Page 43 of Burning Truth

“I said, it’s pretty obvious he thought Flynn was in the way, or something. It also means he sees you as being in the way.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Severn said, standing. He peered up the stairs, wondering if he should go after her. “I’m not worried about him coming after me. I don’t think he’ll risk Addie.”

“Hm, yeah, you may be right. Not sure I’d bank on it, though.”

Addie appeared in his line of sight, her phone in her hand. Her tears were mostly gone, though he could see the tracks of them on her cheeks. She came down the stairs and handed him her phone. On it was the message, ‘I missed you on the air last night. Had to find something else to occupy my time’.

Severn read the message to Parker. “I’ll make sure Gabbie sees it. I messaged her and she’s on her way in to try to track things down. Keep Addie safe, Sev.”

“I plan on it,” he said, voice cold.

This little fucker was pissing him off, and he was going to beat the shit out of him once they found him.

“Are you okay,” he asked Addie, dropping the phones to the kitchen table.

Addie nodded, her arms crossed beneath her breasts. “I’m fine. I’m just tired of the killing. In the warehouse fire, there was a chance he may not have known that there were people squatting upstairs. Not many people knew. But going after Flynn? That was deliberate. And his poor mother died, too.”

Severn opened his arms, and Addie nestled into his chest. Normally, somebody else took care of the coddling, but in this second, there was no way he would let anyone else comfort Addie. Within just a few days’ time, she’d become very important to him.

She wrapped her arms around his waist, her head against his chest. Her dark hair was a cloud around her head, and he smoothed it down.

The feelings she evoked in him were strong, and he wasn’t sure exactly what to do about them. For now, he would just have to go with what felt right.

13

Addie wanted to respond to the private message so bad and tell the arsonist what an asshole he was. Severn didn’t think it would be a good idea, though.

The guy was a coward, lurking in the dark. Nelson Flynn didn’t mean anything to her, but apparently, that didn’t matter.

Severn mattered to her. If something happened to him...

And that’s what the note seemed to intimate, that he was in danger next. The thought of him being hurt, especially by fire, made her want to throw up. Though he hadn’t really explained to her the circumstances of his injury, she knew it had to have been bad to leave the kind of scarring it had.

The past three days had been a whirlwind, but she wouldn’t change a single thing that had happened between them. Severn was taciturn and reserved, but he’d warmed up with her, and she felt like she was standing at the edge of a cliff. It was crazy to even be thinking about a relationship right now, but she was.

Last night, she’d been desperate for a distraction. And she’d gotten it.

Now she didn’t want to let it go.

He made her feel at home. Yes, it was her house and her bed, but Severn’s strong arms made her melt. They gave her a feeling of contentment she’d never felt before.

He was an amazing guy. She didn’t think he thought of himself the same way she did, but she felt like he had a good heart. He was pretty closed-lipped about his life, but she would be patient. There was no doubt in her mind that he would be worth it.

How did they combat the arsonist?

Addie had been independent for a long time, making her own decisions since she’d moved out of the house at eighteen. She didn’t like being dictated to, or corrected.

Responses to what he’d told her crowded her mind. She wanted to cuss him out and belittle him like he did her. She wanted him to live in fear before he was caught.

So, maybe they should go public.

Thinking the process through, she jogged down the stairs to find Severn. He was sitting at the kitchen table, working on his laptop. He looked up when she came down the stairs, and something in his expression turned careful. “You look determined about something.”

One side of her mouth tipped up. “How did you know?”

He made a circling motion toward her face with one finger.

Addie waved a hand at him, not deterred. “So, listen. He likes calling out commands and telling me what to do, and making me live in fear. I want him to feel the same pressure. I want to release what we have on him. Do a news segment for people to be on the lookout. We didn’t recognize him, but maybe someone out there would.”