Up in Flames [The Heroes of Silver Springs 10] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) (20 page)

Max upended the container of mustard, squirting a glob on his bread. “Marathon sex, huh?” He nodded slowly as he slapped the second slice of bread on the top and took a bite. “Good description.”

Regina polished off the snack cake and grabbed the chips and salsa, glancing furtively at him as they fell into a comfortable silence. It was comfortable, she realized, and weird. She’d been waiting for the regrets to kick in, waiting for the overwhelming urge to throw on her clothes and hightail it out of his apartment. It hadn’t happened yet. The urge she found herself battling instead was to push all the food aside and snuggle up next to him for the rest of the day.

Finished with his sandwich, Max shoved a hand in the bag of tortilla chips resting against her legs. “What are you thinking?”

“How strange this is. You and me, sitting here half-dressed having a picnic in the center of your bed in the middle of the day.”

“Would you rather be fighting?”

Regina shook her head and smiled. “It’s kind of nice being past all that.”

“You’re good at what you do, Gina. I never doubted you were, even when you thought I was a chauvinistic pig.” He paused, straightened his long legs out in front of him, and leaned back against the headboard. “But I’m guessing from the way you’ve been so quick to bite my head off about it, you’ve come across at least one man in your career who’s given you shit about being a woman.”

Regina twisted the lid back on the jar of salsa and pushed the chips aside. “A few, but what I’ve dealt with most is living under my father’s shadow.”

“Is that what brought you to Silver Springs?”

“It’s exactly what brought me to Silver Springs.” Regina spotted a glass of what appeared to be iced tea on the nightstand next to him and shifted to her knees. She shuffled to his side, leaned over him, and snagged the glass, sitting back on her heels as she took a long swig. “The path was open for me in Kingsford. I got the degree, got the training, and I was in. Everybody knew me and they liked me.” She lifted a shoulder and held out the glass for him to take. “I was a shoo-in.”

Max took the glass, sipped from it, and then put it back on the nightstand. “As Ethan Zimmer’s daughter, not as Regina Zimmer the fire investigator.”

Impressed, Regina angled her head as she gazed at him. “Got it in one. It didn’t matter that I had a degree of my own or that I was a fire investigator. You don’t get that title, that position simply by being someone’s daughter.”

“You can’t make a name for yourself, get the respect and the recognition you earn when you’re living in someone’s shadow, either.”

He really got it. Very few people she knew understood why she hadn’t wanted to stay on the easy road, but Max did. “The name I’ve made for myself in my job here has nothing to do with my father. That’s what I wanted.” And what she’d be giving up when she moved back to Kingsford.

Damn it! All that hard work down the drain. Forget that it had been years since she’d moved to Silver Springs. Forget that she
had
made that name for herself here. None of it would be squat when she moved back. She’d be Ethan Zimmer’s daughter again, just as she’d always been.

Max put a hand on her knee and grazed his callused palm up her thigh. They’d had sex twice, for Pete’s sake, and that wasn’t counting the orgasm he’d given her against the front door in the living room. Yet, that simple, tender touch ignited a fire beneath her flesh that quickly traveled a path straight to her pussy.

“If it’s what you wanted, then why aren’t you happy?”

“I am,” she said quickly and then sighed when one of his brows winged up, his expression clearly telling her he didn’t believe her. “I was,” she corrected. “My father isn’t doing well. He’s retired now, and he’s having trouble living on his own.”

“Is that what’s had you so down lately?”

“It’s part of it.” She considered that statement for a moment and then changed it. “I guess you could say it’s actually the start of it.”

“Have you thought about moving him here and letting him live with you?”

Regina dropped her gaze to her lap. “He’d never do it. He wouldn’t want to sell the house, move away from everything he knows, and give up his life there.”

“Which means you’re the one who will have to make the move.”

Regina lifted her gaze. “He’s my father, Max. He’s taken care of me my entire life. Now, he’s the one who needs care, and I’m the one who should be giving it to him.”

