Birthright

her hands over her face, plopped back down. “If it’s not one thing around here, it’s two dozen. Do they know how it started?”
    He sat down beside her sleeping bag. “Arson’s suspected. They’re investigating.”
    “Arson? Well, who the hell would . . .” She trailed off as her mind caught up with the rest of her. “She’s my lawyer.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Records of our search would have been in that office.”
    “You got it.”
    “It’s still a big leap.”
    “Not so big from where I’m sitting. Maybe it’ll turn out to be kids playing with matches, or it’ll come out that the landlord’s got a gambling problem and torched it for the insurance money. And maybe, somebody doesn’t like the idea of you digging up information about what happened to you twenty-nine years ago.” He touched a fingertip to the raw skin on her brow. “We’re already not so popular around here.”
    “I guess I should go see how she is, then fire her. She’s got a kid, Jake. I don’t want her or that little boy in any sort of danger because she’s helping me find answers.”
    “I don’t know her very well, but my impression is she’s not the type to back off easily.”
    “Maybe not, but I’m going to give her the first shove. Then I’m going to Atlanta. Go away, I need to get dressed.”
    “I’ve seen you get dressed before.” He sat where he was as she rolled out of the bag. “You want to tackle Carlyle’s son, face-to-face.”
    “You got a better idea?”
    “No, which is why I know there’s a Delta flight to Atlanta in just over two hours, with a couple of seats.”
    She looked at him as she reached for jeans. “I only need one seat.”
    “Good thing, as that’s all you’re getting. I’m in the other one. I’m going, Callie,” he said before she could speak. “I don’t need your permission. We can waste time arguing and I will win this one, or you can accept defeat gracefully for a change. You’re not going alone. That’s all there is to it.”
    “We need you here on the dig.”
    “The dig can wait. Deal with it, or I’ll make sure you miss the flight. I’d enjoy that,” he said as he got fluidly to his feet. “Because I remember just how interesting a sleeping bag can be when I get you naked in one.”
    Since she was wearing nothing but an oversized basketball jersey, she figured he already had the advantage. “Ifwe’re going, you’d better contact Leo. I’ll be packed and ready in ten. We can swing by Lana’s on the way to the airport.”
    “Sounds like a plan.” He started for the door, then paused. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. That’s all there is to it. That’s another thing you’ll have to deal with.”
    “We both know I can take care of myself.”
    “Yeah, we know it. What you never figured out is that it doesn’t always have to be that way.”
    N o, it wasn’t kids playing with matches.”
    Lana sat in her kitchen drinking the latest cup of an endless stream of coffee. Her voice was raw with fatigue.
    “They’re telling me the point of origin was my second-floor office. They were even able to tell that the point of entry was the rear door. The lock was jimmied. What they can’t tell me is what, if anything, might have been taken out of my files, off my computer, before the son-of-a-bitching firebug doused the floor and the desk with accelerant, laid a trail of it and paper into the hall, down the stairs, then lit a match and walked out.”
    “That’s how they see it?” Callie asked her.
    “Arson one-oh-one, according to the firefighters I was able to talk to. The arson inspector may have a little more. Good news is, it didn’t do more damage to the neighboring buildings. The bastard didn’t think about the families sleeping next door, the businesses that might have been ruined when he decided to screw with me.”
    She shoved the coffee aside. “Something else he didn’t think about was the fact that I have a copy of every single file here at home. That I back up everything on my computer daily, on disk, and bring them home.”
    “So.” Jake stepped behind her, rubbed her shoulders. “You’re saying he didn’t know you were anal.”
    “Exactly. Oh, thanks.” She breathed a sigh of pleasure as he unknotted the first layers of tension. “I’d kiss you forthat, but I can’t get up. And I don’t think Callie would like it anyway.”
    “His lips are his business,” Callie said. And yet she watched the way he