by Regan Black
He pulled his coat off the peg and returned to the kitchen. “Grant sent a text that someone else is keeping an eye on the house,” Mitch said, tapping his phone before he slid it into his coat pocket.
Her gaze drifted to the front windows, though the curtains were drawn. Thankfully, she didn’t ask to see the text. “Stay put, babe. My shift will be over soon.”
“Babe?”
Finally, he had a reaction out of her. “Too soon?” He winked.
“It will never be time for that word.”
His heart kicked in his chest and he couldn’t stifle the cocky grin creasing his face. “Never is a long time.” He was going to hold her to that. “How do you feel about sweetheart or honey?”
“Go to work.” Her sharp retort didn’t dull the sparkle in her eyes. “I know what you’re doing.”
“You do?”
She walked right up to him and fisted her hands in his coat. “You’re absolutely transparent.” She gave a tug and pulled his mouth to hers for a kiss. “Have a great shift,” she said, her lips brushing his. “I’ll be fine. And I promise I will be right here when you get back.”
“No better motivator than that.” He gave her another brisk kiss, looped the strap of his duffel over his shoulder and walked out the door.
It felt so damned wrong to leave her as he drove down the street. If he stayed, he’d lose his job and his identity. He was a firefighter blood and soul. He wanted to believe Julia would stay put. She was probably right that Leo had skipped town. It didn’t help.
Neither did the idea of backup doing his job protecting her. Though they’d agreed about it last night, he was circling back to all the reasons he should put off his return to work until she was out of danger. They were too alike, he thought with a caustic laugh. Lately they were both making decisions only so they could second-guess them.
He tried to settle his thoughts. Falk had killed his brother and plugged the last leak in his organization. It was reasonable to assume the mastermind would move on to his next pet project. Unless he felt the need to snip the remaining loose ends here in Philly.
Mitch’s stomach dropped at the thought. At the next corner, he turned back for home. She’d just have to work from the firehouse today. He’d think of some excuse for the chief. Backup or not, Mitch refused to leave her hanging out there like bait.
*
Once Mitch left for his shift, Julia set to work. She couldn’t sit there twiddling her thumbs and pacing until he returned. Playing house this morning should’ve freaked her out; instead, she was far too content with the idea of making breakfast for him on a regular basis.
Silly, but true. She hadn’t recognized the signs when she should have, and now she was irrevocably in love with the man. Consumed with the case and Leo’s motives, she’d made excuses and ignored how serious her feelings had become.
She wasn’t infatuated with Mitch because he was convenient or kind when he wasn’t being cocky. The sex was amazing and what should’ve been a fast, physical release had blown past her smart defenses and touched her heart and soul. Hopefully, when he got home from his shift, she and Grant would have a lead on Leo’s location. Once that last detail was handled, she vowed to lay her heart on the table for him to pick up or leave behind as suited him.
She didn’t want to take any chance that he’d believe she was sticking around simply because she was scared or had developed some weird hero complex. She wanted no barriers, no excuses, to come between them.
All this cycled through her brain as she carefully pieced together every encounter with Leo. Contrary to Mitch’s worries, though the guilt still niggled at her, she had no intention of playing into Haywood’s hands and going anywhere near the police until she had more than a few text messages to prove Leo Falk was alive and the author of a personal crime wave.
Where had the creep been hiding before Philly? Where had he stayed while he’d upended her life to find and kill his brother? And where would he go next?
In school, she’d studied cases of jury tampering, of the shady crews with zero morals available to the highest bidder. That was what Leo felt like to her, an edgy mercenary who knew what buttons to push and when to push them to get his way. Where did a man like that hide?
She pushed her hands through her hair and tugged a little. Checking the clock, she realized Mitch had missed his first check-in call by ten minutes. Telling herself that calling him would be the worst demonstration of clinginess, she forced herself to go get a shower and put on real clothes.
Once she was dressed in jeans and a simple cable sweater, she dried her hair and put on her makeup. No sense giving in to all the clichés and spending her first day of unemployment in a sloppy funk.
