Burning (PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense Book 11)

by Calle J. Brookes

  “Of course.” He’d heard of the problems the lab had faced. The virus hadn’t made its way out of the basement floors yet. But it was just a matter of time until the rest of PAVAD faced another agent shortage.

  “Why are you really here looking for paperwork that should have been in the database all along?”

  He stared at her and wondered for a moment what she knew. He’d need someone in the department to help him eventually, and despite her history with his brother, he’d want that person to be her.

  Because when it came down to it, he trusted her to be a damned good—and honest—agent. Who knew all the important players.

  “Someone’s tampering with evidence in your department. Ed Dennis wants me to find them.” And quickly. Before the integrity of PAVAD was completely compromised, destroying all the work Ed Dennis had done to secure even more funding. For those damned bodies that were so badly needed.

  Her eyes widened. “Who do you think it is? Do you think it has anything to do with Agent Hernandez?”

  “I don’t know. But I am going to find out. And I’ll need your—“

  The fire alarm cut off what he was about to say.

  Chapter 4

  Cody sprang from the chair and gently thrust Sin’s son into his arms. She didn’t give him a chance to say anything.

  Her daughter started screaming in her bedroom. Cody rushed in, knowing the sound of the alarm would be more than Lucy could handle in the middle of the night.

  She grabbed the blanket from the foot of the bed. For a moment she forgot about Sin and his son and focused her attention on her baby. “Lucy, sweetie…Mama’s here. We need to go outside for a little bit, ok? We’ll be ok. It’s a fire drill, just like at kindergarten, ok?”

  Tears were still streaking down Lucy’s face, but she was calming a little. She raised her arms and Cody wrapped the blanket around her and scooped her up. So small, so vulnerable. So…everything to Cody.

  Sin was still in her living room. She would have thought he would have taken his son and left. But he hadn’t. Why?

  “Grab your jacket and your ID.” Was all he said.

  “I’ve got it. Why haven’t you left?” She was already shifting Lucy so that she could grab the small locked box that housed her gun and badge when she was at home.

  “I am not leaving you and your child inside a possibly burning building, not even for a second.”

  It would have been a lot nicer of a comment if he hadn’t been glaring at her while he’d said it. Typical Sin, despising her every moment of every day. Some things would never change.

  ***

  He had to hand to it to the people in Merrick’s complex. Though it was late, they weren’t panicking. He carried Tyler with one hand, and the bag he’d stuffed all of Merrick’s files in over the opposite shoulder.

  He’d taken the moment she’d been in her daughter’s bedroom to grab the files off the coffee table and shove them in the bag she’d had on the couch.

  They were confidential files, and he wasn’t about to leave them unattended in a fire situation. The information in those files could be worth thousands of dollars in the wrong hands, and if first responders entered her apartment the files could be compromised. And the division definitely couldn’t afford that. Part of the reason he was at her place to begin with. Hernandez had made a pretty penny over the last year. Money; apparently it had been worth the betrayal. Sin wouldn’t ever forget the pain in his brother’s eyes when they’d confronted the member of Sebastian’s team. Seb had barely looked at Sin when he’d cuffed Hernandez and passed him over to Mick Brockman and his partner to finalize the arrest.

  Tyler was wide awake and watching all of the people. He wasn’t crying, but Sin could easily feel how tense his son was. Loud noises, low light, and crowds of people made Tyler extremely nervous.

  Merrick’s daughter clung to her mother and tears were clear on her cheeks. So small, so vulnerable. Sin wrapped his free hand around Merrick’s elbow when the crowd thickened in the stairwell.

  He wasn’t about to let the four of them get separated.

  Sin wasn’t certain why that was so important to him, but it was.

  It wouldn’t have made a damned bit of difference if he carried Tyler over to where their car was parked, and drove him home. That was what he should have done.

  Sin had gotten what he’d came for, anyway. And wasn’t that what mattered? But he was reluctant to leave Merrick and the little girl. What if their apartment complex truly was on fire?

  It would be hours before they were allowed back in—if at all. And it was a bit cool outside, thanks to the light rain still falling.

  And Merrick didn’t have her jacket; the pajamas she wore were thin. Every line of her body was revealed beneath the striped flannel. Once that fabric was wet, she wouldn’t have anything hidden. Did she realize that?

  The crowd jostled and bumped when they got closer to the exit. Sin pulled Merrick and her daughter nearer. Her body was pushed into his front.

  The alarm still shrilled, making conversation for anyone impossible. Not that he would have had much to say to her at the moment anyway.

  He’d felt those curves pushed up against him for just a fraction of a second, when she’d shifted her daughter and he’d readjusted his son. Just a touch. But it had been enough. One touch of Merrick was usually all it took to turn him into a fucking idiot.

  Sin would probably be dreaming of her for the rest of the year now. Damn the luck.

  They made it to the fire exits, and the bottleneck of evacuees spread out. He kept his hand on Merrick, and pulled her toward where he had parked. “My Durango’s over here.”

  “I can’t leave. It may be a false alarm.”

