My face fills with rage as I look back down at him, watching the breath leave his body as my mind flashes back to four years ago when I damn near beat that other arsonist to death.
But there’s no decision to make.
This time there will be no almost.
I squeeze harder, watching his eyes bulge as his skin goes beet red.
I don’t care about my badge. I don’t care about going to jail—
Fuck! Reason kicks in and the thought of me serving a life sentence for murder means there’s no way I can get what I really want.
My woman.
“You fucker,” I say, looking down at him.
But I don’t let up.
Suddenly I feel a huge jolt from the side as someone lays a flying shoulder into me, knocking me sideways and off Geoff.
I’m stunned momentarily, but quickly jump to my feet to assume a fighting position.
“What the…”
It’s the arsonist from four years ago.
“Just like always. Can’t finish the job.”
My eyes move from the asshole in front of me to Geoff on the ground, who’s rubbing his neck and trying to prop himself up on his shoulder, but he’s still deprived of oxygen.
Suddenly his hand slides down to his pant leg and he clumsily pulls it up, exposing a gun which he reaches for.
Fuck!
I juke to the side, sending the prick from four years ago lunging in the opposite direction as I take off for Geoff as he reaches for the small handgun.
Ten feet…
Five feet…
I dive, landing right on top of him, all my body weight pressing against his, as the gun falls into the grass.
“Freeze, police!”
I turn just in time to see the prior arsonist draw a weapon and Sergeant Gonzalez fire off two rounds right into his chest, ending his miserable life.
My chest is pounding as I look at Gonzalez who gives me a nod. “Any other perps, captain?”
“Only identified these two, Sergeant.”
Suddenly there’s a gurgling sound underneath me and I feel wetness in my stomach area.
I slide two fingers down and bring them back out.
“Fuck man! You’re bleeding,” Gonzalez yells.
My hands start shaking. “The knife!”
I’d forgot I stuck it in my belt loop and somehow it hadn’t gotten me the first or second time, but the third time was the charm…the deadly charm.
I feel woozy looking at all the blood knowing it’s way too much, way too fast. My body recognizes the pain in my midsection and suddenly the realization that I finally found out what life was all about, I finally had what I never even knew I wanted but was exactly what I needed, that everything…was over.
Right here. Right now.
I roll to my side and lie on my back, staring up at the sky hoping I’m heading there for what I’ve done on this earth to help people.
But right now I have to help myself…to have one last look at my woman.
If I’m going out, I’m going out on top of the world, with my eyes locked on the most beautiful creature in heaven or earth.
“Ha, ha. Ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha!” Gonzalez starts laughing hysterically. “Look!” he says, pointing at Geoff and then at me.
I look to my side seeing the handle of the knife pointing straight up, perfectly vertical, the blade obviously going all the way through him.
My mind quickly does the math, realizing my pain was from the handle pressing up into my abdomen. I wasn’t cut. It was his blood. I just had an extreme amount of pressure from the knife poking into me…from the handle.
The shock must have confused me.
I breathe out hard and then start laughing hysterically myself.
I roll over onto my back and pump my fists at the sky.
I’d never admit this in a million years, but I feel a tear fall from my eye.
The realization that I’m okay, that she’s okay, that we’re okay is the greatest feeling I’ve ever felt in the world.
Because that means we’ve got a life together. A future.
And because of the two lifeless bodies lying in the grass next to me…the past will remain where it belongs…buried in the past.
No more looking over our shoulders. Now we only look forward.
The loss of human life is always a serious thing, but considering that first arsonist didn’t learn his lesson and came back for more I feel no remorse.
And Geoff?
Well it seems this prick worked in the U.K. countryside in some small private school doing things with students that if it had been found out in time and he’d been prosecuted, it would have gotten him killed in prison. It’s the worst kind of offense you have on your record in the penal system.
Once one of the kids said something, and one of the parents came to confront him, he torched the evidence, which was inside the school…which was in session.
Thank god they were able to get all the kids and staff out in time, but apparently his dad was some hotshot lawyer, got him off and then he was able to get his surname changed by a couple letters and flew across the pond to target my woman thinking if he was able to get away with what he did he’d just keep on trying.
I spent hours upon hours piecing this all together, including a call over to the U.K. authorities to make sure I had the same guy.
The pictures were spot on as were the ID numbers. Changing a couple letters in his last name did make things more difficult, but when it came to keeping my woman safe and sound, nothing is too difficult.
