Burning Love

by Debra Cowan

  The memory of that kiss constantly tiptoed around his thoughts and now it hit him again, hardening his body. Before it could flower into full-blown fantasy, he squelched the thought and pulled into the asphalt-paved parking lot of the television station.

  Several cars occupied the spaces in front of the flat-roofed building. Terra waited for him next to her SUV.

  An hour ago, he had called to tell Terra that the woman in Denver responsible for filing a restraining order against Dane Reynolds had returned from her vacation and he'd finally spoken to her. Terra wanted to be in on the interview with the reporter, which was a good idea, but the thought of being with her still put a kink in Jack's gut. They hadn't seen each other in four days and had spoken by phone only twice. Once to touch base about this visit to Reynolds, the other so Jack could tell her that his checking had revealed Cecily did not have a prescription from her regular doctor for the sleeping pill, Halcion. But both Jack and Terra agreed Cecily could've gotten it elsewhere. He planned to follow up on that.

  Terra looked trim and chic in a cinnamon-plaid jacket and cinnamon slacks. The short jacket, which zipped snugly atop a deep rust turtleneck, nipped in at her waist. Her fire investigator's badge nestled on a chain between her full breasts.

  She wore her hair back today in a neat twist, drawing his gaze to her sculpted cheekbones and elegant neck. Midafternoon sunlight skimmed over lush curves. Jack swallowed hard as he got out of his truck and set his mind on the questions he wanted to ask the reporter.

  "Hi." Terra's voice was friendly, but her green eyes were unreadable. Guarded.

  Jack was willing to meet her halfway; he hoped he carried it off as well as she did. "Hey."

  He had it under control. He even managed to smile as he held the door for her, allowing his gaze to trace her lean curves just once more.

  A young woman with waist-length brown hair welcomed them into the reception area. The news channel's logo spread across the wall behind her. Jack pulled out his badge and told the girl they needed to speak to Reynolds.

  Having called the station earlier, Jack knew the reporter was here. The receptionist paged the man and a few minutes later, Reynolds strolled through a door to Jack and Terra's right.

  He sauntered over to Terra as if he expected her to fall at his feet. "Hello, Luscious. Change your mind about having coffee?"

  Despite the way Jack's jaw tightened at the pet name Reynolds used, he suspected Terra's reaction would knock the guy down a peg or two.

  She tapped her badge. "We're here to ask you some questions, Dane. I think you know Detective Spencer."

  The man's gaze moved unwillingly to Jack. "Detective."

  Jack pocketed his badge. "Would you care to talk in private, Reynolds?"

  Even though the reporter shrugged, Jack saw his gaze flash to the receptionist.

  "We can talk in the break room or outside, if you'd rather."

  "Outside is fine," Reynolds said quickly.

  He told the receptionist he'd be back shortly and pushed through the door Jack and Terra had entered moments before.

  Jack gestured for Terra to precede him to the shade of a tree starting to lose its gold leaves.

  The reporter grinned at Terra, his gaze roaming down her body. "Interested in that interview now?"

  Jack jammed a hand in his pocket. He didn't think the reporter's grin would look so perfect if he were missing a few teeth. "We're here to ask you some questions."

  "About what?"

  The overheated way Reynolds stared at Terra had restlessness charging through Jack. He shifted from one foot to the other. "We have information that you left your anchor job in Denver a year before your contract expired."

  "Yeah. Is that a crime?"

  "A woman named Nina Fontaine filed two complaints of harassment against you and obtained a temporary restraining order. That's not exactly getting along with your neighbors," Terra said.

  The reporter arched his eyebrows. "That order was ridiculous."

  "How so?"

  Jack liked how his fire investigator got right to the punch.

  Reynolds gave that insolent shrug again. "She liked the constant attention."

  "Evidently not." Terra crossed her arms.

  A smile slid across the reporter's face. He leaned toward Terra as if confiding in her. "I only gave her what she wanted."

  The look of disgust on Terra's face reflected exactly how Jack felt. "I've spoken to Ms. Fontaine at length, Reynolds. We know you made harassing phone calls, followed her after she broke up with you."

