Chasing Fire: (Fire and Fury Book One)

by Avery Kingston

  “Vicky is trying to pick me out a date for the night. Maybe you can be a better wingman than her, but I doubt you’ll be much help wearing that.” His pointed nose curled, looking at her scrubs.

  “Shut it, asshole. I worked a double.” She let out a huge sigh and ruffled her auburn hair. “Been on my feet all day long in surgeries, then fought an hour of traffic. I’m beat.”

  Shauna was a scrub nurse at the Naval hospital in Bethesda. She and Tori met her freshman year at Georgetown as roommates. She’d finished her bachelor’s a year early and had recently landed the job.

  “Anything gory and interesting today?” Keith asked, sipping his martini. Shauna always shared some of the grossest medical stories with them.

  “Actually, it was great. Had my first time assisting on an amputation.” She grinned as if she’d hit the jackpot in the lottery.

  Tori cringed. “Gross.” She took a sip of her drink. “I don’t know how you find enjoyment in that kind of stuff.”

  Shauna rolled her tongue across her top lip. “Because even on the bad days, there are days when I get to give sponge baths to hunky, muscular Navy men.”

  “Well, I guess that evens it out,” Keith agreed. “Speaking of hunky, muscular Navy men, Vicky, I thought you said your fuck buddy, Scott, was coming back to town to screw your brains out?” His blue eyes sparkled mischievously.

  Tori took a sip of her drink and shrugged. “I haven’t heard from him since his email a month ago. He knows the drill. He comes to me. I don’t chase after him.”

  “You and your silly games.” Keith paused for a moment. “Do you think he’s ok?” Keith asked. “I mean, he’s in a goddamned war zone, right? God, I hope he’s not dead. That would be awful. Your pussy would be so disappointed.”

  “Ha ha. Very funny.” Tori sighed and rolled her eyes, covering her unease. I already lost one man in my life. I don’t want to think about losing another. Her father’s death had been the most difficult thing she’d ever gone through. That’s why Tori and Scott were better as friends who occasionally fucked. His job was far too risky to ever entertain more.

  Shauna cocked her head to the side. “Afghanistan?”

  Tori nodded. “Yeah, Middle East somewhere. He never gave me too many details.” Tori took another sip of her drink. “So how about another shot?” Tori raised her arm, trying to flag down the waiter. She didn’t want to think about Scott now. Also, she wanted to shut Keith up before he started getting political. Tori despised talking about politics.

  “Was Scott the tall, muscular, dark-haired beast you banged freshman year, or the thicker, short, blond wrestler?” Shauna asked. “Or was he the sandy-haired boy with the emerald eyes?”

  Keith coughed out the words, “Vicky is a ho.”

  Tori brushed off Keith’s comment. “I’m surprised you don’t remember him after how much you drooled over him.” Tori giggled, recalling how Shauna reacted the one night she’d caught a glimpse of them fucking in Tori’s room.

  “It’s difficult to keep track of all your men.” Shauna shook her head as the bartender came over. They ordered more shots and another round of drinks. Thankfully, the dude singing the horrible rendition of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” finished up, and they all gave their sympathy claps.

  “Tall, muscular, dark-haired, with the deep brown, brooding eyes.” Tori grinned sheepishly. “Come on, you walked in on us one night doing it. You were all pissed when we flung everything off your desk.”

  Tori looked at Shauna, who was biting her nail. Shauna sucked in a breath to speak, then released it.

  “What?” Tori curled her nose.

  Shauna shook her head. “Nothing. Just curious.” Obviously, a lie.

  Tori’s brow raised. “What?” she growled.

  “Is his last name Harris?” Shawna’s blue eyes narrowed.

  All the air left Tori’s lungs and she sat there, blinking. Finally, she swallowed the lump in her throat and muttered, “Y-yes.”

  Shauna didn’t need to say anything to Tori, because Shauna’s morose expression showed it all.

  “How bad?” Tori looked down at her drink, tracing the rim of her empty glass with her fingertip.

  She braced herself. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.

  “He’ll make it.”

  “That’s it?” Tori’s head snapped up.

  “I’ve already said too much,” she croaked.

  “Really?” Tori shot her a look that said you have to be kidding me. “You’re the one who kept asking me the questions. You could’ve kept your damn mouth shut.”

  “Vicky’s right. You have to spill it now,” Keith chimed in.

