Stoking the Embers (New Adult Romantic Suspense): The Complete Series (18 page)

Beth continues to chew on her thumb. “Do you think he’s behind the video?”

I stare at her and slowly nod.

“You need to tell that to the police when they get here. You need to tell them about the botched proposal and everything Professor Donovan said.”

I continue to nod. She stands and goes over to my desk and pulls out a notebook and grabs an ink pen. She sits back down. “I’m writing all this down so you don’t forget.”

I look at my friend. How did I ever get so lucky as to have Beth Richards in my life? She’s been my solid… the one person I could lean on and tell everything to. I thought I could lean on Jerome, but never fully trusted him enough. I had hoped Ken would be someone like that in my life.

Tears well and then spill as I remember how angry he was at the park. I sank into la-la land. He hulked into rage. I can’t help but wonder if he hates me. If I’ll ever see him again. If I
should
.

“What should I do about Ken?” I ask my friend and her head pops up.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure he hates me now. I would hate me if I were him.”

“Wait.” She points the ink pen at me. “You’re automatically assuming that you’re to blame, the cause of all this? You’re a victim too, you know. You, in no way, shape or form, caused this to happen.”

It was my turn to bite my cuticles. “I think this was Jerome’s doing. His revenge against me. Ken got caught in the middle.”

“Stephanie, from the little I saw and from what I know about the two of you… Ken wanted to be in the middle. Heck, he jumped in the middle.”

“I don’t know,” I say, unable to see her point. “You know what I worry about the most?”

“What?”

“I think Ken is too nice a guy to walk away and he might try to stay with me out of obligation. After all, it would be a shitty thing for him to do, to dump me after all that’s happened.”

“And that worries you, why?” She snaps the notebook shut, tosses it on the table and picks up her mug of tea again.

“I…” I blow out a breath. “I don’t want anyone to feel obligated to me.”

Beth’s eyes fill with tears and she sits her mug down again and walks over to sit next to me. “You still don’t get it, do you?” she asks, stroking my wet hair, then twirling it between her fingers. “The people in your life are
lucky
to be in your life. You’re the best person I know.”

Her kindness releases the sandbags I’d been holding in place, releasing the water from the dam of my soul. Tears flow unheeded from my eyes. Before I can succumb to them, I need to say the words clogging my throat.

“As much as I care for him, I think I should let him go. I don’t want to drag him any further into this mess.”

Chapter 4 – Ken

I hoped a night of sleep would bring some sort of clarity to the morning. It hasn’t. Just a headache from the jack and coke I used to dull the anger and force the sleep I knew wouldn’t come on its own. I sit up in bed and my gut heaves. I swallow it down and sit there, willing the world to stop freaking spinning.

I have to be in Cap’s office by nine. It’s eight-thirty, just enough time to hydrate and wash the stink of the whisky off me. I make it to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee to brew, then stumble to the shower and turn the water on full blast cold. I see the towel Steph used just two days before, still hanging on the hook, now dry. Two days feels like two years ago now. How can so much go wrong in so little time?

After the cold shower wakes me up, I dress in off-duty clothes, but pull on my navy LVFD shirt for good luck. God knows I need it today. The captain is going to ream my ass; I lied to the man about seeing Stephanie. What comes around really does go around, I guess.

Shit. I dread this. Dread the accusation I will surely see in his eyes. All these years of spotless duty, of fighting fires and running into the places people normally run away from, my career is now tarnished because my dick fucking refused to stay in my pants.

Pouring a thermos mug of coffee, I grab a donut and head out the door. The desert sun is blinding, the storm of yesterday long passed. I shove my aviators onto my face. If only all storms could pass that quickly.

Walking into the fire hall, I brace myself for what I knew to expect… cat calls, men dry humping the pole, stripper music, belly laughs… I can’t blame the guys for giving me hell. No man could resist dicking around with another man walking in my shoes.

To my surprise, the entire hall grows silent as I walk into the bay. The guys look angry, not at me, but at the world in general. A few of them walk forward and slap me on the back.

“Sucks man.”

“We’ll find the pussy behind this.”

“…shove his camera up his ass.”

“Yeah, we’re going to take that bastard down.”

Ed walks up to me. “You okay, man?”

You’d think there’d been a death in my family. I guess there has been… death of dignity, death of privacy. I never really thought about it, but there are all kinds of deaths.

“Hangin’. I’m hangin’ right now. Thanks.”

Feeling like a man walking the green mile, I go down the hallway to the captain’s office. I knock on the door.

“Come in.”

I blow out a breath and turn the knob.

All seriousness, Captain Frank tells me to sit and offers me a cup of coffee. I raise my thermos and he pours one for himself. The clock on the wall tick-tick-ticks on my nerves.

“First off, how are you doing today? That was a pretty foul piece of business yesterday. The whole squad is angry, me too. I can only take a stab at how you’re feeling.”

My head starts to pound again. I think I’d rather be yelled at than looked at with pity.

“I’ll be alright. Just so damn pissed. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry for embarrassing the squad and I’m especially sorry for not telling you the truth. Steph and I had wanted to keep our business private and well, I guess I just panicked when everyone started asking questions.”

The captain nods. “How’s Steph?”

I lift a shoulder and he scowls, “What do you mean you don’t know? You haven’t checked up on that girl? Did you see how she looked?”

I shake my head. “I just figured she wouldn’t want to see me; thought she’d need some time before…”

Captain Frank lifts a finger at me and I stop my useless babbling under the intensity of his glare. “You get your ass over there. And take flowers and maybe a bottle of wine. You think you’re hurting and embarrassed; you’re only feeling a fraction of what that girl is feeling. We still live in a society where you’re going to be cheered for getting laid, but she’ll be labeled a slut. She’s much too sweet a girl for that to happen.”

