by Jane Jamison
Daisy took another sip then pulled her phone out of her hip pocket. Unlike most women, she hated carrying purses. With a debit card or cash in one pocket and her phone in the other, she had everything she needed. Her keys hung on a springy plastic bracelet key ring around her wrist. She never carried makeup, a hair brush, or any of the various items most women did.
“Excuse me for a sec. I’m going to give a friend a call and see if he can help us.”
She rose and strode over to the front of the diner. There weren’t many people on the sidewalk. Just an older couple who held hands as they strolled down the sidewalk and a couple of teens testing out their skateboards—illegally—by zipping around a parking lot. The only other person was a woman Daisy guessed to be in her late twenties or early thirties. The woman had short brown hair and was dressed casually in dark jeans, an oversized shirt, and work boots. She stood on the street corner and slid her gaze around as though hunting for someone.
Probably waiting for her boyfriend.
Daisy punched in the number for Gabriel Cortez, unofficial leader of the Cowboys for Hire organization. Gabriel picked up after the second ring.
“Gabriel here.”
The gravely baritone of his voice soothed Daisy. Strange, she hadn’t even noticed that she’d gotten tense. More than likely she’d picked up on Melissa’s stress. God knew her life was perfect.
Aside from the fact that she hadn’t fallen in love yet. She thrust the idea away, determined to believe that one day she would. And when she found the right man, she’d know it. Until then, she’d “keep on keepin’ on” just like her mother had always told her to do.
“Hi, Gabriel. It’s Daisy.”
His tone lightened at the mention of her name. “Hey, sweet lady, what can I do for you? Aren’t you in Tulsa right now?”
“Yeah, I am.” It seemed nothing got past Gabriel and this team, including her whereabouts. Instead of making her feel spied on or hovered over, it made her feel safe and protected. There was nothing Gabriel and the other men in the organization wouldn’t do for her. “I need your help. Or, actually, I’ve found a girl who needs your help.”
“I thought you were supposed to be taking it easy.”
“Yeah, well. You know how it is.”
“Yeah, I do. Okay, that’s enough chatter. What’s up?”
Straight to the point just like he always was. “She’s got boyfriend trouble. He’s an older guy who’s getting possessive. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also pregnant.”
“Got it. And she needs our protection, is that it?”
“I’m not sure how violent this guy is. In fact, she says it’s more of a badgering thing rather than his physically threatening her. But you know how those kinds of situations can turn even worse in a flash.”
“Is she there in Tulsa with you?”
“She is. I just met her and I’m trying to figure out what I can do for her. That’s why I called you.”
The silence coming from the other side caught her by surprise. “Gabriel? Are you still there?”
“Yep, I’m here.” He cleared his throat. “Listen, I’d send a team up there to help her, but I’m thinking it’d be better if you got more immediate help. Plus, most of my guys are already tied up with other clients.”
“Business is booming” didn’t seem like an appropriate thing to say.
Destiny was a few hours away from Tulsa, but it wasn’t as though the men who worked with Gabriel hadn’t made the trip before.
“Are you saying you don’t want to help her?” She couldn’t believe that. He’d never failed to help. Surely he wasn’t going to do so now.
“‘Course not. I’m saying that there’s another team of men that are closer than we are. They can get to you faster. Or better yet, you can get to them.”
She held the phone against her ear and watched the brown-haired lady pace up and down the sidewalk, then turn around abruptly and head down an alley.
I guess her boyfriend stood her up. Shit. Lousy men are coming out all over the place.
“I didn’t know that. So you have teams here now?”
“Not exactly. It’s kind of an off-shoot of Cowboys for Hire. Same concept, same kind of help. But the men aren’t cowboys.”
He’d thrown her for another loop. “Then what are they?” She chuckled. “Plumbers?”
“Nope. They’re firefighters.”
“You’re kidding. As in men who run into burning buildings? That kind of firefighters?”
