Page 55 of Hot For You

How he hated to see a fire snuffed out. He loved being able to watch it to the very end of its life. Unfortunately, firefighters put out most fires he set before they could burn all the way down. It was immensely satisfying to be able to watch it all the way to the end.

When the fire was gone, he pressed the key that would stop the recording. He spent the next several minutes watching the video again. When it ended he typed in a message that he made into an image that he tacked on to the end of the video.

A grin spread over his face as he uploaded the video to YouTube, using an account he had named “Firebug” when he’d uploaded another video. He labeled this video, “You’re next, redhead.”

When he was finished, he opened his email account and started a new email.

Chapter 21

Carilyn took a drink of ice water then set the glass down while she sat at the writing desk in the hotel and booted up her fourth laptop in just over a week. This time she wasn’t bothering with setting up her machine beyond what she had to do to get up and running. Later she would worry about having it the way she wanted for work and personal use.

This time she had one purpose, and one purpose only.

To find the bastard who tried to kill Cody and me.

It had barely been thirty-six hours since the explosion but it felt like it had just happened. She could still hear the massive blast and could still see Cody dropping to the ground.

The thought of him almost dying from the arsonist’s bomb made her blood boil in ways it never had before. It had been bad enough that the arsonist had burned up her car. Now he’d blown up Cody’s house and had almost killed him and her, too.

The bastard wasn’t going to get away with it. She was going to stop him before anyone got seriously hurt or killed. Finding the arsonist had just become her one and only mission.

Yesterday, after getting her new laptop, she’d sent an email to LordoftheFuneralPyre, but she hadn’t received a response from him yet. First thing she did after she booted up her laptop was open her email from a web-based browser.

Two emails jumped out at her at once. The first was from LordoftheFuneralPyre.

The second was from Firebug.

Her throat worked as she stared at the two emails, then made up her mind. She’d open Lord’s first, download the software she needed, and track Firebug as soon as she read his email.

She clicked on Lord’s email reply.

* * *

WizardAsp

Getting the feeling you could use a little luck. This will lead you in the right direction.

May the force be with you.

LOTFP

* * *

A link was embedded in the email. First she replied to Lord with a brief thank you note, then clicked on the link. The link took her to a secure site where she used her personal passcode and downloaded all of the software she needed. That included the tracking software as well as incredibly sophisticated anti-spyware not available to anyone but the elite hackers who had developed it. She had been one of the developers, so she knew it backward and forward.

The whole time she worked to get what she needed, she continued to think about the email from Firebug, wondering what it said this time.

Someone pounded on the hotel room door and Carilyn startled, knocking the glass of water over. Cold fear iced her veins. Could it be Firebug?

As she stared at the door, she automatically picked up the laptop as water spilled onto the desk’s surface.

Ignoring the water pooling on the desk, she got up from her seat, still holding the laptop. A knock sounded at the door again and she flinched.

She set the laptop on the bed and slowly walked to the door. Her heart pounded like mad as she looked through the peephole.

Relief flooded through her followed by shock when she saw who was there.

She opened the door, her eyes wide. “Sam?”

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