Reckonings. Cynthia Eden

      She fumbled with the locks and opened the door. She’d slept in her clothes, too nervous to change last night.

      “We’ve got a problem,” Davis said, his voice grim. As grim as the expression on his face. The faint lines near his eyes had sharpened.

      “Problem?”

      Sympathy flashed in his eyes. “It’s your house. Someone saw the smoke this morning and called the fire department. It’s just... It caught fire, Jamie. Your place burned last night.”

      * * *

      IT WAS GONE. The entire house was just a blackened shell now. Jamie stood in front of her home, watching as the firefighters examined the smoldering rubble.

      “The alarm should have gone off,” she said, feeling numb. Gone. Everything was destroyed. The bitter scent of ash filled the air, and Jamie found herself shaking her head, desperate for this to be just a bad dream. That home...she’d tried so hard to make it hers. She’d planted flowers around her windows. She and Jinx had spent hours outside, chasing balls, playing.

      “I checked with your alarm company,” Davis said. He was at her side. Just as he’d been, ever since they’d arrived at this nightmare scene. “They never got any sort of signal from your place. I’ll do some investigating, but my hunch is that your alarm was cut.”

      Her gaze swung to Davis. “Cut? You’re saying that you think someone did this? It was no accident?”

      “I was with you when you packed up. I saw you double-check the stove, the heater...everything was safe. The fire marshal will be able to tell us the cause once he investigates fully, but, for the place to go up like this—” his right hand gestured back to the blackened house “—and for the alarm not to go off, right after some jerk tried to break in to your place...” His lips thinned. “No, my gut is sure saying it wasn’t an accident.”

      And her gut clenched painfully.

      “He probably came back later, once he thought the coast was clear. Maybe he set the fire to cover up the robbery. The guy could have thought he’d cover his tracks that way.”

      She’d had a TV in there, not one that was top of the line, but still a good TV. A computer, a DVD player, an e-reader. It could have been a robbery.

      Jamie shivered. Or it could have been something else.

      Has he found me? It had been so long. She’d thought she was safe. No, she’d just hoped that she was.

      “Jamie?” Davis brushed his fingers over her arm. “Is there something you aren’t telling me?”

      She didn’t trust others easily. After what she’d been through, Jamie knew that trust was a mistake but... Should I tell him?

      She just didn’t know. Jamie straightened her shoulders. “Excuse me, I want to go and talk with the fire marshal.”

      She wanted to see if there was anything at all that could be salvaged from the wreckage. Or if she’d just lost every bit of her home. She hurried forward and...

      A photo was on the ground. Not near the house. Not burned by the fire. Just lying there.

      Jamie bent and picked it up. The sunlight poured down on her, so she could easily see the image. Her. Smiling. Happy. So long ago.

      Jamie shoved the photo into her pocket even as she tried to blink away tears. That photo shouldn’t have been outside. She’d put it on her nightstand. The photo was the only thing she’d brought from her old life. It should have been in the house. It wasn’t worth stealing. It wasn’t...

       I don’t think someone came to rob me. I think someone came to hurt me.

      And if that was the case, then she was going to have to tell Davis. She’d have to tell him the darkest secrets of her life.