“I don’t know of any other kind. Except maybe the kind who fight forest fires. Trust me, Daisy, they’re as good as my men are. Even if they are new to the job.”
She had to admit it. The idea of firemen coming to the rescue not only during a fire, but in other times of need made her a little hot. She could picture topless men wearing yellow fire helmets and those cute khaki pants with suspenders. Or better yet, wearing nothing but their big black boots.
“Daisy? You there?”
“Yeah. I, um, got distracted for a minute. So how do I get in contact with these guys?”
“Hang on. Let me get you their info.”
She waited, hearing noises as Gabriel moved around his office. He was back in a couple of minutes.
“I’ll send you a text with the address.”
She frowned. “Why can’t I give them a call? Unless you can call them for me?”
“Naw, it’s better that you go to them. I don’t like to phone them. I wouldn’t want to catch them while they’re out on a call.”
Her imagination took hold again. Walking into a fire station wouldn’t be so bad. In fact, it might be downright fantastic. She might be able to catch more than one or two hot fire hunks to look at. A little eye candy never hurt anyone, even during troubled times. Hell, especially during troubled times.
She glanced down as her phone beeped, telling her that his text had come through. “Got it. Thanks as always, Gabriel.”
“No thanks necessary. Just tell her to—”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll tell her to pass it along when the time comes.”
Chapter Two
“Daisy, I don’t think I can go inside.” Melissa leaned against the passenger side of the door as though that would keep her farther from the fire station.
Daisy wasn’t surprised. If anything had surprised her, it was that she’d gotten Melissa to come with her in the first place. The girl was skittish about everything and everyone. She’d finally told her that she could either come along or she’d leave her behind. Not that she would have, but the threat had done the trick.
“You don’t have to. I’ll find the men we’re looking for.” She took another look at the station. One of the huge garage doors was open. Two red engines waited for the moment they’d be needed.
She could make out a few of the men walking around, their forms shadowed by the setting sun. Walking up and asking for a man named Paul Winchester was gutsy, but then again, she prided herself on being a gutsy kind of woman.
She slid out of her new Mini Cooper Sportster—one of the biggest splurges she’d ever made—gave Melissa a comforting smile once again, then headed for the open garage. The closer she got, the more details she could see.
She paused just inside the garage and swept her gaze around the large enclosure. Boots were tucked under a metal bench that was topped with a rack with separate compartments for each man’s clothes. Khaki and yellow firemen jackets hung on hooks to her left with hard hats each boasting the word “Fireman” and a number on it. No names, just numbers.
Was that so they could re-use the uniform and hat should anything happen to the fireman? She hated to even think about it, but that was a hazard these men gladly faced to give service to their community. The thought of their heroism choked her up, and for a moment, she had to fight back the emotion. The last thing she wanted was to face Paul Winchester with her eyes filled with tears.
Paul Winchester. Even his name sounds heroic.
Doorways off to her
right and left led to other parts of the building. One of the doors on the right was open and she could see a man lifting weights in a gym. Like in a fantasy come true, he was naked from the waist up, wearing only shorts that rode up his tree-trunk-size legs. Perspiration glistened on his body. He was rock solid and grunted as he hefted the barbell several times in a row.
She didn’t know where the other men had gone that she’d noticed from her car, but that was okay. Asking the weight lifter wouldn’t be a hardship. Blowing out a steadying breath, she strode toward the gym and the Herculean hunk.
“Lady, you want to tell me where you’re going?”
She inhaled, got a grip and pivoted to face the deep voice. If he looked as hot as his voice sounded…
Oh, my word. He does. Thank you, Jesus.
She pushed aside her mother’s voice, admonishing her for “using the Lord’s name in vain.” Still, she doubted her mother would’ve restrained herself too much when faced with the gorgeous hunk of male flesh.
