Put Out (Kilgore Fire Book 5)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “Ang!” my brother called from the garage. “Can you bring me something to wipe my eyes? There’s dirt in them!”

  Rolling my eyes at my brother’s inability to prevent shit before it happened—and he damn well knew it would happen—I grabbed a wipe from the box on the corner of my desk and headed in his direction.

  “What happened to make you eat like that?” Ariel asked as she stayed at my side.

  I looked down at her.

  “Nothing.”

  “It was the firefighter again, wasn’t it?” she challenged. “That’s the only reason you would poison your body with Oreos.”

  I looked down at her again and glared, then reached and snatched the half-eaten cookie out of her hand.

  “These are mine,” I growled. “Don’t eat them.”

  She stuck her tongue out, her teeth and mouth covered in Oreo residue, and I gagged.

  “Gross,” I grumbled. “Why aren’t you at school?”

  She pursed her lips and refused to answer.

  When I arrived at Alec’s side, I lifted the wipe and vigorously rubbed his face clean.

  “Thanks,” Alec said dryly as he pushed up.

  He was standing under a car lift, an old piece of crap racing car that came in once every two weeks above his head.

  He had his one hand holding the transmission in while the other tightened a nut somewhere I couldn’t see.

  “You know,” I said to him. “I got you glasses for a reason.”

  My brother spared me a glance, and grunted in reply.

  “What are you doing here, Ariel?” Alec grunted. “Didn’t you have an award ceremony this morning?”

  I looked to her and grinned.

  “Busted,” I teased.

  When Ariel’s face still didn’t lose the frown, I started to worry.

  “Ariel…”

  “Dad was there,” she blurted.

  That news surprised me.

  Our father didn’t go to anything of ours.

  Literally, nothing.

  Not a volleyball game, nor soccer or baseball. Not our graduation from high school, nor the one from college. Not even to Alec’s children’s births or Elise’s.

  Literally, my father did nothing for us, so hearing that he was at Ariel’s awards ceremony was just plain surprising.

  “He didn’t come for me,” Ariel admitted. “He came for Bitsy.”

  My mouth tightened.

  Bitsy was his wife. A wife who kind of sort of hated us.

  Not that we didn’t return the favor, but still.

  “Why?” I asked. “What’s there to see?”

  “She has his balls shoved down so deep into her pocket that he has no choice but to come if she bids him to,” Alec complained. “Likely, he was there because she asked him to be; most likely because she didn’t want to see you or me.”

  “We didn’t go, though,” I informed him.

  “She didn’t know that,” he said. “The last time she saw you, you let her know that you didn’t take too kindly to her adultering ways.”

  I laughed.

  I had done that.

  The bitch deserved it, though.

  What did she expect?

  The woman had wormed her way into his life when my dad was most vulnerable, sucked him into her Venus flytrap of a vagina, and then ordered him to leave his wife and kids if he wanted to stay with her.

  So yes, the bitch deserved it.

  Our dad wasn’t even our dad anymore, even though Ariel tried as hard as she could to get him to pay attention to her.

  “Did he say anything to you?” I asked her.

  Ariel nodded her head, her curly black hair falling over her shoulder as she did.

  We all looked alike.

  There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that we were the hell spawn of Taryn and Tommy Soco.

  My mother was half black, and half Native American while my father was half Italian and half Puerto Rican.

  We had my mom’s skin tone, my father’s honey colored eyes, my mom’s long limbed physique, and my father’s hair.

  We were the perfect blend of two of the most beautiful people—on the outside anyway.

  Ariel’s ringlets were almost identical to mine, only my hair was about four inches longer than hers.

  Her eyes, exactly like mine and Alec’s, stared at me with a haunted look to them.

  “He did.”

  “And what did he have to say?” I asked tightly.

  “He said that he’s sorry he missed your birthday and that he’ll get your birthday present to you next week when Bitsy is out of town,” she admitted reluctantly.

  Alec laughed before I could, and I turned to him with hilarity in my eyes.

  “We’re both going to hell,” I told him.

  “Yup,” he agreed. “She probably doesn’t realize that he’s going to give you a present, otherwise the bitch would’ve thrown a fit and informed him that they didn’t have the money to waste on his kids.”

  “No shit,” I said. “She’s something else.”

  “She’s going to be my teacher next year,” Ariel murmured. “There’s no way that she’s not going to be. She’s the only chemistry teacher we have.”

  I pursed my lips.

  “Can’t you take college credits?” I asked.

  A truck pulled into our lot, but at the same moment Alec asked, “Will you hand me a three-quarter-inch wrench, Ang?”

  “Yes, I can use college credits,” she said, sounding contemplative. “Why?”

  I handed Alec the wrench, then turned back to her as I waited for whomever was pulling up to the bay doors to come in and announce him or herself.

  “So, this summer you’ll take chemistry, and then that’ll transfer to your high school and college credits. Two birds, one stone,” I said, proud of myself for thinking of it.

  “Alec.”

  That voice, oh God, that voice.

  Turning around, I lifted the cookie that I’d stolen from Ariel to my mouth and ate it in one bite.

