Mattie seemed to consider that a moment. “You know, one of June’s sons-in-law had a battle with cancer last year. I’ve heard that he used to be in and out of juvenile detention too as a kid. He ended up beating the cancer, which was good, but it put him in a load of debt.”

  Greg scowled.

  “I mean, I’m not saying he did it, but like you said, if he was feeling desperate enough… He’d definitely know about the story of the treasure. June does love telling everyone about all these local historical legends. It’s the main reason she volunteers here. So her family is probably well versed in the story.” She shook her head. “Still, I can’t imagine any of June’s family would do something like this.”

  “Maybe not.” He picked up the heavy toolbox and headed for the door, less convinced than Mattie that the son-in-law was innocent. After all, the man ticked a lot of boxes for possible suspects. And in his experience, the most obvious answer was usually the correct one.

  They spent the next hour or so installing the deadbolts he’d bought. He managed to get them in without too much damage to the woodwork, though he imagined the original owners would probably turn over in their graves if they saw his handiwork. Ah well. Nothing to do about it now. By the time they were done, it was nearly 6 p.m. and time to call it a day.

  “So…” Mattie said, hesitating. “How about coming back over to the carriage house for dinner? To thank you for all your hard work today with the locks?”

  He straightened and dusted his hands off on the legs of his jeans. Honestly, the last thing he should be thinking about was spending more time with Mattie. He was far too attracted to her for his own good to begin with. Except when he looked at her, her expression all friendly and hopeful like it was now, he didn’t have the heart to hurt her feelings. Again. Okay, fine. Maybe one dinner wouldn’t be so bag.

  “Fine,” he said at last. “Thanks. I’d love to come over for dinner.”

  Two hours later, Greg was freshly showered and shaved and seated in Mattie’s living room, currently being regaled by Liza about her new super-secret project at school while Mattie got dinner ready in the kitchen.

  “I’m five,” Liza said, louder than necessary near Greg’s ear as they colored in one of her coloring books on the coffee table. “Did you know that?”

  “I did,” he nodded, choosing a blue crayon from the pile for the mermaid’s tail. “You told me.”

  “Well, I think five is old enough that it’s time for me to have a best friend.”

  “Sure.” Greg had no idea where this was going, so he concentrated on staying inside the lines of the picture as he shaded in the scales. “Best friends are good.”

  “I’ve never had one.” Liza finished coloring the mermaid’s long hair pink, then grabbed a gold crayon for her crown. Apparently, it was a royal mermaid. “I mean, I’ve had regular friends, but not a best friend. And lots of other kids in my class have them—a bestie, I mean—so I want one too.”

  “Okay.” Greg gave the kid a side glance. “Understandable.”

  “So,” Liza continued, gesturing with her hands and nearly stabbing him with her crayon. Greg leaned back a little to avoid impalement. “I have a plan to get one. See, we have assigned seats in the lunch room and there’s this one girl, Cassie, that I think would make a perfect bestie, and so I’m going to switch our crayons.”

  Confused, Greg frowned and held out his blue one to her, thinking Liza meant she wanted to use his, but then she didn’t take it, just kept waving around the one she had as she elaborated on what sounded like a very elaborate plan… so he went back to work, half-listening to the kid and half-hoping Mattie might need some help in the kitchen.

  Eventually, Mattie came out to announce that dinner was ready. They all sat down and enjoyed the tasty spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad while Liza continued rattling on about her day. It was a simple meal, but after days of nothing but ramen noodles in his room at the museum, it seemed like a feast to Greg. Having company was nice too, even if his understanding of five-year-old logic needed some work.

  Finally, the meal was over and Liza was excused from the table, leaving him and Mattie to clean up and wash the dishes while Liza went upstairs to get ready for bed. As they stood side-by-side at the sink, he had a hard time remembering when he’d had a better night.

  “Thanks for spending time with her,” Mattie said, handing him a plate to dry. “I know that Liza can be a handful sometimes.”

  “She’s a good kid,” Greg said, smiling. “And a great person to share a meal with because you never have to worry about awkward silences.”

