“Sean, it’s Jim. Can you get down here? We’re short-staffed tonight and we need all the help we can get.”
“I’m on it.” Knowing Jim wouldn’t call while he was off duty unless they really needed him, Sean snapped his phone shut. While he had so much he wanted to say to Madison, he knew now was neither the time nor place.
“I have to go.”
She nodded. “I know.”
He climbed to his feet and grabbed her hands to pull her up with him. When their bodies collided, she pulled away quickly and began rummaging around on the ground, looking for her clothes. After fastening his own pants, Sean found her jeans and held them out to her. When she took them, he caught sight of her ripped panties. Instead of handing them back, he stuffed them into his pocket, gave her a sheepish smile and said, “I’ll replace those.”
She dressed quickly then slipped into her sandals before gathering the blanket. “No need,” she whispered, looking everywhere and anywhere but at him.
After they climbed back down the ladder, he turned to her, and when he tried to pull her back into his arms for a kiss, she inched away.
Her smile looked forced, and while her voice sounded light and breezy, he could hear the strain of emotions beneath. “I better go back to the girls before they send out a search party.”
Sean frowned and ran his hand down her arm. “We’ll talk later, okay?”
“There is nothing to talk about, Sean. We had some fun. Tomorrow life goes back to normal. I’ve done this before, you know.”
With smoke growing thicker in the air, he didn’t have time to talk to her, to tell her how he truly felt. And really, why would she believe him? He’d taken her to the rooftop to have sex with her, for Christ’s sake. Why would she think he wanted anything more than a hurried fuck from her? Or that their lovemaking meant something to him—that she meant something to him?
Jesus, he was an asshole, and with the way she was pulling away from him, he had a sinking feeling that he just might have screwed up any chance he had of developing a real relationship with her.
The fire-station bell sounded in the near distance, and while he wanted to talk to Madison, he knew it would have to wait. When Madison lost herself in the crowd, he rushed from Harry’s and spotted Carter climbing into his car as he hopped into his own. Sean threw his car into gear and drove the two short blocks to the station.
Once inside, he pulled on his gear and made his way to the waiting truck. He tried to get his focus on the job as the truck negotiated the narrow town streets, but when it took the corner and headed down Keep Crescent, his head came up with a start, and panic invaded his stomach.
As the truck slowed down in front of Madison’s condo, his world shifted. He jumped from the passenger seat and ran up her walkway to assess the damage. Carter was already there.
“It started out back,” Carter said, nodding his head toward the line of trees fringing her backyard.
Sean ran along the gravel walkway leading to the rear of the condo and found the ground-level deck engulfed in flames. A movement, combined with the rustling of trees in the woods, heralded someone’s presence. He sensed he was being watched, and unease chased along his skin, but when he narrowed his eyes and peered into the dark, his search came up empty. Passing it off as an animal, he turned back to see fiery embers shoot high, as the old wooden deck sparked and crackled under the assault. Fortunately, the fire hadn’t penetrated the inside of the condo.
Moving quickly, Sean made his way back to the truck. He helped with the hose then ran around back with it. He turned it on and doused the flames, filling the night air with acrid smoke and ash. Less than ten minutes later, once the fire had been extinguished, he shut down the hose and helped his colleagues wind it back up.
Just as he was about to go back to appraise the damage, he spotted Madison standing outside her car next to her friend Haley, a stricken expression on her face.
She looked like she was about to bolt out back, and since it was no place for her while his crew sifted through the rubble, he said, “Madison. Wait.”
“Sean, what the hell?” she rushed toward him, breathless.
Before she could pass, he gripped her arms and tried to calm her. “There’s no damage inside. Just your back deck.”
As she stared past him, smoke danced in her eyes, but beneath that haze he saw something else, something he’d seen in her eyes only one time before. Fear. He didn’t have to ask to know that the blaze had sent her thoughts spiraling back to that dreadful night at the factory.
When she angled her head to mask her emotions behind a curtain of hair, his stomach clenched. “Madison, are you okay?” he asked. She nodded, but he felt a quiver race through her. He put his arm around her. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
Before he had a chance to take her someplace safe, somewhere that didn’t remind her of the horrific blaze that nearly killed her, Carter came up to them.
Carter’s glance settled on Madison. “The data’s not in yet, but my gut tells me the fire was deliberately set.”
Shock spread across her face as she gave a hard shake of her head. “Who would do that?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Carter said. “Do you have any enemies, Madison?”
Madison looked down in thought. “I don’t think so,” she answered.
Carter turned concerned eyes on Sean and questioned, “How about you? Any enemies?”
“Not that I know of,” Sean answered.
“Come on, we all have people who don’t like us.” He cocked his head and added, “Yeah, even a
