I gave her a quick hug and then got out of the car.
When I crossed the sidewalk and walked up the steps to the front door, I heard a car door slam behind me. Emily called for me to wait for her. I did. She joined me on the steps, and we hooked our arms together. “Thank you,” I whispered.
And then, naturally, the tears came.
Out of sheer frustration, I shook my head, let out a quick half yell, half groan, and wiped my tears away. Then I lifted my chin. “Let’s get this over with. They’re not going to bulldoze Derek’s life because he was trying to help us. I won’t let them.”
“I’m with you,” Emily said.
And we walked through the front doors.
Like the cop had told me, there was a female police officer named Mallory sitting behind the front desk. She was in her blue uniform and had thick black hair that was up in a ponytail. She smiled at us when we came in. “Good afternoon, ladies. How may I help you?”
I licked my lips. “Um. We’re friends of Derek Janson. I don’t know if he’s here yet, but we just saw him get put in the back of a cop car outside of Brian Nickels’ house.”
“Yes. He’s not here yet, but he will be arriving shortly with the officers. Would you like to make witness statements?”
I shook my head. “No. We didn’t exactly see the fight. But we have information behind why it started.”
“Unfortunately, the why isn’t always important.”
I narrowed my eyes at the cop. Emily moved up closer to the counter and pointed at her black eye. “Brian Nickels beat the shit out of me on Wednesday night. Derek was trying to help me.”
The cop blinked. “Are you going to press charges against Mr. Nickels?”
Emily stiffened.
“It’s up to you, Em,” I said softly.
She bit down so hard on her bottom lip that the skin around her teeth went white from the pressure. Then she nodded. “Yes, I am going to press charges.”
Mallory nodded. “All right. Come with me, miss. We’ll get your statement, and I’ll let you know how things will proceed from here.”
I squeezed Emily’s hand for reassurance before she followed Mallory out around the counter.
I hadn’t realized that there was someone behind me, so when I turned away from the counter, I nearly knocked over a middle-aged woman in a black pantsuit. She had copper-colored hair that was coiled in a tight bun on the back of her head. Her eyes were piercing green, and she had the severe look of a woman you didn’t want to piss off in traffic. There was a touch of crazy in those eyes.
“Excuse me, miss?” The crazy-eyed woman said as I tried to walk around her.
I stopped. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with the officer. Do you know Derek Janson?”
“I do. Who are you?”
“I’m Nicole Peters with the Searing Times.”
“Oh,” I said.
If she picked up on the disdain in my voice, she rolled right by it, like any reporter worth their grain of salt. “I was hoping to get a statement from you. We are aware that Derek has had some run-ins with the law before. Is that correct?”
“I’m not speaking with you about this.”
“It will only take a moment. Please. We can sit while we wait for your friend to come back.”
“No thank you.”
“Is it true that this is the second time Mr. Janson has been arrested for assault? It sure seems like he has some serious aggression issues. A man like that has no business working at the fire station. Searing needs to demand higher quality men for positions like that. Wouldn’t you agree, miss…” She trailed off, fishing for my name.
I glared at her. “Listen here, you troll. Derek Janson is the best man I’ve ever met. And your self-serving vendetta to get him fired makes me sick. Leave me alone.”
Nicole didn’t even bat an eyelash. “Did he ask you to defend him? Are you his girlfriend? How long have the two of you known each other? Has he ever been aggressive with you while you were alone? What was his childhood like?”
“Lady, fuck off before I make you swallow that pen of yours whole.”
Nicole smiled. What a bitch. “Well, it seems Derek has found someone who is equally as violent as he is. That will make a good headline in itself. Thank you for your time. What was your name again?”
I almost snarled at her like a feral animal. I was already in a foul mood, and her complete disregard for how much she was fucking with Derek’s life was only making things worse. Had I not been Derek’s best shot of getting released, I might have pulled that perfect little bun of hers apart and really given her a piece of my mind.
“Get bent,” I said.
Nicole shrugged. “You’d better watch yourself with a man like him. Have you stopped to consider that maybe he’s not the man you think he is?”
I rolled my eyes and put my back to her. I wasn’t going to entertain her for another minute.
I had to sit in the waiting room while Emily gave her statement. I probably only waited twenty minutes or so, and when she came back out, she looked a lot better than she had when she went in.
I stood up. “How did it go?”
“Good, actually. I feel a lot better. Turns out, I’m not the first woman to come forward about Brian, and Mallory thinks they might have enough on him to finally press charges and make them stick.”
“Good,” I said.
“She also suggested you and I go down to see Chief Rinehart about Derek’s situation.”
“Rinehart?”
Emily nodded. “Yeah. Come on. Let’s go before he gets off for the day.”
When we got back to the car, I asked Emily if she’d be willing to drive to the fire station. She agreed, and after five minutes, she broke the silence between us. “Are you okay, Katie?”
