible to leave.

  They waited in silence until the coroner came out with the body enclosed in a body bag on a stretcher. Jimmy Nelson came out of the house and looked directly at Riley Wood, who still waited in the crowd despite the hour that had passed since they’d entered and that night had fallen thirty minutes ago.

  Brynn observed the teenager meet Jimmy’s eyes. Riley must have read the sorrow that even she could see from a distance thanks to the porch light, and realized who was in the bag, because she ran toward the stretcher, bashing right through two officers who tried to restrain her after she broke through the barricade.

  Riley made her way to the body bag and jerked the zipper down, screaming in horror at what she revealed. She fought against the officers struggling to restrain her, desperate to stay with her sister's body as it was loaded into the coroner's vehicle, but eventually she was subdued. Held back by three large officers, she continued to wail, her eyes large and round.

  Adam stepped forward, most likely to offer the girl comfort but Brynn held him in place with the back of her palm against his chest. “Don’t interfere. A body has just been found. Our best clues as to what happened here are these people’s reactions.”

  He looked at her, raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. With a nod of his head he turned back to watch the scene play out with her.

  “I almost lost her again,” Riley cried, sinking to her knees. “I almost lost her again.”

  Again?

  Brynn watched as Jimmy Nelson gestured for the officers to let go of her and knelt down before her on the ground. “We don't know for a fact it was Rachel,” Jimmy said, consoling her.

  “Rachel wouldn't let anybody wear her necklace,” Riley cried. “I knew this had happened, I just didn't know where she was.” She continued to sob against Jimmy's shoulder as her sister's body was removed from the scene. Then, slowly, her sobs subsided, her fingers tightened against Jimmy's shoulders and she looked up with unleashed fury blazing in her eyes.

  “You,” she growled, rising to point her finger at Adam. “Your family will pay for what your brother did to her!”

  Adam blinked, his mouth dropped open, but if he was preparing to say something, time was stolen from him. Riley raced across the short distance and threw herself at him with a shriek.

  Adam backed away and Brynn stepped in front of him, doubting he’d hit a woman, not even to protect himself from bodily harm. The three officers who’d held Riley before rushed after her and lurched forward but missed her as she swung a fist.

  Brynn raised her arm, ready to deflect the blow and take the girl down, but she was pushed out of the way from behind. She landed on her knees and looked back to see Adam take the full force of the blow across his left cheek a second before the three officers tackled Riley to the ground.

  Brynn stood and quickly moved to Adam's side, checking his face for damage. “Why the hell did you shove me out of the way?”

  “It wasn’t your punch to take.”

  She rolled her eyes. Macho man. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I'm fine.” He rubbed his jaw. He glanced around awkwardly, and Brynn knew what he saw.

  Everyone had heard what Riley had said to him. Judging by the steady hum of whispers coming from the crowd and suspicious looks being cast in his direction, it would only be a matter of minutes before rumors were going to start flying that Ezekiel Good had murdered Rachel and hid her body under the floorboards of the house. “Our job's done here, let's go.”

  She nodded, knowing what it was like to be on the receiving end of prying eyes.

  They walked past the members of the fire station who'd stayed after the fire was put out and cringed under the heavy weight of their collective stares. Brows were raised or heavily creased, eyes widened or narrowed. All the men frowned, their gazes holding a mixture of emotions: accusation, curiosity, suspicion. Chief Parker took a deep breath and looked away as they passed him.

  Brynn squeezed Adam's hand for support as they passed the last of the men, waving off Willie Cooper when he approached Adam to check his face for damage, and got into her car.

  “Brynn?” Adam slid into the car beside her.

  “Yeah?”

  “What exactly did that girl's diary say?”

  “Trust me, you don't want me to tell you here.” She looked through the windshield to see all the condemning looks aimed their way.

  ~~~

  “Feel better?” Brynn asked an hour later as Adam stepped out of the bathroom of the cabin in a white T-shirt and gray lounge pants, his hair still wet from the shower.

  “Physically, yes.” He crossed the room to join her on the couch. “My mind's still a jumble, though. Did you call your mother?”

  “Yeah, everything's fine on the home front. Thanks for letting me clean up first. I hate smelling like smoke.”

  “No problem,” Adam said, glancing at the baggy sweatpants and T-shirt of his she currently wore. “I never realized sweats could be so sexy.”

  Heat flushed Brynn’s skin and she wished her clothes weren't still in the dryer. If she were wearing her bra, the fact that her nipples had hardened in response to his blatant interest wouldn't be so evident.

  Adam's cell phone rang and Brynn let out a breath of relief as he picked it up from the coffee table and took the call. She busied herself laying out the diary and all the notes they had produced while working the case, anything to keep her mind off imagining the feel of his cool lips on her heated skin, not that it worked one bit.

  “Dammit,” Adam cursed, tossing the phone on the table after ending the conversation.

  “What is it?”

  “What do you think?” he bit out. “They just found a second body in a burning house within a matter of months.”

  “This has officially become a homicide investigation,” Brynn stated, “and I guess that means they don't want our input.”

  “Well, according to Sheriff Clarkson, all we've been doing is playing footsie anyway.” He sunk down onto the couch, clenching his jaw tight enough for a visible indentation to show.

  “Are they getting outside help?”

  “You know they will. It's just a matter of time before the state police roll in and take over.” Adam balled up his fist and brought it down on the cushion between them.

  “We've still got time.”

  “Brynn.”

  “They don't know what we know. We have Rachel's diary.” She waved her hand toward the diary and notes on the coffee table.

&nbs
p; “And what does that diary say?” Adam stared off into space, but his pain was clear. He already had a good idea of what the diary's pages contained.

  “He was definitely dealing drugs,” Brynn answered. “Rachel also wrote that he coerced her into having sex with other men for money, which he kept most of.”

  “So he was a drug-dealing pimp.” He closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of the couch.

  “Basically.”

  “How could he have done this without anyone knowing?”

  “He did it out of town. He said he worked in Gatlinburg so nobody questioned him. I imagine he held his part-time job there to provide cover, but he got his real money from drugs and pimping Rachel out on occasion. He probably didn't spend his money here so no one would be the wiser.”

  “He stayed gone sometimes. Maybe he had a place out of town,” Adam conceded, opening his eyes to meet her gaze.

  “It would make sense. He'd keep most of his stuff there, and, obviously, he wouldn't want his business following him to Black Bear Gorge.”

  “So why didn't he just leave this town?”

  “Why haven't you?” Brynn ran her fingers along the hem of the shirt she wore.

  “This is my home,” Adam said sternly. “I don't have dreams of big money or anything like that. All I've ever wanted is a family and the ability to provide shelter for them. I had all that here. Or, at least, I thought I'd have it,” he added, looking at her with regret evident in his gaze.

  “Why didn't you marry after I left?”

  “There was only one woman I ever saw myself walking down the aisle with.” His eyes glistened as he ran his gaze over her. “If it couldn't be you, then it just couldn't be. I wasn't taking a substitute.”

  Brynn’s heart skipped a beat, the simple act of breathing grew harder. “I'm sorry your plans didn't work out. We shared that dream.”

  “Why does it have to be past tense?”

  Because your brother screwed it all up, she wanted to say, but instead chose to change the topic to remind Adam they still needed to find the heartless snake's killer.