Up in Flames (Firehouse Three Book 1)

by Sidney Bristol

  Arthur turned and strolled down the fence line. Hunter continued standing next to the truck, staring off at the building. What did it all mean? What did he do? Should he tell Jesse? Would she listen to him?

  “Hey,” a man barked.

  Hunter jerked his head around.

  Justin was all of a few feet away, lip curled. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “Evening.” Hunter nodded.

  “Jesse’s almost set up.”

  “Cool.”

  They stared at each other for a few more moments.

  “Where you from?” Justin asked.

  “Tucson.”

  “It gets hot there.”

  “Yup.”

  “You taking Jesse home after this?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “Swing by later. We can have a beer.” Justin turned around and strode away. It wasn’t a question. It was an order. And there was only one person who got to order Hunter around.

  What the fuck?

  One way or another, Justin Durcell was going to have to come to terms with Hunter being in Jesse’s life. There were already plenty of road blocks without her overly-protective brothers getting in the way, something Hunter would have to make clear to them over that beer.

  “What was that about?” Jesse closed in, tossing a glance over her shoulder at Justin.

  “He wants to have a beer later.”

  “What? No.” Her eyes widened and she stared at her brother’s back in horror.

  “Probably just wants to give me the brother talk. How are things?”

  Jesse’s face creased.

  “Arthur told me about…” He tipped his head forward.

  “Oh…good. I didn’t want to, um—”

  “I get it.” He placed his hand on her lower back as she turned toward the site.

  “We’re ready.”

  Jesse led him over to where they’d set up some sort of Plexiglas shield. She grabbed a radio. Despite the theft and things going wrong, she still had a job to do.

  “Everyone clear?” she said into it. One by one other voices checked in until she radioed out the all clear. “Blasting in ten.”

  Justin took up the count from ten down. Right around three a chill went down Hunter’s spine.

  The old hotel was a good five stories of concrete, steel beams and rebar. The windows were gone and the building stripped of anything worth the effort. Still, that was a lot of stuff to come down.

  “One,” Justin said.

  For a single second everything was silent. The air crackled with anticipation and his pulse kicked up.

  Boom.

  He felt the explosion, a lot like the one yesterday, only without the wall of heat. The building crumpled in on itself, sending out a cloud of dust. The ground shook as the top floor collapsed the next and so forth. A tidal wave of dust rose up over them, obscuring the light and structures around the site. By the time the dust passed it was over, the building was down.

  It happened so fast, if Hunter had blinked he would have missed it.

  Voices radioed in, giving a secondary all clear signal while Hunter was still staring at the newly cleared space in the Dallas skyline.

  Jesse stood and her brothers whooped, clapping. They high-fived each other, then Justin started barking orders into the radio.

  “Good job, Jesse.” James squeezed her briefly.

  The two brothers, their friend and the fourth man split, each going their separate ways, leaving the two of them alone.

  “What’d you think?” Jesse grinned.

  “That was awesome.”

  “Isn’t it?” She turned to survey the downed building. “I was a little worried it wouldn’t be enough, but it came down clean.”

  “What next?” And how fast could he get her to himself?

  “Oh, um, that’s pretty much it for tonight. We’ll come back tomorrow and start clearing the site. Well, Justin and James will. My part’s done.”

  “So—food and home?”

  “Works for me. I have a crockpot going if you’re a fan of brisket.”

  “Marry me?”

  Jesse sputtered and laughed, but she didn’t say no. Hunter would take that as a good sign.

  Jesse’s body tingled with a heightened sense of awareness. She was wired, but that’s how it was on demo days. Being the one to flip that switch was…it was awesome. She couldn’t wait to get home.

  She glanced at Hunter, his face illuminated by the dash lights.

  Chances were good she was going to get laid.

  That knowledge only amped up her need.

  “Arthur was there,” Hunter said.

  “He was?”

  “Yeah, I think he was just watching, you know?”

