Burning For Claire (The O'Connell Family Book 2) by C.M. Steele Page A

must have seen the news. Has he called?”
    “He’s out of town, visiting his family. He probably called my cell, but I’m not sure why he didn’t call the house. He would be worried by now.”
    “If he doesn’t know about the theft and the fire, would he normally be worried after not hearing from you since he left the office?” I asked.
    “No, but I called him after we found out about the theft,” she blurted out like it wasn’t anything important.
    “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you talked to Tad before we went to bed that night?” I growled.
    “He’s my best friend. I didn’t think I needed your permission to call him.” She jumped off the bed and tried to get away. I jumped up too and pulled her back to me.
    I whispered in her ear. “That’s not what I meant. I was talking about the fact that he could have been involved.”
    “He couldn’t be involved,” she denied. “Like you said it had to be the people who are after Sam.”
    I angrily added, “That’s before I found out you let someone know that you found out about the theft. He could be a suspect.”
    “He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. I know he wouldn’t do that to me.” She was adamant that he wasn’t involved, but you never knew about people.
    “Then how come he hasn’t called?” I dared her to rationalize that.
    “I don’t know,” she cried. Her tears were a killer.
    I wrapped her up in my embrace and kissed her forehead. “Babe, I’m not trying to hurt you, but I want to solve this.”
    “I know, but I can’t believe he would do something to hurt me.”
    We could get to the bottom of this really quickly. “Do you know his number?”
    “Yes,” she murmured with her head pressed into my chest.
    I pulled back and said, “Here’s my phone. It’s time to give him a call.” I handed her the phone, but she just looked at it, terrified to believe it could be true. “Claire, you’ve got to do this. Maybe he isn’t involved, but we won’t know until we find out. Put it on speaker so I can hear him too.”
    “Okay,” she murmured. Putting it on speakerphone, she dialed his number as she sat back down on the bed.
    “Tad. It’s me, Claire.”
    “Girl, why haven’t you called me back? I’ve been freaking. I left you like five messages and twenty texts.” His voice was full of relief. “Did you run away with the hunky cowboy? I would have called your parents, but I knew they never really met your boyfriends.”
    “No, I couldn’t call you back. I lost my phone in the fire,” she answered meekly.
    “Fire! What fire?!” he shouted. His concern was evident. I was getting a feeling that he wasn’t involved.
    She started to sob as she said, “The salon was set on fire a few hours after I called you.”
    “Are you okay? Please tell me you didn’t get burned or anything.”
    “Yes. If it wasn’t for Travis, I wouldn’t be alive.”
    “Who’s Travis?”
    I interrupted, “I’m Travis. I’m a federal agent and was acting as Brady, but my cover is no longer needed. Did you tell anyone about what we found out that night?”
    “Oh, no. It couldn’t be,” he said in a faraway contemplative tone. 
    “What couldn’t it be?” I growled. I didn’t like the sound of those words. He did something.
    “I…I…I texted the girls,” he stuttered.
    He was going to be a dead man. “Why the fuck did you do something like that? Are you fucking helping them steal from Claire?” I roared.
    “I wouldn’t. I’m sorry, Claire. I was just so angry about the whole thing, so I thought I’d let them have it. I didn’t think they would do anything about it.”
    I continued to tear into his ass. “They stole over forty thousand dollars. What the fuck did you think they were going to do about it? Just surrender to the police?” My anger was getting ready to burst. I wanted to climb through the phone and choke the shit out him.
    His voice shook as he tried to explain his stupidity. “I wasn’t thinking. I was so mad. They