SAM STOOD ALONE in a corner of the hospital waiting room while the Huron Hotshots stood together, united against a common threat. But this was no fire. This was so much worse.
The county hospital wasn’t very big, so neither was the waiting room. But it was quite homey, with oak wainscoting and plaid wallpaper. Despite the warmth of the room, Sam felt cold. What she’d seen—that poor broken kid—had chilled her to her soul.
What kind of monster could’ve hurt him like that?
Of course, when she’d been a firefighter and certainly as an arson investigator, she’d seen worse. It never got any easier, though. Maybe her dad was right; maybe she just wasn’t tough enough.
Yet. But she would be.
The door to the waiting room opened and a gray-haired doctor joined them. “Who’s the family for John Smith?” he asked.
Everyone looked blankly at one another except for Cody, who said, “Stanley’s legal name is John Smith.”
“Are you his next of kin?” the doctor asked Cody.
Sam’s heart rate quickened with fear. Was the doctor looking for the next of kin to give them bad news? Had the boy not survived?
Cody and Serena stepped forward; the blond man had his arm wrapped comfortingly around the black-haired woman’s shoulders. But she trembled uncontrollably, anyway. “We’re his family,” Cody said.
“Who are you to him?” the doctor asked. “Brother? Sister?”
“He’s like my brother.”
“I can only speak to his next of kin,” the doctor said.
A cry slipped through Serena’s lips as Sam’s mouth fell open, too. The same horrible thought had just occurred to Ms. Beaumont. Serena asked, “Didn’t he make it?”
The doctor hesitated.
“He has no family,” Cody said. “He’s an orphan. He’s been living with me and Serena. We are the only family he has.”
The doctor glanced around as though worried the privacy police might arrest him if he spoke out of turn. “I can’t talk to you about his medical condition.”
If he hadn’t survived, would the doctor have mentioned his condition? He had to be alive.
Cody must have thought so, too, because he asked, “What happened to him? What are his injuries?”
Sam had advised Braden to say nothing to the others about what they thought had happened. She wanted to flush out the arsonist, who had to be Stanley’s attacker.
“He took quite a fall,” the doctor said.
Sam held in a derisive snort. That had been no fall.
“I really can’t say any more about his condition,” the doctor said, “until I have authorization from a family member or durable power of attorney for him.”
Another door opened, this one from the hall into the waiting room. Owen James met the doctor’s gaze and nodded. The doctor slipped back through the door to the surgical area.
“What the hell’s going on?” Cody demanded to know, his voice cracking with emotion. “Where’d he go?”
Owen stepped forward and put one hand on Cody’s shoulder and the other on Serena’s. Everyone else gathered around behind them to listen. Even Sam crept closer. “Dr. Burns can’t tell you what I will,” he said.
“Is Stanley going to be okay?” Serena fearfully asked. “That’s all I need to know.”
Sam needed to know so much more—like who the hell had done that to the kid. She’d seen that bloodied branch. She’d had the state police collect it as evidence.
The waiting room was so silent despite the number of people filling it that everyone must have been holding their breaths. There was a collective expulsion of air when Owen said, “He’s alive. And we have reason to be hopeful.”
Serena turned fully into Cody’s arms, clinging to him as she cried. “He’s alive...”
But Cody was still tense. “How bad is it, Owen?”
Owen drew in an unsteady breath. “They set his broken arm and his wrist.”
“What about his head?” Braden asked the question, his voice gruff.
Sam wanted to be next to him, clinging to him like Serena clung to Cody. But he wasn’t hers for comfort or to comfort. Their only relationship was professional—except for those couple of slips. But they’d just been slips. Ones they couldn’t repeat.
“His skull is cracked,” Owen said. “They put in a plate with screws. He’s in a medically induced coma because of the swelling on his brain.”
Tears streaked from Serena’s dark eyes. “How long will he be in that?” she asked, her voice tremulous with concern.
Owen shrugged. “It all depends on how much swelling there is. He took a few hard blows.”
“Blows?” Serena gasped, and now anger surged in her dark eyes. “I thought he fell! Who did that to him? Who hurt him?”
They all turned from Owen to Braden now. They knew he’d found him. He glanced at Sam, and she instantly knew he was going to ignore her request. He was going to reveal too much. But given how upset everyone was, she could hardly blame him. “Someone may have tried to make it look like he fell, but I think Annie grabbed the weapon before he could hide it. Or hit Stanley with it again.”
Sam had noticed the gouges in the branch. Annie’s teeth.
“That damn dog,” Cody murmured, and a couple of tears slipped from his eyes. “Is she all right?”