  “Hey, man,” Alec called to Bowe. “I’ll be with you in just a few.”

  “Need a hand?” he asked.

  Alec shifted his large bulk sideways and grunted. “Wouldn’t mind it.”

  And just like that, Bowe was pressed up against me, for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.

  How was a woman supposed to deal with situations such as these?

  If I moved to one side, I’d bump into Ariel. Alec blocked me from the front. Bowe from the back, and Alec’s tool chest finished off the box from the other side.

  Just, perfect.

  At least today I was in jeans and a t-shirt instead of bike shorts and a tight top.

  One didn’t wear nice clothes to a mechanic’s shop, especially my brother’s. My brother was a slob, and anywhere he went, his mess was sure to follow.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked Bowe since I had no other recourse but to act like nothing was bothering me.

  “This is my car,” he said.

  I blinked, surprised.

  “It is?” I asked. “You race?”

  He nodded.

  “I do.”

  “When?” I wondered.

  The man already built houses on top of being a full-time firefighter. Now he was adding racing to the list?

  “On the weekends that I’m not on shift or working,” he said. “It’s happened a lot more lately than it usually does.”

  “Why?” I asked, looking up at his face for the first time.

  “We’ve been slowing down on flippin’ houses,” he grunted when Alec moved, letting go of his half of the weight.

  His arm strained, and I licked my lips, admiring the way his bicep bulged with the added weight.

  He looked different today, and I realized then that it was the fact that he actually had a shirt on.

  Any time I saw him when he was outside of work, he never had a shirt on. In fact, it was a surprise to see him at work with a shirt on since the majorit
y of the time I saw him when he was working at his project house.

  Though, I had to admit, I hadn’t seen him much at all lately since I hadn’t been working for July anymore.

  “How’s your grandmother?” I asked him, watching his face for any signs of discomfort.

  Surprising me, he smiled, wide and true, and then looked down at me.

  “She got out of the hospital and is actually going to start staying in the same facility my grandfather is staying in,” he smiled.

  “Your grandfather’s in a facility and your grandmother’s not?” I didn’t know how to shut up. Seriously.

  Had I realized how upsetting that certain topic would be for him, I would’ve never brought it up.

  Instead, since the man was so fuckin’ nice, he spoke about it even though I could tell it hurt him to do since I was looking at his face as he explained.

  “My grandfather has Alzheimer’s.” He grinned, even though I could tell that was the very last thing he wanted to do. “He’s been going downhill for a couple of years now, but it was only a couple of months ago that we decided to move him to a home that specializes in care for the elderly with life altering diseases.”

  “Oh,” I murmured.

  That’s when my sister chose to step on my foot, causing me to turn my head and glare at her.

  “Ow,” I said through clenched teeth. “What was that for?”

  She widened her eyes.

  “You’re going to make the poor man cry,” she countered.

  It was said with such softness that I had to strain to hear the words.

  I lifted my lip at her in a silent snarl and turned back just in time to get a face full of dirt and other things that came out of something above me.

  “Ack,” I jumped back, knocking into my sister when I went.

  “Hey!” Ariel cried. “You’re such a hoe!”

  We went down in a tangle of limbs, luckily with me on top.

  I put my hands down to stop my entire body from landing directly on top of her, but my hand caught on a puddle of oil that’d dripped from so many cars that Alec had yet to clean up, and landed hard on top of Ariel.

  Our breath left us in loud whooshes, and I scrambled up only seconds after falling.

  “Ariel!” I cried, getting up to my knees and staring at my sister.

  My sister who was busy laughing her ass off.

  “Oh, God,” she laughed, wrapping her hands over her belly. “That was like it was out of a movie or something.”

  “Your hair is in the oil,” I told her. “You’re never going to get the smell out.”

  She got up and whipped her head around, the wet strands of her hair slapping against my arm.

  I stood up completely just in time for Bowe to lean down, causing us to knock heads.

  “Oomph,” Bowe said, pulling back, but not in time.

  The crack of our heads had my brother’s laughter starting to rumble out of him, and I leveled a glare on him.

  “You know,” I said, not seeing the amusement in the situation at all. “This is all your fault.”

  “My fault?” he asked. “How do you figure?”

  I wiped the dirt away from my eyes with my forearm, and then pointed at him.

  “You should’ve worn your fucking glasses.”

  He grinned.

  “I could’ve said the same about you.”

  I harrumphed, left my sister sitting on her ass where she was still laughing, and stomped away.

  Instead of trying to get into my car with grease all over me, I opted for a shower.

  Once I was clean, I slipped my panties and bra back on, and was just slipping my feet into a pair of my brother’s coveralls that he wore in the garage so he wouldn’t get his clothes completely fucked up, when I heard the outer office door open.

  “Hey!” I called to, who I thought was, my brother or sister. “Can you bring me my phone off the desk? I hear it ringing, but forgot to bring it in with me.”

  I brought the coveralls up and over my shoulder, fingers on the zipper to close it up, when I looked up and noticed the shadow in the doorway.

  “Thank…” I froze at seeing Bowe standing there.

  He had my phone in his hand, and his eyes were on my belly.

  I looked down and cursed.