She’d seen a lot of handsome men, especially since she’d often visited Second Chance Ranch where the Cowboys for Hire lived and worked, but he was beyond anything she’d ever seen or could’ve imagined. Even as confident as she was, he made her nervous with his steely black eyes, richly tanned skin and short-cropped hair. He didn’t have a shirt on and his chest was like a wall of hard-packed flesh. She had an image of him clad in only a short toga as he fought the lions and vanquished his opponents with ease.
“I asked if you knew where you were going.”
The voice matched his appearance to a T.
Lord, have mercy.
“Uh, yes. I mean, no.”
The thick eyebrows dropped as he studied her even harder. “Yes or no. Which is it?”
She fought and won her ability to focus. “Both, actually. I’m looking for Paul Winchester.”
“What do you want with him?”
His rudeness didn’t fit with the hero personality she’d expected. The image of him as a warrior battling to save a captured princess faded. “I’d rather discuss that with him.” She eyed him up and down. “If you don’t mind.”
All at once, he dropped his scrutiny and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
She was stunned when he started to walk away. Her gaze dropped to his backside. She admired the firm roundness there then lifted her gaze. She was almost too engrossed in admiring his wide shoulders and all the muscles there to remember to say anything. “Hey!”
He heeled around and gave her a withering look. “What now?”
“What’s with you, man? I’m only asking to talk to Paul. It’s not like I’m an ex-girlfriend out for revenge. So can you get him for me or not?”
“Yeah, I can.”
A few moments passed before she realized that he wasn’t going to offer anything more. “Can you do it now?”
Those hard dark eyes ran the length of her. If she hadn’t known better, she would’ve sworn he’d torn away her clothes and exposed her naked flesh. She struggled not to squirm.
“You’re talking to him.”
“What? Why the hell didn’t you say so?”
“Because he’s a prick.”
Her attention jerked away from Paul to see two equally amazing men striding toward her. They both had on black, tight, show-me-all-your-muscles T-shirts with Fire Station #201 emblazoned on them. They both had blond hair and blue eyes. Their physiques were perfect, zero-percent body fat types that made the air around her seem much thicker. She dragged in a breath and shoved her hands into her pants’ pockets to keep from wiping her suddenly sweating palms on her clothes.
Yet there was something familiar about them.
She narrowed her eyes at the tallest of the pair. Although most men were taller than she was, she could tell that he had to be a few inches more than six feet. The other man and Paul were tall, probably over six feet as well, but they were an inch or so shorter than he was.
His wavy hair was thick at the top, but shaved on the sides. His face was kind and his eyes radiated humor. He stuck out his hand and grinned. She wiped her palm on the inside of her pants, then took it.
“Daisy Winters, you sure look good.”
She felt like an idiot when her jaw dropped. “Do I know you?”
The other man—no doubt his brother judging from their similar facial features—had a tattoo covering most of his right arm. The devil tattoo had flames licking outward from its body with the devil’s pitch-fork tail crawling over his shoulder blade to the side of his neck. His blond hair wasn’t shaved on the sides like his brother’s, but was still close-cut.
“You don’t recognize us, do you?” The grinning brother wrapped his arm over the other two men’s shoulders. “It’s me, Daisy. Wade Chambliss.”
She’d finally managed to close her mouth, but what he’d said made her open it again like a ventriloquist’s dummy. “Wade Chambliss? Is that really you?” She turned her attention to the tattooed man. “Then this has got to be Troy, right?”
The Chambliss brothers she’d known in high school hadn’t looked anything like these amazing hunks. Instead, they’d been the epitome of the ninety-pound weakling in stereo. She hadn’t run in the same crowd as they had—she’d hung out more with art students than the nerd herd—but she remembered how much they’d gotten bullied by the jocks. She’d felt sorry for them, had on one occasion even stuck up for them, but that was the extent of their interaction.
“How’ve you been, Daisy? We lost track of you senior year.” Troy’s voice wasn’t as deep and rich as Paul’s but it held a quality to it that made her think of silk sheets.