  “Dammit. Ok,” Shauna relented. “You didn’t hear this from me. It’s against HIPAA regulations for me to say anything. Seriously, I could get fired and lose my license.”

  Keith made a zipping motion across his lips and glanced to Tori, who nodded in agreement.

  Shauna looked around then leaned in closer to them. “From what I know, he was hit by an explosion several weeks ago and had a lot of blast injuries. Was sent to us yesterday.”

  “What type of blast injuries?” Tori’s stomach twisted as horrifying images of IED explosions flashed through her mind.

  “Ruptured eardrum, pulmonary contusion—”

  “Pulmonary what?” Tori rolled her eyes and slapped her hand on the table. “English, please.”

  “Lung,” Shawna snapped. “God. Let me finish! Fractured ribs and such caused lung issues. He wasn’t breathing well, and they put him on a ventilator.” Shawna took a breath. “When he got to us, he was unconscious and fighting an infection that was spreading too quick from a nasty leg wound. Our only choice was to amputate.”

  “So that was your procedure today?” Keith shrieked. “Holy shit. You cut off Vic’s lover’s leg?”

  “Not the whole leg, just below the knee,” Shauna said, as if that made it so much better.

  Keith and Shauna stared at Tori, who was donning her best poker face. “God dammit. Where’s the waiter with our drinks?” Tori darted her eyes across the room.

  “Vicky?” Keith reached for her hand. “You ok?”

  Tori shook off his hand and smiled sweetly as the server came over. “I’m fine.” The waiter placed the drinks on the table, and Tori passed out the shots to everyone. He was alive. That’s all that mattered. “He’s fine. I’m fine.” Tori raised her glass, and they looked at her with questionable expressions.

  Tori let out a grunt and placed her shot glass down, rolling her eyes. They were still sitting there, flabbergasted at her response. “His cock still works, right?” She flashed a roguish grin.

  Keith snickered a bit as Shauna gave a slow, slight nod. “I presume so.” Shauna’s mouth hung open like a goldfish.

  “Well, I fucked him with two legs. I’ll fuck him with one.” Tori laughed a little too loud and picked up her shot. “To Scott.”

  Shauna and Keith exchanged a side-eye then lifted their glasses. “To Scott.”

  “My favorite little, hot, redheaded nurse.” Scott grinned at Shauna as she came into his room. “Please tell me you’re getting me outside today.” Scott was going stir-crazy being cooped up in the room.

  “You with your impish grin, always flirting with me. You know I can’t date a patient, so you need to stop, mister.” She gave him a sweet smile. “Your lab work looks good. Infection is gone, oxygen levels are steadily increasing.”

  “All right, then get me up. Throw my ass in a wheelchair and let me go to the gym.” This whole bed-to-the-bathroom-back-to-the-bed-in-the-walker was getting mundane. He needed to do more, even if it zapped his energy. He pulled the oxygen tube out of his nose, pushed his arms up underneath him, and shifted his weight, sitting up more, which caused him to wheeze and cough.

  She placed her hand on his shoulder. “You’re crazy. I said your levels are increasing. You still have a while before you’re off it.” She folded her clipboard to her chest. She placed the oxygen tube b
ack in his nose and fiddled with the machines around his bed.

  “Come on, pull some strings. I’ll make it worth your while.” He flashed her a wolfish grin that usually got him what he wanted with women.

  “You’re too much. Let me see what I can find out.” Shauna turned to leave.

  Scott watched as she walked away, admiring her curves. He noticed the shape of her thong underneath her scrubs, which he appreciated. The door shut, and he turned to the TV.

  Several moments later, Shauna came back in with the doctor. “I hear you’re bribing my nursing staff with sexual favors, trying to get out of this bed.” The doctor glanced at Shauna and back to Scott.

  Scott gave a cocky smile. “Come on, Shauna, that was supposed to be our little secret.” Scott held his arms up and feigned innocence.

  “How’s your pain?” the doctor asked.

  “Manageable,” Scott said with a fixed expression that didn’t let them know how much he was hurting. He tried to keep the medication to a minimum because he didn’t like being doped up—it dulled his senses too much—but last night, he’d hit the pump several times.

  “And your sleeping?” His doctor raised a questionable brow as if he wasn’t buying the bullshit Scott was feeding him.

  The nerve pain had been an absolute bitch, especially at night. His body was still sending signals to the brain that the foot was there, and it was like hot pokers to his nerves. The nightmares also didn’t give him much rest. “More sleep here than in the field, I suppose.” Not a lie.

