Fahrenheit

by Capri Montgomery

  When they got word that he had been taken to Germany to the hospital her mother had been a wreck, and her own heart had been breaking just thinking about losing him. She didn’t want to experience that fear ever again. If he could just let it go, let this need to bring Sabian to justice finally die, then Thomas would be safe—at least that’s what she reasoned. Of course she knew her brother. She knew he wouldn’t back down. They could take the man out of the military, but they couldn’t take the military out of the man. Although it wasn’t really the military persona driving him. Thomas was always protector to those he cared about, and losing his friends that day burned his need for justice so deep into him that she was sure he would never rest until he had the justice he sought—or until he was dead. She didn’t want him dead. She wanted him safe, relatively anyway, in Boston. She wanted him working in his private investigation firm. She didn’t want him chasing a psycho traitor. And she didn’t want him in her hotel room now.

  She should have known they were going to show up. When Drake found his way to her hotel room she should have known he was just the first in a long line of overprotective people.

  “You’re moving back to Boston,” Thomas snapped.

  “No, I’m not.” She had this conversation with him before. She had it with Gavin before too. She was not moving back to Boston.

  “If this was Sabian’s work—”

  “Enough,” she snapped. “Not everything is some big government conspiracy.” She tried to bring her temper under control. She knew how important catching Sabian was to Thomas. She understood that he had lost friends to Sabian’s betrayal. She had nearly lost Thomas. She wanted this guy to pay for what he’d done. She just didn’t want to risk losing Thomas to get that justice. Beyond that, not everything was about Sabian. Thomas couldn’t go around blaming the man for everything bad in their life. She just needed to make sure she said those words without hurting him.

  “This was a Florida grown nutcase, Thomas. Seriously, it’s all over the news. The cops think it’s the same guy that’s been setting all the wildfires.” There were over three hundred fires burning in Florida, fifty alone in Volusia and Flagler County, and while some of those fires were lightening strike induced, others were manmade. The lit cigarette thrown out of the window was a key factor in a few—especially the one that shut down interstate ninety-five for half the day. There were about ten fires—big ones, had been arson. They, the investigators, believed it was the work of one man. She knew a few details because she was the photojournalist covering the story with Mitch, their lead reporter.

  “So you see,” she patted his arm. “There’s no need for you to be here.” It wasn’t that she didn’t love her brothers. She did love them, but they had to go live their lives and they needed to realize that she had to do the same.

  “Are they sure?” Gavin folded his arms across his chest. “Arson to bomb making is a big leap, Eve.”

  She knew that. She wondered if the investigators were sure too, but she wouldn’t tell her brothers that. She shook her head yes. “They seemed rather confident at the press conference. Besides, my apartment wasn’t even hit. Well…it was hit by debris, and messed up pretty badly, but the bombs were in two other apartment units. If this were Sabian I would think he could have gotten it right.”

  Thomas brushed his hand through his hair. Was he ready to admit defeat, turn around and go home? “Maybe,” he mumbled. “Maybe not.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Who’s your friend?” She looked at Thena, beautiful, classy looking, and she wondered just how long Thomas planned to hold on to this one.

  “Thena Davis,” he said as he reached out and pulled Thena closer to him. Eve smiled. He was being protective of her too. He must care for her.

  “Nice meeting you,” she smiled. “I’m sorry you had to come all this way for his overactive imagination.”

  “It was my idea,” she said sheepishly. “I hope you won’t be angry with him. He was just so worried about you. And he wasn’t planning to come until I asked him to.”

  Eve cautiously eyed Thomas. She doubted that he wouldn’t have came on his own, but maybe he wouldn’t have, which meant Thena was a complete traitor to her cause.

  She shrugged. Thomas seemed to like her. Something told her she might want to forgive her now, rather than hold a grudge. She had a feeling she might be her sister-in-law one day.

  The knock on the door disturbed them all. She started to get it, but Gavin stopped her by gently pushing her over to Drake before going to answer the door himself.

  “This is ridiculous,” she snapped.

