Free Ellery Mountain 1 -The Fireman and the Cop by RJ Scott

house-to-house search—Kieran—to putting Finn in his cabin and locking him in
until the cops had caught the bad guys—Max. “Guys!” Finally his voice was strident enough
to break through the talking and everyone stared at him expectantly.
“Are you tired?” Max said.
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. With an irritated huff, Finn struggled to
sit up on the bed, Max hovering at his side solicitously, and Kieran stood there with his
hands out like he was going to catch Finn if he fell. Daniel watched with a smirk on his face.
The fucker.
“I’m not staying in tonight. I need one of you to take me to the mayor’s office so I can
check in and then drive me home. I need another one to check on my damn truck.” Kieran looked concerned and doubtful. “You’re not staying in hospital?” “It’s not that bad. Get me out of here.”
“Max, can you ferry Finn around and get him home?” Daniel said. “Kieran and I can
follow up on the truck, see what we can salvage.”
Daniel immediately took charge. Three months in a hospital stateside before he left the
Marines. He could understand the itch beneath Finn’s skin to get the hell out. Max gazed
down at Finn and Finn saw nothing but determination in Max’s gorgeous eyes—apparently
he now had his own personal chauffeur and bodyguard.
“Definitely.”
Chapter Eight
    The interview—because that was what it was—was a hard one. Chief Carter Mayfield, sometimes companion to Daniel’s mom, was in attendance, as was Drew and the other cop on the books, Oscar. Max simply sat back and watched while Finn was interrogated by his colleagues. That Finn was the focus of some campaign against him was obvious, but a firebug was one thing, someone deliberately cutting brake lines was wandering away from the fire side of things.
    “So, even though there is no obvious link, we’re concluding that the fire and the car are linked,” Max said.
“Too much coincidence for it not to be,” Drew said. He was scribbling on a notepad and he literally hadn’t stopped the entire meeting.
“Tell me about the city,” Max said. They’d already covered Finn’s time here but for a few years he had been in college and then in the Academy. “If it isn’t here that you’ve attracted someone wanting to hurt you then maybe it’s way back when.”
Finn half closed his eyes and considered the question.
“Normal boyfriend stuff in college. One guy, Neil, was an asshole. Possessive, jealous, and I ended up getting a restraining order to keep him away. Last I heard he was in Florida working at God knows what and I wasn’t with him long. Other than that, there were mainstream cases for the two years I was in KVille. I narrowed it to the two cases, the family, and the kid with the fireworks. You know as well as I do that our job in this town is different to what a city cop deals with.”
“We’ll pick this up tomorrow,” Max said. He’d heard enough and seen enough today to last a lifetime. His first instinct was to hole up at home and wait this out. Having someone he was beginning to care about beyond a one-night stand was playing havoc with his ability to compartmentalise what was going on. They would be checking the ex with a history, the husband with the kids in care, and the dispatcher’s nephew with the fireworks. There was nothing else they could do here.
Max was pleased to see Finn could actually walk. Walk in a loose sense of the term. He was stiff-legged and jerky in movement but at least with Max’s help they made their way to Max’s truck. By mutual decision Max turned up onto the mountain and headed up, following Finn’s instructions to Finn’s place. As they pulled into Finn’s driveway, Max was struck by the beauty of the house set into the mountain and surrounded by woods. It was as remote as the house Max had attended for a structure fire the night before. A simple two-storey cottage set back into the mountain with the front on sturdy stilts and the