“She led us to him,” Braden said. “She’s fine. One of the troopers took her back to the firehouse for the night.”
“I hope she got a piece of the son of a bitch!” Cody cursed. “Who the hell did this to him?”
Braden grabbed his shoulder and assured him, “We’ll find out. We’ll find him.”
But Cody pulled away.
And a twinge of regret struck Sam’s heart. She felt this was her fault—that she’d caused the rift between Braden and his team. But she’d only been doing her job.
Her job had nearly gotten a young man killed, though. If only she could have questioned him without him getting so upset...
If only she could have found a way to get him to trust her, to tell her everything he knew...
Whatever he knew had nearly gotten him killed. She’d missed something. She was also missing someone—someone besides Braden this time. All of the Hotshots were talking at once, asking questions, demanding answers.
Before they could turn toward her, she slipped unnoticed into the hall. Her hand shook as she pulled her cell phone from her purse. There was no signal in the hospital, so she had to step outside to where a handful of visitors and staff were smoking. She walked downwind from them and hit one of her contacts.
“Sammi, are you all right?” her father anxiously asked.
She closed her eyes as emotion overwhelmed her. And she saw that kid with all the blood matted in his hair and running down his face—his thin body at such odd angles. It never got any easier.
“Sammi!” Mack’s voice cracked with fear now.
“Daddy,” she said.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “What’s going on? Do you need me to come to Northern Lakes? I can fly over in a few hours.”
He would—if she needed him. But even though she’d called him, she realized he wasn’t the man she needed right now. She needed Braden. But his team needed him more.
She sucked in a deep breath. No. She didn’t need him. She didn’t need her father, either. She was as tough as her brothers—as independent. “No, no,” she said. “I’m fine. You don’t need to come here.”
“Did you catch the arsonist then?”
She let all her frustration bubble up when she sharply replied, “No.”
Mack chuckled. “That’s why you’re upset.”
“That’s part of it,” she said.
“Braden? Is he giving you trouble?”
“Trouble?” He’d been giving her mind-blowing pleasure. But her heart was troubled. “No. It’s the arsonist.”
“You said not catching him is only part of it,” Mack reminded her. “It’s Braden. Did you ignore my warning about his messy divorce? He’s not ready for a relationship with anyone.”
“Neither am I,” she insisted. “I’m focused on my career—on this case. The arsonist just hurt a kid, Dad.”
He cursed. “I’m sorry, baby. You’ll catch him.”
“I have to—before he hurts anyone else.” Like Braden. And because Braden was at risk of winding up like poor Stanley, she buried her pride. She didn’t care what her father thought now, didn’t care if he thought she couldn’t do her job. She needed his help—needed his legendary judgment. She hated to but she had to admit, “I know I’m missing something. I’ve gone over and over the reports from every fire but I can’t see it.”
“That’s because you’re reading other people’s reports,” he said. “You’re missing it because they missed it. You need to start over—act like you’re the only one who worked the case.”
She opened her eyes and felt as if she could see clearly now. “You’re right.”
“Your old man knows more than you think.”
She chuckled now. “I know that.”
“Then be careful, Sammi baby.”
“I won’t let the arsonist get me,” she promised him.
“I was talking about Braden Zimmer,” he said. “Be careful you don’t fall for him.”
Her breath whooshed out as she realized she already had fallen for Braden.
* * *
WHERE THE HELL had Sam gone? Braden hadn’t noticed when she slipped out of the waiting room. But he couldn’t blame her—not like everyone else was. They were blaming him, too, holding him responsible for bringing Sam in to investigate. She’d only been doing her job. They needed to be reminded of that, but the hospital waiting room wasn’t the place to hold a team meeting.
He would do that another time, after Stanley’s condition improved. Then he would remind them they needed to stop the arsonist—no matter who he was. But it wasn’t Stanley. The kid hadn’t hit himself in the head.
Braden wanted to hold vigil with his team in the waiting room. But that wouldn’t catch the arsonist. Was that why Sam had left? Had she realized who was responsible and left to apprehend him on her own?
Sure, she had a gun. She was certainly better prepared to confront the arsonist than Stanley had been. But a line had been crossed now. Until tonight, the arsonist hadn’t really hurt anyone. He had tried, but all of his potential victims had escaped his fires unharmed. Once that line had been crossed, it couldn’t be uncrossed. The arsonist was far more dangerous than he’d ever been.
Sam was smart and strong and resourceful. But she wasn’t indestructible. He had to find her and make sure she hadn’t taken on the arsonist alone. He hurried out of the waiting room into the hall.
