Razing Kayne (7 page)

“I think they'd like that.” Her sweet voice caressed his ear making his body tingle.

“Do you just want me to meet you somewhere?”
Please say yes!
The thought of being stuck in a vehicle for two hours with her and the kids was too...
familial
.

“That's fine. My husband didn't like traveling with the kids either.”

Dammit. That’s not what he’d meant. “It's not that.” He struggled for a way to explain,
but decided on the simple answer. “My truck won't hold us all.” Not technically a
lie.

“We could take the Tahoe. I might even let you drive.”

“Oh, I can guarantee that would be the case. I'm an old-fashioned guy. I'd insist
on driving, and opening your doors, and pulling out your chair.”

“Careful, you might spoil me.” He heard the smile in her voice. Should he care that
his response had made her happy?

“I don't mind spoiling you a little, short-stuff.”
Jesus Christ, Dobrescu, what the hell?
He didn't understand it—it was as though his mouth had a mind of its own. It shouldn't
matter that she liked being taken care of. He didn't want that type of responsibility.

“Hey, lover boy,” Cody said.

Kayne jumped. How long had he been standing there?

“Hate to interrupt, but can I use your phone? Mine's dead, and I'm not hiking back
down to get Sutton's.” Reception in the canyons was often shoddy at best. “Dispatch
is trying to contact us.”

“Hey, baby, I gotta go. One of the firemen needs to borrow the phone.”

“Have fun bulldogging those angry mutant attack squirrels.” Jessica giggled.

Giggled
.
Kayne couldn't help but laugh, even as he wondered what the hell he was getting himself
into. Tomorrow, he decided. Tomorrow he'd call and tell her he had to work.

SEVEN

It was close to sunset when the deputy at the roadblock radioed Kayne. “Hey, Dobrescu,
you've got a visitor headed your way.”

“What!
Who?”

“Uhh...I figured she was your wife.
Sexy little thing with kids in a blue Tahoe.
She's bringing you dinner.”

“No, no, no!
Do not
let her down here!” The asshole had one goddamn job, and he'd fucked it up when it
mattered most. God, it was a fucking
HazMat
scene.

“Sorry, man. Crazy stalker chick is already on her way.”

“She's not a stalker!” Kayne all but shouted through the radio. “Idiot!” he added
to himself as he glanced in the rear-view mirror in time to see Jessica pulling up
behind his patrol car.
Son of a bitch!

“What are you doing here?” Kayne demanded, slamming the patrol car's door with far
more force than necessary. Jessica's smile faltered.
Damned if that didn't make him feel guilty, but Jesus, she of all people knew better
than to be down here.

“We brought you dinner.” She held the bag out to him, all friendliness gone.

“Jessica, it's not safe here. That jackass never should have let you through the roadblock.”
Kayne took the bag from her and sat it on the trunk of the patrol car. “Come on, I'll
walk you back.”

But Jessica wasn't listening to him
anymore,
she was staring past him, the color leeching from her face as he watched. She looked
like she'd seen a ghost.
Goddamnit!

Kayne gentled his voice. “Come on, baby, you need to go.”  He stepped sideways, blocking
her view of the accident scene. “Are the kids with you?”

She merely nodded, trying to look around him.

“Jess, what are you doing here?” Cody shouted as he ran toward them.

Kayne had a funny feeling things were about to go south. As if they already hadn't.
“Honey, I'm glad you came to see me, but you need to leave.”
Honey?
See him?

She ignored Cody too. “That's where Jarred died, saving Grace.” 

Saving, Grace? What the hell did that mean?
Enough was enough. He had to file that revelation away for later inspection. “Jessica,
look at me.
Now!
”
When she did, Kayne softened his tone. “Baby, you need to go. Let me walk you back
to the truck.”

She stood there looking helplessly at Kayne as tears began to fall.

“Come on, sweetheart, don't cry. I’ve got you.” He closed the distance and wrapped
her in his arms.

“What the fuck?
You son of a bitch!”
Cody roared.

Jessica startled at Cody's voice and took two huge steps backward, cowering as if
she expected someone to attack her. Without warning, Cody tackled Kayne to the ground.
Yep, the situation had officially gone south.

Kayne threw Cody off with little effort and scrambled to his feet. Cody took another
swing, but Kayne evaded, standing his ground between the belligerent idiot and Jessica.
The little weasel might be no match for him, but Cody could do some serious damage
to someone as tiny as Jessica with one misplaced fist.

