Mendel charged over and picked the guy up in one huge fist, gripping the back of his shirt and shaking him as he yelled in his face about running from the Riot Squad and demanding to know what he was doing there.
Hale didn’t seem to need to so much as catch his breath. He was brushing off his knees from where he’d knelt on Vincent Dao when Mendel put the guy down and the idiot decided it was a good idea to run. Again.
Taylor groaned, Clay rubbed his hands together and Ashley gaped as Mendel put his hands on his hips. Hale didn’t bother to give chase a second time. He pulled his Taser out and shot the guy. He went down hard, screaming as his body jerked uncontrollably on the ground.
‘Ouch.’ Jones winced.
‘That’s gotta hurt,’ Clay agreed and finally they started strolling over, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Ashley followed, only because he suspected if he didn’t he was going to be next.
The man on the ground was Asian, but if Ashley had to guess he’d say Chinese. A suspicion confirmed when he started yelling at them in Mandarin. Ashley recognised it from high school language classes, though he didn’t understand what was being said.
‘You didn’t want to get tasered, you shouldn’t have run. Twice!’ Mendel bellowed at the man, and the sheer size of him shut Vincent up. He struggled to sit up, spitting on Mendel’s shoes, but Mendel completely ignored him. That seemed to offend the guy more than if Mendel had kicked him and he said something darkly under his breath.
Clay hauled Vincent up and he and Taylor dragged him to the van, securing him in the back and climbing in, closing the doors with Harris climbing in the front.
Mendel looked around and then pointed to Hale. Ashley felt his gut flutter, apprehension flooding him.
‘Wait here for the Arson crew, see what you can find out.’
Oh no.
‘Sure,’ Hale agreed and with no further discussion the Riot Squad left him.
Ashley stood there, aware of the other fire truck leaving and a stray piece of paper cartwheeling down the abandoned street while the smoke drifted lazily on the breeze all around them.
‘They left me here,’ Ashley observed with a heavy sigh. Of course they did. They left him alone with Finn fucking Hale. Quite possibly the sexiest human Ashley had ever met, and the focus of more wet dreams than he cared to admit, even to himself. Ashley had nursed a crush the size of the Titanic from the first time he set eyes on Finn Hale. It was how Ashley knew he swung both ways.
‘Don’t stress about it. We’ll give you a ride back to your station,’ Hale waved him off. ‘Where do you think the nearest mini-mart is?’
‘You and what car?’ Ashley argued, sweeping a hand at the empty street. ‘And who’s we? You just got left here too!’ But he was pointing off to the end of the street and Finn had already started walking, leaving Ashley to try and catch up. ‘There’s one around that corner.’
‘We the Arson Squad,’ Hale laughed at him. ‘They’ll be here soon and I’ll beg us a ride.’
He’d been reduced to begging. Worse, he’d been reduced to begging cops. Cops even worse than his brothers; the cops all his workmates whined about the most. Arson Squad. Ugh. He was never going to live this down.
‘What did you arrest that guy for, anyway? Was it Vincent Dao?’ he asked, falling into step beside Hale. Ashley was taller, but Hale’s legs were longer and he seemed to devour the pavement. Ashley actually had to stride it out to keep up.
‘Most arsonists return to the scene of the crime,’ Hale reminded him softly. ‘But also, he looks familiar. I’m pretty sure he was on the trafficking suspects board back in the office. Did Taylor say he thought it was Vincent Dao?’
‘Yeah …’
‘Because if Clay said it, then it would be like fifty-fifty odds that it’s Dao? But with Taylor it’s closer to a hundred. Clay sucks at facial recognition. You know the first time he saw Sietta he thought it was Anders? Those guys look nothing alike.’
They did so look alike, they were brothers after all, but Ashley didn’t bother to point that out. Instead he was replaying the arrest in his head, trying to force Hale’s words to make sense. Because it sounded like Hale had tasered a man without even knowing why.
‘You’re pretty sure he did something wrong?’
‘Well, yeah. I can’t be certain, but regardless the guy’s guilty of something. Innocent people don’t run. They definitely don’t run twice. They also don’t hide in basements with illegal refugees while a factory burns overhead unless they’ve been locked inside by someone they’ve pissed off. And generally when you piss a bad guy off that bad, you probably weren’t the greatest citizen yourself.’
