Curses filled the air around me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Caden asked, his voice tight.
“I didn’t want you to freak out.”
“The question is, why the hell didn’t you tellmewhat happened?” Nash snarled at Caden. “You’re supposed to be my best friend. This is my fucking sister. I deserved to know.”
“Hey,” I snapped, shoving Nash’s chest. “This is my life. My choice about who knows what. You want to be pissed at someone, be pissed at me.”
“Oh, don’t worry. We are,” Lawson clipped.
Holt held up a hand. “Let’s all take a breath. Start from the beginning.”
I worried my thumbnail with my forefinger. There was no getting around it now. I told them about hearing someone outside my window and about the break-in. We went over the vehicle fire and the events of tonight.
Holt’s brows pinched. “Has anyone been paying you unwanted attention?”
I swallowed hard, glancing at the firefighters who had now extinguished the blaze. “I went on a couple of dates with Rance. He didn’t seem to get the message that it wasn’t going to work out.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Lawson growled. “I would’ve talked to him.”
“Because I don’t want you fighting my battles. I wanted to handle it myself, and I have. He backed off.”
“Unless he just torched your house,” Nash muttered.
My stomach twisted.
Roan moved in closer. “Anyone else? Not just overt advances, but someone getting too close? Making you uncomfortable?”
I glanced up at Caden.
“Who?” he asked, his voice rough.
“Gabe,” I confessed. “He’s always made me uncomfortable, but in the coffee shop the other day, it was more. He was angry.”
A muscle in Caden’s cheek popped. “He couldn’t have done this. He was at dinner with us.”
Relief swept through me. The idea that Caden’s brother might have set fire to my house was almost too much to bear. I took a deep breath. “This could all be a coincidence. Maybe bad wiring caused this.”
Holt pulled out his phone. “She’s right, but I’m going to have my team at Anchor run a risk assessment. If there’s something to find, they’ll get it.”
“You don’t have to do that—”
Holt cut me off with a look. “You’re my sister. I’m still part owner of a security company. Do you seriously think I won’t use every resource I have to keep you safe?”
“Grae!”
Rance strode toward me, still in his fire gear. “You’re okay?”
I nodded. “Fine. How bad is it?”
He winced. “Not a total loss, but your bedroom is pretty much gone.”
Tears burned the backs of my eyes.
Lawson glared at Rance. “Heard you’ve been giving my sister some trouble. I’m going to need to ask you a few questions.”
Rance paled. “What? No. She and I are friends.”
