Fahrenheit (The Power of Three Love Series Book 2)

by Leigh Lennon

  Leaving the meeting that included my chief and Jeffers, I took my guy aside and told him not to worry about it. It took every little fiber of my being not to call Driscol an asshole to his face, but I was calm, as calm as I could be.

  Thirty minutes after the turnover, I was doing paperwork in my office when a call came in. As was the procedure, we were all on the truck heading to our first fire of the morning. This time, it was another abandoned building, not far from where the men were attacked the last time. Ever since that call, I’d been more aware of my surroundings—never wanting a repeat. My men, Landon and Forge, manned the hose when I paired myself with Torres. Between us and Harrid and Shankly, we searched for anyone within the abandoned warehouse.

  “Watch your back, men.” It was all that needed to be said to register in their minds. It had only been a week since Foster and Adams had been knocked out. Luckily, no other reports of similar incidences had been filed throughout the other firehouses.

  Entering the warehouse, I had an eerie sensation of déjà vu. The entrance was similar to the fire when Shirley’s men were ambushed. “Be careful, boys,” I instructed, and we parted ways.

  Torres was in front of me, and I had my hand on his shoulder. We called out for victims trapped in the warehouse. No one called out, and after five minutes, the structure and the ceiling were about to collapse. On the radio, the chief ordered us out. “Harrid, Shankly—get your asses out of here.” We didn’t hear a response. “Harrid? Shankly? You copy?” There was still no answer.

  “Arnold, get your ass out of there now,” my chief ordered. Yet I had the same sick feeling as last week with Shirley’s team.

  “On my way, Chief.” Of course, I continued through the radio to get a hold of my guys. At the entrance, like before, the bodies of Harrid and Shankly were sprawled out, but this time, their apparatuses were removed, and their bodies had the full effect of smoke inhalation. “Fuck!” My scream was heard by Torres, who was still near me. “Chief, Harrid and Shankly—same thing! Same fucking thing as Foster and Adams.” At the door, we were met with the engine’s team—all of us trying to grab Harrid’s large frame where Torres was able to grab Shankly like a sack of potatoes. With both medics in house working on the men, I took off in one direction around the warehouse, searching for the person who was hell-bent on killing someone in my house.

  Garner Blakely was in the ER when we arrived. Both Harrid and Shankly were breathing, but the amount of smoke they inhaled had our lead medic concerned. I’d only met Garner a month ago when he was transferred from Springfield to be closer to his family, mainly his brother. Garner was a detective with a special unit within the Chicago Police Department. It shouldn’t surprise me he was waiting for my statement. One time was just that, a one-time thing, but with the second occurrence on the same house—it was more than a coincidence.

  “I see they sent the best.” I knew very little about Garner Blakely besides being Arden’s brother. But what I knew of the man, he didn’t put up with bullshit or red tape. He was here to investigate. Being one of Springfield’s best homicide detectives, transferring to this elite unit was a no-brainer for both him and the police department.

  “Fuck, man. When I was told it was your house, I was hoping it wasn’t your unit,” he started, shaking my hand.

  “Yeah, the first time was not my guys. I was there, though, filling in for another lieutenant in the house.” To my knowledge, I wasn’t aware of this happening in other houses throughout the city.

  Garner took a deep breath. “Okay, I know you want to go check on your men. I’m going to be conducting interviews for a couple of days. I’ll be in touch.” He handed me his card. “You need anything, let me know—you got it?”

  “Yeah, thanks, bro.” Rounding the corner to Shankly’s room, I passed none other than the good doctor.

  “Levi.” Though I was trying to avoid him, his words stopped me. The last thing I wanted was this to get back to Scar and my sister.

  “Hey, Doc.” I attempted to act as if this was an everyday thing for me, but honestly, when a fireman was in a hospital, it was never good.

  “Shit, LT, it happened again. Didn’t it? I heard some firefighters were brought in. I came down to check in and saw you with Arden’s brother.”

  I turned from him. “Can you not tell your brother or Scar? She and my sister will go out of their fucking minds,” I began.

