Brotherhood of District 23 Complete Series

by Amy Briggs

  As my thoughts drifted to the night before, I reminisced about how he’d handled me. His strong hands, his large stature towering over me had made me feel small but powerful sexually. His reserved but then enthusiastic reaction to what I said brought me pleasure. I could feel the warmth between my legs forming as I thought of his firm smack to my ass as my punishment, followed by his soft touch, soothing where he’d made contact. The look in his eyes when I gave him permission to dominate me was that of a hungry lion that wanted to devour me. When he’d said it would happen again, I hadn’t thought I’d want to. I generally tended not to go back to the same man’s bedroom a second time, but a desire to fuck him again was taking over.

  “Earth to Isabel?” Kevin interrupted my thoughts, bringing me back to reality. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

  “Oh! Nothing. I just got lost for a moment, relaxing and daydreaming, actually.” I smiled. At that moment, both of our phones started pinging with a message. Another large fire was happening right that moment, just under a block away from us, and we were specifically requested at the scene.

  “That’s unusual, while a fire is still burning,” Kevin said as he flagged the waitress down to pay our bill. “We’re being requested specifically too, that’s odd. Let’s go check it out. It’s not far from here anyway.”

  “From what I understand, it’s been a busy day for the fire department. Maybe something is up.” I finished the rest of my drink and stood up.

  Kevin quickly paid our tab, while I called in we would be responding, as well as our location, and we walked out to our car. As we exited the building, we could see the lights from the emergency vehicles, and the air was thick with the pungent smell of smoke. It appeared to be a rather large fire, and while I couldn’t see the flames from where we were, the smell was overwhelming and the haze in the air was visible from our location, which was close, but not that close; it had to be a big one.

  Dispatch informed me we were requested on scene specifically because it was the third sizeable fire of the day and suspicious activity had been reported at one of the fires earlier that day. That must have been the one Matt mentioned in his text. That number of fires in one day, along with one suspicious report, was enough to open an investigation to see if there was a common thread among them. Looked like I’d be seeing Matt much sooner than I’d anticipated, and not under ideal circumstances, which would have been my bedroom, of course.

  As we pulled up to the scene, we saw an apartment building fully engulfed in flames. I had actually never been to a fire scene that large, and as I got out of the car, I could feel the heat from the flames against my face.

  “Jesus Christ, this is a big fire.” Kevin looked over at me. “Fuck, it’s hot.”

  “Yea, it really is. Let’s go find the chief first.” I stared at the flames rising out of the roof and through two windows of the apartment on the end. There appeared to be five apartments across, and two stories. Displaced residents were watching in awe as well.

  As we made our way over to Brian Cavanaugh’s command vehicle, I noted he looked very concerned. His brows were furrowed, and he was yelling orders into the radio as more firefighters showed up to assist from all directions. The chaos of a scene like that was fairly new to me. I didn’t normally run investigations like this. It was late in the evening, and the flames were so big they lit up the block as if the sun were shining.

  “Chief, I’m Detective Connor, and you know my partner Detective Cruise. We’d like to talk to you when you have a moment. I understand you requested us.” I nodded at Brian, continuing to take note of his concern for what was going on around him.

  “Give me a minute, Detectives.” He turned away from us, putting his ear up to his radio. “Ok, I want everyone out of there. This is a surround and drown. I repeat, all firefighters out. NOW.” And with that, the horns on the trucks sounded three times in quick succession, several times. What I learned later was that when the interior of the building was deemed unsafe to continue fighting the fire inside of it, the chief would call for the firefighters to leave the building immediately. Because of the chaos and noise at times, they don’t always hear the orders, and so the sound of the horns blowing quickly in succession three times is the indication they need to get out immediately.

  “There is way too much going on for him to talk to us right now. Let’s walk around,” I said. I motioned to Brian we were going to walk around and would be back. When he nodded his understanding in my direction, we started to observe our surroundings more intently.

