Free UNCONTROLLED BURN by Nina Pierce Page A

of dread coiled tight in Reese’s gut as he listened to Josh explain Alex’s connection to all but a handful of the fires.
    “So that’s it? Case closed.” Ronan straightened the cuffs of his shirt. “Once it’s reported and the tribunal takes Alex in, do they transfer us right away to the next case or—”
    Josh’s left hook took Ronan down before the arrogant asshole had seen the flash of movement. If the impact hadn’t kept him on the floor, Josh’s knee in his chest and the grip on his throat was certainly doing the trick. “This is a fellow vampire and a friend . Our job is to gather solid evidence before taking it to the tribunal. You aren’t going to breathe a fucking word of this to anyone. Got it?” His grip tightened imperceptibly. “Nod if you understand.”
    Ronan’s features contorted into rage as he reluctantly dipped his chin.
    “Good.” Josh ground his knee into Ronan’s gut as he pushed himself up. “Your only job right now is to keep your head down and stay the fuck out of our way.”
    “Whatever, asshole.” Ronan got up from the floor and straightened his coat. “I didn’t join RISEN to take shit from you two.”
    Reese stepped in front of Ronan, bumping his chest hard against the presumptuous prick. “Why did you join RISEN?”
    “To protect the vampire population.” His lips pursed in a tight line. “Isn’t that why we’re all undercover?” He elbowed his way past Reese. “I won’t report her to RISEN … yet. But trust me, when I find the proverbial smoking gun, Alex is going to wish like hell she hadn’t crossed paths with Ronan Nason.”
    Reese stared at Ronan’s back as he stormed out of the cabin. “Think he’ll steer clear of her?” he asked, turning back to Josh’s tired expression.
    “Yeah. He’s too green to go forward on his own.”
    “And this?” Reese swept his hand over the map, wondering what the hell they were going to do. “Is Nason right? Is my personal involvement blinding me to the facts?”
    “Depends on how bad you have it for her.”
    “Let’s just say after today, you can rip up that IOU.” Reese’s whole world had been dropped in a blender and put on pulverize to shit .
    “You certainly picked a lousy time to get over your fear of commitment.”
    “Ya think?”
    “Dude, the whole situation just sucks.” Josh raked his fingers through his hair. “I’d like to think someone is setting her up for some reason.”
    “Is that what you honestly believe?”
    “What I know is that Alex has been working to perfect a nutritional supplement so vamps don’t have to drink human blood. She’s got the protection of Glenn and the blessing of the tribunal. What I believe doesn’t matter.”
    “But …” Reese dragged the word slowly over his tongue.
    “Since I’m a betting man, I’d wager my left nut she’s mired in this whole thing up to that nice rack of hers.”
* * *
    A hiss escaped through lips thinned with malice. The vampire slipped out of sight just as Glenn Karr bound up the stairs of the university’s science building. Looking like an angel of mercy awash in the golden light of the afternoon sun, the ancient vampire’s arrival had been expected. But Glenn was in for nothing but disappointment. The good professor’s office had already been picked clean.
    Unfortunately, a search of the neatly ordered space on the third floor had turned up nothing. And though chaos had been left in the wake of the investigation, there was no doubt Glenn knew nothing of the professor’s compulsion for order. For anyone who didn’t know Paul Morgan, the office would have looked like a preoccupied professor’s cluttered cave of research.
    The hard drive in the good professor’s office had been swept as clean as the one at his mansion. It had taken willpower beyond measure not to dispose of everything in flames. But a second university fire would certainly raise suspicions the first one hadn’t.
    Glenn didn’t even bother to look around to