That bastard, Murphy, decided right then to invoke his law, because it was at that
exact moment Sgt. Balentine drove up with the Fuel Recovery Team. He bailed out of
the patrol car, stammering into his radio about a fight in progress. Several firemen
grabbed Cody from behind as he tried to lunge at Kayne again.

“What the fuck is going on?” Balentine demanded.

“Just a misunderstanding,” Kayne said, eying Cody.

“Why's your girlfriend on a HazMat scene, Dobrescu?”

“For Christ’s sake, she's
not
mine!
”

“Then who the hell is she?
”

“Nobody!”
Kayne’s knee-jerk reaction was to deny any association with her. One look at the
hurt on Jessica's face though, and he knew that hadn't come out right.

“I'm so sorry.” Jessica turned and ran toward the SUV.

Several expletives rolled off Kayne’s tongue as he followed after her. Though he knew
he needed to get her out of there ASAP, he couldn’t let her leave like this. He caught
her arm, stopping her as she reached the SUV. “Jessica, wait! I didn't mean that the
way it sounded.”

“We were eating dinner, and the scanner was on.” He had to lean in to hear her, her
voice little more than a whisper. “The kids realized you were stuck down here, and
I just thought...”

“I'm not mad that you brought me dinner.” No one had ever done that for him before,
but that wasn't the point. How the fuck had this gotten so far out of control? “This
isn’t a safe place. I don't want you or the kids hurt. Please, let me get you out
of here, and we'll talk later.”

She raised her chin defiantly. “There's nothing to say.”

“Jess—”

“I'm
fine!”

Did she realize tears still clung to her lashes? “Why don't I stop by when I'm finished?”
He didn’t know what purpose it would serve, but he hated to see her hurting.

She quickly shook her head, looking everywhere but at him.

“Call me if you change your mind, okay?”

She nodded, and he opened the door for her to climb in.

“
Kayne!
”
Gracie squealed. “Hug, hug!
Huuugg!
”
She strained against her car seat.

He glanced back to realize she only had the two little girls with her. “You left Maddy
and Ash home alone?” He couldn’t stop himself from voicing the accusation.

“They're fine for a few minutes.” Finally, she was showing a bit of spirit. “I was
babysitting when I was Maddy's age!”

“Hug, hug!” Gracie’s tone warned that a two-year-old meltdown was imminent.

Kayne opened her door and quickly hugged her, allowing her to kiss his “owie.”  He’d
probably have a bruise where Cody slugged him come morning. He glanced at Isabelle,
her large verdant eyes silently pleading for attention that she was too shy to request.
He walked around the car, ignoring the dozen people looking on with avid interest.
“Hey, 'Sabella, you being Mama's helper tonight?”

She simply nodded and hugged him tighter. Man he did not need this. He didn’t need
to feel this connection with these children or their mother.

Kayne radioed the deputy to confirm he could send Jessica back north in the southbound
lanes and prayed to God the idiot could at least get that right.

He leaned in the driver's side window, cupped the back of Jessica's neck, and dropped
his voice to a whisper. “I'm sorry.” Kayne brushed his lips across her temple. She
smelled of almond and vanilla.
Subtle, like shampoo, and woman.
Hot desirable woman.
“Be careful.”

He felt her nod in response. Unfortunately, a part of his anatomy was thinking about
doing some nodding of its own, and his lack of control made him angry. The words came
out before he could stop them. “Get going before you cause me any more paperwork.”

Jessica gave him a hard glare and put the SUV in reverse, slowly backing through the
maze of vehicles. Angry was good. Angry would keep her from wanting to get close to
him, and he seemed to have no willpower where she was concerned.

Kayne returned to where Balentine, Cody, and several other firemen, including Joe
Sutton, still stood openly watching him. Balentine pointed toward Kayne’s chin. “Am
I arresting the fireman?”

“No.” Kayne really didn’t care about Cody. He was too busy trying to figure out what
the hell to do about Jessica or the revelation that Gracie had been rescued from a
car accident the night Jarred Hallstatt died.

“Stay away from her!” Cody’s shout brought Kayne’s thoughts back to the present.

Yeah, probably a good idea, but damn, now his mind was whirling with insane possibilities.
“
Or what?
”
Kayne didn't understand why he was pushing Cody. He wasn't one for fighting these
days, and he already planned to stay away.

