Shock Advised (Kilgore Fire #1) (19 page)

My mother lifted her glass of wine, but she never looked away from the screen.

Dancing with the Stars
was on, and she didn’t like being interrupted when it was on.

Tai chuckled as he grabbed my hand and led me down the walkway.

“Was your day any better today?” He asked.

We’d planned on meeting for breakfast, but I’d begged off because my mom needed help with a blanket shipment she was sending out later this afternoon.

So this was my first time to see him in more than forty-eight hours.

“It was better…but only because I didn’t see anyone all day,” I admitted.

Tai’s hand tightened on mine, and he turned to look down at me.

“If I had realized what the woman was going to do, I would’ve never put you into that position,” he said softly. “I’m so sorry. I only meant for her to have a little bit of Karma come back and bite her in the ass.”

I smiled warmly at him.

“The woman’s had a hard-on for me since I started calling her office six months ago,” I said. “My air’s been acting up ever since they came out the first time, so I’ve had to call at least once every two weeks since,” she said. “I’m sure it would’ve happened with or without your help.”

He looked skeptical, so I leaned forward and placed my lips against his.

He returned the kiss, tightening his hands on my hips and pulling me deeper into his body.

I broke the kiss, with a breathy exhale, and grinned at him.

“And I was the one that started all of that loveliness with Edwin,” I admitted, even though it hurt my stomach to even think about the bastard, let alone talk about him. “I think we’ve both an equal part in all of this, so let’s just drop it.”

He bit his lip, and I had the irrational desire to take over that task for him.

But he wrapped his big, sturdy arms around my shoulders and pulled me into his hard chest.

“You’re too nice,” he said.

I laughed.

“Yeah,” I said. “Tell that to my charge nurse.”

He let go of me to open the truck’s door and then helped me inside.

I had to breathe shallowly because the pants I had on were ones I hadn’t worn since before nursing school two years before.

I’d gotten curious when I was unpacking some of my boxes that morning and had found them at the very bottom of one of the boxes.

After debating whether I should or not, I’d tried them on to see if they fit.

And, much to my surprise, they did.

Only, I was scared to bend over in them, and I couldn’t really take any deep breaths.

“How was work yesterday?” I asked, hoping to take my mind off the discomforting state of my pants.

I’d asked him last night, but he’d said he’d talk to me about it today.

I’d asked him to elaborate, but a call came through right then, and he hung up before I could press him on it further.

I was curious and wanted answers.

Not to mention that I’d forgotten to ask him this morning in my rush to help my mother.

Tai sighed.

“So we found out who the leak was in the department,” he said.

“Oh?” I asked curiously, turning in my seat so I could see him better.

He nodded. “Turns out it wasn’t anyone that worked there, it was the wife of one of the guys.”

My brows rose.

“Elaborate,” I ordered, snapping my fingers in his direction.

He snorted but continued.

“It was Fatbaby’s wife.”

My mouth dropped open.

“What?” I crowed in surprise. “What are you talking about?”

He nodded. “Fatbaby’s wife asks him to go into detail about his day, and he’s learned over time that it’s easier just to give her the information she wants so she doesn’t make his life a living hell.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“What I mean is that, his wife is a bitch. Their relationship is the weirdest one that I’ve ever seen,” he said. “His wife gives my ex-wife a run for her money in the race for the title of the most nasty, bitchy wife.”

“Oh,” I said. “How did you figure out what was going on?”

Tai turned left and headed to the diner where we were meeting Bowe and Masen.

“Fatbaby did,” he answered. “He was talking to his wife on the phone about a fire last night, when he got this suspicious look on his face. He said goodbye to her and immediately went and signed into her email on a hunch. Low and behold, he found emails back and forth between not just the reporter she’s been giving information to but also the lovely secretary at Jenner’s Heating and Air.”

I blinked.

“You’re shitting me.”

He shook his head. “Afraid not.”

Shit.

“Shit,” I repeated what I’d been thinking.