  Mattie laughed at that. “True enough—she never seems to run out of things to say.”

  “Seriously, though,” Greg said with a smile, “thanks for inviting me tonight. It was good.”

  “You’re welcome. Not that it was anything fancy.”

  He snorted. “After eating whatever I can fit in my mini-microwave, it was heaven. Trust me.”

  Mattie laughed again and the room seemed to brighten around him. “I bet this isn’t at all what you normally do on your security cases, is it?”

  Heat prickled up from beneath the collar of his blue button-down shirt. “Actually, I wouldn’t know. This is my first security case.” At her astonished look, he shook his head. “I mean, I’ve guarded people before and after years as a SEAL, and I’ve got plenty of experience taking down bad guys,” he added. “But private security is a new gig for me. Maybe you can ask the agency for a discount or something, considering.”

  “Nah.” Mattie grinned. “I like being your first.”

  The double entendre hung heavy in the air between them for a moment, prickling his skin with the promise of forbidden anticipation. No. He shouldn’t be thinking like that. Not here. Not now. And yet, he was. Just like he always was. Trying to push down or suppress these feelings wasn’t working at all. Instead of going away, they were just getting stronger. And it was more than just attraction—although hell yes, attraction was definitely there. He also liked Mattie. Liked her warmth and humor and kindness. Liked her patience and openness and generosity. He couldn’t really think of anything that he didn’t like about her.

  His bemusement must’ve shown on his face because she blushed and looked away before handing him another plate to dry. Funny, but it was a double sink, and she’d arranged them to accommodate his left-handedness. She’d done it so deftly that Greg hadn’t even noticed until now. The sweet thoughtfulness of that touched him far more than he would’ve expected. Then she looked up at him again, and he was filled with the now-familiar urge to kiss her. He’d been fighting against it since the day he’d met her, and he was getting so very tired of the fight.

  Would it really be that bad to give in?

  Before he could second guess himself, he leaned down and brought his lips to hers.

  At first, she froze beneath him, staring up into his eyes with blatant shock. The same shock he felt, but man, it was good. Warm and tender and hot all at the same time. Her warmth, the scent of her shampoo, the soft sigh she gave as she turned into him, her sudsy hands leaving a trail of goose bumps up his arms as she wound them around his neck.

  Greg sank into her, pressing his mouth to hers and tracing his tongue over her lips. Taking advantage of her gasp, he swept inside, tasting her as he’d imagined doing over and over again. Time seemed to slow as her fingers slipped into the hair at his nape, making him shiver. She smiled against him, tasting him too. Spice and sugar and sinful desire. He couldn’t get enough. He wanted to remember this, needed to remember this, for all those long nights ahead when he wouldn’t have it, wouldn’t have her. There wasn’t really a possibility for a relationship between them, not when their lives were going in different directions, but maybe they could have this, have right now.

  Eventually, he eased back and rested his forehead against hers, both their breaths panting, mingling between them. He managed to get out, “Wow.”

  “Yeah,” Mattie whispered, her eyes still closed, as if she was soaking it all in too. “So, uh…has anything changed with you?”

  He frowned, focused on her lips, red and slightly puffy from his kisses. “Like what?”

  “Like how you can’t pursue a romantic relationship with me?”

  “Oh, um…” He inched back, regret quickly overtaking his need. Guilt was there too. Dammit. He shouldn’t have kissed her. “No.”

  “Right.” She stepped back too and he missed her warmth immediately. “Then we need to stop. We shouldn’t have started to begin with.”

  He knew that. He did. But hearing it from her still hurt. He turned away, picking up the towel he’d dropped on the floor. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Being here, now, with Mattie so close was torture, so he said, “Why don’t you go up and help Liza? I can finish this up down here. I need to get back to my room soon anyway. Call coming in from the agency.”

  She nodded. “Uh, okay. Thanks.”