She walked into the kitchen and her fresh wave of determination disappeared on a terrified scream.
Leo Falk sat at the kitchen table, scrolling through her laptop. Her heart lurched in her chest and telling herself to run, she found her feet rooted to the spot, frozen by fear. “You look lovely,” he said with frightening familiarity. “Better than I expected. I can see what he finds so appealing.”
“Get out of my house!” She weighed her options as adrenaline and the will to survive kicked in. Could she reach the phone and dial 911 before he caught her? Could she make it to the bedrooms and climb out a window?
“Your house?” He chuckled, turned the laptop toward her. “I thought it was his.”
She clapped her hands over her mouth at the sight of Mitch slumped over the steering wheel of the loaner car. “What did you do to him?”
“I arranged an effective, one-car accident.”
Tears stung her eyes, but she would not give Leo the satisfaction of seeing her tears. She had to believe it wasn’t as bad as it looked.
“You have a choice, Julia. A pleasant death, or a messy one. Which will it be?”
Her temper boiled over and she lunged at him. He knocked her to the floor and pulled a gun she hadn’t noticed. “Messy it is.”
“You won’t get away with this,” she said, looking for an opening as he tied her wrists and ankles to a chair and dragged her into the kitchen.
“Of course I will. This isn’t my first fire.”
“Mr. Franklin wasn’t your first, either, I’m betting.”
“Safe bet.” He tested the ties. “For what it’s worth, I thought you had excellent potential.”
“As what?” she asked, horrified.
“Permanent legal counsel.” He touched her jaw, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I’ve watched you for some time. Shame your true talents will be wasted.” He set the gun on the counter and hummed tunelessly as he poured kerosene over the kitchen floor.
She made a futile attempt to curl her toes up and out of danger. “I never would have worked for you.”
“Yes.” Leo smiled sadly, lighter in hand. “I did figure that out.”
Her gaze transfixed on his thumb as he sparked the flame and lit the trail of kerosene. “Any last words?”
The kitchen door burst open and Mitch staggered through. The miracle of his appearance shocked her and she wasn’t sure she could trust her vision. But Leo saw him, too. “Gun!” she shouted as Leo reached for it. Mitch knocked it out of his hand and they went crashing over the counter stools.
The flames flowed across the kitchen floor, lapping at cabinets and circling her chair. She had to do something to save herself. She tried to stand and scoot, and made little progress with either approach.
She heard Leo and Mitch fighting on the other side of the counter as furniture splintered and fists and grunts were exchanged. She had to help Mitch.
Ignoring the flames, she wriggled her legs up and down against the chair legs, to loosen the bindings. Rocking the chair back, she slipped her feet free of the chair legs. Her wrists still bound to the chair, she tucked her nose and mouth into the collar of her sweater and braced herself to run through the fire blocking the only exit from the kitchen.
The smoke stung her eyes and throat. S
he knew she had to get low, but the floor rippled with fire.
“Julia, this way!”
Hearing Mitch’s smoke-roughened command, she turned to see him reaching over the counter. No sign of Leo. She tried to cooperate but the chair made it impossible.
She couldn’t make the jump and if she didn’t run, she’d be stuck. He moved before she did, coming over the counter and hauling her up off the floor, chair and all. He grabbed a knife from the block and sliced through her bindings, then pushed her back over the counter. “Go!”
Leo emerged from the smoke, blocking her path and aiming the gun at her face. Mitch shoved her to the floor, covering her body with his. “Straight ahead is the door.” He groaned as Leo attacked again. “Run. I’ll be right behind you.”
She made it out and looked back just as Leo dragged Mitch deeper into the burning house.
She screamed his name and reversed direction. She couldn’t let him fight her battles alone. A firefighter caught her around the middle and hauled her toward the front yard. “You have to save him,” she begged. “Please, save him!”