  “Just stay still,” Drake mumbled in the same voice he had when he showed up at her room door and insisted that he was coming inside. He had the same voice he always had when he expected orders to be followed. She didn’t know what he did when he was in the military, or what branch he worked for; nobody really seemed to know, and if they did know they weren’t talking about it—not to her anyway. Whatever he did and whoever he worked for then and now, he was definitely not a man a person crossed.

  “Um…I’m sorry. I must have the wrong room. I was looking for Eve.”

  “Adam,” she quickly left Drake’s side because she knew if she hesitated he would have her on lockdown in two seconds flat. “Come on in.”

  “Adam,” Thomas mumbled. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Eve rolled her eyes. “Be nice,” she mumbled. She watched how Adam took in the situation in her room. “Adam, these are my brothers—Gavin, and Thomas. And this is a friend of theirs—Drake, and she’s Thena. Everybody, this is Adam. He saved my life.”

  “Oh,” Gavin closed the door, but he didn’t look the least bit at ease. The man saved her life, covered her body with his own body to protect her from falling debris; they should be welcoming him with open arms.

  “Adam, my brothers are crazy protective.”

  Adam laughed. “I’ve been there. I’m the youngest of three. Trust me; I know how it is. I had to leave Vermont to have a minute of freedom.”

  “Exactly,” Eve laughed.

  “Well, I managed to get into your place and I picked up a few things for you. A few people turned their heads while I was breaking the rules.”

  “I appreciate it,” she took the bag from him before realizing how heavy it was.

  “I saw your safe in the closet so I brought it. I thought there might be something important in it. I packed a few of your clothes, some more shoes, I brought your backpack with your cameras in it, and your purse and phone are in this bag.” He handed her another bag before removing the backpack off his shoulder.

  “Adam, thank you so much. I need all of this.” She needed her camera most because that was her lifeline at work, and a huge extension of herself. That was her personal camera. She had refused the camera the paper offered her because she knew her camera better than the back of her hand. Her camera was her baby and it had never let her down. Adam had brought the backpack she kept most of her cameras and extra lenses inside. The film and the digital cameras were now safely with her.

  “I guess dinner’s out.”

  “Yeah, tonight anyway. They’ll be gone by morning.”

  “No we won’t.” Gavin and Thomas said concurrently.

  “Well whether they are or they aren’t we can still do dinner tomorrow night if you want.”

  “I want,” he agreed. “Well, I’ll leave you to your…uh…family.”

  She nearly laughed. He was probably thinking what she was thinking, that he would leave her to her problem. She loved her brothers, but she hated their meddling in her affairs.

  “Goodnight, Eve.”

  “Goodnight, Adam,” she smiled as he left her room. He didn’t pull her in for a hug, or even reach out to touch her hand. Clearly he understood big brothers enough to know that they didn’t take well to men who were interested in their baby sisters. She had lost count of how many times boys had been afraid to date her in high school because of the McGregor men. The first guy w
ho had actually showed up to pick her up for a date had gotten the third, fourth and fifth degree from Gavin while he was home on leave. Chris Michaels, she remembered that night well because he picked her up at six for the movies, and had her home by eight thirty. He didn’t even stay for the closing credits. He was so afraid of Gavin he rushed to get her home. And he never asked her out again. Of course, why would he? Seeing Gavin standing there, full uniform, since he had just gotten home, was enough to scare most boys away. But when Gavin told him he knew exactly how long it took to get to and from the movie, that he also knew the movie was exactly one hour and forty minutes long, and that he expected him to have her home accordingly, she thought Chris was going to wet his pants. It took fifteen minutes to get to the theater. The movie started at six thirty, post previews. She knew the time because she and Chris had decided they could get to the theater a little later and skip the previews. Chris had been so nervous he kept checking his watch throughout the entire movie. The woman on the row behind them kept complaining about the glow from the light on his watch, and he kept checking the time anyway. Every few minutes he was checking his watch. Gosh, she wouldn’t have asked herself out either after that kind of date.

