“Go inside, Reckless.” That rasp was back, but this time, it wasn’t pain lacing my tone. It was need.
Her brows pulled together. “Are you?—?”
“Inside.” My command wasn’t harsh. I couldn’t find it in me topush her away in that manner anymore. Not when I knew the truth about what she’d been through.
As if Rhodes saw that I was at my breaking point, she nodded slowly and tugged the dog toward the door. But as she slipped her key inside the lock, she turned. “Thank you, Anson.”
Hearing her say my name was the most beautiful kind of torture.
I didn’t reply. Didn’t trust what might come out of my mouth.
Finally, Rhodes turned back and opened the door, slipping inside with her faithful companion. I stood there for a moment, unable to move. A deep woof from inside finally spurred me into motion. The last thing I needed was to still be standing here if Rhodes came back outside.
I stalked off the porch and headed down the driveway. I pulled my keys out of one pocket and my phone out of the other. While I beeped the locks on my truck, I tapped a few icons on the screen of my phone. I hit my favorites list. It was embarrassingly short. Shep topped it, being the person I talked to the most. Followed by my friend, Lawson, who had refused to let me disappear from his life. He’d blackmailed me into bi-monthly check-ins, telling me if I didn’t answer, he’d come to Sparrow Falls for proof of life. And lastly, a contact at the bureau. I hadn’t used that one in over a year.
I hit Shep’s name. He picked up on the second ring. “What’s wrong?”
“Jesus,” I muttered.
“You don’t call unless something’s wrong,” Shep defended. “Unless you’ve suddenly developed a taste for pleasant chitchat.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered.
“You calledme,” he shot back.
Fair enough. I worked my jaw back and forth. “Why didn’t you tell me the house belonged to Rhodes’ family?”
Shep was quiet for a moment. “I didn’t hide it. I just figured it wasn’t something you’d want to hear about.”
He wasn’t wrong. I hadn’t exactly been champing at the bit to hear others’ sob stories. I’d been too caught up in mine. Couldn’thandle feeling any more pain. God, it was time to pull my head out of my ass. “Well, it might’ve kept me from stepping in it if I’d known.”
“What’d you do?” Shep demanded.
“I didn’tdoanything. But someone left a picture of Rhodes and her family on the guest cottage’s front porch. She had a panic attack.”
“Hell,” Shep muttered. “Where is she now? Is she okay? I’m on my way.”
“Take a breath,” I ordered.
“You just told me my sister had a panic attack,” he growled.
“She’s okay,” I assured him. Even if that wasn’t the case, at least not entirely, I knew Rhodes would get there. She was too tough not to. “Walked her through a breathing exercise, and she was able to get through it.” I left out the part about me catching her. Holding her. Even though the memory was burned in my brain.
The sound of an engine starting up came over the line. “Thanks, man. I know?—”
“She matters to you. I wasn’t going to walk away.” But that wasn’t entirely true. I hadn’t run across the gravel drive because of some sense of duty to Shep. I’d charged over because I couldn’t stand the thought of Rhodes in pain or danger. And that meant I was screwed.
I hurried to change the line of conversation. “You need to have a word with the crew. No more surprise gifts.”
“I will,” Shep clipped. “I’m sure they thought they were doing the right thing, but…hell, she wasn’t ready for that.”
Endless questions filled my mind. My profiler brain wanted to put all the pieces of the story together, but I had no right to a lot of those pieces. I stuck with the ones that were fair game. “It was electrical, right?”
“Yeah,” Shep said, his blinker sounding in the background. “Someone on the fire crew found frayed wiring while doing cleanup. An antique lamp that never should’ve been plugged in.”
My jaw clenched, the muscles along it popping. A damn lamp. A piece of decoration someone had bought because they thought it added character. Something they never would’ve done if they’d known what it was capable of.
I cleared my throat. “She said she was hurt in the fire.”
