Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
My mom never half-assed anything that she was passionate about. I remembered her repainting my bedroom wall three times because we couldn’t get the right shade of violet blue that I wanted. She brought that same energy to her work, so something really caught her eye to make her focus on arsonists instead of her usual drug lords or murderers.
“I believe that the fires happening now and the fires that happened four years ago are connected. It may be the same person,” I told her. “Did my mom say anything about a possible suspect or about having a theory?”
“She mentioned finding proof, but she never told me the details,” Ann sighed, giving me an apologetic look. “She told me that about a week before she passed.”
A strong wave of grief crashed down on me. Damn it. She was so close, and I could only imagine how excited she was to get to the bottom of it all. But if she had proof, where was it? What did she find? So badly, I wished that I could ask her in person.
“I’ll have to look around. Thank you, Ann,” I told her, bidding her a polite but quick goodbye before hurrying out of the library.
I breathed in a deep breath of fresh air, steadying myself as my mind swirled with questions and possibilities. I knew that this case was complicated and personal, but I never realized how deep this went. There was so much that I didn’t know.
But evidently, my mom knew a lot more than I did. I just had to find out what.
Chapter 14
Matty
My muscles ached with almost every move that I made as I dragged myself off the fire truck after another long, stressful shift. I looked behind me as Zoe, Jae, Garrett, and Gabe followed, all of them looking as tired as I was. There had been two arson cases today on opposite sides of town.
What made it worse was that they’d happened so close to each other time-wise. There was maybe fifteen or twenty minutes between each call, which made us have to rush all over the place when we were already tired from the first call. It felt like things were getting worse, and it doubled the tension in the fire station.
“Going to hit the shower. See you in a minute,” Garrett told Zoe, giving her arm a squeeze before heading off to the showers.
Zoe shared a small smile with Gabe and Jae before they walked off as well, leaving me alone with her. She turned to me and shook her head.
“It just doesn’t make sense. Can one person cause so much destruction almost at the same time on two different sides of town?” she inquired.
“You think there is more than one person involved?” I questioned as I pulled off my gear, releasing an exhale of relief as so much weight fell off my body.
With a grave look on her face, Zoe nodded.
“That would make the most sense. This is too big for just one person to pull off. They’re sneaky and careful and calculative,” she explained, her eyes widening a hint as her mind started racing. “But I don’t know what their motive is.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I assured her with an encouraging smile. I hoped that was true because all of us were getting worn out from all of these fires. All I could do was put on a brave, encouraging face and forge forward. “Meet you in the kitchen? I’m going to talk Jae into making us all ramen.”
Zoe laughed a little.
“Oh, really?” she asked.
I chuckled and nodded, remembering all the times Jae whipped us up ramen that had us running for the milk in the fridge.
“It has a kick, but it’s damn good,” I promised her. With a playful kiss to her cheek, I headed off to the showers, letting the hot spray pound down on my head for a few minutes as I washed up.
I would’ve been lying if I claimed that she hadn’t crossed my mind in the shower. Or during certain late nights. That kiss rocked my damn world. I wasn’t afraid to admit that, but I wanted more.
By the time I got dressed in a pair of black shorts and a black t-shirt, everyone was finishing up getting ready in the locker room.
“Jae, Zoe wants you to make ramen for everyone,” I called out to him from my locker.
“That sounds like you want me to make ramen, but you’re using Zoe as a scapegoat,” Jae accused as he walked to the doorway of the locker room, passing me an amused look as the Wallace brothers laughed.
“Well, I already promised her you would. Do you really want to disappoint her?” I taunted him as I cocked an eyebrow at him.
Jae smirked and shook his head at me before leading everyone to the kitchen where Zoe was sipping on a bottle of water.