Page 55 of Serial Burn

“I’m assuming your prints are all over the note.”

“Of course. I opened the envelope.”

Jesslyn’s pulse picked up speed and she had to work to ignore it. “Okay, I’m going to ask a friend to send an officer to your house. That’s a threat and it needs to be on file.”

“I can’t believe this. Utterly ridiculous. One tries to do a good thing and someone’s always got to throw hate at it.”

“I know.” A memory flickered stronger this time.

“I told you, I’m sorry! It won’t happen again!”

She flinched. “What do you think the sender means by dishonorable?” The line went silent. “Aunt Carol?”

“Oh, sorry, hon, I’ve got to go. We’ll talk a little later, okay?”

“Um ... okay.” She had to go as well. “Right. We’ll catch up later.”

“You’re working on your speech, right?”

“Of course.” She’d thought about it. Sort of. That was working on it, right? “Bye, Aunt Carol. We’ll talk soon.”

She hung up and Nathan walked over. He’d been on his laptop for hours. Ever since they’d arrived. “Did you get some work done?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’ve got footage of a lot of the scene for you. Bystanders mostly. I watched for new people coming and people who left, trying to see if anyone stood out.”

“Thanks. I didn’t have a chance to do anything but scan the crowd.” She should have just asked him to do it. “At least we know Kenny isn’t here.”

He chuckled. “Right.”

She rubbed her nose. “I’m beat. How about you?”

“The same. How do you feel about letting me take you out for a steak?”

“That sounds amazing, but I think you should get some rest. You’re still healing.”

“I’m fine, I promise.”

She hesitated, thinking about it.

He was handsome.

He made her heart yearn for things she couldn’t yearn for right now.

And he was a distraction she couldn’t afford. “Thanks, I really appreciate the offer, but I think I’ll take a rain check. I really need to work on this arson case. And I want to visit Mr. Christie.”

Hurt flickered in his gaze before he shot her a tight smile. “All right, I get it. I’ll follow you to the hospital to make sure you get there in one piece. And I’ll check in on Mr. Christie as well.”

She nodded. “Sounds like a plan. See you there.”

“Sure thing.”

THE GYM WAS LOCATEDhalfway up the mountain, and as Nathan navigated his way back down, keeping her in his sights, his mind spun with thoughts of the pretty fire marshal.

What was he going to do? He was attracted to a woman who wanted nothing to do with him. Had asked him for arain check. Which meant “go away, I’m not interested,” and he still was trying to figure out a way to spend time with her.

What in the world? He didn’tchasewomen. He pushed them away. Not to be cocky or anything, but he did so quite frequently. He might enjoy a night out with a date every so often, but as soon as someone wanted more, he went the other way without looking back.

So what was he doing now?

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