That Old Flame of Mine

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Book: Read That Old Flame of Mine for Free Online
Authors: J. J. Cook
Why don’t I carry a gun?
    Her cell phone was useless up here even if it was close enough for her to reach. She had no service until she was back at the firehouse.
    She couldn’t believe it—she’d never needed a gun in the city. Here she was, in the boonies of Tennessee, wishing she could at least
threaten
to shoot someone.
    “Is that Ray Trump’s boy?” the shadow asked. “No. It can’t be. Must be his grandson. I think his son’s name was Bobby. That was a while back. I don’t think he’d be courting you.”
    That almost brought Stella out of the hot tub. “He’s not
courting
me, if that means what I think it means. He has valuable information about something that happened today.”
    “You mean the fire and Tory Lambert’s death. What kind of information?”
    This had gone on too far. Stella had to take control of the situation. “Look. I don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t leave now—”
    Before she could complete the threat, there was a loud rapping at the front door. She smiled and turned to her companion.
    He was gone.
    Is he waiting inside?
    She couldn’t sit around wondering. She jumped out of the tub and threw on her clothes, expecting to see him at any second. She clutched the cup in front of her like it was the gun she longed for. If he came at her around the corner, she’d be ready for him.
    “Stella!” John began yelling her name. His polite rapping had turned into pounding. “Are you in there? Are you okay?”
    She wrenched open the door and the porch light turned off. “Sorry. Someone’s playing a prank on me. I was in the hot tub and he got inside.” She didn’t care what had brought John up there at that late hour, she was happy to see him. It was just luck that he’d come after she’d told the intruder that he would be there.
    John was in his police uniform. She decided that he looked good in it. He wasn’t a big man, but he was strong and capable. He took off his hat and set it on the table. His brown hair was short enough that the hat hadn’t messed it up.
    He drew his gun and switched on the kitchen light by the door. “That sounds like breaking and entering to me, Stella. Not a prank. Has it happened before?”
    “I’ve had a few weird things happen, but I didn’t want to be a baby about it.” She followed behind him as he searched through the other two rooms. “Sometimes people like to play tricks on the new guy.”
    All the lights in the cabin were on, including the one on the deck. No one else was in the house.
    “You have an alarm system, right? Is this person going in and out? They must have the alarm code. I’ll check into it.”
    “Thanks.” She was surprised and flattered by the attention. “Someone broke into my apartment back home last year and took all my electronics. I didn’t get this much of a reaction from the police.”
    He smiled and put away his gun. “No one’s lived here for a long time. Except for knowing the alarm code, it could be teenagers. They like to hang out in back areas like this. Maybe you should change your code. I’ll see if there have been any other disturbances up here.”
    “I really appreciate it. It kind of spooked me seeing him sitting there.”
    “Well, don’t ever feel like you can’t tell me if you have a problem.” He cleared his throat. “I mean, the department.
The police.
That’s what we’re here for.”
    Stella smiled. She didn’t know that much about John, but what she knew, she liked. “Would you like some coffee? I feel like it’s the least I can do since you were ready to shoot someone for me.”
    “Sure. That would be great.”
    She threw some coffee into the coffeemaker and added water. “Cream? Sugar?”
    “Both, actually.” He walked into the small kitchen area. “This is really nice in here. I wasn’t sure what it was like.”
    “You mean you thought they’d set me up in a rundown shack like the firehouse?” The whole town had helped clean up and restore the old

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