“That about sums it up,” he agreed. “I’ve never seen Fatbaby so mad before.”

“What’s his real name?” I asked curiously.

The name ‘Fatbaby’ was a huge mouthful, and honestly, he didn’t look like he liked the name all that much.

“Aaron Sims,” he answered. “Why?”

I rolled my eyes.

Why wouldn’t someone want to know the man’s real name?

“Do y’all think he likes the name?” I asked.

Tai shrugged like he could care less whether he liked it or not.

“I don’t know. If he doesn’t like it, he needs to say something. I didn’t like when they called me Chief, as in an Indian chief, so I told them to stop, and they did. If it really bothered him, he’d say something,” Tai said, making it sound like it wasn’t a big deal at all. “Plus, firefighters as a whole have to have a release somewhere, and we get that by joking around with the men and women on our teams.”

“You have women on your shifts?” I asked.

He shrugged as he pulled into the diner’s parking lot.

“Every once in a while Baylee and Winter get put on our shift if someone’s out, but as a whole, no we don’t,” he answered as he backed the truck into a space and put it into park.

“Why not?” I asked.

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug and got out, walking around the truck and opening my door before I even got my seatbelt undone.

He offered me his hand and I took it, dropping down the twelve feet to the asphalt below.

Okay, it probably wasn’t twelve feet, but it was damn close.

Okay, it wasn’t close at all…
still
.

Once I had my balance, he smacked my ass and guided me in front of him.

I glared at him over my shoulder.

“To answer your earlier question,” he said. “I don’t know why there aren’t more. There are plenty in Longview. I’m guessing that it’s because we’re a smaller town, and they just don’t apply for the job.”

“Mmm,” I said. “Interesting.”

“Why?” He asked.

I shook my head.

“No reason. I’m just really curious is all.”

Tai held the door open for me and I stepped inside, looking around the diner for Masen and Bowe.

When I didn’t see them, I smiled at the hostess…who glowered at me.

Mother
fucker
.

Would this ever stop?

“Four please,” Tai said, his body tense at my side.

The waitress sat us at the back…or as close to the back as she could. It was only when she seated us at the table directly next to the entire Kilgore SWAT team that I realized this wouldn’t be the quiet first meeting that Masen had wanted.

“Hey boys,” I said, waving.

I got hand waves back, but Luke and Nico were the closest.

“How’s it going tonight, Stoker?” A big man with tons of tattoos raised his hand up and offered it to Tai.

Tai walked over to their table and shook the man’s hand.

“Going pretty good, Saint,” Tai said. “How’s the baby?”

The big tattooed man grinned.

“She’s fucking perfect.”

Come to think of it, this man looked fairly familiar, too.

Speaking of the man, he turned his eyes on me and smiled.

“You got a woman, I see,” the man, Saint, said.

Tai nodded and held his hand out for me.

“Yeah,” Tai said. “This is Mia. Mia, this is Michael aka Saint.”

I walked over to him, offering him my hand as I did.

He took it, gently, and then let it go.

“Nice to meet you,” he said.

I smiled. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”

I curled around Tai as he pulled me closer and stared at the men at the table.

They were all huge.

And tattooed.

And sexy.

Tai was all that, too, but being surrounded by black clad figures really made me feel trapped by the testosterone.

They were nice, though.

After being introduced to the group and learning each of their names, I realized that they were just people. Intimidating people, but people nonetheless.

The bell at the front of the diner chimed, and I looked up in time to see a pink-faced Masen walking in, with Bowe at her back.

He had his hand on her back, guiding her inside, and he was talking low to her as he did.

She looked up, and her eyes widened.

I’m going to kill you,
she mouthed.

I grinned.

So she liked his voice.

I knew she would.

Not that she had said why, exactly, she was going to kill me.

I could only assume.

And I was right, seconds later, as Masen grabbed my hand on the way to the bathroom.

“You bitch!” Masen said once the door closed. “You could’ve warned me that his voice was like an orgasm for my ears!”