  “So, if this is the third large fire of the day, it’s either a really busy town all of a sudden or something fishy is going on. What do you think, Cruise?” Kevin wiped some of the sweat forming on his forehead off with his shirtsleeve.

  Fanning myself from the heat as well, I replied, “Well, dispatch said something suspicious was reported at the fire this morning, so I guess we’ll need to ask the chief what that was. Normally, they would just tell us when we call in, so I already find everything about this odd. I don’t follow the fire wire, but three large fires in one district in one day certainly raises an eyebrow and throws up a flag for me.”

  “Yea, me too.” As we walked around, I took mental pictures of my surroundings. The apartment building, the number of firefighters on the scene and what they were doing. And I did look for Matt, but with them all dressed the same, it was impossible to tell them apart, really, except for their names on the backs of their coats, and I didn’t see his. For a moment, I wondered how hot it must be to wear all of that heavy equipment in weather like ours here. It’s so hot to begin with, and to wear a heavy coat and pants as well as all that gear must be arduous at best.

  Kevin and I both knew that at major scenes of any kind, you wanted to get a good look at the crowd. The people watching the scene often left clues, and as much as I hated to admit it, often a criminal in a situation would watch the aftermath of a crime they committed if they had the chance. We learned early on at the academy that often people who committed crimes did it so they could participate in the spectacle. Sometimes, they would engage the media as an innocent bystander. Sometimes, they did it so they could be a hero and help save the day. Why they did it was always a mystery, or at least it was until we figured it out. Without saying a word, we began to observe the faces and the reactions of the onlookers. In my head, I asked myself, Does anyone look happy? Does anyone look sad? Does anyone look nervous? Thinking and watching, I didn’t notice Brian had waved us over.

  “Come on, the chief wants us now,” Kevin nudged me. I simply nodded, turning my attention away from the growing crowd. I hadn’t noticed anything worthy of additional attention and figured we’d probably have better luck talking to residents.

  As we approached Brian’s truck, he said something to a firefighter next to him before he walked toward us, away from his vehicle. As the other firefighter turned to watch Brian walk away, I immediately realized it was Matt, and I felt a flush as our eyes met. He didn’t smile but gave a slight nod, and then turned back to the radios and other equipment at the back of the truck. I knew full well this was a real emergency scene, a big fire, and what they did for a living, but I couldn’t help the slightest disappointment that crept in from his lack of acknowledgement. Shaking myself free of it so I could do my job, I spoke up first as Brian ushered us further away from any people so we could talk privately.

  “So, you requested investigators here? What’s going on? It sounds like a hell of a day. Is everyone accounted for?” I asked.

  Taking a large sigh and looking around nervously, Brian began to explain the events of the day. “We had a pretty large fire this morning, and while two of my guys were inside investigating after the fire was out, they discovered a gas can that had not ignited in the fire. It had rags stuffed right into the top of it. Jo got a picture of it, actually. When I sent a backup crew in to get it, it was missing. Gone.” He ran his hands through his sweaty hair, and I caught a glimpse of his green eyes, l
it up from the fire and lights around us. I immediately noted they were the same eyes I’d stared into the night before, except these didn’t belong to Matt.

  “So someone definitely tampered with evidence at fire number one,” Kevin scrawled in his little notebook, repeating what Brian said.

  “Yes, but there’s more. Look, we are a medium-sized department. We have some busy days, but never, and I mean never in the twenty years I’ve been riding fire trucks in this town have we had three major fires in one day. It’s fucking suspicious. The fire we have going on right now spread to three apartments before we could even get here, and we aren’t that far away. I suspect when we finally get the flames out, there will be traces of some kind of an accelerant, because there is no other way for this type of construction to go up that quickly. This is new construction, made of a multitude of fire resistant materials. That should at the very least slow the spread of fire.”