I’d climb Everest for her in my underwear if that’s what it took, because that’s where she’s already taken me. The top of the mountain.
I jump up and give Gonzalez, or Gonzo as we call him, a big handshake and an embrace.
“Thanks, brother.”
“Badge brothers,” he says, tugging on the badge on his chest while he looks at the badge embroidered on my polo shirt we wear down at the station.
“Badge brothers.”
“Sis!” I suddenly hear and see Daniel’s personal vehicle pull up with a screech.
He jumps out, spinning each and every way frantically, his hands wide, until he spots the ambulance and runs toward it.
“I’ve got to go have a talk with another of our badge brothers.” I pause. “Thanks Gonzalez.”
“Just more fuel for the fire that your actions four years ago were right.”
“No more fuel. No more fires for awhile. I’m taking my lady and going somewhere far, far, away for some time. We’re gonna kick our feet up and stare off into the sun over blue seas.”
“Your lady? I didn’t know you were with anyone?” He pauses. “Wait a second? You mean Daniel’s sist—.” Another pause. “Damn, the boys at the station were lining up to get a chance—“
I raise a finger, my other hand balling into a fist as my teeth come out as I snarl. “Tell them not to even think about it. Badge brothers, remember? She’s mine.”
“You got it, captain.”
I nod and he follows suit just before I turn and walk over to the ambulance.
Now let’s see if Daniel and I can be badge brother’s too…all over again.
CHAPTER 25
Jonah
As soon as I reach the ambulance they’re ready to pull away.
“Don’t you dare close that door,” I order.
Quickly I’m inside riding with my woman to the hospital.
But it’s not just my woman, the crew and I.
Daniel is on one side of her and I’m on the other as her eyes open.
Slowly her head turns to my side and then his.
I grasp her hand nearest to me and Daniel grasps the other.
She says something that sounds like, “Thanks guys, for being here,” but they’ve got her hooked up to so many things I’m not one hundred percent sure.
What I am sure of is that even though this is my woman and I love her, the man on the other side of her is her brother and has
been her whole life. I respect that.
And I don’t want to lose our friendship not just for my sake or for his…most importantly for his sister’s.
The poor girl has been through hell and back and the last thing she needs when she gets out of the hospital and back to my place, which is now our place, is to have to deal with a bunch of childish bickering between the only two men she has in this world.
As much as I’m her man and that’s that, I do know that family comes first. It’s exactly what we’re going to have after all, so trying to downplay what she has with her brother would be totally incongruent and make me a hypocrite.
Not to mention he’s the one with the problem. Not me.
We arrive at the hospital and she’s taken to see a proper doctor while Daniel and I sit outside. I know he’s angry so there’s no point in poking the bear. I’m a bear too, but it’s better to give him time and let him come to me…as a lion would do.
And almost right on cue he stands up, goes to the Coke machine, purchases two and comes over to me and holds one out.
I look up at his eyes and see the sincerity in them before reaching for the ice cold drink that I so desperately need.
Daniel sits down next to me, our two big bodies must look like a comedy show on these little plastic chairs that are next to each other along this row of seating pushed against the wall.
“It just came out of nowhere, that’s all,” he begins before taking a sip. “But that’s how you always do it. You came on the scene four years ago like a hurricane and before long we were best friends. And today, well, I talked to some of the crew when you were over there with Gonzo cleaning up this mess once and for all. You told me you loved her earlier today, but not long after you showed me. Telling me should have been enough and I apologize that it wasn’t. But just like you always do, you stuck your neck out for someone else…just this time that someone was my little sis, and the woman that I now know with complete certainty that you do love…absolutely. And I wish you two the best.”
He holds out his Coke can and I tap mine against his, before tipping it back and downing the whole thing.
“You’re going to be burping for an hour now. You know that right?”
“That’s you that does that, not me.”
“That’s Washington! He’s always trying to play weird burping games in the break room. You know that.”
We both laugh.
We sure do work with a lot of characters down at the station. That’s for sure.
“Gentlemen,” a man in a white coat says and we both jump to our feet like soldiers.
“Who is the man I need to talk to about Daphne.”
“He is,” Daniel says.
“Both of us,” I say.