  “No, I didn’t.” She blinked at the dash. That meant something, that the detective was there, watching, she just didn’t know what.

  “That was probably the point.”

  “And he told you that we were missing three pounds of C4?” She swallowed. Three pounds wasn’t a lot, but it could do some damage. The warehouse had happened with a single pound and some gasoline in an old barrel.

  “He didn’t tell me how much.”

  “Shit. This is all...damn it.”

  “How many people had access to it?” Hunter asked.

  “The guy who packed it. Oscar picked it up and drove it over. Nick stored it. Justin brought it to the site. And I weighed it.”

  “Who is Oscar, again?”

  “He’s been with us since the beginning. I thought…I thought having just us touch it would keep it all safe.” She scrubbed a hand over her face. Where had they messed up? When had they been vulnerable?

  “Could you see any of them doing this?”

  “No.” She stared at Hunter. “No, way Justin would never risk the business. Nick—he’s family. He wouldn’t do something like this. Oscar, he’s too caught up in personal issues to be involved in anything else. It has to be someone else.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Yes, I am. These people are family, Hunter. Our family.”

  “Easy. I’m just asking questions. Trying to help.”

  “Well, don’t point fingers at our people. That’s not helping anything.”

  “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

  They drove the rest of the way in silence. Seriously, what good was it to waste time looking at the people they trusted most? Sure, she got that most crimes were someone you knew, but Oscar and Nick were the last people who’d do something like this. They were invested in the business. Their success. It just wasn’t possible. End of story.

  Hunter parked in front of her barn and they got out. Still not speaking. Neither of her brothers were home yet, but they wouldn’t leave the site for a little while longer.

  “Hey. Hey, wait a minute.” Hunter stopped her just outside the barn, both hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, okay? I mean it. I don’t know these guys and I’m just trying to ask questions. Figure it out with you. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “No, I know, and thank you.” She squeezed him once.

  The dogs barked, no doubt already aware of their presence and hungry.

  Hunter helped her serve up the doggie dinner, then followed Jesse into the apartment for their own meal. He liked this routine with her. It was comfortable in a way that was new to him.

  “What will you do now that the demo blasting part is over?” he asked while they ate.

  “I’ll start training Sirius.” She had a whole plan cooked up, too. It wasn’t often that she got to go from a demo high to a training high, but this time, things were lining up pretty well.

  Hunter stared at her a moment.

  “You weren’t kidding when you said that’s the only part of the job your brothers let you do?” He tilted his head to the side.

  “Nope. As far as they’re concerned, that’s my contribution.” She rolled her eyes.

  “That sucks. Why not go work for someone else?”

  She chewe
d for a moment, looking up at the ceiling. It was an easy question, at least on the surface, but when family was involved who knew? She had so many conflicted emotions and thoughts, they were hard to sort at the best of times, much less now.

  “Because if I went to work for someone else, it would be an uphill battle. I’d spend so much time just proving myself that…I wouldn’t have anything left to give. I’d do my job and I’d kill myself trying to measure up to the guys. Here, yeah, I get that from the crew sometimes, but I always know my brothers will have my back because we’re Durcells and it’s our name on the company. We stick together when it counts.”

  “It’s not fair.”

  “Nope. I want to stay part of the company because…because I worked so hard to get here, but it’s not what I love. I did it to prove myself to them. If I could go back, do something else…I don’t know where I’d be, but it wouldn’t be construction. I don’t love it like my brothers. And really, James is the only one of us who loves his job. He loves designing buildings and plans. I think Justin saw construction as a way to provide for us, keep us going, and staring our own company made sense to him when he did it.”

  “What’s Justin and James’s role?”

  “Justin is the boss and gets to deal with the not fun things, and James is more of an engineer, though he does more than just that.”

  “Let me guess, Justin put James through college?”

