Fire & Flesh

by Kerri Carr

  “Detective, I'm here to help,” a male voice said as she stood up slowly and turned around to look at the fireman.

  At first, she couldn’t recognize him and yet he looked so familiar. His eyes widened in surprise as he also looked at her. This couldn’t be! Standing before her was the most handsome man that she had ever seen. He wore a vest that showed off raw muscles and even a six-pack. Yellow fire pants and boots completed his look. His hair was dark, his skin tanned. Familiar blue eyes looked at her intently. They laughed at her the same way that they had done years ago. A light stub of sideburns covered his face and he looked like he was exhausted. A smile started breaking off over his face and she couldn’t hold back any longer.

  “Robert!” she screamed, throwing her hands around his neck as she hugged him. “Is this really you?”

  Chapter 4

  Robert Foster

  “Sam, what are you doing here?” she was the last person that he had expected to find here.

  She looked like she had matured into a woman that was sexier than the Samantha he could remember. As she pulled away from him, he held her at arm’s length, still unable to believe that it was her.

  “Robert, is this really you?” she was breathless, a blonde lock falling over her forehead as she looked up at him. “Oh my God, you can't believe how I've missed you.”

  She threw her hands around his neck once again. Robert couldn’t help thinking how much prettier she looked, but neither could he ignore the fact that she was the woman that had hurt him the most in his life. Ever since she had left, Robert had never had the nerve to trust women again. He’d had a number of flings, but he preferred one night stands. He was too afraid of having his heart broken again, even though he had never told Samantha what he really felt about her.

  Just as suddenly as she had left, she was back and acting as if nothing had ever gone wrong. Despite the fact that he wanted to hug her and tell her that he had missed her, he found himself pushing her away.

  “Good to see you too, Samantha. I think that we should get on with the grilling. I have work to do,” he turned away from her so that she couldn’t tell the hurt expression on his face. “I think that we should just try and get some justice here and then get on with our lives.”

  “Robert, are you all right?” she looked shocked at his reply and he felt as if he had just driven a sword through his heart, but he couldn’t afford to let himself weaken and get hurt again.

  “Samantha, is everything okay?” Robert turned to see a young cop coming into the room.

  “Yes—”

  “I was just telling her that we should get done with this already. I am a busy man and I have a department to run,” he smiled broadly at the cop, who looked from Samantha's surprised look to Robert.

  “Well, I guess you're right. Samantha wanted to ask you a couple of questions regarding the fire that was here a few days ago.”

  “Perfect, let’s get down to it, what would you like to know?” he turned to look at Samantha, who still seemed to be reeling in shock.

  “I guess you're right,” her voice was almost a whisper as she pulled a notepad out of her handbag.

  ****

  His heart was beating wildly as he reversed the truck and pulled away from the parking. He felt cold-hearted, but what else could Robert do when Samantha had hurt him so badly? She had completely disregarded anything that they’d had between them when she had run away without so much as an explanation or goodbye.

  She had been close to tears as she had interviewed him, and it had torn him to bits. He had retained his hard stance and answered her questions as keenly as he could. Despite the mixed reactions that he had, Robert knew that Samantha was the best person to handle this case. Maybe she would get to the bottom of everything and sort this issue out once and for all. He had been surprised to learn that she was a detective, although she mainly dealt with forensics.

  “Hello,” he tapped his Bluetooth headset when his phone went off.

  “Chief,” a familiar voice said into the phone. “We have an emergency. There is a fire outbreak downtown. There are no suspected victims in the building.”

  “Do you think that you can handle that? Today I'm not really in a good state to take charge, Shane,” he replied.

  “Don’t you worry, boss, we will have it under control. The boys are already on their way there,” Robert could hear the familiar screams of the sirens in the background, stirring up his blood.

  “Thanks, Shane, I owe you one. Say, it’s Friday, why don’t we meet up at the bar when you're done, so that you can brief me?” he said to his colleague.

  “That sounds like a plan, see you then.”

  What he really needed right now was a shot of whiskey to calm his nerves down. Robert almost never drunk but today was just one of those days when he really needed a drink.

  Chapter 5

  Samantha Reid

  “Don’t tell anyone about what we found out, okay, not until we are done with the whole investigation,” Samantha said to Donald as she dropped him off in front of the precinct.

  “Don’t worry, I don’t think anyone will be interested, anyway,” he said as he opened the door and turned to look at her. “Thanks, I think that I've really learned a lot today. At times I feel like going crazy in the office, this was a fresh break.”

  “I'm sure that you're going to make one good cop, Don. I guess I'll see you tomorrow, right?” she winked at him as he got out of the patrol car.

  “Have a good afternoon, partner, I'll see you tomorrow,” he winked back at her before slamming the door shut as Samantha put the car into gear.