Ashley studied Hale’s profile. He seemed like a normal guy; happy, laid back, attractive. Fit. Very, very fit. So very attractive. Ashley forced himself to turn away, well aware what the man looked like. From the first time Taylor had turned up at a barbeque with Hale in the car to apologise for not being able to stay because he had a job to do, Ashley had been all too aware of what Finn Hale looked like.
Dark brown hair and pale green eyes on lightly tanned skin with high cheekbones and a square jaw that seemed to have a permanent five o’clock shadow. Long legs … very long legs, even though he was significantly shorter than Ashley. That first wet dream had scared Ashley - he’d never had a wet dream about a guy - but after a while he’d gotten used to it. He was attracted to Finn Hale, there was no point denying it.
There was also no point trying to do anything about it. Hale had never shown the faintest hint of returning Ashley’s interest. Not to mention, if he so much as looked strangely at Hale, Taylor and Clay would figure it out and he’d never hear the end of it. Luckily, they weren’t there and Hale was, so he could look all he wanted.
Hale looked as good as ever, his overalls weirdly attractive, cinched by the heavy belt around his hips. He was shorter than Ash, but he seemed to loom larger than life. It was something about the way he walked, likely picked up on from his partners in working-against-crime. The height he did have was all in his legs, long and lean and muscled, obvious even through the heavy dark cotton of his clothes. His shoulders were narrow, his chest all sinewy muscle. Ash wondered what it would be like to have him wrapped around him.
‘What’s with that look?’ Hale had stopped on the footpath beside him, frowning at whatever expression was on Ashley’s face.
‘Uh …’
‘Your brother gets that look. It never means anything good.’
‘Clay’s not so bad.’ Ashley rubbed the back of his neck as if he could rub away the blush he could feel rising in his cheeks.
‘Not Clay, Taylor,’ Hale corrected. ‘That’s the look he gets right before he decides to cut your balls off.’
‘Uh …’ Taylor could be an arsehole, it was true, but he was mellowing now he had a boyfriend. Besides, Taylor was Ashley’s favourite sibling, not that he would ever admit it, and having anyone suggest he had developed any of the same mannerisms didn’t come across as the insult he suspected it was intended as.
‘Did I do something?’
Other than look hot? Ashley shook his head and tried to shake his expression free.
‘Sorry, was just thinking about the fire. Was hard work, and I wasn’t expecting the twins to turn up.’
‘Yeah, that has to be weird. I mean, everywhere we go we run into you guys. I work with the boneheads, then every time we call an ambulance it seems to have your sister in it, whenever we need a doctor the boss demands we call Bray, whenever there’s a fire there’s you …’
‘How come you used Bray’s name and not the others?’ Brayden was the oldest, but it didn’t sound like Hale had said his name to be polite. More a habit, if anything.
‘Because Brayden’s a nice guy,’ Hale responded with no hesitation. Not a bit. Ashley gaped for a moment, pondered that, and then decided Hale had his family pretty well pegged. From the outside. In Ashley’s opinion Brayden was the most insane. The guy had enlisted, was married b
efore he was twenty three, had kids, and he agreed with almost anything their parents said. That was crazy.
They reached the small corner supermarket and Hale raced in alone. Ashley stayed outside, not wanting to fill the store with the heavy scent of smoke, ash and filthy water. It was not a pleasant smell, to put it mildly. It took him a good hour to shower each night if he wanted to get rid of the stench entirely. Luckily, they didn’t end up fighting a fire on a daily basis, even if lately there seemed to be an increase, most notably with large scale events like today.
‘Here,’ Hale emerged and offered a bottle of cold water. Ashley didn’t hesitate for a second, grabbing the extra bottle and drinking it in a few long gulps, gasping in pleasure as the cold raced through his belly and cooled him down.
‘Thanks.’
‘I don’t know how you guys do it. Running in overalls is bad enough. If I had to wear that suit and walk into a fire I’d die. I hate being hot. And I think the suit would make me claustrophobic. It’s bad enough wearing a ballistics helmet.’