But the door opened behind him and a deep voice called out, “I need to talk to you.”
Even before he turned around, he recognized Wyatt’s voice, and his stomach lurched with dread. Cody was already furious with him. He didn’t want any other member of his team upset with him.
“Should we cancel the party?”
“What party?” Braden asked, flinching as his head pounded with stress and confusion. The last thing on his mind was celebrating—not until Stanley recovered and they caught the person responsible for hurting him.
Wyatt’s face was flushed with embarrassment. “I hate to even bring it up. But Serena and Tammy are throwing me and Fiona an engagement party Saturday night. That’s only a couple of days away. And Stanley...”
Might never wake up from his coma. Braden couldn’t say it any more than Wyatt could. They all loved the kid too much. Stanley had driven Braden crazy since he’d hired him. He never listened—never did the job exactly as Braden had asked him to do it. But he’d always given his best effort. The kid was all heart.
Someone else had preyed on the kid’s sensitivity—had manipulated him into helping hide his identity, into penning those threats so nobody recognized the real perpetrator’s handwriting.
Who?
Someone close to all of them. Someone who might show up at that engagement party.
“Don’t cancel it yet,” Braden advised him.
“But it won’t be right if Stanley...” He trailed off. He couldn’t say it.
Braden wouldn’t even think it. The kid had to recover. Losing acres of trees and a couple of houses was nothing compared to losing him. “He’ll be all right, but until he is, well, Stanley wouldn’t want you to cancel because of him.”
“He’s right,” another voice chimed in. Cody walked up beside Wyatt and slapped his shoulder. “Don’t cancel your engagement party. It’s a couple of days away. We’ll be celebrating your upcoming nuptials and Stanley’s recovery. The kid’s tough. He’ll be all right.”
Wyatt did something the guys rarely did; he grabbed Cody in a bear hug and embraced him closely. “He’ll be all right,” he agreed, his voice gruff with emotion. His face reddening with embarrassment, he released Cody and quickly walked away.
That left Braden alone in the hallway with his youngest Hotshot. Like Stanley, Cody hadn’t always done what he was told or done it the way he was told to. But he, too, had given Braden his all—his loyalty and his respect.
Braden was worried that he’d lost that now.
“Do it,” Cody said.
“What?”
“Do what you said you would—find the son of a bitch who did this to Stanley.”
“I will,” Braden vowed.
“I know.” Cody jerked his head up and down in a quick nod. “I know that’s why Stanley had to be questioned. I understand that now. I’m not mad at you.”
No. He was mad at Sam. And because Cody was angry with her, everyone else had pretty much ignored her in the waiting room. Was that why she’d left as abruptly as she had? Because she’d known she wasn’t welcome?
“I’m mad at myself,” Cody said, and his voice cracked with emotion. “How the hell didn’t I know what was going on with Stanley? How did I miss it?”
Braden shook his head. “You’re asking the wrong man about that...” He hadn’t just missed what was going on with Stanley. He’d missed what was going on with Ami and Gingrich and possibly one of his own team. It was good that Sam didn’t want a relationship. Braden couldn’t trust his judgment.
“I should have noticed something was bothering him—I should have made him talk to me,” Cody said.
Braden had thought the same thing about his ex-wife—that he should have noticed she wasn’t happy, that he should have known she was going to cheat before she had. But Ami had always seemed happy to him. She had never complained, and neither had Stanley.
“I didn’t notice, either,” Braden reminded him. “That’s why we need to be careful. Whoever hurt Stanley is still out there.” He had to be someone they knew—someone else they’d misjudged.
“When we find that son of a bitch, I’m going to kill him!” Cody growled.
Braden caught him now, by the shoulders, and gently shook him. “You’re not going to throw your life away—your future with that beautiful woman and that boy who worships you. You’re not going to do anything stupid.”
Cody sucked in a deep, calming breath. “I know. I know. Serena needs me.”
Braden suspected Cody needed her more. He’d once thought he was in love like that—that he’d had a good relationship. But Braden had never had what Cody and Serena had. Until he met Sam...
Now he had that attraction, that overwhelming desire, but he wasn’t sure what else they had. He was only sure of what they didn’t have—a future. No matter how he felt about her, Sam was focused on her career and her life in DC. She had told him over and over she wasn’t staying in Northern Lakes.
“When we catch the arsonist,” Braden said, “we’re going to make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
But Braden was beginning to worry the arsonist already had hurt someone else. Sam hadn’t come back inside the hospital, and she’d ridden with him.
Where could she have gone?