I shook my head.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve been so committed to staying away from violent men, and I can’t seem to escape them. I don’t think Derek would ever hurt me, but then again, that’s what I thought about Collin, too. And look what he did.”
He’d broken my collarbone and put me in the hospital for a week. That was what he had done.
“Derek is nothing like Collin,” Emily said softly.
“I know. But he’s still someone who, when push came to shove, resorted to violence. You saw Brian’s face. He didn’t hold back. And that scares me. That’s not what I want in my life. I promised myself I wouldn’t ever fall into that trap again.”
27
Derek
I let out a slow breath and stared down at my boots as I rested my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands.
I’d really gone and fucked things up this time.
When I saw Brian’s face, I knew I was doomed. There was no way I was going to walk away from his place and not kick the shit out of him for what he did to Emily. He deserved it, too. And if I could go back and do it again, chances are I’d have done the exact same thing.
But it was going to cost me. It might cost me my career. My friends at the fire station. It might even cost some of those friends their jobs as well. Like Rinehart.
But worst of all, I might lose Katie over all of this shit. The way she had looked at me when I was put in the back of the cruiser was enough to make my gut churn. It was like she was seeing me for the first time.
I’d never wanted her to see that dark side of me, but it was naive to think I could keep it from her forever.
“Hey, pretty boy. Why the long face?”
I was sharing the holding cell with a middle-aged man with a scraggly beard who smelled like he’d bathed in a tub full of whiskey. He waggled his eyebrows at me when I lifted my head to look up at him where he leaned against the bars of the cell. Behind him was the rest of the station, where officers sat at their desks, working away on reports.
I didn’t feel like indulging the drunkard in conversation, so I leaned back against the wall at my back and shoo
k my head. “Nothing, man.”
“Sure don’t look like nothing.”
I groaned.
He pushed himself off the bars and stumbled over to me. He pitched forward after getting caught up by his own feet and caught himself on the bench I was sitting on. He drew himself up onto it until he was able to sit with his back against the wall like me. He closed his eyes and caught his breath.
He was hammered.
The stench was awful.
I leaned forward again to try to put some distance between my nose and him.
He clapped me on the back. “Don’t worry, son. They’ll let you outta here before you know it.”
“I’m not in here for being wasted,” I mumbled. “They’ll let you out when you sober up. I’ll be here a while.”
“Ah, come on. That’s not the right attitude.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but a young female cop came and rapped her knuckles on the bars of the cell. Then she slid her keys in the lock and opened the door. “You’re out of here, Janson. On your feet. Not you, Leroy. You just take it easy.”
Leroy, the drunk man beside me, had tried to get to his feet, and he deflated back to the bench when she told him to sit. I got up, trying to conceal my surprise, and stepped by the officer and through the door. She motioned for me to walk out ahead of her.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m a bit confused. How am I getting out so fast?”
“Someone posted bail for you,” the officer said.
“Oh.” That was a surprise. Surely, Katie hadn’t gone and done a thing like that.
Surely.
When I emerged in the front foyer of the precinct, I stopped in my tracks. Rinehart was there and behind him was the rest of my crew. Every single one of them.
Hayden was smiling sheepishly at me from where he stood behind the chief’s right shoulder. I opened my mouth to speak, but Rinehart shook his head at me. “Not the time, Janson. Come on. Move your ass. Let’s get something to eat.”
I followed them outside. Nobody said a word.
Fifteen minutes later, we were all sitting in a booth at The Glade. Mel was our server, and she told us that lunch was on the house today. We had big plates of nachos, wings, and potato skins placed in front of us to share as our lunch orders went through to the kitchen.
I wasn’t all that hungry.
“Come on man, eat something,” Mav said, sliding the plate of nachos toward me.
I shook my head. “I’m all right. Thanks.”
“Did your time in the cage make you lose your appetite?” Trace joked.
I didn’t have anything to say to that. It wasn’t my time in the cage. It was the look on Katie’s face that was haunting me. I couldn’t shake it. Every time I blinked, I could see her face flash against the back of my eyelids, and the disappointment in her eyes was plain as day. “How did you guys get to the station so fast? I wasn’t even in there for two hours.”
Rinehart finished chewing his bite of potato skins. “Katie and her friend Emily came down to the station to tell us what happened.”
“They did?”
Rinehart nodded. “Katie was on a warpath. By the sounds of things, she almost beat up a reporter in the middle of the police station.”
“What?” I asked incredulously. “A reporter was poking around that quickly?”
Rinehart shrugged. “They’re a strange breed. They can smell drama.”
A couple of the guys chuckled. I didn’t. “Who, you know, who paid for the bail?”
“All of us,” Hayden said.
I looked around at all the faces smiling at me. Some of their mouths were full. Some were wiping their hands on their napkins.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Hayden looked at Rinehart, who shook his head at me. “We got the whole story, Derek. Don’t be sorry. In your place, I’m sure all of us would have done the same thing.”