  “Yup. He wanted me to go to school for accounting so we could cover our bases with family, but I said fuck no to that.” Again, Jesse hadn’t wanted to fit the mold of their mother. She had her own life to live, even if that meant disappointing her brothers.

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Play with dogs.” She smiled and sipped her sweet tea. Yes, she was avoiding the deeper question, but the truth was she didn’t know what else she would do. She liked her demo work. And she liked having the freedom to train dogs and assist in rescue efforts.

  “What’s keeping you from doing that?”

  “Nothing, really. I could train more, do more, but I also like keeping things on a smaller scale. I just feel like, if I add too many dogs I lose my grasp of their personalities and it’s important to really know them, pick up on their moods and whatnot for what I do.”

  “What’s the FEMA pay like?”

  “They don’t pay. It’s volunteer based. At least for me. It would be nice to train scent dogs forever, though. The problem there is, then it becomes more about making sales than anything else. I want to be able to pick where my dogs go. It’s not about the money. It’s about giving them a happy, healthy future.”

  “So you wouldn’t sell to a police department?”

  “What? Hell yes I would. K-9 dogs live with their handlers. They’re loved, adored, and they get to do what they’re good at.”

  “Kyle and Abby, they work with me, their dad’s a K-9 cop.”

  “Really? What’s his name?”

  “Winters…something?”

  “That…sounds…familiar, but he’s not someone I’ve worked with directly. Usually when they bring in FEMA scent dogs it’s a pretty tense situation and they’re already making use of every resource they’ve got.” She shrugged. “I’ve sold a few dogs to the DEA and narcotics. I love getting the yearly report from this one handler. His wife and daughter make scrap book pages they send me every year. They do a break down on all the drugs and people they’ve caught. It’s adorable.”

  “Anyone you don’t sell to?”

  “Airports. I don’t sell to airports. Those dogs are kept kenneled when they aren’t in use, at least all the ones I know of are. Maybe if things were different, if they had more…freedom? I’d change my mind, but I haven’t yet come across an airport K-9 unit that I’d want to place my dogs into. That’s not a happy environment.” She sighed and leaned back. “As frustrating as my circumstances are, I like what I do and how we do it. For me, it works.”

  “That’s what matters.”

  Her cell phone rang, Justin’s name and face filling her screen.

  “What the hell does he want?” She flicked her finger over the button. Better to answer his call than have Justin show up once they were done eating. She had plans for that big bed and Hunter. “What?”

  “Your boyfriend available?”

  “Uh, why?”

  “We were going to have a beer.”

  “You were?” Jesse turned toward Hunter, who was wiping his mouth and pushing his plate away.

  “Is he back?” Hunter asked.

  “Tell him to come over,” Justin said.

  “Yeah.” She blinked at Hunter a few times before she realized Justin had hung up on her. She didn’t like this. “You’re having a beer with my brother?”

  “He asked me earlier if I would.” Hunter stood.

  “Now?” She sat back in her chair. So much for sex goals.

  “Yeah, I won’t be too long, promise.” He bent and kissed her forehead.

  She watched Hunter leave before she could gather her thoughts enough to form a sentence.

  “What the fuck is going on?” she said into the empty apartment.

  13.

  Hunter knocked on the large stone house’s front door. He considered stepping out of the pool of light from the windows so he was harder to aim at, in case Justin had ideas about putting a bullet in him.

  The door opened and Justin Durcell stood on the other side, his scowl etched permanently into place. Did the man even know how to smile?

  “Evening.” Hunter tipped his head. That’s what cowboys like Justin did, right?

  “Come in.” Justin’s tone was flat, uninterested.

  Awesome.

  Hunter was so glad he’d left Jesse’s barn apartment for this brother bonding moment, or whatever it was. This was a great idea. Not.

  He stepped inside and cleared the door.

