LITMIR.BIZ

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got the impression the guy’s shrewd, dark eyes were assessing him, the house and the grounds as he approached. Kirk held out an ID badge and Torque stepped aside to let him pass. He led Kirk through to the kitchen and introduced him to Hollie.

      “The fire was started deliberately.” It wasn’t a question. She calmly stated it as a fact.

      “How did you reach that conclusion?” Kirk asked.

      “Because you’re here.”

      Torque watched Hollie carefully as he made more coffee. Where she was concerned, his senses were finely tuned and his protective instincts were razor-sharp. He didn’t need intuition to tell him her behavior was...unexpected. Until now, he’d had no dealings with victims of fire, but he didn’t imagine they were the ones who usually led the conversation with a fire investigator.

      “Was the point of ignition at the turn on the staircase?”

      Kirk blinked. “Uh...yeah. Looks that way.” He reached into his top pocket, drawing out a small notebook. “Although there were two other ignition points. One inside the bar and one in the storeroom. That’s not always an indication of arson, but there were signs of a break-in.”

      Hollie appeared to be storing that information away. “How did he get in?”

      That was it? That was her calm, collected question when faced with the information that a guy had broken in and set light to the staircase that led to her room? Who are you, Hollie Brown?

      “Pried open a window at the back.” Kirk nodded his thanks as Torque placed a coffee cup in front of him, indicating the cream and sugar. “The guy must have checked the place out in daylight, or risked using a powerful flashlight. That window was the only one large enough for him to climb through.”

      “You won’t know what accelerant he used until you’ve run tests, but he would only have had what he could carry. I don’t imagine there was anything in the bar he could use?”

      Kirk flipped through his notes. He looked like a man who had come unprepared to an interview. “No. The staircase burned ferociously and it’s been difficult to establish what happened there. My initial investigation suggests he stacked an absorbent, flammable substance—probably something he found in the bar, such as newspaper—at each ignition point before pouring his accelerant over it. He doesn’t seem to have made any attempt to make it look like an accident.”

      Hollie nodded. “A professional torch.”

      Torque’s lips twitched. A professional torch? Oh, Hollie. Are you seriously proposing we keep up the pretense that you arrived in my local bar by chance?

      Kirk appeared not to notice the slip. “Looks that way. Which means we have to consider whether you were the target.”

      “Is there any question about that?” Torque asked. “If that fire was deliberately started on the staircase when Hollie was upstairs, it seems obvious that she was the intended target.”

      “We’re right at the start of the investigation. It looks likely a crime was committed. We don’t yet know whether that crime was arson or attempted murder. Which is why I’m here.” Kirk turned back to Hollie. “Can you think of any reason why someone might do this?”

      The hesitation was infinitesimal. If Torque hadn’t been observing her so closely, he would have missed it. Or maybe it was because he was already so disconcertingly in tune with her emotions. “No.”

      “No recent breakup?” She shook her head. “Stalker? You haven’t noticed anyone following you? No one who calls and then hangs up?” A shake of the head followed each question. “Nothing at all you can think of that has been out of the ordinary?”

      “None of those things.” It was just the wrong side of evasive. “Will you report this fire to anyone?”

      Kirk frowned. “I’m the investigator. Who would I report it to?”

      Hollie reached for another pastry, but seemed more intent on crumbling it into pieces on her plate than eating it. “I wondered if there was a database—” she waved a vague hand “—or something.”

      “Don’t worry. I know how to do my job.” Kirk finished his coffee. “Will you be staying here? With Mr.—?” He raised an inquiring brow.

      “It’s just Torque.”

      Kirk’s glance managed to convey his disapproval of rock stars with long hair, big houses and unconventional names.

      Hollie drew his attention back to her. “I’ll be traveling and I lost my cell phone in the fire.”

      “You can reach us both on this number.” Torque might not be the most organized person in the world, but he had succumbed to Ged’s insistence and always carried a supply of his manager’s business cards. He handed one of these to Kirk.

      Kirk made a note of his own number on a page of his notebook and tore it out. He handed it to Hollie. “If you think of anything—”

      “I’ll be sure to get in touch.”

      Torque escorted Kirk to the door. “She seems to be taking it well.” The investigator jerked his head back in the direction of the kitchen. “Most people would be shaken up after an experience like that.”

      “Shock affects people in different ways.” Privately, he agreed with Kirk. Hollie seemed more intent on conducting her own investigation than on providing Kirk with answers.

      He watched Kirk walk away, making sure the electric gates were closed behind him. His steps were uncharacteristically slow and deliberate as he returned to the kitchen. Hollie turned her head to look at him, smiling as he approached, and his heart lurched.

      Everything about her enthralled him. The tendrils of gold hair blowing about her face in the breeze from the open window. The faint blush on her cheeks as his gaze lingered on her face. Her scent, the aroma of her that he could smell beneath the vanilla and pine tones of the soap, made his inner dragon growl with lust. She was his mate. He wanted to sweep her up into his arms, take her off to a cave somewhere and show her what that meant.

      The big green eyes scanning his face brought him crashing back down to earth. They were big green human eyes. Nothing about wanting Hollie made sense. Yet, from the moment he first saw her, she had become the most important thing in his life. Wanting her was something he would just have to fight. Not easy when all he wanted to do was grab her and growl out the truth. Mine.

      Even so, it was torture. Exquisite but agonizing. How was he going to cope in even closer proximity to his mate?

      “You look fierce.” Hollie’s smile wavered.

      He laughed. “You have no idea.”

      * * *

      Hollie was annoyed that she’d allowed her professional instincts to show through in the meeting with Jackson Kirk. She wasn’t very good at this undercover thing. Her real self kept fighting to be let out.

      She decided to tackle the subject head-on with Torque. “I suppose you’re wondering what that was all about.”

      After Kirk left, they were seated on a bench in the garden, overlooking the wide sweep of the bay.

      “I guess you’ll tell me when you want me to know.”

      His gaze was steady on hers and she suddenly felt guilty. This man had saved her life, taken her into his home, bought her new clothes, offered her a job...and she was deceiving him. She was as convinced as she could be that he wasn’t the Incinerator, that she could trust him, but her training told her instinct wasn’t enough. Proof. That was what she needed. Until she had it, she should probably be wary of him. Instead of constantly wanting to get nearer to him.

      “Torque...”

      “Hollie.” That glittering gaze held hers. “It doesn’t matter.”

      The words jolted her, the sincerity in his tone almost

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