Watched the swarm of techs. And the news vans that came and went, as the reporters stopped for scene shots of the “gruesome” death.
He’d watched it all.
Then he’d seen her.
Lora came back to his scene, and she brought the Bureau bastards with her.
A trickle of sweat slid down his back. Fucking heat. Summers here were always a bitch.
His eyes narrowed as he watched them, Lora and the special agent. Kenton Lake.
He was running a check on the agent. He’d find dirt. There was always dirt. Always secrets.
Even Lora had secrets. Secrets she’d hoped were buried in the ashes. But he’d found them. He was good at finding secrets.
And if the secrets he discovered were bad enough, well, sometimes he had to punish the wicked.
Fire was perfect for that job.
If Lora wasn’t careful, he’d have to punish her soon.
The match flipped between his fingertips.
• • •
“I want to see Jerome’s crime scene,” Kenton told her and saw Lora’s eyes widen.
“What? You mean now?”
“Yes.” They still had daylight, and he needed to see the place on LeRoy for himself. “Come on, we’ll take my SUV.” He’d bring her back later. He wanted her eyes with him at the scene. She’d be able to paint a picture of exactly how that fire had started. And he wanted the details. Every one.
He needed her.
She gave a slow nod, her hair skirting her cheeks. “Okay.”
They strode toward his SUV, and Kenton wondered how long it would take to hear back from the ME. If she turned up a match, if that poor bastard turned out to be Larry Powell—
Then they had the first victim link.
He was sure it would be a match.
“Agent Lake?”
He looked up and met Detective Peter Malone’s stare. The cop blinked. “Lake, wh-what are you doing here?”
“Trying to catch a killer.”
“Uh—”
“The FBI is starting a task force.” Might as well tell him now. Lora stilled beside him. “By the time you get back to your office, your captain will be ready to brief you.”
“A task force?” A thick line appeared between Malone’s brows, and his blue eyes widened. “But—”
“We’ve got an arsonist who likes to burn folks in Charlottesville.” His teeth flashed. “The SSD is taking over—and we’re taking him out.”
Peter’s gaze darted to Lora. “You told him about the others?”
“Yes.”
He exhaled. “Good.” The cop glanced at the house, his nose twitching. “Lora and I—we’ve been talking about the connections, but I couldn’t get my boss to listen. Couldn’t get more manpower. I knew there was more going on—” He swiped sweat off his brow. “Let’s just say I am damn glad you’re here.”
Kenton blinked, a bit surprised. Guess that meant he could count on some cooperation from the cops.
Of course, he’d thought he’d had cooperation on the last case, too.
That had gone to shit.
“I’ll be in to talk to your unit.” He gave Detective Malone a slow nod. “But first I’ve got a pit stop to make. We’re going back to the Jerome murder scene.”
Malone sidestepped out of his way. “Be careful, man, that place ain’t safe.”
“Don’t worry,” Lora murmured. “I’ll keep him safe.”
Right. Because that was just what he needed.
“He didn’t seem pissed that you’d gone over his head.” Kenton slammed his door shut and engaged the alarm. He glanced to the left, the right, and wondered if he’d come out to find his rental stolen. In this neighborhood, a stolen vehicle was a definite possibility.
“Pete’s been following the cases pretty hard. But brass gave him trouble. We needed more help. He knew that.”
“Did you tell him you were calling the SSD?” He headed for the line of yellow police tape that secured the property.
“Uh, no.” She shot him a sheepish glance. “I wasn’t even sure you guys would believe me. But I knew I had to do something.”
He eyed the blackened holes where windows had once been. “Trust me, we’re believing.” It was pretty hard to ignore a pile of bodies.
“Kent, I—” She broke off, shaking her head.
Ah, what was this?
“Thank you,” she gritted, and it really seemed like the words were hard for her. Probably because they were.
“Don’t thank me yet, sweetheart. I haven’t got your killer.”
Her hands clenched. “Hyde doesn’t like me much.”
Hyde wasn’t the liking sort. Kenton shrugged and let his eyes drift back to the hollowed building. “I don’t really care about that.”
“Because you screw who you want?”
He blinked. Didn’t expect that. But… “Yeah, that would be the general rule.”
“He said he didn’t trust me.”
Kenton’s mouth curled. “Hyde doesn’t trust anyone outside the SSD.” And as they’d all learned the hard way, when you were working cases this intense, it paid to watch your back and trust only those on your own team.
One mistake, and you’d be dead.
These killers were too sharp. There was a reason the local law enforcement folks called them in.
Lora exhaled heavily and walked ahead of him, skirting the police tape, moving easily, lightly on her feet. “So you always try to take women to bed even though you don’t trust them?”
She’d thrown that one back nicely. He let his gaze drop from the sagging roof he’d been studying and onto her very fine ass. “Trust doesn’t stop pleasure.”
Lora stilled. “So it’s just about the pleasure?”
“What’s wrong with that?” After hell, pleasure sounded really good to him.
She looked back over her shoulder, the setting sun reflecting in her eyes. So gold.
Fuck. Was he supposed to have lied? He’d never lied his way into a woman’s bed, and he wouldn’t start now.
He wanted Lora.
He was pretty damn sure the sex between them would be incredible. Hell, the woman was explosive. Just looking at her made him hard.
But he was talking about lust and pleasure. What did she want? More?
Kenton wasn’t sure that he had more to give.
“I like the way you look at me,” she whispered.
She’d lost him, again. Because Kenton figured he was looking at her like a man starving. It was those eyes, those lips—the things he wanted to do with that mouth. To that mouth. He cleared his throat. “How do I look at you?”