  “Ok, we’ll definitely need to get the evidence guys down here. I’ll make the call now, actually. Please keep telling Detective Cruise about the rest of the situation.” Kevin walked off, taking his cell out of his pocket and calling in for a crime lab unit to be sent out to this scene.

  “Is everyone alright, Brian?” I had to ask. I didn’t see Jo anywhere. I mean, there were a ton of firefighters from multiple districts at that point there, helping out, but rarely had I ever seen Jo without either Brian or Matt by her side.

  “Yea, all of my guys are ok. Jo is fine, if that’s what you’re asking. She was on the initial interior team, but they’ve all been pulled out now. She’s over at rehab, cooling off and getting hydrated. It’s so fucking hot out here tonight.”

  “Well, I’m glad she’s ok, and I saw your brother. I assume everyone else is alright. So tell me about the second fire today.”

  “The second fire today was a mechanic’s garage. You familiar with Mike’s over on Minnesota Ave?”

  “Yes, I am, actually. I took my car there once. Is it gone?” I was disappointed. I liked taking my car to smaller mechanics who have an appreciation for the classics like me. I also hadn’t heard about that fire, since we had been busy serving that warrant.

  “Oh, it’s gone alright. When a garage like that goes up and we don’t get a call right away, all the chemicals and shit light up pretty fast. He happened to be closed today, which is normal for a Monday, so it didn’t get reported right away. The long and short of it is, we’ve now had three major fires in one day, all of which included accelerants of some kind, and I’m getting fucking concerned for the safety of my guys and whether or not any of these might be connected.”

  “What would make you think they’re connected?” I examined Brian’s face, looking for a sign that would speak to me.

  “Honestly? It’s a gut feeling.”

  “A gut feeling?” Kevin chimed in loudly and fairly sarcastically, turning our attention to him.

  “Yes, a gut feeling. I’ve been doing this a long fucking time, Detective, and I know when something isn’t right. And something about everything that has happened today isn’t right.”

  “Ok, ok. Everyone calm down for a minute,” I interjected. “Kevin, I believe that if the chief here thinks something is wrong, then something might actually be wrong. Brian, why didn’t you directly report to the fire marshal for this? Why did you get us involved yourself?” I was puzzled. Traditionally, the state fire marshal’s office would handle this sort of an investigation and involve the police after the fact.

  “Well, to be honest, because I clearly had some sort of interference or tampering with evidence this morning. I believe this is a criminal matter. I looked into it this afternoon, and it is within my jurisdiction to recommend this be turned over to the police and not the fire marshal’s office,” he replied.

  “That doesn’t really answer my question. Why?” I stared into his eyes, looking for an answer.

  Looking around again, he leaned in closer to Kevin and me before speaking. “I’m concerned it is one of the firefighters.”

  When I saw Isabel on the scene, part of me wanted to grab her, but after the day we’d had and the continued burning of the building in front of us, I barely had a moment to acknowledge her. Brian had asked me to take over the scene so he could go talk to the detectives. I was guessing the guy with her was her partner, and I couldn’t help but wonder what their relationship was. He probably wanted to fuck her. Who wouldn’t? Not that it was any of my business, really.

  I took over the scene for the remainder of the incident, which kept me busy, and I ended up losing track of Brian as well as the detectives. We finally got the fire under control, and as it started to die out, I could feel my body doing the same. Even in good shape, it was exhausting to fight fire, let alone three fires in one day, and I could feel my muscles begin to ache. Jo and Jax had been assigned to operations earlier, and when the fire was under control, a new team took over, and they made their way to me.

  “Hey, where’s the chief?” Jo asked. She never called him Brian on a scene, which was funny to me. It was completely professional, just always amused me.

  “He is talking to the cops over there somewhere,” I waved in the direction I had last seen them.

  Jax rose an eyebrow of suspicion. “Is there something particularly suspicious about this fire? Or is the fact we’ve been running our asses off today at what looks to be three arsons in a day?” He did always have a way of simply putting it all out there, calling attention to the elephant in the room.

