“Bite me.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I mumbled under my breath about how this shit just kept getting worse and worse. Rinehart really knew how to make a guy suffer. After a couple more minutes of silence, I decided to see if Allen would still indulge me in conversation. Maybe he would tell me a bit about his time in the marines. I knew he’d been overseas, but none of us knew the full extent of what he’d experienced during his service.
Just as I opened my mouth to ask about it, we got a call through our radio, sending us to a car crash on Searing Bridge, which crossed a small inlet from the ocean that led to a lagoon a few miles inland.
Allen stepped on the gas and flipped on the siren, and within minutes, we were pulling up to a horrific scene.
“Fuck,” I breathed as I spotted the car that had veered into oncoming traffic, collided with another vehicle, and spun out to slam into the concrete walls of the bridge.
Allen put the ambulance in park. “Move your ass, Janson.”
The police were already there. They had the driver’s side door open, and one cop was crouched down talking to the driver when Allen and I skidded to a stop and asked for details. We had the stretcher and neck brace with us.
The cop stood back and told us there was head trauma. It was a team effort to get the driver, a twenty-four-year-old male, out of the car and flat on the pavement so we could put him in a brace to restrict his movement. Then we lifted him onto the stretcher.
I rode in the back with him and had him stabilized by the time we reached the hospital. He was in and out of consciousness with definite internal bleeding. He’d need surgery. That was for certain.
Allen opened the back doors, and I guided the stretcher out and then jumped down onto the pavement to wheel the patient into the ER. He’d started to whimper and would need more morphine to numb the pain soon.
Allen had already called the hospital and told them we were on our way and the patient had severe injuries and needed emergency surgery. We were greeted by a swarm of nurses and two doctors. I noticed right away that one of the nurses was Katie.
She had a clipboard in one hand and was paying close attention to the doctors as they barked out orders. Allen and I hung back, our part of the job done, and watched as she hurried around the desk to input everything into the computer. I snatched the report out of Allen’s hand and brought it to her.
She didn’t even look up from her computer when I put it down beside her. “Thank you,” she said shortly.
“These ones are the bad ones, huh? Trauma.”
She glanced up at me. I found myself wishing she’d stare at me with those light green eyes a little longer. But she didn’t. She started inputting the information on the report into the computer. “Yeah. They’re bad. Especially on a day when we’re already busy like today. Did he have any emergency contacts?”
I had the kid’s wallet, and I handed it to her. “No, but here’s his personal information.”
She flipped through it and found his driver’s license. “Damn,” she whispered.
“What is it?”
“He only has his learning permit.”
“That sucks. Isn’t he too old for that?”
Now his insurance wouldn’t cover any of the damage. The kid was screwed.
“I don’t know, but this is a nightmare.” Katie sighed. “And now I have to somehow find his phone and get a hold of his family.”
“The cops at the scene already handled that,” I told her.
“Oh.” She blinked up at me. God, she was pretty. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Don’t worry about it. It’s taken care of. His mother and father are on their way here now.”
“Finally some good news.”
“Maybe they’ll make it in time to see him before he goes in for surgery.”
Katie shook her head. “They’d have to be here within the next five minutes. The doctor is already scrubbing in, and the patient is being prepped. There’s no time to waste with internal injuries like that. He’s not out of danger yet. Things can go wrong in there.”
“Well, my fingers are crossed for him.”
She nodded at me and bit the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. “Mine too.”
This would show Allen. Katie and I were actually having a good, normal conversation. Well, maybe not normal, but normal in terms of our professions and what we dealt with on a regular basis. Blood and injury was just part of the job description.
“I hope your day isn’t too messed up from this,” I told her as I rested my forearms on the counter. “Emergency surgery is enough to throw a wrench in everyone’s day.”
“It is. Thank you.”
“Maybe if the little fucker hadn’t been texting, nobody would have had to uproot their days for him.” I chuckled.
Her eyes widened, and I realized right away that I’d said the wrong thing. She got slowly to her feet and never broke the intense glare she was fixing me with. “That ‘little fucker’ is a young man whose life is in danger, you arrogant, self-important, lowly, vile, ignorant prick.”
“Whoa,” I said, holding up my hands. “Take it easy there. I didn’t mean—”
“I understand perfectly what you meant. You have no regard for other people besides yourself, Derek.” She said my name like she was spitting out a mouthful of rotten meat. “It’s time for you to leave.”
“Katie, I’m sorry. I was just trying to lighten the mood and make a joke.”
“It wasn’t funny. Please leave.”
It was clear that the longer I stayed there and tried to defend myself, the deeper the hole I’d be digging. So I hung my head and walked back to the doors where Allen was waiting for me. “Don’t say it,” I muttered. I could practically feel him vibrating with the urge to say something clever.
He managed to keep his mouth shut until we got back into the ambulance. He started it up and glanced over at me. “I thought calling the dying twenty-four-year-old a ‘little fucker’ was smooth.”
“Get bent. He’s not going to die.”
“There’s no way to guarantee that until after surgery. If he has hemorrhaging, he might not survive the time on the table.”