  “Go home, guys.” She said to them. “I’m fine. I’m going to be working anyway, and you really have other things to do other than hang out here with me. Especially poor Drake. Taking him away from Geneva like this.”

  Drake shook his head. “Don’t drag me into it. When I told Geneva what happened she nearly pushed me out the door to come check on you.”

  She rolled her eyes again. Were all the women against her? Traitors! They were definitely traitors. “Well you can tell her you checked. I’m fine. You can all go home now.”

  “You can’t fault us for being concerned, Eve.” Gavin was always the voice of reason, and sometimes she hated that.

  “It’s not your concern I fault. It’s your overprotective, craziness that I fault. I’ve covered riots in Egypt, I was in Libya—for all of a minute.” She thought about how quickly the paper had pulled her and Mitch out of the danger zone. She was surprised they had, but she guessed after what happened in Egypt they weren’t willing to take any chances. She still hadn’t given her brothers the full details of that trip, and she wouldn’t—not ever, if she could help it.

  “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. In fact, I’d be covering the riots in London right now if this arsonist wasn’t the bigger story here. People are really worried about him, or her,” she shrugged.

  “First,” Thomas snapped. “You are not going to London.” She started to protest because he had no right to tell her where she could and couldn’t go. He narrowed his gaze at her in the way he always did when he meant business and he kept talking, ignoring her adamant refusal of his meddling ways. “Second, what’s going on with this arsonist?”

  “I’m not sure I should tell you. You might not ever leave.” She rolled her eyes at him. Her big brothers were crazy and annoying, but way too lovable to stay mad at forever. “He, or she,” she did like to be an equal opportunity person, “is getting worse. Each fire is always bigger than the one before it, and it’s a different accelerant each time. The last one got a little too close to the homes in the W section and there was a brief evacuation. Everybody is back home now, but the fire is still burning. Adding more fuel to the fire is the fact that we haven’t had rain in nearly a month. Our monsoon season is starting, though so maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get some rain—or a hurricane, that would help.” Living on the coast, she never thought she would be wishing for a hurricane, but here she was wishing they could get some weather relief to help put out all the fires.

  “So you think this guy, or girl,” Drake stressed his words as if trying to appease her sense of equal opportunity arsonist theory, “switched from fires to bombs.”

  “I,” she stressed, “don’t think anything of the sort. I said the cops thought so.” She saw the curve of all three men’s lips and she knew she had messed up.

  “So you agree that it’s not the arsonist and something else is going on.” A statement, and not a question, meant Drake was sure he had just won the battle of logics.

  “That’s not what I said, Drake. Stop twisting my words.” She exhaled sharply. Good Lord these men could drive a sane person crazy.

  “Don’t worry guys. Geneva and I will be in the Keys for a few weeks. I can keep an eye on her from there. If something happens, I’ll be here.”

  “Thanks, Drake. This means a lot to us.”

  Eve tossed her hands up in the air. “I don’t know why I even bother with you two. You never listen to me.”

  “We listen,” Thomas said.

  “We just don’t agree,” Gavin finished Thomas’ sentence. Tag teamed, that’s what they had just done. That’s what they were good at. Being the baby made it worse. Alyssa didn’t escape the McGregor men’s overprotective nature either, but she didn’t get it nearly as bad; Eve was sure of that. Being the baby sucked; it totally sucked.

  “Eve, we love you. We just need to know you’re safe. Humor us.”

  How could she resist that plea? She should have, but saying no to Thomas was always her weak point. It wasn’t that she played favorites between her siblings, but she was closest to Thomas. She used to hang on to his leg when she was a child—literally. Her mother still had a picture of Thomas trying to walk with her clutching his leg tight. She loved him so much. “Fine,” she surrendered. “If something I can’t handle comes up, then I’ll call Drake.” Thomas frowned. He was quick—too quick. He had long ago become accustomed to listening to the words she said, and quickly realizing what she wasn’t saying.

  “Why does that not sound reassuring?”

