“No, honey, thank you.” She patted Maya on the shoulder. “Now go find the bad people and lock them up. We're counting on you.”
Feeling the weight of expectations on her shoulders— her own the biggest of all—Maya quickly read through Dennis's short file. She sensed Logan before she saw him, and when she looked up he was looming tall and dangerous over her shoulder before she could hide the document.
“Dennis? Why are you doing a background search on him?”
Confidentiality was crucial. She shouldn't tell Logan anything, should never have let one of her suspects see a copy of another suspect's background check, even if she'd suggested they share information. She felt like her own back was against the wall.
“I have to be suspicious of everyone, Logan. It's the only way I'm going to find out who started these fires.”
“There's nothing on Dennis. He's as innocent as they come. Jesus, Maya, the longer it takes us to find the real arsonist, the more people are going to get hurt.” She read the grief, the anger on his face and felt them as her own. “One kid is already lying half dead in a hospital bed. We can't wait for another one of my men to end up covered in bandages.”
She put her hand on his arm, then yanked it away at the surge of heat between them. “Neither of us wants that, Logan. And if I'm wrong about your foster brother, I'll back off. But if I find something there, I have to do my job and look into it.”
He stood in the hospital hallway watching her, his shoulders so broad they almost looked like they were going to bump against the pale green walls.
“Tell me why Dennis is suddenly on your list.”
An hour ago, she wouldn't have even considered letting Logan in on her investigation, but after having seen him with Robbie, she was absolutely certain he hadn't set off this explosion. Watching him at Robbie's bedside as much as made her decision for her: They would work together to investigate this new fire, and along the way she hoped to get some answers regarding the initial wildfire.
“I smelled gasoline on his hands.”
“He's a helicopter pilot. He probably just filled the tank before your flight.”
“Maybe.” Maya noticed that the nurses were hanging on their every word. Either that or drooling over Logan. Probably both. “Let's go outside, where we can talk privately.” They stepped under the covered entryway. “I've been thinking about some of the things Dennis said to me during our flight. Things he told me about you.”
When Logan didn't respond, she asked, “Don't you want to know what he said?”
“He didn't do it.”
“Humor me, okay? Would you say that you and Dennis have a good relationship?”
“Yes.”
“Is your relationship with Dennis strained in any way?”
“No.”
“Would he have any reason to set you up?”
“No.”All of a sudden, he was king of the one-word answer, and she felt sorry for all of the women he'd ever dated, especially the ones who'd wanted to talk things through.
“Okay, then, why don't you explain why he told a total stranger all about what a piece of work you were when you moved in with him and Joseph?”
Logan shrugged. “We were teenagers. I probably went out with some girl he liked.”
She thought about it, thought about everything Dennis had said. “I don't think so. He didn't say anything about you taking away a girlfriend. It was all about his father, about how you ended up being the golden child. Instead of him. People start fires because they're angry. Or sad. Or hurt. They light fires because they want people to notice them. They harm people because they're jealous.”
Maya lost the tenuous hold she had over her patience. “If you want to clear your name and get back out on the mountain, you should be happy that I'm following another lead.”
“You're right. I need to be on the mountain with my men. But I'm not going to sell out my foster brother. There has to be another way to approach this.”
“I've already got one,” she said, knowing he wasn't going to be much happier with her next move than he was with her investigating his foster brother. “We both know that gasoline doesn't combust in open air, even if someone lights it on fire. Not without something else added to it. Which means I need you to take me to the site of the explosion and lend me some turnouts so that I can get a sample before the fire devours all of the evidence.”
He looked at her like she was crazy.
Maybe she was. But she wasn't turning back.
CHAPTER TEN
LOGAN FELT like he was standing at the end of a batting cage, with baseballs hurtling straight toward his head.
He'd stared at Robbie in his hospital bed and known it could have been any of them lying there, wrapped head to toe in bandages, fighting for their lives. Sure, he and Sam and Connor had run faster than the blowup, but in so many ways getting out had been sheer luck.
The last thing Logan wanted was another reason to have to return to the hospital. Between worrying about his men and worrying about Joseph wandering onto the trails behind his house and getting too close to the fire—or lighting a new one—Logan was pulling from reserves.
And now Maya wanted to risk her life to collect evidence. During fire training, he'd been interested in every part of the fire academy, and he was fairly well versed in running an arson investigation.
To get enough solid evidence to test in a lab for flammable hydrocarbon residue, she'd need to stand on top of the explosion site.
No way.
“Using that sniffer you've been hauling around is way too dangerous right now. Forget about it.”
“I'm not stupid,” she said, her mouth set into a familiar stubborn line. “I know it's dangerous, but I need those samples. If you won't take me, I'll find another way to get it done.”
She was the most bullheaded woman he'd ever met, which made her perfectly suited to her job.
No matter how much he got in her face, she stuck to her instincts. She followed her gut, just like he did when he was fighting fire. There was no point in arguing with her. She wasn't going to back down.
“I'll suit up and get the samples.”
Her mouth opened in shock. “No way. I can't allow you to do that. You're my suspect. Not my assistant.”