by Jen Talty
Normally, she wasn’t the type of person to drink alone, but between being jobless, nearly dying, and her mother getting more dating action than her, Lexi figured a few glasses was just what the doctor ordered.
She put the bottle on ice and brought it out to the front porch.
Growing up, she never thought it was weird living at the marina with her house across the parking lot, overlooking the long docks that stretched out into the intercoastal waterway, housing everything from pleasure boats, to fishing boats, to million dollar yachts. She hated to admit it, but it felt good to be home, even if only temporary.
Though she knew without a doubt she did not want to return to New York City. She’d never been cut out for that lifestyle. However, she had no idea what she wanted to do, or where she wanted to go. The last five years of her life had been about Tom. Every decision she made had been based on what Tom might think or want.
The days of putting a man before herself were over.
Laughter rippled across the water, stealing her attention, reminding her of Ace and his stubbornness. She hadn’t really taken offense to his refusal to allow her the slightest gesture of gratitude, but more, it piqued her curiosity as to why he was so opposed to having dinner.
Maybe he had a girlfriend?
Lexi nixed that idea quickly. If he had one, she was sure he wouldn’t be spending one of his last night’s off work with his buddies. Besides, he probably would have told her when she asked for the millionth time.
Maybe he was gay?
She laughed out loud. Well, anything was possible.
Regardless, she was going to think of a way to repay him.
Fishing stuff!
Quickly, she pulled out her phone. “Hey Siri, call Shea O’Grady.”
“Calling Shea O’Grady.”
Got to love modern technology.
“Hello?” Shea’s voice bellowed from the speaker. “Lexi? Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Listen, I was wondering if you could help me out with a gift for Ace.” Lexi swirled her wine, staring at the liquid as the moon rays glistened through the glass.
“I don’t really know him.”
“Does he shop at your store often?”
“Often enough, why?”
She took a small sip of the crisp, cool wine. “Since he won’t let me buy him dinner, I thought I’d get him a bunch of fishing gear. Tackle. Poles. Whatever he generally buys and maybe a few hundred dollars in bait that he can use at his leisure.”
“I can help you with that. Can you swing by sometime tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
“Hey, babe, are you ready?” a muffled male voice filtered through the phone speaker.
“Once second, okay, Rusty?” Shea asked. “Sorry, I’ve got a date with that guy from the shop the other day. You remember, the angry one.”
“Yeah, and he tried to chase down the asshole who hit me. Please thank him for me and I’d like to do something for him as well.”
“No way, sister. He’s all mine.”
Lexi laughed. “I’ll see you tomorrow and you better fill me in on all the details from tonight.”
“Come around lunch time and we can sit down for a bit.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Lexi tapped the phone before setting it down on the table. The faint hum of a motorboat engine tickled her ears. She loved the sounds of the water, whether it be the lapping of waves against the shore, birds overhead, or even the annoying owl that lived in the live oak covered in Spanish moss in the back yard.
The ripples from a boat danced under the moonlight, but the small vessel had no lights on.
Idiots.
She stood, taking the first few steps down the porch when she saw a flame fly from the boat, heading toward the dock right where the gas pumps were located.
“No!” She dropped her glass and it shattered at her feet as she raced down the steps ignoring the pain in her thigh, as well as the sharp tear in the soft part of her arch.
The flame landed about twenty feet from the gas, but whatever the flame was attached to rolled down the dock, dangerously close.
As she barreled down the dock, Ace and his men leapt into action, taking what must have been fire extinguishers and began dousing the flames that kicked up as the wood dock ignited.
Another fire bomb flew through the air, this time landing on a boat, which immediately caught fire, sending thick smoke and orange flames into the sky.
“Take my boat and go after them,” Ace shouted.
Lexi ripped off her shirt and wrapped her hand in the fabric before smashing the glass to the emergency fire hose at the base of the dock.
The crackle of flames grew stronger as the flames tore through the boat, getting way too close to others. She didn’t know much about fires, but she knew enough that if they didn’t contain this one, her entire marina, and the men on the dock, would go up in one colossal explosion of epic proportion.
She quickly hooked up the hose and tried cranking the wheel to get the water flowing, but to no avail.
“Get back,” Ace ordered as he shoved her aside, taking the hose in his one hand and turning the wheel effortlessly in the other. He looked her up and down before yanking off his shirt as the water flowed from the hose. “Put this on, you’re half naked.”
She didn’t argue, tugging his shirt over her head.
“I’ll get another extinguisher from the—”
“Just stay away from the docks, got it?” He lowered his chin, glaring at her.
“I can help.”
“You want to help? Go to the street and wait for the first responders to get here and bring them down. I already called it in.”
If someone could shoot daggers from their eyes, it would be in the expression on Ace’s face with his narrowed stare and furrowed brow.
“Listen.” She took a step forward.
“I told you to stay back.” He pressed her hand against his chest. “I can’t be worried about you and do my job. Now just go.”
