Huntsman - Morgan Brice Page 0,38
wind, letting the breeze ruffle his fur and his whiskers.
That’s when he smelled smoke.
Fuck. There’ve been two arsons in the past couple of days. What are the odds this is another one?
Just remember darling, fur is flammable, his fox warned.
Without his phone, there wasn’t any way to warn anyone. That meant Liam would have to do recon old school.
It’ll be easy. Just get close and get out. Even if someone sees me, no one suspects a fox.
Except in a town filled with shifters, his fox reminded him.
Liam stayed low, keeping to the tree line as long as he could, following his nose to find the source of the smoke. The first three cabins looked locked tight for the off-season. The fourth had a motorcycle parked in back, and while the windows were still boarded shut for the winter, the back door stood open.
He crouched, knowing this was where the smoke originated, and that meant the biker was responsible. His nose twitched with the smell of smoke…and lighter fluid. Liam belly-crawled as close as he dared in the tall grass, focusing his fox-sharp senses to pick up any clue that might help catch the person.
Minutes later, a large man in a black leather bike jacket, jeans, and boots came out—wearing leather gloves and a full helmet. I can’t be sure, but he has the same overall build as the Huntsman who came after me in Ithaca.
Liam had no chance to see the man’s face or get any description except his build, although he memorized the stranger’s scent. He had already memorized the make, model, and license plate of the bike.
The man paused and looked around, likely reassuring himself that no one was watching. Liam flattened himself to the ground, ready to bolt if discovered. He lay still, heart thudding, until the bike roared away.
The cabin exploded into flames. Liam didn’t know much about fighting fires, but he knew this was far more than he could handle with a fire extinguisher.
As soon as Liam knew the motorcycle was gone, he ran as fast as his fox feet could carry him, back through the woods the way he came, pelting through the underbrush. He almost ran straight for the fire department and remembered at the last minute that he needed to be human to report the fire, so he stopped long enough to shift and dress. Then he sprinted across the street to report the fire.
“Can I help you?” A man in a FHFD T-shirt answered his frantic knock.
“There’s a cabin on fire, over that way,” Liam said, still breathless. Belatedly, he realized that he didn’t know the names of the streets in his new town, and so all he could do was gesture. “Is Russ here?”
The man shook his head. “He put in a long day. Can you tell me what you saw?”
Liam forced himself to breathe. “I went out for a run,” he told the firefighter. “I’m new in town—just been here a few days—so I don’t know the names of anything. But I smelled smoke, so I went to see where it came from, and there was a man on a motorcycle coming out of the house that’s on fire.”
“Shit,” the firefighter said. He ran a hand back through his short-trimmed dark hair. “Stay here. I gotta call the chief, and I’ll put in an alarm.”
The piercing wail of the fire siren made Liam’s fox yip in pain. In a town full of shifters, how is everyone not deaf from that racket?
He sat, nervously drumming his fingers. Sooner than he expected, a man in a fire chief uniform strode up and stopped in front of him. “Buck said you reported a fire—and maybe got a look at our arsonist?”
Liam fleetingly wondered if “Buck” referred to the firefighter’s shifter side. He repeated his story nearly word for word, and the chief listened intently.
“I should tell you that was reckless and dangerous, and you shouldn’t have done it,” the chief said, then rolled his eyes and sighed. “But it’s the first solid lead we’ve had. So thank you. Although next time—”
“Call a professional,” Liam supplied, wondering if anyone would ever make a fox-friendly cell phone.
He left the firehouse, feeling hungry and a little disoriented. What he wanted was Russ, who was sleeping off back-to-back shifts. Instead, he found himself heading back to the Full Moon Diner, where Woody greeted him with a smile.
“Back already? Did you decide to get the meatloaf this time?”
Liam’s amazement at being remembered as a customer, let alone