Since when did arson investigators stage helicopter chases across miles of open country after wanted criminals? He coughed, still a little congested from the smoke inside Mrs. Orion’s house, but he’d pushed aside the oxygen mask after a few minutes, unwilling to be left behind while Kat was scaring off around the country, in danger.
A uniformed sheriff took something from Kat’s sister, helped each girl to stand, and spoke with them for a moment then waved them off to the side. He grasped the arm of the guy on the ground and jerked him to his feet. Shoving him up against the side of the damaged Rover, the sheriff patted him down, put him in cuffs, and escorted him to the nearest official vehicle.
As they passed, Bob Waggoner stared. “Wait a minute. I know this clown. At least I think I do.”
“Well, well, if it isn’t little Bobby Waggoner,” the man sneered. “After all this time you’re still in the fire business? I thought they made you retire a long time ago.”
“I thought you went out of the fire business a year in, Sam.” He shook his head sadly. “Mac, Dante, may I introduce Sam Anderson. We were cadets together in the 1950s, but Sam came from Texas oil money, and his dad decided after a year or so that he was doing work beneath him. Wasn’t that it, Sammy? Daddy made you quit?”
The man smirked, the dust unable to hide the sharp pleats in his slacks, the shine on his Italian leather loafers. Everything about him said money. “It was beneath me. But if you must know, a little bird told him I was pushing it with my sideline.”
Mac looked from one to the other. “So it’s true? This is the Fresno Firebug? And you know him, Bob?”
“Yeah, I did. For a while, a long time ago. He was on the crew one day then gone the next. If I remember correctly, the last time I saw him was the day we put out the last Firebug fire. The one with the fatality.”
“It really was something,” the man said, his eyes gleaming. “You were all so upset, so sad and whiny. It was just an old hobo, not anyone who counted, after all.”
Dante’s stomach turned. “And you were in Dallas?” The name was so familiar. “Hey, weren’t you on the board of one or two foundations that support firefighters? I’m sure I saw you somewhere.”
He chuckled. “Yep, I gave a lot of money to you people to put out my fires. I figured it was a fair turnaround. But, also to be fair, I took a long hiatus from my passion. Got married, raised a family, ran my business.”
Kat came up, and Dante put an arm over her shoulder and tugged her in close. “So what made you start again after so long?”
“I realized life is too short. Trite but true. All those years I behaved myself. Well, mostly.”
The sheriff tightened his grip on Anderson’s elbow, but Dante lifted his hand. “Just one more question.”
The old man rolled his eyes. “Go ahead.”
“Why Mrs. Orion? Why the others in this area? Did you pick them for any reason in particular?”
Anderson’s chuckle broke into a cough before he managed to get breath to answer. “They were all valueless individuals. Like the hobo in Fresno. Just jetsam. Who’d miss them?”
Chief Waggoner’s fist went back and, before anyone could stop him, made contact with Anderson’s jaw, and the man went limp. “I never liked him but I thought he was just a spoiled rich kid. I never dreamed he was a sociopath.” He rubbed his hand. “My wife is going to kill me when my arthritis acts up because of this, but it was so worth it.”
The sheriff blinked at him. “What was, Chief? Did something happen? Seems like the suspect here fainted.”
“Not a thing,” Chief Mac said, patting the sheriff on the shoulder. “Just thinking out loud, I guess. Better get him to the car before he causes any more trouble.”
“Will do.” The sheriff nodded at Kat and Brigit. “Nice work, ladies. Did you know there’s a reward up for the Fresno Firebug? It wasn’t that much to start with, but it’s been sitting in a bank earning interest for a mighty long time. Looks like you’ll be in for a nice chunk of change.”
The two burst into laughter. “Tahiti!” they chorused.
Chief Mac nodded. “Sounds like a real good break for both of you.”
Brigit started toward her chopper. “Come on, Kat. I need to check our horoscopes and see when a good time is for us to go. Maybe Mrs. Orion could help us pick the dates. I hear she’s amazing.”
Kat burst out. “You know all about her, too?”
“Sure,” Brigit went on. “We can have a real good trip, just us single girls. Everyone always says it’s such a romantic place. All those honeymoon trips. Hah. At least there I won’t have to worry about being constantly set up on blind dates. Cousin Harry would never dream of pulling anything like that. Kat?”
But Dante already had both arms around Kat MacKay. His lips locked to hers. If he had his way, she’d not be going to any far-off paradises, on Earth or in a faraway galaxy, without him.
Epilogue
Kat looked down the long table set up in Granddad and Grandma MacKay’s front yard. White tablecloths fluttered in the breeze, but there was nothing formal about the occasion. Just family and close friends getting together for a barbeque potluck on a nice spring Sunday afternoon. Her brother Aiden and his Jess, Sarabeth and James taking an afternoon off from the nursery, enough cousins to fill the yard with laughter and happy chatter. Sparky the kitten, the station mascot, was curled up in the sun, visiting for the day. Little kids ran around their feet, playing games of imagination just like she and her brother and sister used to. But not with sharp sticks. Her grandparents had vetoed sticks for swords the day Kat fell on hers and nearly put out an eye.
