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“I do apologize for the delay.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered. Her gaze had been caught by his.
“I was at your house this morning. Wanted to see the damage.”
“You were at a crime scene?” Campbell sounded close to choking.
Beau didn’t respond to him. His focus remained on Avalon. “The damage was restricted to the first floor. I know some contractors who can get to work as soon as the cops and the arson investigator give the all clear. The place will be perfect again. But I need to warn you that there is one helluva lot of smoke and water damage.”
“Fucking crime scene. You don’t waltz into a crime scene!” Campbell was, once again, choking out the words.
“Never said I waltzed in.” An easy statement from Beau. “Lots of things can be seen from the outside.” His lips pulled down, then he told Avalon, “Your clothes will probably smell of smoke. I know you needed fresh things, so I had an associate pick up items in your size. Got them all ready for you. Everything in that house can be replaced, and it will be replaced, I promise you. By the time I’m done, it will be even better than it was before.”
Why? Why was he doing all of this for her?
“Avalon…” Softer. More controlled. Because the prompt came from Lynn, not her partner.
Avalon forced herself to look away from Beau and meet the detective’s watchful gaze.
Lynn sent her a reassuring smile. Nothing at all like the cocky, dead-sexy grin that Beau tended to flash. “Avalon, you told us that you’ve known Beau for years.”
The female detective had clearly decided to barrel on with her questions. Since Avalon had said she wanted Beau in the room with her—and Avalon wasn’t being charged with any crime, she was the victim, after all—the cops didn’t have much choice. Avalon inclined her head in response to the question.
“Have you been in communication with him for years?” Lynn prompted. A deliberate clarification.
Avalon’s hands remained beneath the table. She pressed her palms to the front of her new jeans. Beau knows so much about me.
And, now, she knew details about him, too. “I talked with him for the first time last night. The first time since I was a teenager, that is.” He’d vanished on me. Left me behind with the ashes.
“Last night?” Lynn wet her lips. “As in, right before your home was torched?”
“Yes. I went into LeBlanc’s, and I recognized him as soon as I saw him. I approached him. We started talking.” She didn’t think it was relevant to mention their kiss.
“You sick sonofabitch.” From Campbell. “You recognized her, too, didn’t you? The one who got away. So you saw her and all those old urges came rushing back. You knew you had to finish what you started and take her out!”
“I saved her.” Beau’s voice was mild. Total opposite of Campbell’s intensity. “Both times. I understand, though, detectives, that you see me as the villain, so I will break things down for you.” He rolled back his right shoulder.
The shoulder that got burned so long ago.
He turned to look at the detectives. “I was in the house with Avalon last night. The bastard who’d been waiting upstairs? He got out. Ran into the street. He was run over by a black, four-door vehicle, and the driver fled the scene.” He rattled off a make and model. “I was with Avalon during that whole fleeing-the-scene bit. I was also with her when the fire was set downstairs in her home. I was in her bedroom. We heard the flames ignite, and I knew I had to get her out of there.”
“He carried me out,” Avalon added.
“Like I would have ever left without you, sweetheart.”
Her stomach twisted.
“Again, detectives, I was upstairs when the fire ignited. Avalon verified that. I am a man of many talents, but it’s not like I can be in two places at once.”
“But you can have help.” A muscle flexed along Campbell’s jaw. “A man like you has plenty of flunkies ready to jump and do your bidding when you snap your fingers, right? Poor bastards like Slater Wade.”
“Flunkies. Did you really just use that word? With a straight face?” Beau questioned. “Who even are you?”
“Do you admit to knowing Slater Wade?”
Beau ran a hand over his jaw. The five o’clock shadow scraped against his fingers. “Is he playing the bad cop?” Beau asked Lynn with a grimace. “Or is he really just this shitty at his job?”
Campbell lunged?—