  She looked at him like he was stupid.

  No surprise, she’d often shot him just that look in the twenty something years he had known her. “No. But you can keep your daughter somewhere dry. We can put the seats down and she and Tyler can sleep while we wait.”

  “And you and I? What can we do?”

  Nothing that his body wanted him to do. He’d been right—the pajamas she wore were far too revealing. Especially with the brisk wind pushing the thin material against her curves, with the rain making the fabric cling.

  Merrick wasn’t wearing a bra—and she was chilled.

  She had the best breasts he had ever seen on a woman. She wasn’t a stick-figure, and had never been. And he’d seen her in bathing suits and low cut gowns and knew for a fact that she was as real there as it could get. And one time he’d walked in on her dressing. He’d never forgotten that moment.

  There had been a particular photo in the news of her and that damned idiot billionaire that she had run around with before the guy had married Merrick’s best friend. The gown she’d been wearing in that photo had made Sin actually sweat when he saw it.

  And she’d worn it for that Lucas guy.

  Had she slept with him? He knew they were close, and the papers had speculated. But the guy had married Payton Asher practically within moments of meeting her, hadn’t he?

  And Merrick was still great friends with the both of them, wasn’t she?

  Not that that meant anything with Merrick, did it? Look at his brothers—she’d been married to Sebastian for almost six years, and the fool was still friends with her.

  He had never been able to figure out Merrick’s relationships with men, especially his brothers. They all adored her—even after the relationships had ended. Sin had never understood it. But there was just something about her.

  Chapter 5

  Fire. Terry York had always loved fire. It had comforted him in the night as a child, in a house too cold for a family of eight. It had entranced him as a teenager when he’d learned just how deadly it could be, when he’d lost two of his sisters to its blaze. And that old relic of a house.

  And then he learned to profit from it. To love it and enjoy it. He learned to control it.

  He felt the same way about sex.

 
And then he’d stumbled on a way to combine his two loves.

  But Terry didn’t consider himself an unintelligent man. Most like him got caught through stupidity. Through carelessness.

  He kept himself separate—business and pleasure. He was a professional torch and was starting to build a reputation as a good one.

  But that didn’t keep him from enjoying his little side business, as well.

  He scoped his targets for several weeks before striking. Planned. Evaluated response times. Patterns.

  Victims.

  He always looked for a type. Single, thirtyish, beautiful. Timid, easily controlled. That’s what he was looking for, and he didn’t strike until he’d found it.

  This complex was presenting a bit of a challenge. It was out of his usual income bracket, and it had a guard. Most of the occupants were elderly. Or families. It was a nice place, and if he had a bit more money he could see renting it himself.

  He studied the females first, always. There were a few that were promising. One with long dark hair caught his attention—she had the most perfect tits and ass he had ever seen. He imagined it for a moment. But the girl she carried made her a definite non-contender. A woman like her would have a husband somewhere nearby. He watched a moment, and there he was. Tall and mean looking and carrying a little boy. Guy still wore a suitcoat. At almost midnight.

  He wasn’t about to take that chance.

  But that woman right there…a little younger, a little on the chunky side. Timid and frightened. Yes. She would do quite nicely. Even though her tits were shit. He’d make do.

  And he’d still be able to pick up his fee for causing a little bit of annoyance to the landlord.

  A win win…for him. Not so much for her.

  Chapter 6

  They kept calm as they evacuated. She had seen some scenes where more damage was done by a panicked crowd than by the UNSUB to begin with. There was always that fear when a crowd was panicked. But her neighbors, though obviously upset at the interruption, weren’t causing difficulties for the responders.

  Cody was just grateful she didn’t have to have Lucy out in the wet night, in the loud sounds and confusion.

  Lucy had finally calmed down, but she had yet to let go of Cody’s neck.

  Tyler had snuggled into the blankets his father had spread out over the rear area of the large SUV.

  His father.

  Why had Sin stayed?

  The man she had used to know would have left her—and Lucy—out in the rain without hesitation. She couldn’t figure out this different Sin; not at all.

  The entire time they’d been evacuating, she’d been aware of his hand wrapped around her arm, strong and warm. It hadn’t freaked her out this time. She’d always hated it whenever Sin had touched her.

  But then again, it had been years since he had. Maybe they had both changed since then.

  Heavens knew she had. Decided to fight everything less, to take life as it came if possible. To make a happy and positive world for her daughter when she could.

  Lucy whimpered and Cody rocked her, knowing there probably wasn’t a chance in hell that the little girl would go back to sleep anytime soon. And who knew how long they’d be outside. She wouldn’t let herself think what it would mean if there truly was a fire. If they were never able to go back inside.

  She had people to go to, if she needed it. Of that she had no doubt. She could stay with Luc and Payton as long as she needed—and they certainly had plenty of room in that fortress Luc had built. In fact, she could probably get in her car and drive right over there now and come back in the morning. Or next month. Or whenever.

  But this apartment had become their home, even though Luc paid the rent. And what would a sudden change do to Lucy?

