Nothing Left to Burn Read Online Free PDF

laughing. He may have his brother’s broad shoulders, but Reece Logan was still a dork who liked to play chess in shorthand. True fact: I heard him shout “Queen, h4!” at another chess club kid while we were changing classes once. The other kid stopped dead in the center of the corridor with a look of horror on his face, so I figured that meant Reece beat him. He was always doing puzzles—crosswords, sudoku, cryptograms. During lunch periods, he usually had his head bent over a tablet or a puzzle book, pen tapping his chin.
    Not that I looked or anything. It was just hard not to notice.
    He stood there, looking at me like I’d just kicked his puppy or something. With a curse, I searched for something—anything—nice to say. I wasn’t that good at nice . I felt bad about making him all embarrassed and stuff, so figured I owed him one. “Um, yeah, so nice ink.” I jerked my chin at his chest. “What is it?”
    “Um, it’s, uh, an infinity symbol. Kind of.”
    “An infinity symbol. In bloodred ink?”
    “It’s…symbolic.”
    Yeah. Of the blood on his hands, no doubt. “So who did you get to ink you? You’re not eighteen.” As far as I knew, Reece was my age—sixteen.
    “Fake ID,” he admitted with an expression that pinched my heart, and I wished he’d smile again. His smile was so much like Matt’s. When Matt smiled at me, I’d thought it meant he liked me, not just as a cadet or a fellow junior, but as a girl . I wasn’t bad looking. And I noticed him staring at my chest more than once. But Matt Logan liked girls with long, flowy hair who wore heels and dresses. I didn’t own a dress, I couldn’t walk in heels, and I almost always wore my hair twisted into a coil to keep it out of my face when I worked.
    Besides, the Becketts had that whole no-boys rule.
    So I never told Matt how much I liked him. And now he’s dead, and the reason why was standing in my squad class, looking at me like I just stabbed him through the heart.
    He grabbed the book I tossed on the table. “Where do you suggest I start?”
    I rolled my eyes and swallowed the duh I wanted to shout. Seriously, I thought he was a genius. “The beginning is usually good.”
    Reece’s eyes shot to mine, and his jaw tightened. “Just so I know, how many questions per day do you answer seriously? What’s the sarcasm ratio? Probably hit the daily quota by now, right?”
    I glared at him for a second or two and finally took the seat next to him. The chief did say to get him all set up, so I guess I owed him a straight answer. “That was serious. You need to know this book backward, forward, and sideways if you expect to last in this squad.”
    He held up a hand. “Fine. Anything else?”
    Oh yes, actually, there is. “Yeah. Why are you here? Matt’s death really messed up your dad. You being here—”
    “Yeah. I get it.” He cut me off before I could finish. “It’s family stuff. Complicated.”
    My eyebrows shot up. He didn’t know the meaning of complicated . “Family stuff? Really? And yet, here you are in our house instead of your own.”
    He sighed and looked away. “He moved out.”
    Oh. I didn’t know that. I squirmed and tugged at my shirt, pissed off that I actually felt sorry for him. “So the chief asked me to find out if you need a notebook since you’re sticking around for tonight’s class.”
    He shook his head. “I can take notes on this if I need to.” He took out a tablet, and I rolled my eyes. Well, as long as he didn’t start playing 2048 during our meeting, it would do.
    “Great. Um, so, listen. Tonight’s meeting, we’re working on PPE and SCBA.” I tapped the book. “I’d start there.”
    Reece gave me a shocked look and then smiled. “Um, yeah, sure. Okay. Thanks.”
    I smiled back, and his jaw fell open. I hightailed it out of there before things got weird.
    Out on the apparatus floor, I waved at two of my squadmates.
    “What’s up, Man?”
    I stared at Gage Garner, trying to figure out