  “I’d say it’s the latter, but I didn’t ask.” I figured Brian would tell me what he wanted me to know. Even though we were brothers and we were close, it wasn’t my place to question things at work, unless I had what I thought may be an alternative way to operate on a scene or something. I respected authority. While every chief had their own style, and Brian was much different than Jack, he was extremely competent, was one of the best firefighters I’d ever met, my brother or not, and a fire department frankly runs more smoothly when the Chain of Command is kept intact.

  Jax and I were both Lieutenants and had both been asked to apply for the Deputy Chief position, although neither of us had yet. I really didn’t know if I wanted that additional responsibility. Well, I mostly didn’t want the additional paperwork ruining my fun as a firefighter. I enjoyed the thrill of riding the truck, fighting fire, and going inside, that kind of thing. As a Lieutenant, I still got to ride the fire trucks, I got to actually fight fire, and I still got the perks of teaching new guys and contributing to budget requests and expenses based on what we as firefighters needed. I felt like I had the job of my dreams, so staying where I was appealed to me.

  “Hmm,” Jo hummed. “I think something fucked up is going on, and I can tell you one thing; I’m goddamn tired now. That was a lot of work today, and I cannot wait to get back to the station and take my fourth shower of the day at this point.” She leaned against the side of the truck and took a bottle of water out of the pants’ pocket of her bunker gear. Taking a long sip, she sighed, and Jax moved over and leaned next to her.

  “I agree. I’m fucking spent. That was fun, but now I could sleep for a day,” Jax agreed.

  The scene was winding down, and I continued to direct crews to look for hot spots and begin overhaul. The overhaul process meant tearing down any loose debris, looking for smoldering fire and embers, putting them out, and also looking around for evidence if need be. While I didn’t ask anyone specifically to look for evidence, I did instruct the interior crews to be observant and look for anything out of place. I hoped they picked up what I meant and expected they’d likely understand after the day we’d had.

  Since I was running Command, people continued coming up to me, asking for directions and such, and it was seriously getting annoying. I kept looking around for Brian and the detectives, and my mind shifted to looking for Isabel as much as I was looking for Brian. It was then I saw them walking back toward us, Isabel’s partner holding his notepad and writing things down Brian appeared
to be telling him. As they got closer, I locked eyes with Isabel and immediately felt that animal attraction to her again. The corners of her mouth turned up into a half smile, and I felt my dick get instantly hard. She always had a smirk around me, and it was so fucking sexy, I couldn’t shake it. Thankfully, through my bunker pants you’d never know, but the closer she got, the more my body reacted. My pulse quickened, and I felt overwhelmingly thirsty as my mouth dried up.

  “Evening, Cavanaugh. Busy day, I hear,” she said when they arrived in front of us.

  “You could say that,” was all I could muster. All of a sudden, I was completely stupid and couldn’t think of what else to say. What the fuck does she do to me? And those fucking jeans she has on would look so much better crumpled up with the rest of her clothes on my bedroom floor.

  Both Jo and Jax said their hellos, and as I commanded the crews to finish up so the chief could go inside and take a look, presumably with the detectives, I had to turn away so I could concentrate. She had her long, dark hair pulled back in that conservative detective ponytail, which was making me think about grabbing her by it while I fucked her from behind again. The thought made my cock so hard I had to adjust myself and shake it off so I could do my job; well, do Brian’s job. As I gave a few more instructions and started shooing people away so we could wrap up the operations side of the job, I waved Brian over.

  “Hey, you ok doing this?” He came over and asked.

  “Yea, it’s fine. I’m glad it’s not my full time job though,” I said. “I’d like to get this scene wrapped up, Chief. The fire is definitely out, and it looks like the hot spots have all been addressed. If you want to go in with the detectives, now is the time before too much gets destroyed in overhaul.”

  “Alright, can you hold down the fort for a little bit longer while I take Jax and the detectives inside to look around?”