“Tear gas in the air duct system pushed everyone out before the fire started.”
Jared stepped into Chris’s line of sight. “You keep tear gas in inventory, Sheriff?”
“Already looking into it, Cameron.”
She looked at the two-story building, noting the area with the most damage. “The fire started in Morales’s room?”
Jared set a grimy hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Yeah.”
“Shit.” She reached up and set her hand over his, needing to deepen the connection.
Chris’s gaze narrowed. “Someone wants you dead, Deputy.”
“Wouldn’t be the first somebody.” The raspiness of Jared’s voice made her wince in sympathy.
“Let me do my job,” she said. “And we’ll see if we can find something that gets us closer to figuring out who our torch is.”
She moved toward the obvious point of origin with a brisk stride.
Jared drew abreast of her. “You’re aggravated with him.”
“Some things have come up since I saw you last.”
“Oh?”
“Ask me about it when we get home.”
IT WAS JUST after midnight when they got back to Darcy’s house. Jared could see how exhausted she was but knew more than the length of the day was weighting her slender shoulders. He decided not to press her to talk, to let her decide when she was ready to share. She was a solitary woman in many ways. Joining her inner circle was going to take time and patience. The latter wasn’t one of his strong suits, but he’d make the effort for her. Not that he had a choice; he wanted her too much.
In the meantime, he showered, then made them both some cold sandwiches while she typed her preliminary report for Ralston. When they crawled into bed just after two in the morning, she turned into him, wrapping herself around him. With her legs tangled with his, her palms pressed to his back, and her face in his neck, he dropped into a deep sleep.
He woke up alone. Glancing at the clock, he noted it was barely six. He left the bed, then the bedroom, looking for Darcy. He found her in the living room, curled up on the couch beneath a chenille throw. She was watching a muted television, her eyes marred by dark circles. An open box sat on the floor by the coffee table, holding a variety of loose items, including framed photos of Darcy and Danielle.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Let me join you.”
She sat up at his urging and he settled behind her, taking her weight against his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair, brushing it back from her forehead. The feel of her bare skin against his soothed him. As the explosion had thrown him out into the parking lot, his thoughts had been with Darcy and how he’d be damned if some sick asshole blew him to hell before he figured out what he had with her.
“You wanna talk?” he asked softly.
Turning her head, she pressed her cheek to his chest. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Wherever you want.” He kissed the crown of her head, hating the misery that radiated from her and his helplessness to alleviate it. “I can pull it all together later.”
“How much crap can I dump on you, Jared, before you run screaming?”
“I never scream and I damn sure never run away.” He gripped her shoulders, resisting the urge to give her a little shake. “Spit it out.”
In a low halting voice, she told him about Miller’s visit and her subsequent talk with Nadine. “I knew she had to be with someone familiar to me, but Chris…? I can’t believe she didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t have been upset.”
“A lot of people have secret lives. Their loved ones are shocked when they come to light. It’s no reflection on you.”
“I can’t help thinking that I fucked up somewhere and that’s why she couldn’t trust me with this.”
“It sounds like it was a couple random encounters. Maybe she was embarrassed. Heat-of-the-moment type thing that she regretted.”
“Even more reason to tell me, so we could’ve laughed it off and put it away.” She exhaled harshly. “And Chris…Wow. He had a responsibility to disclose his affair with her to the Feds. Why didn’t he, if he had nothing to hide?”
“It’s definitely a problem. But at least we’ve got enough to get a DNA sample from him now.”