Arson & Ache: A MFM Firefighter Romance (Surrender to Them Book 8)

by Kelli Callahan

  “What’s going on, Chief?” I walked towards him as fast I could without breaking into a run.

  “There’s another letter.” He waved me into his office.

  “What?” I blinked in surprise. “Another letter from Fireball?”

  “Yes.” He grabbed a piece of paper off his desk and handed it to me. “The press is going to sit on this one for a few hours and let us try to make sense of it, but it’ll be online after lunch.”

  “How the hell is he sending a letter from jail?” I grabbed the paper and stared at it.

  Dear New York,

  Incompetence is your latest sin. You smile, celebrate, and worship those that deserve nothing. Did you think it would be that easy? Did you think I was going to go away because you wanted me to? The innocent rot while I laugh. Let those who are without sin cast the first stone and listen to the silence as they face their guilt. Prepare yourselves. You’ve given me a name, but I refuse to answer to it. You’ve given me a face, but it is a mask for your own ignorance. My message was clear. Now, it’s time for me to expose your lies. Tonight, you will see my face. Enjoy your humiliation.

  -Fireball

  “Holy shit!” I looked up from the paper and my jaw fell open in surprise. “Those mother fuckers arrested the wrong man!”

  “Maybe.” Chief Vance nodded. “Or it could be a copycat—or an accomplice. I’m not ready to throw Detective Lewis under the bus quite yet, but I think you’re right.”

  “I need to get back to work.” I held up the paper. “Can I keep this?”

  “Yeah, go ahead. It’s a copy.” Chief Vance walked over and grabbed the door. “You need to call Donovan.”

  “I know.” I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket as I walked towards my desk.

  I was just about to click on Donovan’s name when the front door of the fire station opened, and Detective Lewis walked in. All of the confidence and arrogance I saw on his face the last time he was in the fire station was gone. He looked like a broken man, and I didn’t have any sympathy for him. He acted without making sure he had found the right suspect, and that had backfired on him. I didn’t believe the Chief’s theories about an accomplice, nor did I believe that we were dealing with a copycat. The letter was pretty clear. We were being taunted and shamed for claiming we had Fireball behind bars when the wrong man was sitting in a cage. The city wasn’t safe, and once the letter finally did get published, we were all going to look like fools. We gave the people who trusted us a false sense of security, and I hoped Fireball didn’t retaliate by adding more casualties just to prove we were incompetent.

  “I guess you’ve seen the letter.” Detective Lewis walked up to me and looked down at the floor.

  “Yes.” I growled and turned towards the board behind my desk. “I guess we can take Johnny West’s picture down now.”

  “I’m sorry. I was under so much fucking pressure from the mayor—I had to do something. I thought we had the right man.” Detective Lewis exhaled sharply.

  “Pressure?” My anger started to build up inside me. “I’ve been under fucking pressure since all of this shit started!”

  “I know—I just thought we had our guy. He was a perfect fit.” Detective Lewis lifted his head and sighed. “Now we’re finding out that he had an alibi for several of the fires.”

  “Wouldn’t that have been something you looked into before you slapped the fucking handcuffs on him?” I walked over and tore Johnny West’s picture off the board. “Do you know how many fucking suspects I’ve had? Do you know how many people I could have asked you to arrest because they fit the damn profile?”

  “We jumped the gun.” Detective West leaned forward and put his hands on my desk. “We fucked up. This one is on us.”

  “Have fun with this fucking lawsuit.” I tossed the picture in front of Detective Lewis. “You’ve branded him as Fireball. His life is over, even if he’s innocent. Great job, asshole.”

  “We need to work together now. It’s more important than ever. The lieutenant has told me I can have as many men as I need. We’ll tear this city apart if it helps us find Fireball.” Detective Lewis grunted angrily. “But you know the investigation—you know what kind of guy we should be looking for.”

  Oh, now you want to work together? Now that your face is covered in shit because you fucked up?

  “If I knew that much, I’d have figured out who he was by now.” I sat down in my chair with a thud. “I’m going to go back through the case files—including the ones I neglected because I thought you arrested Fireball. I’ll let you know if I find something.”

  After I make sure I have the right fucking guy.

  “We have to figure out who Fireball is before he shows his face. If he’s doing that, he has something big planned—and he’ll probably disappear completely once it’s done.” Detective Lewis leaned back from my desk. “We can’t let that happen.”

  “Right…” I nodded and grabbed the top file off the stack.

  It took everything I had not to just verbally obliterate Detective Lewis. There was so much I wanted to say to him that I could have spent an entire afternoon berating his incompetence. He would have to live with the guilt and the hate that was coming his way. The mayor wasn’t going to forgive that incompetence, especially after he found out Johnny West had an alibi for some of the fires. It would have been fine to bring Johnny West in for questioning. We had questioned several suspects, although most of it was left up to me because Detective Lewis couldn’t be bothered to give a fuck. He put his own pride before his badge and arrested the wrong man. He also pissed off the real Fireball, and I was almost certain things were going to escalate. Anything that happened would be on his conscious, but I wasn’t going to sit idly by if the city was still in jeopardy.