  “Thank again for dinner.” Greg waited until she was gone before exhaling and turning back to the sink, cursing under his breath. He’d promised to clean up and he would, but damn. Why did he have to be such an idiot about all this? Mattie was supposed to be off-limits. Period. Amen.

  He’d just have to try harder to get that through his thick skull.

  8

  Mattie sat in her office that weekend, reviewing security footage Greg had gotten for her while Liza was outside playing with her friend. The grainy footage showed their last burglary attempt. She watched as the masked attacker set off the alarm, tried a couple of codes in the keypad until one of them worked, but then had to flee the premises when Greg arrived to confront him. She searched for any clues to their identity but kept coming up empty.

  Of course, the fact she was still distracted by their kiss a few nights ago didn’t help either. It kept looping through her head, over and over. The way he’d smelled like soap and sandalwood and home. The warm strength of his arm around her. The taste of his mouth—garlic and spice and something uniquely Greg. It wasn’t fair for him to kiss her socks off, then not want anything more from her.

  Not that she was in the position to offer anything more.

  But still.

  She started the short video clip over again, scowling at her screen. Concentrate. Focus on what’s important here, not what you can never have.

  On screen, a figure in black walked up to the side of the building again, looked around, then started to fiddle with the window. Hard to tell from the grainy images, but beneath the bulky clothes, it did look like a man. So there was something. She leaned in closer and replayed it again from the top. There. The way the guy tilted his head like that. It seemed familiar somehow. As was that gesture thing he did with his hand. Huh.

  Sitting back, Mattie frowned. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly what was familiar, just that it was. Then again, millions of people probably did those same head tilts and gestures, so that was basically no help at all. Great. She was right back where she’d started. Ugh.

  With a sigh, Mattie leaned forward to restart the video yet again when she smelled smoke.

  Then she heard the screams. Children’s screams. Liza’s screams—and someone else’s, probably the little girl who’d come over to play with Liza in the backyard.

  She was out of her seat and running for the back door without even realizing she was moving. What she saw out the door made her heart stop and her lungs seize. Fire. The gazebo was on fire. And the screams were coming from inside.

  Pulse pounding, Mattie raced out the door, acrid smoke burning her nose as she ran toward the flame-engulfed gazebo. If anything happened to the girls, to her Liza, she’d never forgive herself.

  OhGodOhGodOhGod.

  The screams grew louder, more desperate, competing with the roar of the fire to be heard. She didn’t have a hose, a bucket, a towel, anything to protect herself, but Mattie didn’t care. She’d get Liza and her friend out of there if she had to die trying.

  From the looks of things, she might.

  “Liza! Sweetie! Mommy’s here. Where are you?” Mattie yelled, eyes squinted as heat and choking smoke seared her face. She couldn’t see much of anything inside, but she figured her best guess was that the girls were somewhere in the center of the gazebo, so she’d head there first. Now, she just had to find a way through the fire. Mattie reached back and tugged the collar of her cardigan over her head. Wouldn’t do much to protect her, honestly, but it made her feel better knowing her head was covered.

  Right. Okay. Deep breath, then charge and 1…2…

  “Wait!” A strong hand closed around her arm, holding her in place when she should’ve been running into the flames. Greg. He tugged her around to face him and gave her a gentle shake. “You can’t go in there.”

  His hand was soaking wet—that registered first. Then she realized his arms were full of wet blankets. Dripping wet, as if he’d just doused them with a hose. Which was probably exactly what he’d done.

  Mattie didn’t bother taking the time to process what this meant. She was too busy trying to pull away from the iron grip Greg had on her arm. “I have to go,” she argued. “Liza and her friend are in there!”

  Greg dropped the blankets to the ground for a second and then picked one up to wrap it around himself, gathering the others a moment later. “I’ll go in. You stay back. The fire department’s on their way.”

  “But—”

  “I’ll get them out, Mattie. I promise.” His intense stare held nothing but certainty. “I will. Trust me.”

  Then he was gone, charging straight into the danger. She stared at the fire, blinking away tears from the smoke and the fear, until he reappeared again seconds later with a child bundled in his arms in one of the blankets. Liza.