  "I never harassed her." The man's icy gaze sliced to Jack. "She filed that order as some kind of power play, to put me in my place. Nina liked making my life miserable."

  "That's not the way she tells it."

  "Do you understand women, Detective?"

  Jack thought about his kiss with Terra and how unaffected she'd seemed when they decided to keep things strictly business.

  The reporter's gaze shifted from Jack to Terra. "Why are you asking questions about Nina? I haven't seen her for almost two years."

  "Have you been in contact with her?" Jack asked.

  "I just said I haven't."

  "You said you hadn't seen her," he reminded evenly. "No phone calls, letters? E-mails?"

  "No. If she's saying I talked to her, she's lying."

  "Maybe you should worry about what you need to be saying to us." Jack glanced at Terra and saw how intently she studied the other man.

  Reynolds noticed, too. He gave her that smarmy smile. "Do you have any leads about this serial arsonist, Investigator? Are you looking at anyone?"

  "Yes, we are," Jack answered with a penetrating stare.

  "Seems you've got some pretty interesting things in your past, Dane," Terra said carefully.

  "Don't you?"

  "Nothing like having a restraining order filed against me."

  Reynolds' gaze flickered away briefly. "I told you about that."

  "So, why did you leave your job so quickly?" she asked.

  "Because this one opened up. When I got the offer from Channel Four, I didn't see any reason to hang around Denver. I applied for this job several months before I heard anything." He flashed a smile at her. "When they offered it, I took it. I had no control over the timing."

  "So, the job offer conveniently came at the same time the restraining order was issued against you?" Jack said.

  Reynolds crossed his arms and sent him a smug look. "That order had nothing to do with why I left Denver."

  Jack stomped on the urge to drag the guy down to the station. "Aren't people in your business bound by contracts?"

  "Yes, but people do leave before their contracts expire. Mine stated if I did so, I couldn't work in a competing market for eighteen months."

  "Oklahoma City isn't a competing market?"

  "The contract clause refers to a same-state or same-region area."

  "Then you moved here?" Terra asked.

  "Yes." Again, his gaze hop-scotched over her body. "I've never been sorry."

  If the goon didn't stop looking at Terra as if she were his favorite snack, Jack thought there were probably a couple of ways he could make the reporter sorry. His voice came out rougher than he'd anticipated. "Do you have a prescription for Halcion?"

  "What's that?"

  "A sleeping pill."

  Reynolds shook his head.

  "Where were you the night of the fire at Harris Vaughn's house, before you showed up to cover the story?"

  "When was that? About two weeks ago?" Frowning, he glanced from one to the other. "Am I a suspect?"

  Jack thought the surprise that lit the reporter's eyes was genuine. "Do you want to call a lawyer?"

  "I don't need one."

  "Good. So where were you?"

  "Home in bed. Alone, unfortunately. That fire was around midnight, if I recall." His gaze shifted to Terra. "How about if I answer your questions, you answer some for me?"

  "That's not how it works." Jack struggle
d to diffuse the irritation burning through him.

  The reporter pressed on. "If you went on the record with me, Terra, you'd get the word out and perhaps receive some useful information."

  She had already talked to Jack about the idea, but neither of them wanted to tip their hand on any part of the investigation.

  She considered Reynolds for a moment. "What kind of questions?"

  Excitement lit the man's eyes. "What do you have on the investigation so far? How many fires has this guy set?"

  "We were hoping you could answer that last one," Jack put in.

  "I know of four, but I don't have all the information our lovely investigator does."

  "I meant, perhaps you'd know from personal experience."

  Surprise flared in Reynolds's eyes at Jack's bluntness. "You're just not going to let it go, are you?"

  "Want a lawyer now?"

  His gaze swung to Terra. "Do you think I started those fires, too?"

  "You have been at every fire, Dane."

  "So have you," he said archly.

  She gave him a flat stare.

  Jack knew he had no claim on her, but he couldn't stop the possessiveness that welled up inside him, the fierce urge to protect her. But he kept his hands and his thoughts to himself.