“But—”
“Lexi, just do as you are fucking told and go wait for the fire trucks while I try to save your God damn marina.”
She gasped, then snapped her mouth shut. Heat erupted from her toes, scalding her skin right to her forehead.
Ace turned and ran down the dock with the hose. Had the flames for the boat not just flicked higher in the sky, she would have marched herself down the docks and given him a piece of her mind.
Instead, she shuffled up the parking lot, her thigh aching and her foot throbbing. Sirens blaring in the background.
She glanced over her shoulder. Ace and his men worked to contain the fire.
Well, at least she knew for sure that this time a simple thank you would be all he deserved.
Chapter 4
ACE SAT ON THE STEPS leading up to the front porch of Lexi’s home. Luckily, the fire had been contained to part of the main dock and two boats. Had he and his crew not been there, God only knows what would have happened.
“No news on the hit and run?” Ace asked Rusty, the off-duty police officer who had witnessed Lexi’s accident.
“Nothing on the guy driving the car, but the forensic team says the tire marks from the other car are not from breaking, but from peeling out.”
Ace snapped his head up. “As in they could have been waiting for the right time to race through the intersection?”
“That’s the theory we’re going with.”
“Have you ever heard of Alberto Ferro?”
Rusty tilted his head. “He’s got a place in Miami and rumor has it, he’s expanding his business up the coast. Why?”
“I think one of his thugs might be responsible for tonight’s fire.”
“Which means you think he’s behind Lexi’s hit and run.”
“Exactly,” Ace said.
“I’ll look into it.”
“I appreciate that.” Ace glanced over his shoulder as the front door screeched open. Lexi and her friend, Shea, stood a
t the door, huggine one another.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lexi said to her friend, then glared at him as she slammed the door shut.
He guessed he deserved that.
“She finally got a hold of her mother.” Shea breezed past him before slipping her arm around Rusty’s waist. “She’s about an hour away.”
“Thanks,” Ace said, rubbing his temples. “How’s Lexi?”
“Pissed at you,” Shea said with a sprinkle of sarcasm and a heaping cup of annoyance. “Not to mention she’s got a cut on her foot that I think should have had stitches.”
“I assume the paramedics patched her up?”
“They did. She’s a tough cookie.”
“I imagine she is,” Ace said, wondering if she was going to open the door in a few minutes when he knocked on it.
“I’ll be in touch,” Rusty said.
The couple headed toward the parking lot. Never in a million years would he have expected those two to walk off arm and arm.
But life was full of unexpected events.
Like the rush of emotion he’d felt over the idea of Lexi being in harm’s way and anywhere near that fire. He resisted the urge to take out the picture of Sarah. The thought that any of this could be related to Sarah and her family’s deaths disturbed him to the core. But what made his insides twist in pain was the thought that history might repeat itself.
It wasn’t about people dying in fires. He could only save so many, a reality in his career he had to reconcile. Nor was it about his past, even though that affected him with every fire he battled.
This was about Lexi.
A woman he’d just met
A woman who had wormed her way into his daily thoughts and his nightly dreams.
A woman he wanted more than he’d wanted anything in a long time.
He stood, sucking in a deep breath and made his way to the front door, where he tapped his knuckle three times.
Shasta barked. He could see her sitting in front of the door, wagging her tail. Lexi stood at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, doing her best to ignore him.
He banged again.
This time Shasta raced to Lexi, groaned, then ran back to the door, jumping up.
“Come on Lexi, open the door.”
When she didn’t turn around, Ace took a chance and twisted the knob.
Unlocked.
“Down girl,” he whispered, patting the dog’s head.
Lexi looked over her shoulder. “I already said thank you. I don’t think I need to say it again.”
“No. But I need to apologize.” He made his way to the kitchen island and sat down on the stool beside her, pulling out his wallet and setting it on the counter. “I only snapped because I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“That’s no excuse for the way you behaved.”
“You’re right.” He opened his wallet and pulled out the picture of him and Sarah taken before the junior prom with both sets of parents. “But maybe this will help you understand.” He pushed the picture across the countertop with a shaky hand. Other than his parents, his two sisters, and Tex, he hadn’t spoken to anyone about Sarah, her family, or their murder in years.
Lexi cocked her head, holding the picture between her long, slender fingers. “Are you married? Is this your wife? Girlfriend?”
“She was my high school sweetheart and she and her family died in a house fire when I was seventeen.” The words rolled off his tongue a little too easy. He wanted to feel the pain and guilt for having feelings for another woman. He wanted to wallow in self-pity and loathing.
But all he could do was see this beautiful woman, full of life, sitting next him, making him feel things he had no intention of ever having in his life again. “They were murdered.”
“Oh, my, God.” Lexi dropped the picture. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
“You had no way of knowing. It’s not something I talk about, but I couldn’t let you go on the dock and risk something tragic happening to you. I…” He what? He cared? He valued human life and did his best to protect it, but when he’d watched her rip off her shirt to open the emergency fire hose, something primal erupted in his heart.