  Mattie’s knees buckled as soon as her daughter was safe in her arms. She knelt on the ground holding Liza close and kissing the top of her smoke-scented head. “It’s okay. Mommy’s got you. It’s all right,” she murmured over and over again, as much for her daughter as herself.

  When Greg appeared the second time, he had Liza’s friend with him, also wrapped in a wet blanket. The girl was coughing and shaking, but seemed to be otherwise okay. They’d all been lucky. So very lucky.

  Soon, sirens wailed, and firefighters rushed in with hoses and equipment to douse the flames. EMTs arrived also and checked over the girls. The gazebo was toast, but it could’ve been worse, so much worse. Luckily, it was far enough away from the museum and the carriage house that it didn’t do any damage to either of those structures.

  The fire marshal joined them at the ambulance as they were waiting for Liza’s friend’s parents to arrive. Mattie hadn’t let go of her daughter since Greg had returned Liza to her and she wasn’t sure when she’d be ready to do so again.

  “Ma’am,” the fire marshal said, “I need to ask you a couple of questions, if you don’t mind.”

  “That’s fine,” Mattie said, glancing over at Greg, who’d been texting with his agency since the fire department arrived. She sat on the back of the open ambulance and snuggled Liza closer in her lap. “Whatever you need.”

  “Thanks.” The fire marshal pulled out a pad and pen. “Can you tell me how the fire started?”

  Mattie filled him in on what she’d seen from inside the museum, which was basically nothing since she’d been busy with the security footage.

  “And what about you?” the fire marshal asked, crouching to get to eye level with Liza. “Did you and your friend see anything out there?”

  “There was a mist. A grey one, coming from the roof of the gazebo,” Liza said, holding on to Mattie’s forearm around her waist. “We went to check it out because we thought it was the ghost.”

  The fire marshal glanced from Liza to Mattie, then back again. “Okay. Go on.”

  “Anyway, Cassie and I thought maybe we could catch it so it would stop bugging my mom. But when we got inside the gazebo, we realized there was a fire—and that it was spreading too fast for us to get away. Then part of the roof collapsed, and that’s when we started screaming for help. It happened super-fast.”

  “How fast?” Greg asked, joining them, his scowl as dark as the charred soot covering the ground. “Like how long was it from when you and Cassie entered the gazebo until it got so bad you couldn’t get out?”

  Liza shrugged. “Not long.”

  “Less than a minute?”

  “Oh yeah.” Liza nodded. “Definitely less than a minute.”

  Greg ran a hand through his tousled hair, then cursed under his breath and pulled the fire marshal aside. They spoke briefly before the fire marshal went back to his crew and Greg returned to Mattie, his expression grim. “For the fire to spread that quickly, there had to be an accelerant involved. I told the fire marshal that when I went in to get the girls, I thought I smelled something—maybe kerosene. I don’t know. The only thing I do know for certain is this was no accident.”

  “Oh God.” Mattie blinked at him a moment, taking that in. Then another realization struck making her stomach sink even further. “They wanted us out of the museum. They were after something in there.”

  A small muscle ticked near Greg’s tight jaw before he whirled around and ran for the still open door to the museum. He returned a short time later, looking defeated. “Well, no one’s there now. But you’re right that they would have had free run of the place while we were all out here dealing with this. We’ll have to do a thorough search later to find out if anything is missing. Anyone could’ve gone in there and taken anything.”

  “What about June? Or the other volunteers?” Mattie asked, hopeful someone might’ve seen something.

  “Nope, everyone came out to see what was going on.” Greg pointed toward the back of the area where everyone was grouped—the two volunteers who were on the schedule for the day, and a handful of guests who’d been visiting the museum at the time. Even June’s son-in-law was there. Mattie remembered the older woman telling her earlier that morning that he was coming by to drop off the phone she’d left at his house the night before. Damn. That just gave more credence to the idea that he might be involved. It would have been easy for him to duck inside, take something, and then come back out without anyone noticing in all the bustle and chaos.