Page 60 of Hot For You

“We won’t know until DNA tests come back.” Reese and Cody walked away from the barrel as Reese spoke. “But I have a feeling you’re right.”

Cody was glad to get away from the body. The last time he had seen Janice Barnhart he’d thought she was a pretty, vivacious blonde. Despite having lost her business to the arsonist, she’d had a surprisingly positive attitude. Seeing her being burned alive on the video not only made him furious, but it made him feel ill. What kind of sick fuck did this to women?

Even though Carilyn was tucked away safely in the hotel room, Cody couldn’t help but feel like he should be at the hotel with her. An urgency rose up inside him that he couldn’t explain. He needed to get back, and he needed to go now.

* * *

When Cody left, Carilyn took a towel out of the bathroom, mopped up the water on the desk, then set her laptop onto its surface.

All that had happened kept churning through her, making her nauseated. The explosion, Sam showing up, Firebug’s email, the two videos, and Cody off at some location that could be a trap for all she knew.

She couldn’t stop images from pounding in her mind so much so that her head ached with it all.

It didn’t do any good worrying about things. What would be productive would be to track down Firebug. She signed onto her laptop and copied Firebug’s email address without re-reading the email then minimized the windows for her email and Internet so that she didn’t have to see Firebug’s name and the video. She would have exited out of the email client and the web browser, but she wanted them to be handy for Cody if he needed them. His own iPad and computer had been lost in the explosion, so he’d had to purchase them new again. He hadn’t had time to set-up either of his electronic devices.

She brought up the tracking program she had downloaded earlier and entered Firebug’s email address. She took a deep breath and clicked on “start.”

For a long moment she stared at the screen, watching its progress but knowing it would take some time to track him down. He was good, really good.

She frowned as she considered that. Was Firebug a computer expert? A hacker even? He had to have some kind of day job, didn’t he? She drummed her fingers on the desktop as she contemplated her thoughts.

Feeling suddenly jittery and unable to sit still, she got up from her seat and started pacing the room. She wanted to get out, to go for a walk, to do something rather than just sitting here and waiting.

Cody had told her to wait in the hotel room, but what would it hurt to go down to the lobby? She could stretch her legs and go into their coffee shop. She could use a bite to eat, and something with caffeine would be nice, too.

She checked the progress of the tracking program, which was still working, chipping away at every roadblock it came to.

After she stuffed her iPhone in her pocket and cash from her purse in her opposite pocket, along with the keycard, she headed out of the hotel room and to the elevator. It felt good to be moving, good to be away from the computer and thinking about Firebug and the horrible videos. It was as if putting distance between her and her laptop was putting distance between her and Firebug.

Well, at least she was going to try not to think about it all. Her stomach churned as the image of the woman on fire popped into her mind and she pressed her palm to her abdomen. She had to get those images out of her mind. Maybe that hadn’t really been a woman on fire. It could be special effects, couldn’t it?

She took the elevator down to the lobby, trying to think about anything but the videos and the woman. When the doors parted, she headed out and across the lobby to the coffee shop. The smell of dark roast invigorated her as she went to the counter.

The perky young brunette barista, with Dahlia on her nametag, smiled at Carilyn. “Ready for a cup of hot coffee and a pastry?” She inclined her head toward the pastry case.

“Sounds terrific.” Carilyn relaxed and looked over the pastries. “I’ll have a large dark roast and one of those cheese Danishes.” She paid with the cash she’d brought with her then stuffed the change back in her pocket.

Dahlia used a pair of tongs to put a Danish into a small pastry bag and then poured a cup of coffee before giving both to Carilyn. After adding sugar and half-and-half, she sat at a small table near the entrance.

Instead of dwelling on the horrors, she thought about Cody. The way his eyes lit up when he smiled, his sexy little grin, and his hard, muscular body that felt so good against hers when they made love.

Love. Cody had told her that he loved her, but she hadn’t been able to say it back to him. It was too soon and she had to think about her life back in Kansas.

As she ate her Danish, her thoughts turned to Sam showing up and how he’d told her he wanted to get back together with her. It had been such a shock to see him, and an even bigger shock to find out why he’d returned.

Could she ever go back with Sam if she returned to Kansas City and left everything she’d come to love here in Prescott? She frowned as she considered it. No, she couldn’t. Heck, she couldn’t even get herself to think about leaving Cody behind. Just the thought of being separated from him tore her up inside.

She knew the truth. She was in love with Cody and she would do anything to be with him. Including moving to Arizona. She bit into her cheese Danish, feeling a sense of excitement that she hadn’t felt before.

Compared to her love with Cody, it seemed to her that her love for Sam had been more friendship than anything.

“Hi.” A man’s voice jerked her from her thoughts and her eyes shot up to see a vaguely familiar geeky-looking guy wearing a tweed suit. He had stringy hair hanging out from beneath a felt hat, a bushy red mustache, and a beard. He stood over her and was smiling. “Can I sit here?”

The coffee shop had plenty of empty tables and she tried not to frown as she set her Danish on a paper napkin on the table. She really didn’t want company right now unless it was Cody.

Before she could respond, the stocky man was pulling out a chair at her table. “Thanks,” he said with a smile. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

She shook her head as she looked at his longish hair that fell over his bearded face. His smile didn’t reach his pale blue eyes behind his horn-rimmed glasses and something tingled at the base of her neck.

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