  Reynolds glanced at his watch. "If that's all, I have an assignment."

  "We may have more questions," Jack cautioned with a hard stare. More than once during this interview, he'd wanted to make it clear to Reynolds that Terra was Jack's territory and to stay the hell away. But she wasn't, and he hadn't.

  Dane waved a dismissive hand at them. "I think I've been more than cooperative. Angel Face, if you change your mind—"

  "She won't." Jack barely kept from snarling.

  Terra frowned in his direction as she answered Reynolds, "If I decide to do an interview, Dane, I'll let you know."

  "Thanks." He sent a stone-cold look Jack's way before turning and going back inside the building.

  Jack's gaze shifted to find Terra studying him. "What?"

  "Nothing. What do you think about Reynolds?"

  "Love his alibi," he drawled.

  "Yes, me, too. Home alone, can't be proven." She puffed out a breath as she retrieved her keys from the pocket of her jacket.

  "What did you think?"

  "He could smile the chrome off a bumper," Terra muttered.

  Jack chuckled. "Or die trying."

  A smile curved her lips. "Do you think he was telling the truth about why he left Denver? That it had nothing to do with the restraining order filed by Nina Fontaine?"

  "It has a ring of truth to it," Jack admitted slowly. "We certainly can't prove otherwise. Yet."

  "True. We're at a dead-end with Cecily right now, too."

  "I plan to ask her friends if she ever mentioned Halcion and also see if anyone heard her threaten to harm Harris."

  "I can ask the firefighters about threats, too."

  "Good." The spicy-sweet scent of her drifted to him on the air and Jack's body tightened. He scrambled to keep his focus. "I'll see if I can learn anything else about Reynolds from Miss Fontaine."

  "Keep me posted and I'll do the same."

  "You got it." He waited until she'd driven off before he pulled out of the parking lot.

  Reynolds set off Jack's radar. He didn't know if it was because his instincts screamed the reporter was hiding something or because he'd made his intentions toward Terra crystal clear.

  Jack didn't much like either option. He'd made a deal with Terra that things between them wouldn't get personal, but he worked with a woman who made him ache and want and imagine. He wanted to get a helluva lot more personal.

  * * *

  It had been two days since she'd seen Jack, and Terra's body hadn't stopped humming. Anticipation was the only word to describe the low-level vibration inside her, but she had no idea what she was anticipating. She and Jack had agreed to keep things strictly business and so far, they had. In fact, she thought she'd handled things very well at the police station last Sunday and again at the television station on Thursday, especially considering that she hadn't been able to stop thinking about his kiss. Or wondering what his real reasons were for not wanting to get involved.

  "I have a problem with your…Too distracting. You're damn distracting."

  He had sounded as if he were going to say something else. Something that didn't have anything to do with her being distracting. He had a problem with her. Her…something. Her job, her hair, what?

  She wasn't going to pursue it, but that didn't mean she could just switch off the attraction she felt for Detective Yummy. She'd done pretty well about keeping him out of her mind, except when she was at home alone. Like now.

  As she prepared for bed on Saturday night, she changed into her Presley Fire Department T-shirt and brushed her teeth. The guy could drive her crazy, if she let him.

  Work around it. That's what she'd done and what she would continue doing. As she climbed into bed, she turned her thoughts to Cecily. She hadn't had any luck finding anything else that further incriminated the woman. The firefighters she'd spoken with so far couldn't recall ever hearing Cecily threaten Harris. Or even recall Harris mentioning the two of them had fought.

  Harris had been an extremely private person. She and his two buddies must've been the only ones who knew how fractious things had gotten between him and his ex-wife. Cecily's friends would probably know something, but Jack had said he would talk to them. If he had turned up anything new, he would've called.

  So far, their one-phone-call-a-day had been restricted to touching base about updates, of which there were none.

  Terra felt as though she'd just gone to sleep when her pager buzzed. It was just before midnight and dispatch advised her of a car burning in the driveway of a middle-class neighborhood.

  She dressed quickly in jeans and layered a sweatshirt over her T-shirt, jamming her feet into socks and tennis shoes at the front door. She reached the scene on the south side of town in about ten minutes.