  The bra I was wearing today was one of my more sheer ones. Although you couldn’t actually see my nipples in them, you could definitely see the outline of them. My panties, however, were a different story.

  Those were see through, and you could see the hair covering my sex, as well as the very inside of my thighs in the slit of the coveralls that I’d been about to zip up.

  “Oh,” I said, my hands fumbling to spread my fingers and pull the sides of the coverall to hide my abdomen. “I’m sorry. I thought it was my brother or sister.”

  “Your sister went home in her car, which I might add your brother said needs to get new tires, and your brother’s finishing up on my car. I came in here to drop the money off.” His eyes were still on my belly.

  “Oh,” I replied dumbly. “Okay.”

  My hands fumbled at the zipper, and finally I was able to pull it up, not stopping until the zipper was zipped up completely to my collarbone.

  “Do you need a receipt?” I asked helpfully.

  He looked like he was ready to bolt.

  Did I scare him?

  “No,” he shook his head and returned his eyes to mine. “I’m going to give him cash. We usually do this under the table.”

  “Ahh,” I replied with nothing else to say to that. “Is that car street legal?”

  He shook his head. “No. The tires on it are racing tires, not to mention you get them on the road and they’ll wear down quicker than you can say ‘bald.’”

  I grinned.

  “I didn’t think so, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

  He was at the door now, and I took a step forward, to do what, I didn’t know.

  The moment he saw my foot move, though, he was pushing out the door.

  “See you later,” then he was gone, leaving me incredibly embarrassed.

  I knew I wasn’t the smallest girl around.

  I wasn’t the biggest, no, but I had curves.

  I had a lot of them.

  Boobs, butt, and hips—I had it all. I just had a lot of it all.

  I wore a size ten on a good day, and a size twelve on all the others.

  I had a love for pizza and all things fattening, and it showed on the days I couldn’t control my urges.

  My body also disgusted me.

  I hated it. I hated everything about my thighs and my boobs.

  I hated that my breasts were the first things to draw a man’s attention.

  I hated that I could never find jeans that fit my ass and thighs.

  I hated that I couldn’t find a shirt that fit my pudgy belly and my size D boobs.

  Overall, I had a definite complex when it came to my body, and to have Bowe run away after seeing it was definitely disheartening. Especially since I had the hots for the damn man.

  Fucking wonderful.

  With no parting words to my brother so he wouldn’t tell me to get out of his coveralls, I went out the side door in case Bowe was still there, and headed to my car.

  Dammit, it was only eleven and I was already having a bad day.

  Chapter 4

  I am strong. But I’m fucking tired. So the bed is going to have to be enough for now. Tomorrow I’ll worry about what’s become of my life.

  -Bowe’s secret thoughts

  Bowe

  “Stupid, goddamned kids these days wouldn’t know to be scared if they heard banjo music while canoeing,” I muttered to my partner on the ambulance for tonight, Tai.

  Tai looked over at me with a wide grin.

  “You’re trying to tell me that you think that kid’s stupid?” He nearly said it with a straight face.

  Nearly.

  “Yes,” I replied. “Incredibly so.”

  My eyes w
ent to the kid who had tried to outrun a police officer while on a fucking bicycle, of all things.

  “You’re being too hard on him,” Tai teased. “Just look. He got pretty far on it.”

  “That was because Downy let him get that far,” I told him as I opened the door to the ambulance. “Now we have to go all the way down that stupid hill for him.”

  “Yo,” Downy, a cop on the Kilgore Police Department, as well as a member of the SWAT team with us, called as he saw us approach. “You get the story on him?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded my head. “Dispatch told us that he was impaled.”

  “He is,” Downy pointed. “On his own bicycle.”

  I sighed as I looked over the bridge. “How does that even happen?”

  Tai shrugged as we both made our way down the steep slope of the underpass, coming to a stop at the side where we looked at the kid.

  He wasn’t too bad off.

  Overall, he looked pretty good.

  The only thing wrong with him was that he had the handlebars of his bike impaling him in the ass.

  And not in any way that could be perceived as good.

  Lucky for him, he was impaled in the meat of his ass rather than into his anus like he could have been.

  Forty-five minutes later we were just walking back into the fire station after dropping the dumbass off at the hospital with his police escort when another call came in.

  “Unit four, we have a MVC at the Loop and Fourth,” Pam, a new dispatcher, called out in her incredibly annoying voice.

  Tai and I looked at each other, and I sighed as we turned back around, the smell of Gumbo tantalizing our noses and senses as we left.

  “10-4, Unit Four in route,” Tai muttered into the mic at his shoulder.

  “Fuckin’ A,” Tai growled. “That smelled so damn good.”

  It had.

  It’d been simmering for hours, and it would still be good when we got back.

  Then again, I’d made the food, so I would know.

  There just better be some left when I got back or I’d be kicking some asses.

  “It did,” I agreed. “Hopefully, we can get back before the next shift shows up and tries to eat it.”

  We’d been out all night, and hadn’t had a single second of rest since the shift started.

  Now we were looking at our fifth call in a row, and as long as we were lucky, we’d be going home after this one.