  “Come here.” He didn’t wait for me to answer and pulled me into the nearest room, which happened to be a supply closet. His hand was still in mine. “I won’t tell Red for now. You can’t keep this from her, though.” His hand grabbed my head. “It’s me. We’re more than just Scar’s boyfriends. You’re important to me. It’s the three of us, so talk. Don’t go all macho on me. Tell me, are you okay?”

  I looked down at where our hands were still intertwined and felt his other hand on the back of my head. “You know, we are in enough danger without someone purposely trying to hurt my men,” I admitted.

  His head rested on mine. “I know. I get it. I may not run into burning buildings, but with this job, I see the shit in people at times.” The second my hand went to grab his neck, the moment was over, and he backed up, aware of our proximity. My eyes turned to his, and he looked like a deer in headlights. When I thought he was finally giving in to stereotypes, he clammed up. I didn’t want him to kiss me. I needed a friend, someone to tell me it would be okay.

  I rushed past him. “Don’t worry, Doc, I won’t let others know that for one second you let your barriers down, thinking of me for once and not your fucked-up preconceived notions. You can’t give me comfort although I’m in desperate need of it.” Slamming the door open, I made my way to my men’s rooms to assess their condition. Jordan called after me, but I didn’t turn around. I only flipped him off on my way down the hall.

  21

  Jordan

  I’d tried to give him comfort. Solace and friendship were all it had been at first. But I freaked when Levi returned it as affection. If I had continued, I was afraid my comforting actions would turn into more. Of course, he needed to be cared for, but even if the feelings of confusion weren’t building up in me, Levi was more than just any friend. Even if I was fighting what part of me wanted, our relationship would be stronger than that of my other everyday friends. I mean, we shared the same person, after all. He was close enough to my dick each night to suck it.

  And that vision had me excited as evidenced by the hard-on in my scrubs. Watching him storm away from me, I half-assed tried to get him to stop, but the part of me fighting this between us didn’t want him to.

  He’d flipped me off before but always in a fun banter sort of way. No, this time he basically told me to fuck off. And yeah, I deserved it.

  Having retreated to my office for a needed break, I reflected on the past week and how Levi had worked his way into my heart. “Fuck, Peters, what have you gotten yourself into?” I wondered out loud. Yeah, I was losing it, and if that wasn’t bad enough, these were all things I understood couldn’t be denied for much longer.

  I’d gotten home that night to a slew of texts from both Levi and Red.

  Red: I need a day at my place. I haven’t done laundry, and my house needs a good cleaning.

  Red was a millionaire and could afford to hire a service to clean, but she was very specific about her cleanliness and didn’t like anyone doing it for her. I would have thought it was a blow-off since Levi’s and my little disagreement this morning, but knowing Red, she needed to get shit done on her own. But then I got another text from her, and I understood a little bit more about her decision to stay at home.

  Red: BTW, could you stop being an asshole? I’d tell you how I really feel, but I don’t have enough middle fingers.

  Okay, so she wasn’t pissed. She was angry as fuck. And I got it. I thought of myself and not the fact that Levi’s men had been attacked. I grabbed my phone to call Levi when a text came through. It still had the original name I’d programmed into it se
veral days ago.

  Asshole Fireman: Since Scar is taking a break tonight at home, I am, too.

  My fingers hovered over the key pad for several minutes when I finally decided to own my mistake from earlier.

  Me: I’m sorry about this morning.

  I fell back on my couch, waiting for a reply. After a couple of minutes, I stopped staring at the phone and turned on the baseball game. It would only be me for the night. I called in a medium pizza and headed to my fridge to grab a beer. Sitting my ass back on the couch, I still had no reply from Levi.

  After the second inning and my first beer, the doorbell rang and I popped up from my seat to answer it. On the other side wasn’t my medium pizza, it was Levi standing with his hands in his pockets. For being the second week of September, it started to get chilly when the sun went down. His eyes were turned down at first. He looked up, and I could see a different man in front of me. The cocky jerk was gone.

  “Levi, you okay?”