  Cody rocked, as best she was able in the leather bucket seat. Half an hour. If there wasn’t any word in half an hour she was taking Lucy to Payton’s.

  “She can snuggle back there with Tyler.”

  Did he always have to sound so cold? “She’s fine. She has night terrors, and this isn’t helping. She’s been through a lot.”

  “No. I don’t see how it would.” He stared at her. They were parked under a streetlight, but they were still shadowed. That was the worst part. How could she figure out what he was thinking, when she couldn’t see his face? Would she always feel this unsettled by him?

  She didn’t understand it; or why it even mattered. When she was married to his brother, it was one thing. She’d tried hard to get along with him. She’d had no difficulty being friends with Seth, or their sister Sarah. Sarah was still one of her closest friends, though Cody and Sebastian had been divorced for almost seven years.

  But Sin?

  Sin had hated her from the moment they had met. That wasn’t a day she’d ever forgotten.

  Her father had been a police officer her entire life. When Sin’s father had been killed line of duty, her dad had stepped in to help the three boys and their little sister get through.

  She and her mother had attended the funeral, and she’d never forgotten how devastated they had all been. How much love there had been.

  Sin had been so angry, too. She’d felt so bad for all of them; it had been her first experience with death and funerals. They had only been fourteen—she had been eight, almost nine at the time.

  They had been too young to lose the way they had.

  Her father had kept in touch with the Lorcan children, even after their mother had split them up between relatives practically on two different coasts within days of the funeral.

  When her father had died just after her twentieth birthday, Sebastian and Seth had been there. They’d held her while she’d grieved. Sin hadn’t been around at all.

  And a few weeks later she’d married Sebastian.

  Because he’d won the coin toss.

  She hadn’t known at the time he’d proposed that he and Seth had plotted for her to marry one of them to rescue her. Not until Sin had pointed it out to her almost six years later.

  And he hadn’t been kind when he’d told her.

  Sebastian had been out on a case, and Cody had spent the next week soul searching. And she’d come to one of the hardest decisions of her life.

  Eight days later she filed for divorce, and told Sebastian when he’d come home from that case.

  It had been the best decision at the time, and one she didn’t regret. But she had hurt him badly, and she knew it. She didn’t think they’d ever been in love, but they had cared about one another a great deal. Too much to be a marriage of convenience. And that was what it had been. They were comfortable together—when they were together. Which was rarely. They weren’t together enough to be in love, and were too married to find someone else to love. Divorce had been the best choice then. It had been terrifying, but they’d made it through.

  Now it was different. The way it was supposed to be. He was happy, and with Carrie. The love he obviously felt for the younger woman made it very clear that Cody’s decision had been the right one.

  But sometimes she missed him more than others. Missed being married, and having that someone.

  But then again, she and Sebastian had been apart far more than they’d ever been together, hadn’t they?

  “Thank you, by the way. For the warm car. I would have been fine, but she’s prone to ear infections. I’d hate her to be out in the rain.”

  “No thanks necessary. If this goes on much longer, I’ll take you somewhere for the night.”

  Yeah, and probably throw her in the dungeon, while he was at it.

  She had no illusions of kindness where Sin Lorcan was concerned. None at all.

  Chapter 7

  He knew his tone was too harsh with her. The low light gave just enough visibility for him to see her flinch away. He hadn’t meant it to sound like that. Despite their history, he wouldn’t leave her standing outside in the cold, holding an innocent child.

  Did she honestly think he would?

  There had always been s
o much animosity between him and this woman.

  Scratch that, the animosity had started right around the time she’d turned eighteen.

  Two years later she was married to his brother. Because of money—and a coin toss.

  He’d never forget that.

  He had known her since his father died, but they had never been particularly close. Not like her and Sebastian and Sarah. No surprise, her father had lived closer to where his siblings had been raised, instead of where he and Seth had ended up.

  He’d never understood Merrick, or her motives.

  She’d hurt Sebastian by filing for divorce. Badly.

  Yet his brother still loved her. Not like he loved Carrie, but Sebastian was still fiercely protective of Merrick.

  Sin would never understand it.

  And in that moment, he had to get away from her. Those damned blue eyes were just too much for him right then. “Stay here. I’m going to find the fire chief. Get a few answers.”

  He didn’t give her time to say anything else. He opened the door.

  He was halfway across the parking lot before he remembered Tyler asleep in the back.

  Still, he trusted her with his son’s safety. Of that he had no doubt.

  Tyler would be just fine.

  Sin started across the parking lot. He would find answers, and then he and Tyler would get far, far away from her. Before he did or said something completely stupid.

  The local law enforcement officers on the scene didn’t want to answer his questions—at first. Neither did the fire chief. That changed when he flashed his badge, and explained his was with PAVAD—and that an agent lived in the building.

  He got his answers, and relief.

  Sin returned to his car, with the answers he knew they both wanted.

  She’d shifted her daughter to lay in the back cargo area, next to Tyler. She sat near the children in the middle seating area, where she could reach them, if necessary. Her eyes were closed, but he didn’t think Merrick was sleeping.