Fahrenheit (22 page)

He nodded. “Where’s your rental car?”

“Probably being towed from the Espanola as we speak,” she laughed. “I left it parked on the sidelines. We have so much more access since Mayor Townsend is so determined to have our paper cover the story. But I don’t think the fire crew will be happy with my car taking up space. If it ends up being in their way I’m sure they’ll have it towed.” And given the severity of the fire now she had an idea the rental was definitely going to be in their way.

“Who are you working with now that Mitch is dead?”

She knew Thomas was asking because he wanted to run a background check and be sure her new partner was going to be a safe bet. He wasn’t thrilled with Mitch’s daredevil background, but there wasn’t anything he could do about the partnership, just as there wouldn’t be anything he could do about this one.

Something about Ramsey made her uneasy. She figured it was just because he was slime of the ickiest caliber, but maybe a little background digging wouldn’t be such a bad thing. She didn’t know when she would get out of Florida and until that day came she was going to have to work with Ramsey—her boss had made that point crystal clear to her.

“Ramsey Fletcher,” she said. “He’s a jerk.” Those words flowed from her lips so freely, as if she were introducing his profession instead of his personality status. She had never liked Ramsey. He had never liked her either, but he had liked her photos. She knew that much because he had made several complaints that Mitch had the pick of the “litter” while he was stuck with a few “mediocre” photojournalists. First of all it wasn’t a few photojournalists; there was only one—Daniel Grayson. Daniel was not mediocre. He was an artist with a camera too. She had seen some of his other work—the ones that weren’t shot for the paper. He had skill and talent and a level head on his shoulders. He had been so nice to her when she came down as an intern. She felt a little guilty actually because he was senior on staff yet somehow she was the one getting all the great assignments while he was shooting local events.

“How long are you here for?”

“For as long as it takes,” he said. She knew that couldn’t be true. He had to get back to work.

“You have work,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, but the major thing I’m working on right now isn’t something where I have to tail somebody. I can research and fact find from here. But you’re right; I do have to be back by end of next week for a meeting with my client. If need be I’ll fly back here same day.”

She shook her head. “Thomas, do what you need to do over the next few days and then go home. Go back to Thena and McGregor Investigations, and watch over me from there. I’ll be okay.” She looked at him solidly, knowing he was already thinking of something to do to make sure somebody watched over her from a much closer distance. “And no, you are not going to bother Drake again. Seriously, the man has a life; let him live it.” She shook her head and laughed. “I’ll be fine. I swear,” she placed the palm of her hand over her heart. “I will call you if I need help.”

He growled low in his throat. “All right baby sister. I won’t ask him to come down here.”

“All right big brother,” she smiled at him. “Be careful out there.”

“Always,” he hugged her one more time before leaving the room. She had two wonderful men in town and she was worried about both of them. Her brother could take care of himself; she knew that, but this Sabian guy sounded real deadly. Thomas was having such a hard time finding him that she wondered if he ever really would. Maybe she could help—maybe she should help, she thought absently as she looked at Adam lying in the bed. She was worried about him too—and she needed to make sure he would be okay before she took on any more trouble—but once things calmed down, once she could think straight, she was going to put some of those journalistic skills Mitch had been trying to teach her to good use. She was going to help her big brother get the closure he needed. One way or another he would find this Sabian guy.

Eve stayed right at Adam’s bedside and eventually the meds started wearing off and his groggy nature diminished. Once that happened, he was all talk. “Adam, you need more rest,” she told him.

“I’ve been resting. I’m ready to get out of here.”

She laughed. “Sorry, honey. The doctors say you’re here at least until morning. Your hands are healing nicely.”

“They’ve been burned before,” he said. “Just the palms, like this time. It’s really not that big of a deal. They always heal, but I won’t be able to get back to active duty until I’m completely cleared.”

“Typical,” she shook her head. “You could have been killed and your biggest concern is getting back to active duty.”

He shrugged. “Yeah.”

“I’m going to stay with you for a few days.”

“You don’t have to babysit me you know.”

“I know. But I just need to be near you.”

“What about your brother?”

“He’s going to stay at my place. I’m going to stay with you. End of discussion.”

“Yes ma’am,” he smiled. “Will you sleep in my bed? I just want to hold you. Having you close feels—natural,” he looked at her, studying her face.

“Yes,” she leaned in and kissed him on his lips. “I’ll sleep in your bed.”

Chapter Fifteen

T
he knock on the door surprised Adam. He wasn’t expecting anybody, and Eve’s brother had gone home just this morning. “One of the guys,” he said. It had to be one of them checking up on him—although he didn’t know why. Clearly he was fine.

“I’ll get it,” she brushed her fingers through his hair before getting up off the couch to answer the door. He had clear view of the front door when she opened it. He was surprised to see, not one of his men, but the man he had met that night in Eve’s hotel room.

“Drake, what are you doing here?”

“I’m checking up on you.”

“Thomas asked you to do it didn’t he? Did he tell you where I was? I told him not to bother you.”

“He didn’t bother me. We just had a discussion. He mentioned there had been some trouble and I told him I would look in on you.”

“So he did tell you where I was.”

“He might have mentioned it,” he grinned. “Are you going to invite me in?”

She stepped aside to let him in. Adam laughed. “I thought my brothers were crazy protective. I stand corrected…or is that I sit corrected,” he laughed again.

“You remember Drake,” she gestured toward Drake.

Adam looked in her eyes. He could tell she was frustrated. “You’ve got good people on your side, Eve. Don’t throw that away.”