  Justin’s house was large, the furniture sparse but comfortable. He waved Hunter after him into the open kitchen and pulled two beers out of the fridge. Everything was shiny. New. From the copper vent over the stove to the gleaming doorknobs, the place couldn’t have been built all that long ago. Or maybe Justin was a neat freak. How the hell should Hunter know?

  “You’re a firefighter, huh?” Justin sipped from his bottle, never taking his eyes off Hunter.

  “Yup.”

  “You know a guy named Reid?”

  “Reid Krull? Yeah.”

  Fuck. Hunter started sweating down his spine.

  Reid was the first guy Hunter had hit it off with. They’d spent the first couple of weekends he was in Dallas drinking the night they got off shift and occupying the rest of their time with the ladies.

  They weren’t Hunter’s proudest moments. He’d been pretty pissed off and looking to make his mark in a big way.

  Reid was a decent guy. A lot like Hunter. Ladies knew what they were getting when Reid opened his truck door for them. He wasn’t the kind of guy to lead a woman on, which was why he and Hunter got on so well.

  Justin grunted.

  Was that the wrong answer? Was Hunter failing some sort of quiz?

  If Justin knew Reid…

  What had Reid said about Hunter?

  “About Jesse…” Justin’s frown lines deepened.

  “Yeah?” Hunter braced one hand on the counter.

  “What are your intentions with my sister?”

  Hunter glanced over his shoulder. Was he being punk’d? Was this for real? Did people actually ask this sort of shit? He’d never had siblings. Just Drake.

  “Well, I intend to go out with your sister, and the rest is none of your damn business.” There were lines a mile wide and the rest of his relationship with Jesse was across one of those. He didn’t give a flying fuck what Justin thought.

  “It’s my business if I say it is. You don’t know Jesse. The kind of minding she needs.”

  “Minding?” Hunter sputtered.

  Justin stared at Hunter.

  He was serious.

&
nbsp; He really thought Jesse needed minding. Like a pot ready to boil. Like a bonfire. Like…a damn kid.

  “Do you hear yourself?” Hunter narrowed his gaze. No wonder Jesse had run away from home to prove herself. “You try to put her in time out or swat her with a newspaper, too?”

  “You don’t know her like I do. You’ve been around for—what? A few days and you think you know her?” Justin put his beer down so hard on the counter some of the frothy liquid sloshed out.

  “I think I know her pretty well.” Fuck. This was a mistake. Hunter tipped his head back and took a long pull from the bottle. The sooner he finished the beer, the sooner he could leave, obligation fulfilled. Check that box off the list. Done that. Never again.

  “She told you she nearly killed some kids?” Justin watched Hunter closely, looking for something he could no doubt lord over Jesse.

  Hunter kept his expression neutral. Nearly implied that everyone had survived, and Hunter doubted she would have left something major like this out if it mattered. The way Hunter saw it, Justin wanted a list of wrongs to keep Jesse in check. Getting to know Justin was a mistake. Hunter didn’t much like the man in front of him.

  “When she was in high school—”

  “I don’t need to hear it from you.” Yeah, Hunter knew how that story would go. He didn’t need Justin’s twisted version.

  “You don’t get her problem with alcohol.”

  Alcohol problem?

  What problem?

  Hunter had known drunks. Addicts. Jesse wasn’t like that.

  “Tell me something,” Hunter gripped the counter and stared at Justin, “when’s the last time you hung out with your sister? When’s the last time you shut your face and listened to her talk? Ask her how she’s doing? So far, all I’ve seen you do is talk over her and talk about her. Seems to me, you don’t really know your sister if you’re still holding her accountable for the mistakes she made while she was a damn fucking kid.”

  Yeah, he got Jesse. He got her in a way her brothers probably didn’t. Couldn’t. Because, for however short, the brothers had that perfect family. Jesse hadn’t. She’d been too young for it to shape her. But her brothers had. Their backgrounds were different, but he knew what it was like to be talked about, over and to without ever once someone listening to him. Giving him the time of day he’d craved.