She had to remember to tell Dante the rest of that story. She was pretty sure she’d left it with Brij as the culprit, but who could blame her? She’d been focused on other things during their night in the shiny new apparatus on the overlook. Poor Brigit was still trying to get her to go to Tahiti, but the idea of those gorgeous beaches, a romantic hut on stilts over the lagoon at their cousin’s resort, without Dante had no lure.
That was two months ago now, and he’d been through several times with deliveries, but this time would be the last if his doctor had finally signed off as Dante’d told her he expected him to. She swallowed hard. If so, he’d be heading back to Dallas, and she’d have a decision to make. He emerged from the house with a tray of queso and chips, his face wreathed in smiles. In the sunshine, his dark hair looked almost blue. His laughing eyes stole her breath. He set the tray in front of her grandfather and spoke to him in a quiet voice.
Granddad clapped him on the shoulder and stood. “If I can have everyone’s attention, Dante has asked me something very important, but it’s not my answer that matters. I wish you luck, son, because the women in this family have high standards.” He grinned at his wife. “But I think Kat could do a lot worse. You’ve got my blessing to try to convince her.”
Convince her. Here it came. She’d have to choose between family and home, and the man who held her heart and soul in his hands. Why did life always present decisions like this?
She twisted her napkin, trying to keep her face carefully blank. Family and Dante. Her two priorities. All she asked for was both. In the same place. Work she could do anywhere. Her skills would be just as useful in Dallas.
She could come home for long weekends, for holidays. They could, that was. Together. If he asked her to come with him. Her thoughts tumbled over one another until giggles and laughter around the table drew her out of herself.
Dante took her hand and drew her to stand in front of him. Why was he making this so public?
“You okay, sweetheart?” he asked, stroking her fingers. “I need to tell you something.”
“Y-yes?” Everything and everyone else fell away when he held her gaze. “Yes, Dante?”
“The doctor released me, so I can go back to firefighting.”
She swallowed past the huge lump in her throat. “He did? When do you start?”
“Well right away, but I wanted to ask
you—”
“Yes,” she said again. No was never an answer when it concerned the man she loved. She’d known that, really. “Yes, I’ll move to Dallas.”
He blinked at her, the corners of his mouth quirking. “You’ll go all the way to Texas to get away from me?”
“What?”
“I’ve been accepted to the Cedar Valley Department, and I thought you’d like to know.”
Everything spun, and he held her by the shoulders until she got it together enough to support herself upright. “You’re not leaving?”
“No, but I guess you are.”
Cheeks heating, she tried to take it all in. Nobody got everything they wanted. Except she just had. “Maybe I’ll stay, after all,” she said. “If you don’t mind.”
“I’d like that.” He dropped to one knee and drew a box out of his shirt pocket. “Because I’d rather have my wife local.”
He slipped a sparkling diamond on her finger. Her family closed in around them, hugging and kissing them both and tears poured down her cheeks.
When her knees melted, he caught her before she could hit the ground.
Kate Richards
Kate Richards divides her time between Los Angeles and the High Sierras. She would gladly spend all her days in the mountains, but she’d miss the beach…and her very supportive husband’s commute would be three hundred miles. Wherever she is, she loves to explore all different kinds of relationships in her stories. She doesn’t believe one-size-fits-all, and whether her characters live BDSM, ménage, GLBT, spanking, or any other kind of lifestyle, it’s the love, the joy in one another, that counts.
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Also by Kate Richards
Finally, My Love
Demons Love Cinnamon
Christmas Afternoon Delight
The Vampire’s Bard
Pirate Lady Holiday
Spanking Ms. Whitman
Dungeon Time
Switch, The Trainer
Confessions From the Carnivore Club, Dave and Nancy’s Story
Sierra Seduction
Sensual Delights A Cookie Club Romance
One Night on the Beach
Avalon for Christmas
The Virgin and the Playboy
The Virgin and the Best Man
Two Men and a Virgin
Two Men
Virgin Under Ground
Gale Force Passion
Trail of Hearts
The Milkman Cometh
Madame Eve’s Gift
Frontier Inferno
An Apple Away (The Wiccan Haus)
It’s Just Love
Kimmy
For Ben (Corbin’s Bend)
Her Cowboy (Corbin’s Bend)
Roy and Teri’s Accidental Staycation (Corbin’s Bend)
Honey’s Sexy Surprise
Haunting Suspicions
All’s Fair
Lily in Chains
Terci in Chains
Felicia’s Chains
Sweet Christmas Kisses Anthology
Taming Marguerite
The Soviet Connection (Omega Team)
Spurs (Omega Team)
Shifters and Spice Anthology
Floating Hearts (Melody Anne’s Billionaire Universe)
The Foreman and the Lady (Lone Star Burn)
A Daring Contract (Dare to Love)
Wolves and Bears and Foxes, Oh My!
An Evening at Animals
An Evening at Crossroads
An Evening in the Superstitions
Topaz’s Trials (Red Petticoat Series)
Dallas Fire & Rescue: Wheels on Fire (Kindle Worlds Novella) (MacKay Destiny Book 4) Page 7