“Why are you always right?” She blew out an exasperated breath. “Did Thomas get any other information on Mitch’s murder?”

“He finally found the guy in the alley. Finding him wasn’t easy because the guy had fled soon after the murder. He thought he could be next and he didn’t want to be next. Thomas got a description last night. The cops hadn’t bothered to get it, but he gave it to Thomas. I ran it through some databases and got the photo to him this morning. Have either of you seen this guy?” He handed the photo to them.

“Yeah,” Adam said. “He works at that seafood place by the beach. Remember the doorman?”

“Yeah. So you all think he’s the one who blew up my apartment complex and killed Mitch?”

“Whoa, wait a minute, what?” Adam sat up, now more interested in the conversation than he had been before. They hadn’t exactly talked much about Mitch’s murder. They had been so distracted. He wasn’t home more than an hour the first day before his brothers called from Vermont. “Just checking up, little brother,” they had said. He put them both on speaker and gave them the shock of their life. “Guys, this Eve,” he had said. “My wife.”

“Wife! What?”

He laughed long and hard. “Calm down,” he had said. “We took vows with only the fire as our witness, but we’ll make it legal real soon.” The conversation had been brief, but at least they had a chance to meet her and she had a chance to meet them. Of course that conversation had actually started them to talking about marriage and the wedding and when it should take place, and what they would do if he got accepted into the smokejumper program out in California. They hadn’t spent much time talking about Mitch, the murder, the fires, any of it. Now he wanted to know what he had missed while he was lying in that hospital bed.

“It’s really nothing, Adam.”

“Somebody blew up an entire apartment complex to get to you, Eve,” Drake’s tone turned deadly serious. “That hardly falls into the category of nothing.”

“Well, technically it wasn’t the entire—”

“Eve,” Adam stood up, folded his arms across his chest and scowled at her.

“Fine,” she said measurably docile. “It was something. Jeeze, if the two of you are going to team up on me I’m going to have to make sure I keep you both apart.”

“What can I do to help?” Adam didn’t care if he was supposed to be resting. He had rested enough. Right now somebody was after Eve and he planned to be sure he helped keep her safe.

“I go where she goes,” Drake said. His intentions were clear. If Eve planned to stay at his place until he was back at work then Drake was staying as well.

“I have a spare bedroom,” he noted. Eve had been crashing in his bed anyway. For some reason, and he mostly knew why, she had been afraid to leave his side. So while she slept under the covers he slept on top of them. She would have to get comfortable with the dangers of his job. In so many ways she was more understanding than some of the women he had dated before, but she was still worried. He couldn’t have her going off to work every day worried that he might not make it home. She had a high enough risk job herself. She was often in the heart of danger taking photographs for the world to see, and she needed to be focused on her own safety, not worried about his. For now, however, he would let her adjust to what happened, to the fact that they had both almost died that day. He would let her adjust to the fact that if she hadn’t crossed the fire line to get to him he would have died that day. Once time passed she would be a little more at ease letting him out of her sight for more than five minutes. He hoped she got comfortable with it sooner rather than later because the second he had the all clear from the doctors to return to work he was going in.

“I need to go check on this.” Drake took the picture out of Eve’s hand. “If he’s still working there, and that’s a big if, I need to know about it.”

“Do you want us to go with you?”

“No,” he stated emphatically. “I want you both to stay here.” He looked to Adam. “Keep her safe, will you?”

“I’d give my last breath for her,” he said. And he would. If anybody wanted to get to Eve they were going to have to go through him first. He would say that would give Eve time to get away, but knowing her tenacity, she would probably stick around and try to help him survive too.

“I’ll be back after,” Drake slid his sunglasses back on his face.

“Take a key,” Adam dug to the bottom of the candy dish and pulled a spare key out. “That way if we’re sleeping you can let yourself in.”

“And here I was thinking you just liked candy,” Eve laughed.

“I hate the stuff,” he said. “But it’s a great place to hide things.” At the bottom of a candy dish wasn’t where people normally looked for keys, cash, or anything else for that matter.

“What else do you have down there?” She started digging through the layers of peppermints, butterscotch and cinnamon candy. He caught her hand in his and stopped her.

“Nothing for you to worry about, Eve McGregor.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that, Adam Carrigan;” she tacked her hands to her hips and gave him her serious, “I mean business,” face.

“I’ll leave you two to it then,” Drake shook his head as he left, locking the door behind him.

“Are you hungry?” Adam grinned.

“No changing the subject.”

He leaned in and kissed her softly. “Come on sweetie, let’s fix something to eat.” He saw the smile that tugged at the corner of her lips until it became a full fledged smile. One thing he had learned about Eve was that a good way to change her focus was to kiss those sweet lips of hers. He would have to file that away in his mental databank for future arguments. He was sure there would be future arguments. She was strong willed and so was he, so arguments were probably going to be a normal occurrence for them.

Chapter Sixteen

“G
oing somewhere with that gasoline can?” Drake’s tone was hardcore serious. If the bastard thought he was going to burn down Adam’s home with Eve McGregor in there then he had another thing coming. He kept his weapon trained on the dressed in black man. If he needed to he would shoot him point blank without reservation. He was already in a bad mood to begin with. The jerk bastard he had come looking for had already cleaned out, not just from his job, but from the home he had been staying at as well. There was nothing left—not even a hairball. Tracing him was going to be nearly impossible, but he wouldn’t give up. They were one step closer to, with hopes, getting one of Sabian’s henchmen alive. All they needed was one, and no matter how tough they thought they were, by the time he finished with them the bastard would talk, and talk fast.