Cody took a threatening step forward. “I swore to her husband I'd take care of her,
and I'll be damned if I let someone like you get near her!”

“Actually what you said—” Joe began.

Cody turned on Joe. “Shut the fuck up, Joe.”  He swiveled back to Kayne and shoved
a finger under his nose. “And you! Stay away from her!” He stormed off without waiting
for a response.

The fact that Cody had to look up
a good four or five inches
to threaten Kayne made his threat laughable. Kayne looked at Joe. “Is he normally
that cheerful?”

“He's kinda had a thing for Jess since we were all in high school.” Joe pulled off
his Payson Fire Department baseball cap, only to put it right back on. “But there's
nothing going on there, no matter how much Cody wishes there were. Jarred, he...”
Joe stopped, shrugged, and looked away. “I was with him the night of the accident.”

“What happened?” Kayne wanted to understand how Gracie factored into this.

***

Joe rarely talked about the night Jarred died, but he'd seen Jess at the picnic last
Sunday. He’d watched Dobrescu interact with her and her children. It had been the
first time Joe had seen her genuinely smile in a long, long time. Maybe even before
Jarred had died. He’d also witnessed the longing in Kayne’s eyes, and the pain, when
he'd held Jess's little girl. Joe recognized the look of a man who'd lost everything.
Though it had been fifteen years, he still saw traces of the same emptiness looking
back at him in the mirror.

Pushing away those dark thoughts, he focused on Jarred, remembering his dying wish.

“Jessica said Gracie was saved that night?”

“Yeah.
Total miracle she survived.” Joe could still picture that tiny, perfect baby that
he'd pulled out of Jarred's fire jacket.

“What happened?” Kayne asked, seeming truly interested.

“Cody was supposed to be working that night, and I think that's why he's so touchy.
He had an old girlfriend show up and wanted to get laid, so Jarred covered for him.
Survivor's guilt is an ugly thing.”

Kayne nodded his understanding. Joe swore he could still hear the echo of that call
if he listened hard enough.

***

“Medical, Engine 111, mile post 247.5, State Route 87.
Single vehicle roll over.
Witness reports vehicle through the guardrail, down the embankment.
Turtled.”
Turtled—great.
The vehicle was on its roof. Joe threw on clothes and raced out the door as the on-duty
battalion commander.

“Engine 111, enroute,” Jarred reported.

“Battalion One, enroute,” Joe radioed as soon as Jarred un-keyed his microphone. Even
though Jarred was engineering 34,000 pounds of fire truck and equipment across snow
and ice-packed highways, Joe was responding from the far north end of town.

Jarred advised they were on scene
.
“We're seeing smoke. I can hear a baby crying.”

Several long moments later, the rookie—Joe couldn't remember the guy’s name—radioed
in
.
“Hallstatt’s grabbed a medic bag and gone over the embankment.”

“Who’s on backup?” Joe radioed
.

“Negative, Captain
.
I’m pulling gear, but he’s already over the ledge and working on extrication.”

Joe blinked. The crazy fucker had slid down a near-vertical hundred-foot drop, and
made it in one piece.

“Engine 111, I’ve got a male driver deceased, and the passenger side windshield’s
been shattered. Standby,” Jarred’s voice echoed through static.

“Copy Engine 111, standing by.”

No sooner had Dispatch responded than Jarred keyed up again. “I’ve located the female,
also DOA. Still no signs of the…son of a—” Jarred’s transmission cut off mid-sentence.

“Jarred, I see flames!” The rookie’s warning came just as Joe cleared the top of Oxbow
Hill.

“I've got the baby. Just drop the fucking winch.
Do it now!”
Joe heard something in Jarred's voice that he'd never heard before—
fear
.

Jarred's microphone stuck open, and Joe heard him whisper to the baby. “Stick with
me, sweetheart, I'll keep you safe.”

Joe bailed out of the battalion truck as the rookie shouted, “The damned thing isn't
working!”

He could smell the gas and see the flames. Fuck, fuck, fuck! “
Get a goddamn rope!
” Jesus Christ it wasn’t rocket science
.

The rookie pulled a rope off the truck and handed it to Joe as he passed by. “Hang
on buddy, rope’s coming down, now,” Joe yelled so Jarred could hear him, a second
before he tossed one end down the embankment. “Tie off, and we'll pull you up.”