*
Julia stood in the street, the cold pavement easing the minor burns on her bare feet and the acrid smell of smoke billowing into the sky, marring what had been a beautiful morning. Firefighters from Mitch’s shift surrounded her, battling the terrible blaze chewing through the house. It was obvious Leo hadn’t limited the accelerant to the kitchen floor. She prayed they found him in time. If he died...
No. He’d promised her he wouldn’t sacrifice himself to protect her. Any minute he’d come striding out, a cocky grin on his face. She wouldn’t tolerate anything less. Mitch had saved her, pushing her clear before Leo Falk could pull the trigger and make his escape.
It was hard to believe “alone” had ever been her preference after shedding her childhood troubles. If Falk managed to kill Mitch, Julia knew she would be irreparably broken by the loss. She took an involuntary step toward the house.
“He’ll make it,” Grant said, holding her back.
“Yes, he will.” The world just couldn’t be so cruel as to show her the love of her life and then snatch him away. He was a miracle. Everything about him showed her every good thing within herself. “Leo showed me a picture of Mitch dead in a car.”
“They found his car a few blocks away.” Grant held her in half a hug. “Looks like he was ambushed on the way back to you. Whatever they gave him to knock him out wasn’t strong enough.”
Pressing her hands to her lips, new worry surged over him fighting a criminal mastermind in a fire with an unknown drug in his system. And no gear. Still, she had to believe. They’d come this far, and she refused to give up on him now.
“He’ll make it,” Grant said again. “He knows what he’s doing in there.”
Then what was taking him so long to get out of there? “You’re right. He will make it.” No doubts allowed. “And Leo Falk better come out of there alive enough to be prosecuted, as well.” A litany of potential charges rattled through her mind, along with all the ways to prevent him slipping through any loopholes created by a good defense team.
“Sounds good to me,” Grant agreed. “You need shoes,” he observed.
“I’m fine.” She was alive, thanks to Mitch. She’d wait right here until he joined her.
“At least move back to the grass.”
She shrugged away from Grant. “He said he’d be right behind me.” She was not leaving this spot until Mitch made it safely out of that blaze. “He doesn’t lie.”
But he wasn’t there. What had Falk done to him?
Firefighters shouted and paramedics moved closer to the front walk. She watched, holding her breath as a firefighter emerged from the smoke, a limp body over his shoulder. Too short to be Mitch, her heart sank.
“Is he dead?”
“I’ll find out,” Grant replied.
Her thoughts reeled, thinking of the fight, the terrible blows exchanged before Mitch had cut her free and shoved her out of harm’s way. She wrapped one hand around her other fist, refusing to cry, refusing to believe Leo had won.
“Come over here, Julia.” Grant tried again to take her away from the fire.
“No.”
“Leo Falk is dead,” he said.
The news took a while to register. No trial or just punishment, but his victims had closure. That was probably better for all concerned, unless they tried to blame Mitch. She turned to Grant. “How?”
“I’m no doctor, but he has a chunk of glass embedded in his arm. They found him around back near a blown-out window. Between the cut and the smoke...” She stopped listening. If they charged Mitch with any crime, she would oversee his defense. All that mattered now was that he came out of that fire alive.
At last another firefighter appeared, arm around Mitch, and his oxygen mask pressed to Mitch’s face. Julia raced forward to shore up his other side, ignoring orders to stay out of the way. She was less than effective, being smaller than him, but she wasn’t about to leave him.
“Thanks, Jennings,” Mitch rasped as the firefighter handed him off to paramedics.
Julia ran her hands over him, seeking any injuries. “He was in a fight. There was a knife,” she explained to the paramedics. She stayed at his side while he was treated with more oxygen and his minor scrapes were addressed.
“I’m okay.” He reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze. “Tougher than I look.”
“Don’t talk,” she ordered. “Just...just breathe.”
He nodded and laced his fingers through hers. She brought his battered knuckles to her lips, kissing every abrasion. He’d saved her. Not just from Falk. In sheltering her from a stalker, Mitch had irrevocably changed her life. He’d saved her from her old fears, giving her the courage to let go of those burdens and be her best self.