  It had been a very weird day for her. She could not believe that Robert had totally snubbed her the way he had. What she couldn’t believe even more was just how handsome he had become. He was no longer that chubby boy that she had known in elementary and high school. Robert was the sort of cut that any woman would die to have. His body was sexily sculptured and he looked like a model right out of a fitness magazine. She could barely believe that it was the same Robert that she had known back then.

  Without realizing it, Samantha found herself driving in the direction of where they used to live. The house was still hers but she had no idea of what had become of it. As she passed by Robert's place, Samantha slowed down, fighting the urge to drive in. I still don’t get what happened to Robert, she thought. She drove on to the house that her father had left her. As she turned in the driveway, she was surprised to find that the gardens were well taken care of, and the flowers were flourishing, almost as if someone lived there.

  “Excuse me,” she said to a man that was tending to some of the flowers in a bed, bringing the car to a stop. “Who lives here?”

  “Hello, officer,” the old man hobbled over to where she was. “This property isn’t for rent. Is there something wrong?”

  “No, I'm not looking for a house to rent, I just wanted to find out if there is anyone that lives here.”

  “Nobody has lived here in years,” he eyed her suspiciously.

  “But it looks so well maintained!”

  “Well, there’s a gentleman by the name Robert Foster that pays to have it taken care of it,” the man said, and then looking around to see if there was anyone listening, he lowered his voice. “I've heard that he was in love with a girl that lived here, but one day she just vanished into thin air and left him heartbroken.”

  Samantha realized that the old man was talking about her. “Wow, what a story!”

  “I've never really understood women, myself. I mean, didn’t she feel anything for him? The poor fella has been heartbroken since, and I hear that he isn’t even interested in the local lasses. Quite a woman, she must have been,” the man continued. “Anyway, gotta get back to work.”

  Samantha now started to understand why Robert had acted that way. Had he always been in love with her and yet she had never noticed? To her, they had been more like siblings, although right now she definitely couldn’t think of him as anything
else other than a lover. She’d gotten a crush on him the moment that she had seen him. Well, that was too late because she was engaged to be married in a few months. Life had been very unfair and she would have given anything to turn back time.

  “Okay, thanks for your time,” she said as she gunned the engine of the car.

  Samantha realized that she had been unfair when she had taken off without even notifying her friends. Robert had a right to be angry with her, and it was also up to her to try and get him to forgive her. As she branched back onto the main road, she drove back toward town. She was going to go to the fire department and have a chat with him. She hadn’t even gotten the chance to get his number and she hoped that she would find him there.

  The fire station was an old building with flaking white paint. There were a couple of fire engines parked in the back and a number of firemen hanging around. She parked the car and stepped out, heading into the building.

  “Hi, I would like to see Robert,” she said to the receptionist.

  “I'm sorry, ma’am, but Robert will be away until Monday morning,” she smiled sweetly at Samantha as she checked her up and down.

  “Oh no, I really have to see him. Could you please give me his cell phone number so that I can give him a call?” Samantha asked.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but that is against our privacy policy. The only person who can give you that number is Robert himself,” she seemed to be enjoying the fact that she couldn’t give Samantha the number.

  “Okay, I'm a police detective and I really need the number,” she said, fishing out her identification.

  “That still doesn’t give me the authority. How about I call him for you instead?” she said to Samantha, picking up her phone.

  “No, don’t worry. I'll come some other time when he’s in,” she said, walking out of the building disappointed.

  She remembered a pool bar where she and her friends would hang out back in the day, and wondering if it was still in operation, Samantha drove in that direction. She parked the vehicle and went into the pub. Being Friday, the place was already packed with merrymakers. She spotted an empty table somewhere in the back and made her way there, ordering for a cocktail. She sat back in the chair and looked around, and on the far end of the room, she spotted him.

  He looked sad and he sat alone. Samantha guessed that she was the reason for his sadness. It surprised her that she could still read him by just looking at him. He was hunched over with a drink on the table before him, looking into space.

  “Thank you,” Samantha said as she took the cocktail that was placed before her and took a sip. Her phone went off just as she was setting her glass back on the table, and she picked the call. “Hi, Mia.”

  Mia was just the sort of distraction that Samantha needed right now, being her best friend back in Chicago.

  “Hey girl, you went quiet, you were supposed to keep me updated,” Mia said into the phone.

  “How I wish that you were here, Mia,” Samantha sighed. “Things aren’t working out the way that I had hoped.”

  “Why, what’s happening there, Sam, aren’t you making any headway with the investigations?” Mia sounded concerned.

  “I actually browsed through the warehouse and will have to run some things through the lad to ascertain if the fire was caused by people or not, but that isn’t the issue,” Samantha sighed, wondering how to explain everything to Mia.

  “Okay, I'm listening, and I sure hope that you’ve thought of getting a new boyfriend because Eddie is running all over town with the same blonde you’ve been suspecting of having an affair with him,” Mia said.

  “What? I can't believe that he waited for the first opportunity to take advantage, that swine,” Samantha fumed. “I'm going to skin that skinny bitch alive.”