Something he hadn’t ever felt before, not with Sarah, and not with his ex. He didn’t welcome the sensation.
“I care very much about your mother and after pulling you from a burning car, well, let’s just say I care about you, too.” There. He’d said it. He rubbed his shaky hands on his thighs all of a sudden aware he had no shirt on. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, but I’m not sorry for keeping you off that dock.”
“Thank you for that.” Her fingers traced the edges of the picture. “Who murdered them and why?”
He rested his arms on the counter, dropping his forehead to his hands, and swallowing his breath. Maybe telling her what happened would help make her understand just how bad these men were.
“To make a very long story short, her father owned a restaurant and he took money from an investor, who turned out to be a criminal and used the business to launder his money. When Sarah’s father found out, he went to turn the bastard in, only Ferro got to him first, setting the family home on fire. No one got out alive.” Ace clenched his eyes closed, fighting the tears that threatened. He didn’t cry for himself anymore, but for the fact he hadn’t been able to bring the family any justice.
Much less peace.
“Is that why you became an Air Force Fire Protection Specialist?”
He rolled his head to the side, catching her caring gaze. “Yes.” He wanted desperately to fight the pull Lexi had over him. To deny how comfortable he felt in her presence. To destroy any emotion he had, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t push her from his mind.
“And now you think this guy that Nally brought is somehow related to the people who murdered the love of your life?”
For a short year, Sarah had been his world. He’d been seventeen and not even close to being a man yet, something his adult mind constantly challenged with every short-lived relationship he’d had over the years.
“I really don’t know, but since the murderer of Sarah and her family has never been brought to justice, I can’t let go of the uncanny similarities between this Santoro guy and someone I know to be associated with Sarah’s death. Add in your accident and tonight’s fire, my instincts are on high alert.”
She leaned back on the stool, resting her hand on his bare back, rubbing up and down. Her skin tingled against his, sending signals to the rest of his body. He thought he should stifle it, but he honestly didn’t want to, and that scared him.
“I’m sorry about what happened to your girlfriend and her family.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I was an asshole.”
“Yeah, you were.” She patted his shoulder, giving it an intense squeeze.
He should sit taller and ask for a shirt, but instead, he kept his head on the counter, enjoying her tender touch, wondering what it would feel like to kiss her lips, neck, collarbone… hell every inch of her.
“Tell your mother not to take this deal.”
“I don’t know. While I don’t like their pushy tactics, this might be just what my mother needs.”
“Are you kidding me? After what I just told you?” Sitting up, he turned his body to face her, resting a hand on her good knee. “That fire tonight was intentional, and I believe meant to scare your mom into taking the deal.”
“Oh, come on. That’s not the first time some stupid teenagers raced by and—”
“Tried to blow the place up?” he interrupted, drilling his point home.
“We’ve had vandals before.”
He arched a brow.
“Seriously, what would they gain in starting a fire? If they destroyed the marina, there’d be nothing to invest in.”
“If these people are who I think they are, this place would be the perfect business for them to run drugs and launder money, especially if they had to rebuild.”
She l
aughed. “I’m sorry, but that’s absurd.”
Hopping off the stool he started to pace, scratching the back of his head. “Then explain the hit and run.” He stopped and held up his hand. “And before you try, Rusty informed me that the tire marks on the road were not of the car trying to break, but of a car accelerating, intentionally barreling through that intersection.”
“What? How can they tell?”
“The difference between how a tire increases during—”
“It was a rhetorical question.” She stared at him, her wide eyes flickering with fear and confusion.
“You need to shut this deal down. Now.” He held her gaze, doing his best to keep his emotions in check. The combination of anger and desire could be a bad mix where he was concerned and the last thing he wanted with Lexi was angry sex.
“I don’t know, even though we don’t like their pushy tactics, it’s a perfect—”
“Are you even listening to me?” He reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, holding tight. “These are some seriously bad people who do whatever it takes to get what they want.”
“Let go of me.”
He let out a long breath, dropping his hands, but he clenched his fists. “Someone may have tried to kill you and for all we know, this fire could have been for the same reason.”
“That’s crazy. Why would they want to kill me?”
“That’s an easy one. It would make taking advantage of your mother so much easier. Get to the daughter, who seems to be standing between them and the marina, so they can get what they want.” He inched forward, his nose only inches from hers. “Tell them unequivocally, no.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
He tossed his hands wide and stared at the ceiling. “Would you for one second stop and really hear what I’m saying?”
“It’s kind of hard when you turn into a controlling asshole.” She planted her hands on her hips and jutted her chin out. “I’m sorry about what happened to your girlfriend, but that’s not what is going on here and I think you need to find a way to let go of—”
He covered her mouth with his hand. “Don’t go there. The only thing I’m holding onto right now is wanting justice for an innocent family and making sure it doesn’t happen to someone else I care about.” He breathed in deeply, letting it out slowly as he uncovered her mouth, her shocked eyes glowering at him.