  Fuck, I need to call Donovan.

  I picked up my phone and tried to call him, but it went to voicemail. It was still early, so it was possible he decided to sleep in. I left what ended up being a frantic voicemail and returned to the case files. I felt like I was staring at hieroglyphs. The answer had to be in there somewhere. Fireball hated greedy people, he targeted monuments of greed, and even went after people who profited from it. I wondered if perhaps Detective Lewis was on the right track—it could be someone who was directly impacted by the greed of others. Johnny West was an obvious suspect, but he couldn’t be the only one who had grievances. It was going to take a long time to go through an entire list of people who had been wronged by the firms associated with the buildings Fireball targeted. The only thing I could do was start at the beginning. I needed a clue—something that would reveal the face we were going to see if we failed to figure out who it was.

  “Did you get in touch with Donovan?” Chief Vance walked up to my desk as I quickly flipped through files.

  “No, he didn’t answer my call, but I’m sure he’ll be on the way as soon as he hears my voicemail.” I sighed and looked up at Chief Vance.

  “I called the lieutenant and ask them to send over everything Detective Lewis worked on over the weekend. Maybe there’s something in there that can help.” Chief Vance pointed at my computer. “Check your email. I believe Detective Lewis put together some sort of database with all the information from the case files. It should make it easier to search through stuff.”

  “Thanks, Chief.” I turned towards my computer and loaded my email. “Wow, yeah—this is going to be a big help.”

  Well at least Detective Lewis did something right. If this database helped him find Johnny West, then maybe the real suspect is still in here somewhere.

  Donovan

  Earlier that morning

  “Dad! Oh shit. Abby, he’s not breathing—call an ambulance!” I looked at my stepmother as panic swept through my veins.

  I had been talking to my father only minutes before I found him unresponsive. I went to the kitchen to fix a cup of coffee and when I returned, his mouth was open, and his eyes were closed. I feared the worst. My training kicked in and I got him onto the floo
r, so I could start CPR. I dropped to my knees in the middle of the puddle of coffee I spilled. I had to save him. It had to work. I couldn’t lose my father. Abby called for help while I worked on him. Time was of the essence because every second that passed without oxygen was potentially his last. I frantically worked on him, refusing to give up as Abby sank to the floor and sobbed. His face had a blueish hue and that was a very bad sign. I heard a siren outside and was glad that they responded quick, but they weren’t going to get him to the hospital before it was too late.

  “Come on! Don’t die on me, you bastard!” I hit his chest and started the repetitions again.

  The paramedics came rushing through the door, and before they could take over, my father gasped for air. He was breathing! He started coughing immediately and I saw his chest moving on it’s on. I sat back and let the paramedics start working on him. They put an oxygen mask on him, checked his vitals and rolled a stretcher into the room. I stood to my feet once he was hoisted onto the stretcher and followed them out the door with Abby right behind me. My father seemed to be responsive, and quite agitated once he realized he was being hauled away on a stretcher. If he still had some fight in him, then he wasn’t as bad off as I originally thought. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but I wouldn’t be able to do that until they got him to the hospital and figured out what was wrong. I feared a heart attack at first, but he was recovering too quickly for that.

  “There’s not enough room for both of us in there. You should ride with him.” I motioned to the ambulance. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Okay.” Abby nodded and wiped away a few tears before climbing into the back of the ambulance.

  I ran back into the house and grabbed my cell phone, along with my keys. I was still scared as I drove to the hospital. My father was breathing, but that didn’t mean he was completely out of the woods. Something was definitely wrong. Abby met me in the emergency room and we hugged for a moment before we sat down to wait on the doctor. My stomach twisted into a knot as the minutes passed and then those minutes turned into an hour. The adrenaline began to fade from my veins, but the worry remained. That wasn’t going to fade until we had good news—or at least promising news. Abby reached over and took my hand, squeezing it so tight that her nails were digging into my skin.

  “He’s going to be okay. He has to be okay.” Her lips trembled as she spoke.

  “I don’t know what you see in that man, but he’s too stubborn to die.” I tried to make a joke—anything to alleviate some of her concern.

  “I want to believe that.” She nodded, and her lips pursed.

  The doctor came out and gave us the news after another hour passed, but it wasn’t as promising as I hoped. My father’s heart had stopped and while it started beating on its own again, they needed to go ahead with the surgery immediately. My father was on his way to the operating room and it would be a couple of hours before they were able to complete the procedure. Nothing he said alleviated the worry because even a simple surgery could go wrong. I realized that I needed to call my sister, but she didn’t answer. I had a voicemail from Kincaid from earlier that morning, but I couldn’t check it. My head was spinning too hard as it was and if something was going on at work, I just couldn’t process that. I wasn’t going anywhere until my father was out of surgery.

  “You were working on that Fireball case, right?” Abby looked up at me when I walked back to where she was sitting.