“Fuck.” I sighed, rubbing my forehead with my thumb and forefinger. “I really need to learn when to just keep my damn mouth shut.”
“Probably best for everyone’s sake. Yes.”
10
Katie
I braced myself on the counter above the sink in the break room and stared down at my new tennis shoes. Now they were speckled in blood from the young man Derek and Allen had brought in a half hour earlier.
I sighed and admitted defeat. The shoes were impossible to keep clean, and I should have known better than to try. This job was not for cute shoes—or cute anything, for that matter. It was for clothes and shoes you didn’t care about.
I washed my hands and turned around when Emily came in and called my name. She dropped down onto one of the sofas and put her feet up on the table. Our shifts had just ended, and they had been long, twelve-hour ones that left us both feeling exhausted.
I went and sat down beside my friend. “That was a long day.”
“Tell me about it,” Emily said. “And it’s about to get longer. Natalie called and needs someone to cover the first two hours of her shift. I said I would. She’s in a tight spot, and her kid is home sick.”
“Oh man. Two more hours? That sucks, Emily. You’re a good person.”
“I try.”
I rubbed at my eyes. “I think I want to go home and have a nap. All that fuss with the car accident patient sucked the life out of me.”
“Yeah. I meant to ask you about that. What was the deal with you and that fireman guy? Things looked like they took a turn for the worse while you were talking to him.”
“He’s such an ass.”
Emily laughed. “Yeah. Well you say that about almost every guy. What did he do?”
“He made a joke about that car
crash patient. He called him a little fucker, to be more precise.”
“Well, I heard he was texting and driving, so…”
“Emily!”
“What?”
“You can’t say stuff like that about our patients.”
“That he was texting and driving, and that’s a stupid thing to do for the precise reason why he ended up in the ER?”
“No. Derek can’t be calling them names and dismissing them like they’re less than important. They’re people. Just like us. And it’s not right. It’s not something to make jokes about.”
“Maybe that’s just how Derek copes with this job?”
“That’s not an excuse.”
Emily shook her head at me. “Come on, Katie. This job is hard. Think about what he does every day. He’s first on the scene. He sees the crash firsthand, and he’s the one to pull dead bodies out of cars and fires. That’s rough. So if cracking a joke about it makes it easier for him to deal with, who are we to tell him he’s wrong?”
I still didn’t like it.
“Also, you should consider that you don’t know what his past is like. Who knows what his upbringing was? It’s not common for people to get into the line of work he does. Something pushed him into it. Into a life of death and destruction and flames. Nobody chooses that unless they have something to prove. Or they have a big chip on their shoulder.”
“I think he just has a massive God complex,” I said.
Emily snickered and rolled to her feet. “You might not be wrong. But still. You’re super understanding and forgiving when it comes to your patients, but then when it comes to a guy who happens to be on the side of heroes and fights fires for a living, you’re skeptical. Just give him a break.”
I didn’t say anything as I stood up and went to my locker to collect my lunch bag and change of clothes. I hooked my bag over my opposite shoulder and made for the door to leave the break room. “I hope your last couple hours go by fast.”
“Thanks. Fingers crossed!” Emily waved at me as she went to the coffee pot to make herself a cup to gear up for the last chunk of her shift.
I made my way out to the parking lot and to my car. I put my bags in the back seat and buckled myself in before reversing out of my spot. I turned on the stereo and enjoyed the music as I hit the road to go home.
After a long shift like today, I was really looking forward to making myself a sandwich and a cup of tea. Then I would snuggle up on my favorite corner of my sofa with my book and one of my blankets. And that was how I planned to spend the rest of my evening.
And then smoke started billowing out from beneath the hood of my car.
“Oh, come on. Seriously?” I flicked on my blinker and made a safe lane change to the righthand side of the road, where I pulled off to the shoulder and put on my hazards.
I leaned forward and pressed the button to pop my hood.
More smoke. Or maybe it was steam. I couldn’t be sure. I knew a lot about human anatomy but very little about car anatomy.
I got out and walked to the front of the car, where I ran my fingers through my hair and stood with my hands pressed to either side of my forehead. I blew out a breath, my cheeks puffing up, and for no good reason at all gently kicked my bumper with the toe of my tennis shoe. “Stupid car.”
I peered under the hood to attempt to make sense of what I was looking at, but it was no use. I needed to call roadside assistance of some sort to come tow me off the road so I could get the car to a mechanic.
As I marched around to the back door of my car to get my phone out of my purse, a motorcycle pulled up behind me.
The rider was male and wearing dark blue jeans, black riding boots, and a black leather jacket. His helmet was also black and supremely shiny, save for the couple of dead bugs on his visor. When he got closer, I realized they looked pretty fresh and juicy still.
He flipped up his visor, and I found myself staring into a pair of beautiful hazel eyes.
I groaned internally.
It was just my luck that Derek would be the guy to come to my aid. I was literally going to have to cram my foot into my mouth. If Emily caught wind of this, she’d never let me hear the end of it. Here he was, the man I saw as a villain, coming to my aid.