“You don’t have to justify your decision to me, Gina. If I was in your shoes, I’d probably do the same thing.” He dragged his hand from her thigh and reached for the glass again. “So, when are you planning to quit here and sign back on in Kingsford?”

His nonchalance hurt more than she would’ve thought possible. She didn’t know what she had expected to come out of today. He’d told her he didn’t know where this would go, and it wasn’t like she knew, either. His indifference should’ve made it easier. It should’ve taken a weight off her shoulders. If he didn’t care that she planned to move out of the state, she wouldn’t have to worry about hurting him when she left.

Except, damn it, it didn’t take a weight off her shoulders. Instead, it created a heavier one in her chest. He wasn’t even attempting to talk her out of leaving, which could mean only one thing. He wanted a fling. They’d spend time together until she moved, and that would be it.

“I’d thought it would be soon, but now I’ve got this maniac vying for my attention.” She raked her fingers through her hair, wincing when her knuckle got caught in a tangle. “And sitting here on this bed with you is not getting me any closer to catching him.”

Max put the glass on the nightstand and reached for her, catching her by the waist and pulling her down on top of him. “We’ll catch the guy,” he told her, his voice dropping to a husky whisper as his breath fanned her lips. “Then you can go back and wave under everyone’s noses that you did one thing your shadow couldn’t. You put the bastard away.”

Max kissed her and she knew that wasn’t the only thing she’d be going back with. Sure, they’d spend time together until she moved, but that wouldn’t be it for her. Damn it, as his tongue swept into her mouth and his hands started roaming her body, she knew she’d already let him in far deeper than she’d ever intended. She’d willingly surrendered her body to him today, and he’d taken it in the most earth-shattering ways. What she hadn’t willingly surrendered was her heart, but she feared he’d managed to take a piece of that, too.

* * * *

The Flame Jumper watched as the red-headed bitch walked across the parking lot to her car. She’d been in that building for hours, no doubt fucking the firefighter that lived in the second-floor apartment when she should’ve been working. The morning paper had reported yesterday’s glory as arson. At least the bitch got that much right. The paper had also given the Flame Jumper an idea.

I left you a clue, bitch. Once you find it, you’ll know.

The Flame Jumper didn’t have time for the red-headed bimbo to make the link between the wreck and yesterday’s art without help. No apple fell far from the tree, after all. Ethan Zimmer had been an incompetent dumbass and the Flame Jumper doubted his daughter was much better. She’d made the connection soon, though, and when she did, it would be time to move to the next stage.

Time. The Flame Jumper was running out of time all because she’d had to start over. She’d planned everything so perfectly. The answer to everything, the reason for the desires she’d embraced her whole life, had become so suddenly clear, and she’d known what she’d been building, what she’d been working to achieve since the day everything in her life had changed.

The Flame Jumper watched as the red-headed bitch got in her car and drove out of the parking lot. Putting her own car in gear, the Flame Jumper followed, her gaze slicing over the large black numbers on the outside wall of the apartment building. The address was 1243 Walnut Street. If she’d needed any more of a sign that the time had come to show the world her true brilliance, she got it from that. For the first time in her life, the Flame Jumper felt at peace knowing the end was finally near.

* * * *

Max rapped twice on his sister’s apartment door and prepared himself to be jumped on when he heard Sunshine break out into a string of excited barks. A mixed breed of who knew what, the dog was a ball of black fuzzy fur and barely larger than his foot, with a bark far larger than her bite. Sure enough, when Rayne pulled open the apartment door, tiny paws pounded into his shins as Sunshine bounced, doing her damnedest to leap into his arms.

“When are you going to get a real dog?” Max bent at his waist and scooped Sunshine into his arms, wrinkling his nose when he got his face washed with a tiny but fully capable puppy tongue.