  As she stepped out into the cool fall air, she pulled on her turnout coat. Flames crackled and swarmed out of and around a small black compact. A firefighter stood in the middle of the street, videotaping the scene. The smell of gasoline hung heavy in the night, but she would run a careful check for other accelerants before drawing any conclusions. So far, this didn't appear to be her serial arsonist's pattern.

  She pulled on her steel-soled rubber boots and made her way through the streams of water in the street over to Captain Maguire, who stood talking to a thin, young woman.

  Terra stepped over the hydrant hose, noting that Station Four already had the fire contained. The woman with Captain Maguire gestured wildly toward the smoking car.

  The burly man caught Terra's eye and motioned her over. "This is Investigator August. I want you to tell her what you've told me, okay?"

  "Okay." The girl's voice shook as she turned toward Terra. Tears streaked her narrow face and she kept her arms crossed tight. A lightweight T-shirt and boxer shorts emphasized her lankiness.

  Captain Maguire draped his turnout coat over the shivering girl. "Investigator, this is Lisa Perkins."

  "Hi, Lisa." Terra smiled reassuringly. "Do you feel up to talking to me?"

  "Yes." The girl glared toward her car. "I think I know who did this."

  "You do?"

  The Captain stepped back and mouthed to Terra that he would set up her portable floodlights.

  She nodded, then gave her full attention to the woman.

  "My boyfriend. I mean, my ex-boyfriend."

  "What's his name?"

  "Tom Estes."

  "Did you see him do it?"

  "No, but we had a fight earlier. I told him I wanted to break up and he was really, really mad."

  "But you didn't see anything?"

  "No, I was asleep. I heard a noise and woke up."

  "What kind of noise?"

  The girl paused thoughtfully. "Like an explosion, I guess
."

  "Are you hurt?"

  "No. When I saw my car burning, I called the fire department and went out the back."

  "Good thinking." Terra patted the girl's shoulder, feeling her shiver.

  Tears trembled on the girl's lashes. "That car was almost new. I bought it two months ago."

  "I'm sorry."

  The girl nodded, her face pale and angry in the streak of strobing police lights from the black-and-white cruiser on the scene.

  "Can you wait here while I take a look around?" Terra asked.

  Lisa nodded and Terra walked over to the smoldering hunk of metal that had once been Lisa's car.

  The bright white of floodlights bathed the area surrounding the car. The driveway was scorched, as were the branches of an overhanging oak. Firefighters squished through the grass on either side of the vehicle, rolling up their hoses.

  Captain Maguire walked her around the scene and through the house. They both agreed there was no further threat to residents or the house, which had been spared. Terra retraced her steps with the captain and stopped in the street next to the firefighter who stood videotaping the scene.

  "I've gotten every angle, Investigator," the man said. "I think I'm about finished."

  "Keep it rolling for a while, okay, Poe?"

  He nodded as Terra walked back toward the car, pulling on her heavy gloves and automatically sliding her hard hat onto her head. Firefighters moved around her, finishing up with the hose and stowing equipment. She glanced up in time to see Don LeBass stride toward her.

  "It's been a whole ten minutes, Ace." His voice lashed at her. "Surely you've got this one figured out by now."

  She met his gaze head-on, but didn't speak. Resentment flooded his features and he stomped off toward the ladder truck with an ax over his shoulder.

  "Don't let him get to you, Terra." Rusty Ferguson stopped beside her, removing his hard hat to wipe at the sweat and soot on his forehead. "He's just sore about not getting the F.I. job."

  "That was four years ago. He needs to move on."

  Rusty shook his head. "No, I mean his latest try."

  "His latest try?" Terra glanced at LeBass, who slammed a side door on the ladder truck.

  "He was turned down about three or four weeks ago. Didn't pass his assessment."

  Three or four weeks ago? Right before Harris's murder. Harris had been a consulting assessor for the Oklahoma City Fire Department, but as a former city employee, he wasn't allowed to assess candidates applying for positions to Presley's fire department. "Who gave him a negative review?"