He unbuckled his helmet and pulled it off. His dark brown hair was so short that he barely had a case of helmet hair. It was just a bit messy where it was longer on top. If this had been a scenario in a book or a movie, I would have run my fingers through it to tame the flyaways.
But this was not a movie. This was my life. And damn him for having such good timing.
“Need a hand?” he asked. His deep voice was slightly muffled by the helmet.
I shook my head. “I can handle it.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Do you know what the problem is?”
I looked back at my car which was still spewing steam. Or smoke. Or whatever. I shielded my eyes against the sun. “It probably overheated, right?”
“That’s best-case scenario. Yeah.”
“And the other possible scenarios?”
“Your air intake is probably just in need of replacement, so your engine wasn’t being cooled. I can check your coolant level in a few if you’d like.”
I wanted to tell him no. I wanted to tell him to get lost and that I could call someone. But the only someone I could call was someone I would have to pay, and finances were a bit tight right now with living on my own. “That would be nice of you. Thank you.”
He smiled and walked around me. He didn’t touch anything, since it would be hot, but he stared down under the hood. “This car isn’t that old. I’ll give it a look over and make sure you’re in good shape to keep driving.”
I brushed my hair off my forehead as it was whipped in front of my face when a big semi truck barrelled by. “Are you a mechanic too or something? A jack of all trades?”
“No, not at all. I just grew up learning this stuff. And once you know it, you never forget it.”
“Fair enough.”
I watched Derek work under the hood for a good twenty minutes after it had cooled down a little bit. He had tools with him in a side bag on the back of his bike, which seemed terribly convenient, and when I asked him about it, he said he liked to be prepared for anything.
He probably liked being prepared for pretty girls in distress. I knew his type. He was the type I’d learned the hard way to steer clear of.
Handsome. Charming. Handy. And a biker, to top it off.
I licked my lips as I felt a flash of heat lick at my insides. Instinctively, I tugged the hem of my scrubs down lower and drew into myself. I couldn’t possibly be attracted to him that badly. I couldn’t stand him. He was an inconsiderate jerk. He’d hit on me when a patient needed care.
He’d refused to take someone to the hospital because he didn’t think it was his job.
Mind you, that person wasn’t in peril. He wasn’t having a heart attack. He’d just convinced himself he was having one and wasted plenty of resources and people’s time by placing a non-emergency call.
I sighed.
“Something wrong?” Derek asked as he straightened up and closed my hood.
“Um. No.” I ran my palms down my thighs. “Is it fixed?”
“Temporarily, yeah. You’ll need to replace your air intake. And while you’re at it, I’d change your spark plugs, too.”
“Are you like one of those slimy mechanics trying to rip a girl off by telling her things she doesn’t know she doesn’t need?”
“Do you see a way for me to profit from that?”
“No,” I said shortly.
“Then there’s your answer.”
“Sorry,” I said as my cheeks grew warm. “That was rude of me.”
“It’s all right. I’ve been plenty rude this past week. I deserved it.” Derek wiped his hands on his shirt, leaving greasy smears on the white tee beneath his leather jacket.
Now he looked like he belonged on the cover of a motorcycle maga
zine. All he had to do was take off his leather jacket and throw it over his shoulder while squinting through a pair of gold-rimmed Aviator sunglasses.
Down, girl.
“Hey,” he said, nodding at me. “Let me take you to dinner tonight to apologize for how I’ve been acting lately. And to make it up to you about your busted car.”
“Why? You didn’t bust the car. It busted itself.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, and you had to suffer my company for it. I owe you. Obviously.”
I smiled. I didn’t want to, but damn him, he made me smile. I looked down at my feet, hoping he didn’t see just how wide my grin was stretching my cheeks. “If you insist. Dinner would be fine.”
“All right. Nothing fancy. I’m not trying to pull one over on you. Just something to make up for my douchebaggery.”
When I looked back up at him, I’d manage to arrange my facial features back into their appropriate places. “Nothing fancy. No appetizers. Just dinner.”
“And maybe a drink or two.”
“Naturally,” I said, daring myself not to giggle and reminding myself that he was rude, and abrasive, and insensitive.
But Emily’s words rang in my ears. There couldn’t be any harm in giving him a chance. And maybe that was all he wanted from me, a chance to make it up to me for saying all the wrong things at all the wrong times.
We were going to have to see each other every week because of work. Why not try to make it a little more civilized?
Surely, there could be no harm in one little, casual, no-appetizer, no-expectations dinner.
Surely.
11
Derek
Katie lived in a charming old home that had been subdivided into four separate units. She’d told me to let myself in the main door and go up to the second level when I arrived. Her front door was the one at the top of the stairs on the righthand side.
I left my car at the curb and walked down the path from the street across the very green lawn in front of the house. The property was very well kept, and the house itself was in excellent condition. It appeared to have been painted recently, likely this past summer, and was a cool gray color with white trimming around the windows and front door. The door itself was a beautiful piece of art with stained glass of blues and greens. When it closed behind me, the sunlight streaming through the glass cast streaks of colorful light up the gray carpet covering the cherry oak wood stairs.
Set the Night on Fire: A Bad Boy Firefighter Novel Page 6
