Free Flash Point by Shelli Stevens

flexed his jaw, trying to shove thoughts of sex with Kate from his mind.
    “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded tersely, crossing the room to her. “If this is some kind of gas leak, then you should’ve waited outside.”
    She jumped and spun around, guilt and shock filling her eyes. “I don’t think it’s a—”
    “Outside, Kate.”
    She folded her arms across her chest and swallowed hard. Resentment flickered in her gaze now. “Todd, maybe when you say jump, other women do it while batting their eyelashes. But this is my shop and I’m not leaving until I know what’s going on. And as I told the dispatcher I don’t really think it’s a gas leak, but she insisted on putting out the call for help anyway.”
    Todd’s slight frustration lurched to full-on irritation as he advanced on her. Despite her little speech, she seemed to realize she’d picked the wrong fight, because her blue eyes widened and she backed up until she hit the edge of the display case.
    Her tongue darted across her mouth and her breasts rose and fell beneath her sweater.
    “Look, Kate, there’s being stubborn, and there’s being foolish. And I don’t want to see you getting hurt,” he growled.
    She laughed at him. A little, high-pitched sound of disbelief before she rolled her eyes.
    “Hey, Todd,” Jeremiah called out from behind him. “I think we’re okay here, pretty sure it’s not a gas leak.”
    Todd’s jaw snapped shut. Yeah, he’d pretty much figured that out too. That smell wasn’t gas, it was the sour smell of something rotting. But Kate couldn’t have known that, and the fact she’d stuck around trying to Nancy Drew it out herself sparked a fierce concern for her safety that he hadn’t known was possible for him to feel for a person. Someone outside his family, that was.
    Turning on his heel, he joined up with Jeremiah near the vent. Together they pried the grate free and tugged it away the wall.
    The door to the shop chimed as Todd reached for his flashlight.
    “Got some kind of problem I hear, kid?” Todd heard his brother Tyson call out to Kate.
    Apparently the sheriff’s department had just arrived on the scene.
    “Yeah, something’s going on in the heating vent,” Kate muttered, and then her tone shifted to surprise. “Oh, hello, Walt.”
    Walt was here now? Todd’s jaw clenched against the surge of anger and annoyance that rushed him. He pushed it aside as he shown the flashlight into the vent.
    “Good morning, Caitleen,” a concerned voice—he could only assume was Walt—said. “What’s all the fuss?”
    “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
    Todd moved the beam of light around the interior, until a small, dark shape was reflected.
    “What is that?” Jeremiah muttered next to him.
    Todd frowned. It wasn’t pretty, whatever it was. “Looks like a dead animal.”
    He reached in and pulled the small creature free. “Possum.”
    “Oh my god.” Kate was at his side in an instant, her hand over her mouth. “How did it end up in there? The poor thing must’ve gotten stuck. Is it dead?”
    “Yeah. It’s dead.”
    And it had probably dead for quite awhile. Todd’s gut clenched and his jaw ticked. In fact, it looked like road kill from the side of the road. Which was making him think someone had deliberately placed it in there.
    “It’s got blood all over it. And his face is all smashed in,” Kate whispered suddenly. “How did it—”
    “Tyson, take her out of here,” Todd said tersely.
    “Don’t take me outside, tell me what’s going on—”
    “Come on, Caitleen,” Walt said gently, and he heard their retreating footsteps. “This is not something for the eyes of a lady. We should let them handle this.”
    Tyson came around to observe the situation, then glanced outside. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
    Anger, hot and potent, gathered in Todd’s belly. “If you’re thinking that somebody stuffed this little guy in here already dead, then