  “Yeah.” I nodded and sat down. “He’s in jail now.”

  “I—don’t think so.” She held up her phone. “Apparently he just released another letter.”

  “What!?” I jumped to my feet and dug my cell phone out of my pocket. “Fuck!”

  I listened to Kincaid’s voicemail and it felt like I was melting into the floor as I heard his words. I quickly skimmed the latest article that had only been online for a few minutes and called Kincaid. He answered immediately. I wasn’t able to get a word in as he launched into a diatribe about the police department’s incompetence, Detective Lewis, and Fireball’s threat. When he finally paused for air, I told him about my father. There was silence on the other end of the phone for a second, and then he told me that I needed to stay with my family.

  I felt torn, but I knew I couldn’t leave the hospital, especially if my father was in surgery. I didn’t care if it ended up costing me my promotion. I hoped Chief Vance would understand, but I would have to deal with the repercussions if he didn’t. I returned to Abby’s side and she aimlessly scrolled through her phone. She was just looking for a distraction—something to take her mind off what we were both worried about. I wished I could get my head to stop spinning, but I didn’t think seeing news about Fireball was going to do anything but irritate me.

  It figures that Detective Lewis would fuck this up. He didn’t give a shit about the case until the mayor was on his ass.

  Marissa

  Earlier that morning

  Rushing to work seemed to be the new normal. It was good that I was no longer Ms. Stone’s secretary because she always wanted me early with her coffee in hand. Was it possible to have a sex hangover? That’s what I felt like I had. It was definitely enhanced by a lack of sleep. Even after a shower, I still felt like I was coated in my own lust and was sure someone would just be able to see that I had been fucked until my legs barely worked. I could still feel Kincaid inside me. My pussy had been fucked so hard it was slightly tingling when I sat down behind my desk and tried to blend in with the rest of the workers. Luckily, Kincaid didn’t spank me hard enough to leave that sore as well. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as I dove into my account and made a few safe investments. That was supposed to be the best strategy for a newbie like me. I could take bigger risks once I showed that my investments weren’t going to destroy my client’s entire account over the course of one afternoon.

  I have achieved my dream of investing other people’s money while staring at a computer screen all day.

  I felt like I had finally arrived, but something was missing. I didn’t see that when I was so focused on getting the job of my dreams. I wanted more than just a job. I didn’t want to end up alone in an office like Ms. Stone. I wanted love—marriage—children. All of those things were possible, but I wasn’t sure how I would get there. Could I turn my relationship with Kincaid and Donovan into all of those things? Would they want those things? I let myself get consumed with lust without really dwelling on the future because that was what I wanted in the moment, but that moment wouldn’t last forever, no matter how good it was. Eventually I would want to settle down, and while I was open with exploring that option with both of my gorgeous firefighters, it certainly wouldn’t be conventional.

  I let them claim me, but what if that isn’t enough? I need to sort all of this out in my head, but we also need to discuss what the future holds.

  “Hey, did you hear?” Cathy walked up to my desk with a grin on her face.

  “Hear what?” I looked up at her.

  “Ms. Stone called in sick today! It’s the first time ever!” She was practically trembling with excitement. “We’re thinking about hiring some male strippers and ordering a keg!”

  “What, seriously?” I blinked in surprise.

  “No, we can’t actually do that.” She giggled under her breath. “But she did call in sick. That’s crazy right? You were her secretary.”

  “Yeah, it is.” I nodded in agreement. “I thought the germs were too scared of her to even considering making her sick.”

  I bet Hannah and the new girl are losing their minds right now.

  I continued working on my account until lunch time and decided to go check out my old stomping grounds at the top of Livingston Capital. I rode the elevator to the top floor and I was greeted by eerie silence. It was normally what I would hear when I first arrived in the morning, but I never heard that kind of pin-drop quietness in the middle of the day. Ms. Stone’s door was closed, the light was off, and both of the secretary desks were empty. As
I got closer, I saw that my old desk was redecorated by the new girl, and Hannah’s computer was on, but she was nowhere in sight. The silence was broken by the phone and hearing it interrupt the calm nearly startled me out of my shoes. A second later, Hannah came scurrying from the supply closet and grabbed the phone. She noticed me once she sat down and motioned me over as she took a message and told the caller that Ms. Stone was out of the office.

  “Hey!” She hopped up and gave me a hug once the phone call was done. “What brings you to the penthouse suite?”

  “I heard that Ms. Stone was out and honestly, I had to see it for myself.” I laughed as I hugged her. “Where’s the new girl?”

  “Oh, I sent her to get us some food.” Hannah walked over and sat down behind her desk. “I don’t have the urge to get out of the office for my lunch break today for some reason.”

  “I wonder why.” I chuckled and pulled a chair over to sit down. “Maybe you can actually catch up on some work today.”

  “Yeah, I’ve done more work with Ms. Stone out of the office than I normally do when she’s here. It’s a lot easier when she’s not piling more on every few minutes.” Hannah nodded and leaned back in her chair. “So, tell me about the new job. Is it amazing?”