  “Did you mean it—you wished you’d given me comfort this morning?”

  I stilled in the moment. I wasn’t sure what he wanted, but I answered honestly. It was what I owed him. “Yeah, LT, I wish I would have been the friend you deserved.” He sidestepped me, entering my house. He sure was at home here, and part of that made me smile. The other part had me sweating bullets.

  I turned around where he waited for me. In one fluid motion, his arms were around me. It took me a second to understand he wasn’t putting the moves on. No, this time, he was vulnerable.

  I pulled him tight to me, and that strong, hard muscle fit perfectly against mine. The more I tightened my hold, the more he tightened his.

  “I’m not trying to cop a feel with you, Doc. I just need …” He trailed off. He didn’t have to finish his sentence because I got it.

  We fell into dry and witty banter between us, watching the Cubs game. Since hanging out with him, I started drinking a fuck ton more beer than I normally did. Reaching down for the last slice of pizza, I turned to him watching me.

  “Sorry, did you want this?” I teased, taking a bite to claim it as mine. He grabbed his beer, laughing at me as I continued, “By the way, LT, you’re a bad influence on me. I never drank this much beer before you.”

  He placed his hand on his stomach. “No, you’re the one to blame. Thanks to you, I’m going to have to work out more.”

  I shouldn’t think it, but his body was in tip-top shape. And then images of his abs came into play. To ward off all sensations this man caused me, I playfully smacked him. “Why do you need to work out? You get enough exercise pushing your luck with me.” It was delivered in my dry tone, but even I cracked a smile.

  Levi slapped his leg. “Shit, Doc, look at you! That was funny as hell. Who knew you had it in you?”

  “Hey, how about a walk? I like them especially when they are taken by people who annoy the fuck out of me.” Again, a smile accompanied my comeback.

  “Hell, you’re on a roll, Doc. We should do this more often.” Yeah, the problem was I wanted to do a lot more than just tell witty jokes.

  After the Cubs beat the Yankees, Levi stood. It was nearing eleven. “I better get home.”

  My eyes locked on him. “Don’t you have clothes here? It’s stupid to go home when you have a change of clothes and there is a spare room upstairs.”

  “Well, yeah, um, it’s just that …” His eyes darted down. Then as they found me again, I felt the heat in them as if a thousand suns were powering them. “Shit, Jordan. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. My idea was to be there for Scar, which I always will be, but fuck, through this, us both loving the same girl, you’ve grabbed my heart, and I don’t know how to get it back.”

  He took his wallet and his keys, heading to the door, and I didn’t stop him even though everything in my body told me to.

  22

  Scarlet

  Over the past month, sex with these two had been everything. But in it, we were foraging a deeper relationship. There were kinks and little problems that came up. Mainly, it was Jordan pushing his feelings for Levi aside. Levi, of course, pressed Jordan a little more every day. Well, hell, he pushed him a lot. And in my time alone with Jordan, we talked about Levi and the apparent feelings they had for one another.

  “I’m not into men. If I could will myself to love in that way, I would.” I was not convinced, but with what I’d learned about Jordan Peters, I knew he couldn’t be forced into this lifestyle.

  I’d been skirting my family dinners with Arden, Daimen, Ell, and Andrew. This had been so new and out of Jordan’s comfort zone, I didn’t want to push. But Levi, in his typical way, brought it up, and Jordan didn’t stand a chance against Levi Arnold. If anyone could push Jordan, it was my fireman. I was so afraid that one day he’d push too hard.

  “It’s just your brother and Levi’s sister. It’s going to be okay,” I said, holding his hand for the short ride from my apartment to the penthouse where Arden, Daimen, and Ell lived. Levi got called in to support his findings on the arson cases but promised he’d meet us later.

  The second the doors opened, enough noise met us to justify more than the four people who were supposed to be there. Jordan didn’t want to walk off the elevator, but with my hand in his, I pulled him out.

  He was not quite out of the elevator yet when a tall blonde came around the corner from the living space. “Jordan Peters. You get your ass out of there and give your sister a hug.”