“She is a real dog.” Rayne took Sunshine from his arms and cuddled the dog against her chest as she back-stepped into the apartment, leaving the door open for Max to enter. “Aren’t you, Sunshine,” she said in a cooing voice. “Don’t listen to Uncle Max. He’s being a meany today.”

“Uncle Max,” Max muttered, shaking his head as he walked into the apartment and closed the door behind him.

“Where’s your toy, Sunshine?” Rayne gently put the dog on the floor, and it immediately started bouncing. “Go find your toy.” Sunshine raced off down the hallway, her short legs carrying her as fast as they could. His sister laughed, shook her head, and then looked at him. “I knocked on your door this morning. I know you were home because your truck was in the lot, and I could’ve sworn I heard voices inside your apartment. Why didn’t you answer?”

“I had company.”

Rayne tapped her chin with the tip of one finger. “Would that have been female company?”

“It was and I don’t kiss and tell, so let’s leave it at that.”

“Then you were kissing her,” Rayne gasped. “I thought I heard a smooching sound once.”

“And when the buzz gets out about it around the firehouse, you can forget about it being left at that, my man.” Cory Nox grinned as he stepped into the living room.

Max played dumb. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Cory nodded and dragged his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip. “You can try that story, too, but I doubt it’ll work any better. I spend as much time at that department as you do. I see the cars that come and go around there and who drives them. And, wouldn’t you know I just happened to see one of those cars in particular parked in the lot downstairs this morning when I got out to run some errands.”

Fuck.
Max knew from the glint in the other man’s eyes he didn’t stand a chance in hell of denying this one. “I’m still not going to kiss and tell.”

Cory threw up his hands, palms out. “Fine with me, buddy. I’m not after the salacious details, anyway.”

Rayne shot Cory a questioningly amused look. “Salacious?” She planted her fisted hands on her hips. “Have you been playing with the word-of-the-day toilet paper again?”

“Ha-ha.” Cory rolled his eyes even as he laughed and hooked an arm around Rayne’s waist to draw her against his side.

“Is Ford home today?” Max asked.

Cory gestured toward the hallway with a jerk of his head. “He’s on the computer in the spare room.”

“Good. That’s exactly where I want him.”

The apartment was a flipped mirror image of his own. Even if he’d never been inside it before, he could’ve easily found his way to the bedrooms. The master bedroom was on his right, and what had once been Cory’s bedroom, but was now the spare room, was on his left.

He glanced through the open doorway of the master bedroom before turning left at the end of the hall. Rayne had obviously already done the morning’s cleaning. The California king-size bed was neatly made, and he didn’t see a thing in the room out of place. It still fascinated him that the three people who occupied the two-bedroom apartment shared the master bedroom and no way was he going to picture all three of them in that bed.

He rapped once on the open door of the spare room to alert Ford Harris of his presence as he walked inside. The SSPD narcotics detective turned from the computer sitting on top of a small desk and shot Max a grin.

“What’s up, man?”

“You got a minute? I need you to do some digging for me.”

“Sure. What am I digging for?”

Max snagged a nearby chair, spun it around, and put it next to Ford’s chair at the desk, straddling the seat. “Check your e-mails first. I sent you some links to some newspaper articles a few minutes ago.”

He’d been on his computer since Regina had left his apartment more than an hour ago, searching for anything he could find on the chain of events four years ago in Kingsford she’d told him about that morning. He found article after article detailing the fires that were believed to have been set by the Flame Jumper as well as more stories on the investigation into those fires and Ethan Zimmer’s failure to find the one responsible. He’d hit a brick wall, however, when he’d attempted to search further back, to see if the chain of events Regina had described to him had occurred at any other time before four years ago.

“Zimmer,” Ford said slowly, leaning back in his chair after quickly skimming the last article. He propped his elbows on the armrests of his chair and steepled his fingers. “Don’t we have a Zimmer in the fire investigator’s office in Silver Springs?”