The fire tells him how. The money tells her who. This time the burn has a twin — and both their agencies want them to look away.
Roan Holbrook reads burns for a living, and the fire above Cordell has a shape he's seen before. The origin signature — where it started, how it was fed, the one cold corner Koda won't stop staring at — matches an "accidental" fire from Mara's old files down to the char. Two fires. One hand.
Mara Ellison reads money, and she already knew. She flagged the link once before and was warned off in writing — compromises an open investigation — and she told herself it was procedure. It wasn't procedure. It was a lid.
Not a coincidence. A method.
Their own offices push them apart; the case pushes them back together. Working one wet night in the dark, they get the signature data off Roan's evidence truck minutes before someone torches it — and in the smoke, with Koda in danger and no time to argue, the armor slips. A hand. A cover. Wordless trust neither of them planned to give again.
Then the ground shifts under both of them: a case file was pulled from Roan's office before he ever wrote it. Someone on the inside knew the address before the fire was cold — which meant the only person in the county who wasn't already inside the machine was standing next to Roan in the rain.
The Second Match is Episode 2 of Point of Origin, a high-velocity K-9 romantic-suspense serial — each episode a complete case you can finish in a sitting, each one turning the bigger fire a notch hotter. Two pros, maximum tension, closed door. For readers of Lori Ryan and Cristin Harber.
A new episode every week. Start the burn.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Roan Holbrook reads burns for a living, and the fire above Cordell has a shape he's seen before. The origin signature — where it started, how it was fed, the one cold corner Koda won't stop staring at — matches an "accidental" fire from Mara's old files down to the char. Two fires. One hand.
Mara Ellison reads money, and she already knew. She flagged the link once before and was warned off in writing — compromises an open investigation — and she told herself it was procedure. It wasn't procedure. It was a lid.
Not a coincidence. A method.
Their own offices push them apart; the case pushes them back together. Working one wet night in the dark, they get the signature data off Roan's evidence truck minutes before someone torches it — and in the smoke, with Koda in danger and no time to argue, the armor slips. A hand. A cover. Wordless trust neither of them planned to give again.
Then the ground shifts under both of them: a case file was pulled from Roan's office before he ever wrote it. Someone on the inside knew the address before the fire was cold — which meant the only person in the county who wasn't already inside the machine was standing next to Roan in the rain.
The Second Match is Episode 2 of Point of Origin, a high-velocity K-9 romantic-suspense serial — each episode a complete case you can finish in a sitting, each one turning the bigger fire a notch hotter. Two pros, maximum tension, closed door. For readers of Lori Ryan and Cristin Harber.
A new episode every week. Start the burn.
Genre: Romantic Suspense