  Kayla Peters ran toward her brother and embraced him, squeezing him tight. “Hey, little sis.” This was a surprise. I’d been around her a lot since Elliot’s accident. To my understanding, she was more of a little sister to Elliot than any of Elliot’s real sisters. Releasing her brother, she hugged me like she’d known me her whole life.

  “I knew she’d pick you over the fireman.” She didn’t attempt to whisper, yelling behind her, “No offense to you and your brother, Ell.” Everyone erupted into laughter with Kayla looking around the room. “What have I missed?”

  Andrew was behind us, giving his brother a bro hug when Jordan observed, “I see Kayla didn’t get the memo.”

  “Even I got the memo.” A large bulky man appeared behind Andrew, wrapping his large arms around my friend in an intimate way. I had a feeling something was going on with our new CFO, Brock Spaulding, and Andrew. Brock had been flirting with him for weeks. It looked as if the man had finally worn my friend down.

  “Well, this is new.” Jordan pointed at his brother and Brock.

  “What the hell? I know nothing,” Kayla almost shouted, stomping her foot. “Would someone tell me what’s going on with Scarlet and Jordan?” I couldn’t have planned better. As if on cue, Levi stepped off the elevator with Garner Blakely.

  “Well, shit, what’s he doing here?” I was not sure if she’d meant Garner or Levi, but before anyone could say anything else, Levi came up to me and kissed me on the lips.

  Garner, who I knew well, laughed, looking at Kayla as if he could eat her. Kayla would have certainly been his type if she were into men. “Um, you do realize he’s Elliot’s brother?” The way Garner spoke to Kayla surprised me. He’d always been sweet to most girls, but with Kayla, there was an odd tension. Hell, with this group, I was starting to have a hard time making all the connections between everyone. We really needed to be on some sort of daytime talk show.

  “You know what, asshole, your parents are living proof that two wrongs don’t make a right,” Kayla almost spat on Garner.

  Garner chuckled at her insult and patted Jordan on the shoulder. “Good luck with this one.” Something was going on there, something I wanted to dig deeper into, but for now, I was content to let Jordan deal with his sister’s little tantrum.

  “Now, I really need to know what the hell is going on.” Jordan’s little sister was stomping her feet, again. Kayla had always been a wild card with no filter. What Kayla thought was always said without consideration for others’ regard. Not that Levi could get his feelings hurt by Ka
yla. He took most of what the popular world said and ignored it. It could be one reason he could live a carefree lifestyle where he openly shared a girl with another man. Or how he’d been in committed triads before.

  “Hush, brat,” Jordan retorted, and for Jordan, his feelings could get hurt simply by telling him he wore too much gel in his hair. Although he acted aloof, he wasn’t. And brat was more of a term of endearment as both brothers called their little sister that.

  During this exchange, Jordan had been looking at the newly painted light turquoise walls in the penthouse. “Elliot, you won the card game?” I had no idea what he meant, but it elicited laughter from Elliot, Arden, and Daimen. “I love the color,” he added as his hands found their way around my waist while Levi placed another kiss on my lips. Yeah, Levi was a little bit of a shit stirrer. And he thrived on it.

  “She loves us both,” Jordan began, back to the matter at hand. Kayla’s bright blue eyes bore daggers at Levi, which only made him laugh. “So we decided not to make her choose. Red has enough love for the two of us, and neither of us want to give her up.”

  Kayla’s lips pursed as she cocked her head to the side. “But you two?” She pointed at both men. “You two aren’t together.”

  “Um, no.” With Jordan’s adamant reply, I felt Levi stiffen. Stepping away from me, Levi gave me another kiss on the lips, then went to Kayla, leaning over to her ear.

  Just loud enough we could both hear him, my little shit stirrer whispered, “Not yet, but don’t worry, Kayla, your brother will admit what he wants. Eventually.”

  Kayla’s eyes locked with her brother as I left him to undo Levi’s words. If he wanted to deny it, I wasn’t pushing it. Though I’d called bullshit on him several times. Sure, Levi was making this difficult, but he wasn’t wrong.