‘You’re claustrophobic?’ Ashley had no idea why that shocked him.
‘Not badly or anything, but … I’ll do a lot to not have to be in that kind of situation. It’s half the reason I got into sniping, I didn’t have to wear the closed in helmet.’
‘You’re shitting me …’ Hale was the best shooter Taylor had ever seen; Taylor said so, weirdly often. To hear the guy only got into it so he didn’t have to wear a helmet was beyond strange.
‘You’re fine in that thing?’
‘Well, not completely. The headgear sucks, but it’s not that bad … You have a point,’ Ashley conceded. He wasn’t about to change his job or pursue a different avenue because of it, but he could see where Hale was coming from.
There was a new car on scene when they got back and Ashley held up a hand in greeting.
‘Jameson!’ A familiar voice called out and Ashley groaned. Of all the people sent to look into the fire, how come it had to be Jake Zhao? The man was so far out of the closet he practically ran his own daily Mardi Gras, and while Ashley had never given any indication he swung that way, Zhao had made it his personal mission to hound Ashley for a date. Every time they saw each other. The bastard had even sent chocolates to Ashley’s station. Apparently he got a kick out of trying to seduce straight guys, or something. Ashley tried to ignore it as much as possible, mostly because he didn’t want to rock the boat. Zhao senior was high up in the political ranks, even if he was being investigated for links to the Salisbury political disaster that continued to grip the country. So far it had claimed a third of the Liberal Party. Only time would tell if enough connections would be found to implicate Zhao. In the meantime, Ashley avoided Jake as much as possible.
Old Chinese money. You didn’t mess with Chinatown, especially in the current economic climate. Sydney’s Triad presence was increasing annually, and while no one had been arrested it was suspected the older families had a strong influence on the drug cartels.
‘Zhao.’
‘You’re looking hot as fuck, as always,’ Zhao looked him up and down and Ashley was so disturbed by it he crossed his arms over his chest as if he could hide himself somehow. Not easy when you were his size. Impossible, even, unless his brothers were around to hide behind.
‘Excuse me?’ Hale looked between them, his expression suddenly serious. It was his cop face, and Ashley saw that he took in Ashley’s pose, Zhao’s face and he didn’t like what he was seeing.
‘Just go check the scene and give us the report,’ Ashley snapped at the Arson officer, shaking his head and stalking over the road to where a bench seat overlooked the now empty ash-ridden block.
‘What was that about?’ Hale demanded as soon as they were out of earshot. Ashley sat heavily on the bench and leaned forward on his knees, watching Zhao prance around the scene, looking for clues or whatever it was he actually did. No matter how much Ashley didn’t like the guy, he knew what he was doing. Zhao could pick how a fire started in minutes, and he’d never gotten it wrong. He had a reputation for solving cases, fast, and Ashley respected that even if he couldn’t stand the man.
‘It’s nothing,’ he mumbled.
‘Really, because it looked a lot like sexual harassment to me.’
‘It’s not …’ It was, but that was not the point. Ashley wasn’t sure there was a point. He was simply embarrassed Hale had been there to witness it, not because it had even been that bad but because it had been so obvious Ashley didn’t like it.
‘Does Taylor know?’
‘What?’ Ashley gaped at the man. Was he threatening to dob on him? ‘Of course my stupid brother doesn’t know! Can you imagine how crap my life would be if I had to explain to Taylor Jameson that some douche kept asking me out at work and wouldn’t take no for an answer? Not only would Taylor be in jail, but Zhao would be in hospital and I’d be fired.’
‘You can’t be fired for reporting sexual harassment at work,’ Hale’s frown was getting darker. ‘How long has this been going on?’
‘Nothing is going on! The guy’s just … really upfront about what he wants. I don’t see him that often anyways. He’s Arson. I only fight fires.’
‘And doesn’t take no for an answer?’ Hale looked … well, scary.
‘Seriously, it’s not what you think. Drop it already.’ Ashley ran a hand over the back of his head, ruffling his hair and wondering if he should get a haircut soon. He didn’t like to cut it too often, because when it was short he looked eerily like his brothers, but it annoyed him when it got too long as well.