“Well then good, because telling good news to two people at once is twice the pleasure and one I don’t get to deliver every day. She’ll be ready to go home tonight, but she needs to be off her feet for a few days and take it easy for ten days to two weeks after that.”
“Yes, sir. I didn’t plan on letting her lift a finger as long as she lived anyways.”
“No wonder she loves you.”
“Come again?” I ask.
“You must be Jonah, right?”
“I am.”
“She’s been asking for you.”
And I’ve got my own question for her, one that will seal our destiny forever.
But today isn’t the right time. Like the doctor says, we need to take it easy for awhile. I don’t want her, or I, having a heart attack out of sheer joy. Granted having one in a hospital is probably the best place to do it, but I’d rather we’re happy and at home, so we can celebrate properly…so the most important question of my life will have to wait.
But regardless, there’s one question she’ll never have to ask herself. That’s how much I love her.
Because I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing her, because that’s what I love to do. It comes naturally, when she makes you feel like the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
And today I am, in more ways than I could have ever imagined.
But I never imagined the most important one…that I’d find the one.
Her.
My woman. My everything. And soon the whole world will know what she already does.
Just how much I love her.
EPILOGUE
Daphne
One month later
“How ya feelin’?” Jonah asks, his hands finding my shoulders as I drop my book, leaning back into his massage.
“Great and even better now.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
I close my eyes and feel complete relaxation, complete bliss. This is how it’s meant to be.
Since the fire at my Airbnb a month ago things have changed drastically. Strangely enough that moment didn’t just put an end to a big problem for me, but also for Jonah.
It seems that first arsonist had been looking for revenge against Jonah for years. When Geoff found out who Jonah was, and what he meant to me, he immediately went about finding out everything he could about him. He knew that guy would be a good entry point as Jonah had hurt him before and he might be jealous. Turns out he was way beyond jealous.
The police found plans in his house to kill Jonah, after the two of them finished me. The world we live in is strange today. People searching out to make “friends” with other people who have similar dislikes. I hate it. I just wish we’d all realize we’re unique in our own way, but if aliens looked down at us from another planet we’d all be the same. No more decisiveness is what I’m wishing for each year on my birthday from here on out, and there are two big reasons why.
One, is I already have exactly what I want. Him.
And two is, well, he’s going to find out something special as soon as his massage ends. I’m not about to interrupt him and risk losing this feeling.
His hands keep busy but I feel a different movement to them which causes me to open my eyes in time to see him sliding around from behind the couch and into the cushion next to me, where he can much more easily plant a kiss right on my cheek.
“You’re skin is warm.”
“You do that to me…every…time…you touch me.”
“Is it just when I touch certain places, or is it,” he pauses, his hand moving my shirt off my collarbone as he gently kisses it, “everywhere,” he says into my skin.
“Definitely there. Definitely.” He kisses his way up my neck and then back down again.
My legs, which were crossed, are suddenly open, and he seizes the opportunity to slide in between them. His hands leave my shoulders as his knees find the ground and I have a good idea what’s coming next…until instead of grabbing my pajama bottoms and jerking them down, he takes my hand in his.
“I meant to do this sooner, but well, we got a little sidetracked,” he says, pulling a small, black, velvet box from his pocket.
My hand jerks from his and my other comes up to my face as he flips open the box, exposing a beautiful princess cut diamond.
“A princess ring for my princess, and soon to be queen.”
The tears start to fall and I’m ready to yell yes, but apparently he’s not finished.
“Beautiful, I promise I will love you until there’s nothing left of me, and these aren’t words. How do I know that? Because when I thought there was nothing left of me, when I thought I had mere moments to live, all I could think about was getting to that ambulance so my final sight on this planet could be the sight of you.”
There’s no stopping the flood that’s falling from my eyes now. Prepared, as he always is, he hands me three tissues. He truly is my rock, my shoulder to lean on and cry on.
“For years all I ever thought I wanted was to be a fireman, do my thing, and come home, only to do it again the next day. And for a long time that served me well…until instantly that idea no longer made sense. Now I want to light a fire inside you every day for the rest of your life and I promise you that spark insid
e me that turned into a raging inferno for you, still burns just as white hot today as it ever did, and it always will. I know you’re mine. You know I’m yours. Let’s make it official, so the whole world knows I’m the only one for you and you’re the only one for me. I want everyone to know you’re mine, and I’m the luckiest son of a gun ever…because I got you. Be mine. Marry me.”
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