" I don’t know what to say.” My voice was raspy.
“You don’t have to say anything. The medics already cleaned and took care of these.”
“No,” I said, still holding on to his hand. “I don’t know how to thank you for saving my life. Again.”
“Stop thanking me,” he ground out.
“I have to,” I said, looking straight into his eyes. “If you hadn’t been there…” My sentence trailed away. We both knew what would’ve happened.
“But I was,” he said softly.
“About that…” I began, wetting my lips. “Why were you there?”
“I needed to talk to you about something.”
“What?”
He withdrew his hand, reaching into the back pocket of his jeans and pulling out a folded piece of paper. “About this.”
It was a plain white piece of paper, the kind that anyone would use in a printer. I unfolded it, noticing there was some kind of writing on the inside. When I got to the last fold, I glanced up at Holt who was wearing a very grim expression. Clearly, whatever this was wasn’t good.
I pulled it open and stared down, my brain not really comprehending what it saw. I had to read the line over three times before I really got what it was saying.
My stomach clenched.
My hands trembled slightly.

You should have let her die.

“Where did you get this?” I finally asked.
“It was on my truck when I left work earlier tonight.”
The paper fluttered to the floor slowly, joining the towel by my feet. “So you got this before the fire tonight?”
“Yes. It’s the reason I came looking for you.”
“You didn’t say that.”
“I figured you were dealing with enough at the moment.”
“Did you tell the police?”
He shook his head slowly.
“But why?”
“I wanted to talk to you first. See if you knew what it meant.”
“It means someone wants me dead!” I shouted. My voice seemed to echo through the hallway.
“You’re not going to die,” he growled.
“I shouldn’t have come here,” I said, looking frantically around. “I need to go.” I spun around to rush into the living room, but the towel was tangled around my feet and I tripped, falling toward the floor.
Holt caught me around the waist, pulling me back so I was up against the solid wall of his body. The heat of him was delicious and it radiated around my fear-chilled body. “You’re not going anywhere,” he rumbled in my ear.
I struggled against him, but it was stupid. He outweighed me by a hundred pounds, easily, and was likely a foot taller than me. If he didn’t want to let me go, then I was pretty much stuck in his embrace. I slumped against him. “I’m putting you in danger by being here.”
“You’re in more danger when I’m not around.”
I couldn’t stop my snort. “There goes that ego of yours again.”
His chuckle vibrated my ear. Chill bumps raced over my scalp. “All I’m saying is that clearly this guy is a pyro. My job is fire. You’re better off here than alone.”
“But what about you?”
“You let me worry about me.”
I tried to wiggle out of his embrace so I could look at him. He only loosened his hold enough to allow me to spin in his arms. I had to tip my head back so I could stare up at him. “Do you have a death wish?”
“I’m not going to die. Especially since life just got a hell of a lot more interesting.” His fingers flexed against my hip. "

― Cambria Hebert , Torch (Take It Off, #1)