Page 162 of Smoke and Fire
My nostrils flared at a little stretch of quiet on his part.Now is not the time to get shy, Bastian! I need answers.Questions clogged my throat. They dove deeper than what he wanted me to do about the stalker woman—whose name I didn’t even get, I realized belatedly.
As far as detectives went, I clearly failed.
No, I wanted information on the fire. On his whereabouts. Was he safe? Did he need to leave and come down here? Because I’d gladly house him.
Those thoughts dissipated when he spoke again.
“First, I’m sorry that happened. I never dreamed it would have or I wouldn’t have put you in this position.”
I licked my dry lips. The sun sank lower in the distant horizon, casting a brilliant gold and orange on the sky above the mountains. Hot pink lined the clouds, highlighted by smoke.
“It’s fine,” I croaked.
“Are you safe?”
The undertone in his voice flipped my belly again. I’d need medicine to calm these inner-gymnastic.
“Yes, fine.”
“You’re sure? She’s not unstable or something?”
“No, nothing like that. I’m not in danger or anything. Jess’s reputation is, I’d wager, but not me.”
He let out a long breath, clearly relieved. “Good. Jess will be fine. You did great.”
His praise sent a ridiculous little thrill through me. He asked about my safety before Jess. That meant something!
“I’m going to contact Pri and let her know,” he continued, “I’ll see if she’s heard anything. Have you noticed chatter about it in the social media group?”
“No.”
“No threads about this?”
My mind ran back over the comments I’d monitored today, but I couldn’t recall an instance that would apply here. I hadn't perused very far, though. There were over 40,000 people in the group and thirty new posts a day. Keeping track of any of it was like picking up thrown glitter.
“I can check again tonight, but nothing stood out.”
“See if you can find anything. Look into a girl named Katrina.”
“The one that lives in LA?”
“Yeah, the documentary filmmaker. This might be her trying to capitalize on publicity and excitement with the new release. She could leverage Jess’s popularity to get attention herself.”
“Okay. I will.”
His tone dropped again. Not quite a whisper, but close. “Do you feel safe if she comes back into the coffee shop? Because I’m willing to bet she will. I can call Hernandez and have him stop by to check, just in case.”
“Uh, yeah.” The words stuck in my throat. His concern touched me. “I don’t think she plans to get out of control. She just wants to look around, I think. No danger to me.”
“Okay. Just let me or Hernandez know.”
The inane urge to ask him to send me a video rose up, but I shoved that back down. No, that felt like too mortifying of an ask. I just wanted toseehim again. I almost giggled in a deranged way, picturing him doing a selfie while coated in grime.
He pulled me back to the present.
“Keep me updated, okay?”
“Of course.”