Laughter bubbled up my throat, and I had to lean against the wall to keep from falling over at the hilarity of the situation.

“I’m sorry,” I said, wiping my eyes. “But it was too good not to surprise you with.”

Masen shivered. “You’ve got that right,” she said. “The man gives me tingles…in my vagina.”

I rolled my eyes and washed my hands, stepping back so she could do the same.

“So you like him?” I asked.

She shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess,” she said.

She was lying.

She liked him a lot.

But she wouldn’t admit it.

Because to admit it would mean that she’d actually have to put herself out there, and she was careful about doing that now that she’d finally gotten rid of her ex.

“Okay,” Masen said, grabbing five paper towels, drying her hands, and then moving them to her armpits to dry those as well. “Let’s do this. Do I look okay?”

I studied her outfit.

She was in jeans, a tight baby doll t-shirt that left very little to the imagination, and a pair of boots with rhinestones on them.

“Yeah,” I said. “You look great.”

“Okay,” she said, shaking her arms out. “Don’t laugh if I accidentally orgasm from the sound his voice.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re terrible.

You know that look? The one your mother always gave you when you were in serious trouble? The way it made you feel when you heard your first, middle, and last name shouted by your enraged mother in “that” voice? Yeah, that’ll look like a pat on the hand compared to the one you’ll get if you look at that hoe’s boobs that close again.

-Note to self…bitches be crazy

Mia

An hour into our dinner, I was thinking that Masen and Bowe were really hitting it off and this could actually be really something.

“We should go out to the cabin,” Bowe said. “It’s empty, and we were going out there anyway on Sunday. If we just went a day early, then we could make a weekend out of it instead.”

I looked at Tai.

“Y’all were already going out there?” I teased.

I hadn’t heard that yet.

Then again, he didn’t answer to me.

He could go hang out with his buddies if he wanted to.

“Yeah,” Tai confirmed. “The whole B shift goes out there once a month for training exercises. The cabin is owned by the Chief, Allen.”

“Ahh,” I said. “They have enough room for us?”

I picked up a French fry and dipped it into the ranch sauce the waitress had been kind enough to bring me. Not just a small cup either, but a cereal bowl sized order of it.

I didn’t complain, but I did find it funny.

I’d been asking her for more all night. And she’d thought she’d be funny by bringing me more than enough.

Bitch.

It also didn’t help that I knew she had the hots for Tai.

And that Tai had had his dick in her.

Tai, I assumed, didn’t know that I knew.

Otherwise he’d be trying to do some damage control.

Women know, though.

They know when they’re in the presence of a woman who’s fucked their man.

I knew that Tai wasn’t a choirboy when we’d met.

He was a hot, sexy, twenty-eight-year-old man.

He was in the prime of his life, so it shouldn’t have come to any surprise to me that I’d eventually bump into one of his castoffs.

But it did.

And it hurt.

But just as suddenly as those feelings came, they left.

He put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side, and pressed his lips onto my forehead in a natural, effortless way.

The waitress gave me the evil eye, and I made a mental note to check my desert later to be sure that I didn’t have anything unwanted in it.

“That sounds good to me, but if you invite the women, then Fatbaby’s wife will want to go, too,” Tai said.

I grimaced.

As did Bowe.

Masen look confused.

“What’s wrong with her?” Masen asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Fatbaby’s wife is a jealous, catty bitch,” Tai explained. “She’s also the woman responsible for leaking all the stories lately on all the calls we’ve had. Not to mention Fatbaby could possibly get fired for sharing that information with her in the first place.”

I bit my lip.

That I hadn’t heard.

How terrible.

Something shared between spouses went without saying that it stayed confidential between the two of you.

It just seemed crazy to me that she’d be so callous with his trust.

Jesus.

“Well, let’s just worry about that later,” I said, my eyes narrowing as the plate with the large piece of cake came out that Tai and I were sharing.

She handed a fork to Tai but conveniently forgot the second one that we’d asked for.

“Rude,” I muttered, taking the fork from Tai and inspecting the cake.