Tears welled in her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry. Not out there. As soon as he was feeling better, she’d cook him dinner and thank him properly for setting her free, for loving her enough that she knew how to love him back.
He pulled the oxygen mask down and gave her a devastating smile. “I’m okay.”
“I can see that.”
“Can you?” He sat up, swinging his legs to the side of the gurney so his face was only a few inches from hers. His lower lip was split from Falk’s lucky punch and there was probably a black eye welling under the soot stains.
She nodded, though it felt shaky. “I love you,” she whispered. So much for waiting for the proper setting. She kissed him, carefully avoiding the injured spot. “You’re stuck with me now.”
“Promise?” Joy and love radiated back at her from his gorgeous brown eyes. “Don’t tease me now, Julia.”
“I promise.” She swallowed another swell of tears and gripped as much of his big hands as she could hold. “Don’t let go. Please.” She’d flounder without him.
His laughter was rusty from the smoke as he pulled her into his arms. “You’ll have one hell of a challenge finding any quiet time again,” he said, raising his chin in the direction of his family, already trying to talk their way past the line of first responders blocking the street.
“I’m up for it,” she said. “Together we can tackle anything.” She ran her hands over his face, reassuring herself he’d really survived. They’d survived.
“You say that now—”
“And I’ll say it fifty years from now. Mitch, do you think we could—”
He held her at arm’s length, eyes wide. “Don’t you dare propose to me here.”
She bit her lip, trying to hold back the sudden ache around her heart. “Too soon?” Love took time. Just because she’d gotten there first didn’t mean he wouldn’t. Eventually. “Okay. I get it. We can—”
“Julia, hush.” He laughed again, hard enough this time to start coughing. A paramedic pushed an oxygen mask over his face. Mitch shoved it away. “You’ve got your heart on your sleeve, sweetheart.”
“Only for you,” she admitted. “No one else can see it.
”
“I know.” He drew her close to stand between his knees. “It’s safe with me.”
She leaned against the gift of his calm strength, accepting the unconditional support she’d longed for her entire life. “I love you,” she whispered again.
“I love you, too, Julia.”
The sweetest words she’d ever heard fell like a soft rain over her head, sinking in, a soothing balm over scorched nerves.
“Call me traditional,” he said, “but when I propose to you, it won’t be in front of a crime scene.”
She leaned back, beaming at him. “I won’t argue with that.”
Laughter shook through him, along with another smoke-induced cough. “And I won’t hold my breath.”
Epilogue
Mitch sat with Julia at the end of the bar, applauding with the crowd as Grant finished his set as guest drummer. Not unlike the first night they’d met, yet so much had changed in recent weeks. He had his job back at the firehouse, and while the Falk murder fiasco was being hashed out, Julia worked here as Grant’s assistant.
Her finances had been mysteriously repaired and restored, a feat they were both too relieved to question closely. With his uncle’s house a total loss, his entire family had pitched in to transform an outbuilding near the garage into an apartment for Stephen, so Mitch and Julia could move back into her place. After feeling so cramped in September, now it seemed the perfect size for them as a couple.
As Grant emerged from backstage, Mitch took Julia’s hand, smiling as the diamond ring he’d given her sparkled. Sometimes he still couldn’t believe she’d said yes without a single argument. She’d be beside him at Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas, in the thick of it with his sisters, brothers, their spouses and kids. He couldn’t wait for each and every day ahead of them.
They followed Grant to the office, only to find a pale, skinny kid in a black hoodie and ratty jeans and a Philadelphia PD detective in a crisp suit waiting for them.
“Mitch, Julia, this is Detective Bryant,” Grant said as he rounded the desk to his chair.
The detective stood and shook hands with them, then offered his seat to Julia. Mitch stood behind her, hands on her shoulders. “Detective Bryant stopped by as a favor to me. I figured you’d appreciate an update, Julia.”