“I doubt you’d have gone to a man’s house to kick the shit out of him, Chief,” Allen said.
Rinehart arched an eyebrow. “In my younger days? I’m quite sure I would have. A man who hits a woman is a disgrace. Not that I condone violence, but it was satisfying to hear from Katie how beat up Brian was.”
Hayden snickered. “Never thought I’d hear you say something like that, Chief.”
“Everyone is full of surprises today,” I said. “Thanks for getting me out of there, guys. I’ll pay you back. Just give me a few days to get everything in order.” It would be hard, but I could pull it off. If I sold the boat and my bike, I’d be able to lump that in with my savings and have enough to pay them all back the chunk they’d thrown in for my bail. Hopefully.
“Shut up, Derek,” Hayden said.
“Yeah, man,” Allen said. “Don’t even worry about it. We’ve got you. Split among the six of us, it was no big deal.”
“But I—”
Maddox cleared his throat. “Instead of paying me back my portion, how about you just stop calling me rookie?”
Everyone laughed. I even felt a chuckle tug at my chest. “I’m not sure that’s something I can agree to.”
Maddox shrugged. “It was worth a try.”
More laughter bubbled up around me. As I sat and looked around at the men at the table, I was overcome with a sense of belonging. These were my brothers. My family. They had my back come any storm, and I had theirs. Whether it was running into a fire or getting out of jail, they would be there for me.
It was a pretty damn good feeling.
I lifted my beer. “Thanks for everything, you guys. I appreciate it. Really.”
We all tapped our glasses together. And then conversation slipped into its normal routine. We talked about the station, and the guys teased Maddox. I kept quiet, mostly just to enjoy the company of my friends. When my meal came, I managed to eat and felt much better afterward.
Then we left, and before we went out to the parking lot, Rinehart pulled me aside. “A moment, Janson.”
I turned to him, and the other guys left us to talk in private. “What’s up, Chief?”
“I wanted you to know that the charges against you will be dropped by tomorrow morning.”
“What? How?”
“I have friends in the police department. And after hearing from Katie and Emily and discovering that Emily was going to press charges against Brian, it became quite easy to plead your case and get them to see reason.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Don’t mention it. Now, on a less enjoyable note, there is something I must tell you.”
“I’m fired.”
“No,” Rinehart said quickly. “No, Derek, you’re not fired. It’s about Katie.”
My heart sank. I couldn’t explain how, but I already knew what the chief was going to tell me. There was pity in his eyes and almost a sense of regret, and as he slid his hands into his pockets, he sighed.
“It’s all right, sir,” I said.
He nodded and continued. “After she explained everything that happened, she asked me to talk with you because she couldn’t do it herself. She was quite upset and emotional when she told me she couldn’t be with you anymore.”
I nodded.
Rinehart’s mouth tightened into a firm line. “I tried to tell her to speak to you about this, rather than go through me, but she wouldn’t hear it. She seems to have a lot on her plate, Derek, and this was the icing on the cake. I’m sorry I had to give you this news today.”
“I understand her reasons well enough.”
“So that’s it?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
Rinehart shook his head at me. “You astound me with your idiocy sometimes, Janson.”
“What?”
“The girl is in love with you. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the strong sense that the feelings are mutual.”
“Uh,” I said slowly. This was new territory for the chief and me. We didn’t talk about things like this. In fact, we didn’t talk about anything that wasn’t work relate
d. “You’re not wrong.”
“Good. Then don’t let this one slip away. She’s changed you. You may not see it, but she’s good for you, and everyone around here has noticed, including Allen, who notices nothing. Give her some time to cool down. And then fight to get her back.”
“I don’t know.”
“You run into fires without hesitation, Janson. You can handle this. Trust me.” Rinehart closed his hand over my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. “Go get her.”
28
Katie
The sun was at its highest point in the sky when Emily and I picked out the perfect place to lay down our towels on the sand and claim our perfect spot on the beach for the day.
Our setup was pretty serious business. We had a straw mat that we put down before our towels to smooth the surface down and keep the bottom of our towels free from sand. I loved the beach, but I hated getting covered in sand. Our beach bags were tucked to one side of the spread, spilling out sunscreen and various snacks. The cooler beside the bags had all our drinks and cold foods like the fruit salad I’d made that morning.
We were prepared to spend the entire day basking in the sun.
I kicked off my sandals and pulled my cover-up over my head before I sat down on my towel. I rubbed in some sunscreen and then spritzed my skin with a bit of tanning oil. Emily and I lathered each other’s backs and then laid down on our stomachs to tan our backsides first.
I bunched up my cover-up and used it as a pillow. It was sticking to my sweaty cheek in no time, but I didn’t mind. I liked the heat.
I sighed and closed my eyes.
This was what I needed. A day to relax and decompress after everything that had happened with Derek. He had been appearing in every single one of my dreams over the last few nights. Waking up and remembering everything that had gone down wasn’t getting any easier, either. Which sucked. Big time.
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