‘Okay,’ Hale said softly, surprising Ashley when he sat beside him on the seat, looking over at the destroyed building and shaking his head. ‘But don’t let him get away with shit. Your brothers’ll kill me if anything happens to you.’
‘Uh-huh,’ Ashley sighed, completely unimpressed. It was the story of his life. Any time anything seemed even slightly askew, his brothers were there to make sure nothing happened to him. If they were the ones causing him physical pain, that was a different story. Ashley was their personal punching bag, but if anyone else dared touch him … It was what brothers did, but it drove Ashley half mad. He could take care of himself. He didn’t need his brothers saving him from life.
‘You seem … less excited than I would’ve thought. I mean, you got to save people from a fire. It hasn’t gotten old already, right?’
‘Nah,’ Ashley finally managed to smile, wide and bright and rather goofy if the stunned look on Hale’s face was anything to go by. He couldn’t help it; he loved saving people, it was the whole reason he wanted to be a firefighter. It was rare, but those brief moments when he got to see the faces of the people he saved made the long slog between jobs worth it, and then some.
‘Today was amazing.’ And despite everything, that was the pure truth.
‘Good,’ Hale smiled at him and stood, motioning to the car Zhao had come in. ‘Come on, let’s get the douche to give us a ride. We’ll drop you off on the way to the station.’
‘Thanks.’
2
Red Petunia Brunch
‘He said you charged straight into the building and started searching for people you weren’t even sure were there!’
Ashley stared at the ceiling and shook his head, wondering exactly which of his brothers had dobbed him in to his mother, and how long she intended to function under the illusion that he hadn’t grown up. He was twenty-three years old! He had his own place, his own career, his own car … and she still acted as if he were about to be beaten up on the school oval and needed his brothers to come and help him. He’d never needed their help, they’d felt the need to throw their weight around for reasons he couldn’t begin to fathom. Even Hayley was always trying to stick her nose into his business.
‘Mum, I am a firefighter. It is part of my job to run in to the fire and look for people before they are burned alive!’
‘Oh honey, you’re only a rookie! There are other people to do those more exp
erienced jobs.’
‘I am not a rookie! I’ve been with the Firies for six years. I left school five years ago. I’m not five anymore!’
‘You’ll always be five to me,’ she countered, and really what could you say to that? At least he hadn’t hurt anything or damaged anything this time. They were all still giving him a hard time about his car.
He’d parked it behind the truck when he got a call to meet them at a fire while he was en-route to work, and he’d ended up jumping onto it with a victim, smashing the windscreen, caving in the roof. And then the fire exploded, causing most of the windows to shatter and the paint to peel off one side, leaving his already poor-conditioned car un-roadworthy. He’d tossed it and bought a new one that he adored, but they were not going to let him forget the fate of his poor Honda.
‘You do know it’s Sunday,’ she reminded him through the small speaker of his phone and he sighed.
‘Yes Mum, and I’m sorry, again, that we all missed the barbeque yesterday, but we all got shifts this weekend.’ He was certain none of the others were getting the talking to about it that he was, however. Clay and Taylor didn’t turn up half the time anyway, and Brayden was always getting called in to the hospital for emergencies. Hayley had shown up in the morning before her shift to ensure she didn’t get in trouble. Weirdly, Clay’s partner Joel and their foster kid Micah had still gone for lunch, but there was no accounting for crazy. Micah had probably wanted to hang in the pool with Leila, Ashley’s little sister.
‘Oh, that’s fine. Just remember you promised Kelly you would take the kids to Sunday school today! She has an appointment she can’t miss.’
‘I bet she does,’ Ashley muttered. He was pretty sure the appointment was simply that Brayden and Kelly’s two small children, Jay and Emma, were driving them up the wall and they wanted some free babysitting without having to actually go to church themselves. This killed two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, Hayley usually took them, but she was on shift again today, as were the twins. Brayden was taking Kelly to her appointment, or something, Ashley hadn’t really heard anything after he was told, rather than asked, that he would have the kids.
Rhino Ash (Saturday Barbies Book 2) Page 2