  “Sam, that is his ex, and maybe they never got over each other. In my opinion, I think that you should delete this guy from your life and find someone that is more worthwhile,” Mia said, although by now Samantha was too angry to listen. “But don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

  Samantha didn’t even understand what she was still doing with Eddie Marshal. She wasn’t even sure if what she felt for him was love, but after seeing Robert again after such a long time, she knew that she was in love with Robert and not Eddie. Eddie had the habit of always being around his ex, something that made her very suspicious. They surely couldn’t be such good friends and have nothing sexual between them. Maybe it was time for her to call it a wrap.

  “You know what, Mia, I think I know what I'm gonna do,” she said as she drained her cocktail and signaled the waiter to bring her another one.

  “Don’t tell me that you're also going to chase after your ex, Mia replied.

  “I can't really call it that, but I'll let you know how it goes,” she said as she hanged the call before Mia could utter another word.

  She was already starting to feel light headed after the drink. She was trying to gather the courage to approach Robert. When the second drink arrived, she grabbed it and did a bottom-up before getting up. She wanted to get this done with before her courage waned. Her heels clattered on the ground as she headed directly for Robert's table.

  “Hi Rob, I know that you probably don’t want to see me, but we really need to talk,” she cleared her throat and said, as he turned to look at her with surprise.

  “Sam, are you stalking me?” he seemed a lot more relaxed than he had been at the warehouse, probably the effect of the drink.

  “Nope, I came here to remember the good old days when we would hang out here, and I saw you here,” she did not wait for him to invite her to his table, instead pulling out a seat opposite him. “We really need to talk.”

  “You and I have nothing to talk about, Samantha, our friendship ended years ago when you decided to desert it,” he sounded bitter and hurt.

  “Look, Robert, I made many mistakes in the past. I never really knew just how much our friendship meant to me until I was gone, but I really needed to get away—”

  “Well, you could have at least told me that you were leaving. I always confided in you about everything that was happening in my life. You chose to shut me out when you needed me the most. If you had no idea, I was in that warehouse the day that your dad died, but I managed to get out. I would have saved him but the heat was too much. That is quite some guilt that I had to live with, and probably the main reason why I'm a fireman nowadays,” he sounded sad and his word brought tears to her eyes.

  “You never told me that.”

  “That’s because you never gave me the chance to do so. Your father was more of a father to me than my own father ever was, and so you can imagine what I felt,” Samantha could see tears in the back of his eyes, his softness a contrast to his hard looking body.

  “Robert, I really don’t know what to say. I was selfish and I greatly regret it,” Samantha said to him.

  “Anyway, I don’t think that things will ever be the same again,” he said.

  “Robert, I'm pretty sure that we can try and mend things. I mean, you were my best friend for heaven’s sake, and I still consider you as the closest friend that I've ever had,” she reached for his hand and squeezed it.

  She felt some sort of current passing between them, a special connection. As they looked at each other in the eyes, Samantha was sure that he felt the same way too. She lifted his hand off the table and brought it to her lips, kissing it lightly without taking her eyes off his. There was a very powerful current passing between them, one that was sending signals straight to the sensitive spot in between her thighs and making her tingle. Robert pulled his hand away from hers suddenly, almost as if he was afraid of what might happen.

  “You really need to learn how to relax, Robert. You look way too tense. Why don’t you tell me what’s troubling you? Let it all out. Shout at me if you have to, but just let it out so that we can be friends again. Tell me what you want me to do in order to earn your trust again—”

  “I can see that you still tal
k too much,” he smiled for the first time, an infectious smile that made her insides melt.

  “Robert, I'm serious and you're making a joke out of it,” she pretended to be offended.

  “Tell me everything about you. Where did you go? What do you do nowadays? How many kids do you have? I just wanna know everything about you,” she was glad that he was now opening up to her.

  “Hmm, where do I begin?”

  Chapter 6

  Robert Foster

  He wanted to be mad at her the way that he had been at the warehouse, but Samantha still had the sort of effect that made him want to open up to her and tell her everything the way he had done when they were kids. It was clear that she still considered him just a friend and he wasn’t sure how he would tell her that he had actually fallen in love with her back then. He didn’t even know if she was already married and had kids and it was hard to tell with that gorgeous body of hers.

  He listened as she told him the story of her life. He realized just how much pain she must have gone through when her father died, to the point of leaving everything behind to start off afresh. Robert could relate to the sort of situation that Samantha had been in.

  “I'm really sorry, I didn’t realize that you had been through so much. I guess I was also selfish in not trying to understand you better,” he said, pondering how he was going to phrase the question that was bothering him the most.

  “Well, that’s the story of my life. I'll be able to answer any questions that you might have,” she leaned back in her seat and took a sip of the cocktail she had ordered. “I can tell that there is something that is really bothering you. It’s strange how I can still read your mind after so many years.”