Emotion that the moonlight couldn’t hide.
“Faye?”
What in the hell was she doing on his beach? In EMT clothing? With his team?
Heads were going to roll.
Starting with hers.
“I thought you’d at least call,” she was saying. Making no sense at all. “I wouldn’t take the job until Brandt assured me that you’d seen my file and approved the employment...”
Last he’d heard, Faye Browning had been in her second year of a four-year nursing program at UC Berkeley.
He’d been at Southern Cal in LA.
“You did know, didn’t you?” Her voice trailed off.
His horror must have been showing.
He’d glanced at Faye Walker’s credentials and work history. And trusted Brandt with the rest. If he’d felt a need to do more, he’d have conducted the interview himself.
“You didn’t know...”
“Okay, boss, she’s all yours,” Mark said, approaching him and Faye and motioning to the smoldering embers behind them.
“On first glance it’s just like all the rest,” Brandt said, joining them. “Gasoline. Matches. Nothing but ashes left, so considering how quickly we got here and put it out, there couldn’t have been that much to burn to begin with...”
“Or that they used a lot more gasoline, in a wider sphere...” Reese said, turning his back on the paramedic he couldn’t deal with in that moment. “It’s a bigger radius,” he said, coming up on the fire.
“Yeah.” Brandt stood with him. The rest of the crew was a few feet back. Reese heard soft murmuring among them. And hoped to God it was about fires.
If she thought for one second she was going to come here and upend his life again, she’d be out on her ass so fast...
“And closer to property that could catch and do actual damage,” Brandt said, reminding Reese that his second-in-command was still standing there assessing the mess on the beach.
“It’s escalating,” Reese said, confirming a fear that he and Brandt had already discussed.
“Clearly it’s not homeless people trying to stay warm.” Brandt’s tone did not lack for sarcasm. The theory had appeared in the media a month or so back, when they’d had a cold spell at night, colder than usual for Santa Raquel in June.
“It’s also not kids.” Reese rebutted the other theory that had been passing through the town by word of mouth. “They’d have grown bored by now and...”
“We were here fast enough tonight to catch them if there’d been a group of them.”
Because Reese had had sentinels on the beach. And the Santa Raquel police force was vigilantly watching the town for signs of smoke.
Disproving theories one and two only left them with number three. Someone was giving them a warning. Something bigger was ahead.
And it was his job to find the clue to what that might be and stop the perpetrator before it happened.
“You and the others...you can head back. Get some rest,” he said. “I’ve got my evidence kit in the car. I’ll take it from here.”
Brandt nodded. Reese felt the other man’s stare and knew it was because of his curt tone. He also knew he couldn’t do anything about it.
“So you met the new girl,” Brandt said. “Smith had a couple of drinks at a party tonight. He couldn’t come out.”
With a glance, Reese communicated what they both knew. Smith was history. The paramedic had known he was on call, and lives depended on his self-control and good choices. “At least he had the decency to say so,” Reese allowed. To make amends for his earlier tone. He wasn’t usually a total ass.
And because he realized that Brandt had taken his tone for displeasure over the fact that he’d been blindsided by a crewmember he wasn’t expecting.
If only the other man knew.
“Go on, get some rest,” he said now, jerking his head toward the others. He needed Brandt and the guys to go.
He needed her to go.
He needed his kit, fresh air and a few hours with smoldering embers on the beach.
Then, maybe, he’d trust himself to get rid of Santa Raquel Fire Department’s newest employee with the level of professionalism expected of its chief.
* * *
SO...THAT WENT WELL. Faye’s sarcasm rang loud and clear in her mind as she trekked across the beach with her brand-new coworkers.
She was on a mission. Had a very clear plan. She’d considered every step in-depth prior to implementation. She’d allowed for every eventuality. Taken measures to ensure that nothing went wrong.
“You told me he approved of my employment,” she said to Brandt Rollins, hurrying to catch up with him instead of lagging behind with the other two.
She knew Brandt best. Other than a quick introductory hello to the two that night and a few others when she’d taken a tour of the station as part of her final interview, he was the only one she knew.
Other than Reese, of course.
“He did.”
Right. Which was why he’d been shocked to see her that night. And not pleasantly so.
Not that she’d expected he would be pleased. The fact that he’d agreed to her hire without having it out with her had shocked her. It was a part of the plan that had gone far better than anything she’d imagined.
Now she knew why.
“You gave him my whole file. With the photo and all?”
“I put it on his desk. But he likes me to pull out the credential and experience sheet and attach it to the top. I’m the one in charge of hiring. He trusts me to do my job.”
Now she was pissing off the one guy who actually liked her.
Reese had every reason to hate her. And those were the reasons he knew about. She now suspected there could be one more. Worse than the others.
He’d only seen her credentials. All earned and issued under the name Faye Walker, EMT. He’d known Faye Browning, studying to be an RN.
“Don’t worry if you think he didn’t like you,” Brandt said as they reached cement and he stomped the sand off his boots. “It’s not you he was pissed at.”
Oh, she was pretty sure it was.
But, until Reese said differently, she had to make certain that no one knew she’d ever known him.
If her plan was going to work—and it had to—she had to let her ex-lover call the shots. Until her son had time to heal and she had answers. Then she’d be back in charge. And could take Elliott and quietly slip away.
“How can you be so sure he didn’t take an instant dislike to me?” she asked. Because it seemed like something she might have asked if she’d never met the boss before.
They were at the truck and Brandt stripped off the top half of his gear. The others were still several yards behind.
“Because I know why he was pissed and it didn’t have anything to do with you.”
She frowned. Completely sure Brandt was wrong, but curious about why he thought he was right.
“Why was he pissed?”
“Because he gave the paramedic you’re covering for a second chance and the guy blew it.”
It