“I moved to Destiny.”
Wade pointed at her in an “ah-ha” kind of way. “Yeah. I remember that now. I heard a couple years later that you’d taken over the bed and breakfast. Are you still doing that?”
She had to string more than two sentences together before she started sounding like even more of an idiot than she felt. “I did. And yeah, I’m still there. I love Destiny and running the B&B.”
Both Troy and Wade gave her appreciative once-overs. If they’d checked her out like that while in high school, with the smoke and heat they had in their eyes, she might’ve given them more than a cursory glance. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you at first. Wow. You’ve changed a lot.”
Wade laughed when she cringed at what she’d said. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”
“Don’t worry about it. We have changed. We’re not the weak little nerds you used to know.”
“You can say that again.” She didn’t usually have a problem saying the right thing, but around them, she was losing it. “You’re freakin’ amazing.” She groaned. “Oh, crap. I did it again.”
“Same old straight-talking Daisy.” This time Troy joined Wade and laughed. “And thanks.”
“If you three are finished reliving your high school days, maybe she can tell us why she’s here.”
The wide smile she’d had died. She’d almost forgotten about Melissa and why she’d come to the station. “A friend of mine told me to ask for Paul.” She glanced around, then leveled her attention on the Chambliss brothers. “Uh, it’s kind of a sensitive matter. If you don’t mind, maybe you could give us a little privacy?”
“Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of them.” Paul crossed his arms. The gesture made him appear even more formidable.
“He’s right, Daisy.” Troy hooked his thumbs in his pockets, making the muscles in his arms flex in a very enticing way. “He’s like a brother to us. All the guys at the station are, but especially Paul.”
She was reticent about saying anything about the Firemen for Hire. If Troy and Wade didn’t know everything about their buddy Paul, then she’d be spilling the beans on a very big secret. But since Paul wasn’t stopping her, he could take the blame for it, too.
“Okay, then, here it is. Gabriel Cortez told me to contact you. I have a friend who needs the help of”—she leaned closer so that the other two
men coming out of one of the doors to the left wouldn’t overhear—“the Firemen for Hire.”
Paul had her by the arm and was pulling her out of the station before she had time to react. At least to react outwardly. Explosions burst free inside her at his touch and her pussy heated up faster than a match sparking on dry grass. Troy and Wade followed them outside.
Once they were clear of any of the others, Paul turned her loose. “What kind of help are you talking about? And why not get Gabriel to do it?”
It was hard not to look at the hand that had touched her. Instead, her gaze lingered over his stone-like abdomen. She wondered what he’d do if she skimmed her fingertips down the crease between his hard pecs to the patch of curly black hair peeking above his jeans.
“My friend has boyfriend trouble.”
“Doesn’t every woman at one time or another?”
She tore her gaze away from Paul and over to the equally-mesmerizing Troy. Who knew a nerd could turn out so hot? “Yeah, but he’s the possessive, demanding type that won’t give up. If you get what I mean.”
“Is that her?”
She followed Wade’s tilt of the head toward her car. “Yeah.”
“Damn. She’s just a kid. How old is she anyway?”
The pity in Troy’s voice was all too evident. “I haven’t asked her yet, but I’m thinking she can’t be much older than her early twenties, if that. She did say that her boyfriend was older. And you know how that can go.”
“Where’s she staying?” As if he couldn’t get much sterner, Paul was all business now.
“Right now? Nowhere that I know of. I kind of ran into her on the street.”
“Do you usually go around picking up strays?”
The way Paul asked the question made it seem like a bad thing. But she didn’t think of it that way. “Yeah. Maybe. What can I say? I like helping people.”
“Where are you staying?”
She always stayed at the same rental home whenever she came to Tulsa. It was close to the highway yet with easy access to all the fabulous shops she loved. “I’m in a rental home.”
“And you had no connection to her before today?”