I start to stand and he barks, “Not this minute, asshole. We have a few things to discuss first.”

I freeze, my butt still two inches from the chair. I can’t believe he just called me an asshole. I sink back into my seat with a thud.

“First, I accept your apology with a warning to never lie to me again. That’s the first I’ve known you to not tell me the truth, and I can understand why you didn’t. I was asking about a private thing, nothing official duty.” He sits back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. “That said, there is an official duty line being crossed. But, like I mentioned yesterday, the department doesn’t have a fraternization policy. You just need to keep business business and personal personal.”

I open my mouth to respond, although I have no idea what I’m going to say. I’m saved from saying something stupid when he continues, “I spoke to the investigator about an hour ago and they’ve officially logged this as a federal breach. They want access to the computer or phone you stored that video on and–”

“Wait.” I hold up my hand and lean forward in my seat. “We didn’t video tape that. I sure as shit know I didn’t and I don’t think Stephanie would either.” I stop and think, then shake my head. “No, that…” Fuck, this is embarrassing. “That video that was broadcast, I’m almost positive it was our first time together. It wasn’t planned, was totally spontaneous…” Hell, this is worse than talking with my dad about sex.

Captain cleared his throat. “There was a camera, Ken, and that camera was recording. If neither of you hit that play button, then who did?”

Heat burns through me. “That’s the fifty million dollar question and I’d bet every one of those dollars that it was Stephanie’s ex who did this.”

“How? Any ideas?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t know how. I tried to access the video again last night, to see if I could recognize the angle, get some perspective on how it could have been shot. But the video had been taken down. Thank God, right? But at the same time, I’d like to have been able to see the angle and distance better.”

Captain Frank nods. “To my knowledge, no one has been able to replay the video and the whole thing happened so quickly, I don’t know if anyone even got a screenshot. Doesn’t mean someone didn’t, but we don’t know of one yet. The investigators didn’t see it; apparently it was geo-targeted just to our surrounding area.”

“Well, finally some good news.” I nearly sag in the chair.

“The video link was live for about one minute, closest estimate,” Frank continues. “Anyone who didn’t click that link during that window, got the ‘file not found’ message. I was told they don’t know the open rate, and they’re still trying to pinpoint the hacker location.”

That sits me up straight. “I know the location. It’s 666 Asshole Road, Las fuckin’ Vegas, Nevada.”

The captain’s mouth curves up for a second, then he takes a sip of his coffee. “Knowing and proving are two different things.”

I sag again and take a sip of my coffee just as the captain’s phone rings, the shrill tone assaulting my brain. As the captain answers, I zone out and process everything he’s told me. Federal investigation. Geo-targeting. Play button. That’s the part that still kicks me in the throat. I know, deep down in my gut, that Steph would never do anything like this. But… the women at the grocery knew we were seeing each other. The guys yesterday knew it too. How could they have found out? I know I hadn’t said anything. Had Stephanie let it slip, on purpose or by accident? So many unanswered questions.

Captain taps on his desk, getting my attention. He’s speaking into the phone, “What time?” He looks at me. “Fourteen hundred work for you?”

“Today?”

He nods and I nod an affirmative. Two o’clock this afternoon would be just fine. The sooner the better.

Once he hangs up, he starts tapping the keyboard on his computer and says, “That was the federal agent; looks like they are taking this seriously. They’ve discovered something else online you might or might not want to see.”

He motions me around his desk and I stand up, dread becoming a spider walking up my spine. I look at the computer screen; it’s another video. This time it’s Stephanie, by herself, wearing only a skimpy tank top and underwear. She’s curled up on her couch, a text book in her lap, studying. She yawns and sits up straighter, stretching her arms in the air. Her nipples are plainly visible through the thin material of her top. She settles down and begins studying again.

Her cell phone rings and she picks it up and does a cute little happy dance sitting on the couch when she looks at the screen. She’s smiling as she says, “Hi handsome, guess what I’ve been thinking about?”

Shit.

We can’t hear the person she’s talking to, but I know exactly what is being said. I close my eyes as she giggles and says, “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking.” Pause. “What am I wearing?” She puts the textbook on the coffee table, a bright smile lighting up her face. I hate watching her like this, I feel like a freaking peeping tom, even though I know exactly what’s coming next.

The camera!

I take my eyes off her and try to picture her living room and where the camera must be placed to get this angle. I watch Captain Frank take screenshots and save them every few seconds. I glance down at the older man and watch his jaw twitch from grinding his teeth, his nostrils flaring in anger. He’s gone into what I call ‘distance’ mode… observe and take whatever actions you can, but don’t react emotionally. As firefighters, being emotionally distant can save lives.

On the screen, I watch Stephanie stand up and turn her back to the camera. She bends over and repositions her pillows. Then she lies down, stretching across the length of the couch, and crosses an ankle over a knee. The hand not holding the phone drops to her breast and she laughs into the phone, “I’m wearing a tank and panties.” Pause. She giggles and says, “Yes, the pink ones.” Pause. “Touch them?”

The hand on her breast glides down her stomach and then lower. “Yes, I’m touching them,” she says, becoming breathless now.

‘Take them off,’
I told her a week ago and watch her fulfill my request on the screen.

Captain Frank pushes away from his desk and turns away. “Son of a bitch mother fucker,” he mumbles as he stands up and walks to the other side of his office. I sit down in his chair and watch our phone sex conversation unfold before me. She slips a hand between her legs and enters herself, her head pressing down into the pillow as she moans.

‘Rub your clit for me, baby. Make yourself come for me, baby.’
I can hear myself saying those things to her, urging her on while I stroked myself and listened to her husky breaths. It was so much fun at the time, our first phone sex together. Another moment ruined. Another moment that was supposed to be just for us has been exploited.