  “Because she thinks she can handle everything,” Gavin’s dry tone told Eve he was not at all happy with her compromise.

  “Within reason,” she said. “I’ll be reasonable. I promise.” She didn’t think she was Wonder Woman, but seriously, they had to know she was an adult. She had a dangerous job that sometimes took her a little too close to the fire—sometimes literally, and she could handle herself without their help. She just wanted them to see Eve the grown up and not Eve the little kid.

  Thomas reached out and took her arm in his hand. “Come here, kid,” he pulled her close into an embrace. She wrapped her arms around him, needing the emotional connection, even if only briefly. She hadn’t lost everything today, but she almost had—if Adam hadn’t rescued her in time she could have lost her life.

  “I love you,” she pulled back and looked up into his eyes. “But you all have to go.”

  They laughed at her. “We will.”

  “When?”

  “Eventually,” Thomas assured her.

  “They don’t even have any rooms left in town.”

  “Taken care of already,” Thomas said. “Thena made arrangements as soon as we heard. We’re at the Holiday Inn.”

  “I got a suite before it was gone, so we can all fit,” Thena smiled brightly. Eve could tell she was proud of her ability to help make things easier for Thomas.

  She shrugged. She had things to do, one of which would be finding a new place to stay. She could rent a house, but they were all so ridiculously expensive. They weren’t worth the dirt they were built on, but the rent was jacked up high anyway. The cost just to move in was first, last, plus anywhere from one thousand to two thousand dollars in “security” deposit. It just wasn’t worth it. She didn’t want to buy. Realtors had told her now was the time to buy and that she should jump at the chance, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to make Palm Coast her permanent home. In fact, she was sure she wanted to leave someday.

  She didn’t know where she would go. Maryland was an option if she got the Discovery gig, or New York if she got National Geographic, but in all honesty she wasn’t even sure she wanted either of those cities either. She thought about Hawaii. Now that was some place she could fall in love with. She had been once before, years ago, and she was sur
e it had changed significantly, but the thought of moving there still seemed like a good idea. Not only would she be in a tropical paradise, but she would be far away from the rest of the McGregor clan. As much as she wanted the distance, she wasn’t sure she would still want it once she had it. All she knew for sure was that she couldn’t stay in Palm Coast. She hated it there. She hated the racist attitudes. She hated the lack of having anything to do close by. She hated the city itself—and she was starting to feel stuck there. She thought about Daytona, but she hadn’t found a neighborhood that felt safe enough to call home. She almost laughed at her reasoning now. Safe, yeah right. Her apartment complex had just been blown up; how safe was that?

  She sighed. “I’m tired guys. Can we just leave everything alone for tonight and discuss it in the morning?”

  “Dinner,” Gavin said. “We’re taking you and you’re going to eat.”

  She laughed. “Yes, sir.” She saluted him. “I’m only agreeing because I’m hungry, otherwise I’d tell you exactly where you could stick dinner.”

  “Eve, that mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble one day.”

  If only they knew; it already had. In Egypt she thought she might die—she was sure of it. Thankfully that hadn’t happened. Thankfully she had managed to keep it a secret from her brothers. If they knew what had happened to her over there they would probably lock her up in one of their homes and keep her there indefinitely. That’s not exactly the future she saw for herself…and not one she wanted either.

  “Steak and Shake,” she grabbed her room key off the nightstand. She loved the Marriot here because it was newer, still clean, and the decoration was kind of funky modern. The nice shades of lime green and blue and even some orange made the rooms come alive—not literally of course, but it was a nice change to some of the standard rooms she had seen. They had good breakfast too, for a hotel that is. She had stayed there once before. That was when she first came down to find a place to live. She didn’t find one she could afford, but Mitch had a guesthouse in back of his place, right by the pool. When he offered her low rent prices to stay there she took him up on the offer. She left the hotel and moved into the guesthouse. That had been a mistake; one she hadn’t even seen coming. She wouldn’t tell her brothers about that either because they might just go kill Mitch.