  The doctor turned to Shauna. “Has psych been in to see him?”

  Scott groaned as Shauna nodded. PTSD was a huge concern. “They’ve been in a few times,” she said.

  The last thing Scott wanted to do right now was talk about what he’d experienced with the military head shrinks. He would carry the burden of that day the rest of his life. It’s not something he wanted to let go of. Jones was dead, he had a wife and a child on the way, and Scott couldn’t save him. It should have been me.

  “Well, I can’t have you going around here flirting with the entire staff. Better get you busy before you start making trouble.” He uncrossed his arms and pulled the blanket off Scott. “Let’s unwrap the leg, at least, continue to wean you off the oxygen. PT can come in with a chair later and let you get some sunshine, but I don’t want you trying the walker outside this room, understood?”

  “Understood.” Scott nodded.

  After some time, Shawna and the doctor got down to the last layer of the dressing. Scott stared at the wall until she was done. The doctor touched what was left of his leg, and it was unsettling. “You’re healing well. Still a lot of swelling, which is normal.”

  Scott knew he’d have to look at his naked leg eventually, so he bit the bullet, turning his head downward. His stomach tightened, and he dizzied at the sight, feeling detached from his own body. That can’t be me. I can still feel my toes. They felt curled and balled up; he had the urge to move and stretch them, but all that was there was a fat, ugly stump with a nasty drain tube coming out of it.

  His throat grew tight. Don’t be a pussy. Keep it together.

  “It looks bad now, but the swelling will go down,” Shauna reassured him.

  He cleared his throat, composing himself, trying not to think about the fact that his military career, everything he worked for his entire life was over, and one more of his brothers was now dead. “How long until I can get a peg?”

  “Case-by-case basis. Shauna will place it under compression to bring the swelling down. Once the stump is shrunk enough, you will get a temporary prosthetic. It’ll be several months before your residual leg will shrink enough for a permanent one.” He patted him on the shoulder. “You’re healing well. I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow.” He left the room.

  Shauna pulled over a cart and started wrapping him back up. “So, you haven’t had many visitors. Did your folks leave?” Her blue eyes looked up at him from behind her auburn bangs, curiously.

  “Yeah, they went ahead and headed back home to Austin.” Scott felt her questionable look needed explanation. “They have a ranch there. They needed to get back to the livestock.” His parents didn’t abandon him. They stuck around for the first two weeks, but Scott finally insisted they leave.

  “Texas. Southern boy? You don’t have much of an accent.”

  “We moved around a lot. Military family. Didn’t settle in Texas until I was a teenager.”

  “Followed in your father’s footsteps?”

  “It’s was in my blood, I suppose.” He shrugged.

  “Siblings?”

  “Older brother and sister. They chose a different path.” He was the only sibling that opted for a military career. His older brother and sister had been rebellious, causing his parents to nearly pull their hair out. Scott tended to stay on the straight and narrow path. His sister finally married and settled down, but his brother was still a mess, unable to hold a steady job for too long, in and out of rehab.

  “No girlfriend, I assume from the way you enjoy flirting with the nursing staff,” she teased.

  “Nah,” was all he offered.

  “I’m surprised a good-looking guy like you hasn’t been snagged up yet.”

  “Relationships in my job bring complications. I prefer to keep things casual.”

  Shauna made a slight smirk. “You sound like my artsy roommate from college. She’s a hot-blooded, bleached blonde mess. Relationships are too complicated, she says, fucking is so much more fun.” Shauna gestured a flippant hand wave and raised brow.

  The way she said that eerily reminded him of Tori, who’d muttered those words to him a thousand times. Shauna looked Scott square in the eye.

  “You seem familiar,” his eyes narrowed. “Have we met before?”

  Her mouth quirked up. “Possibly.” She finished and placed a rigid compression dressing on the stump. “This will be tight but it’ll keep your knee from flexing.” She cleaned and re-bandaged the other wounds from shrapnel on his upper thigh and hip, cleaned the smaller cuts on his face, gathered her cart to leave. “I’ll be back to check on you in a few hours, before shift change.”

  “Shauna, where did you go to college at, out of curiosity?” Scott cocked his head to the side.

  She stopped, turned, and her lips curled into a knowing grin. “Georgetown.”

  He raised his brow and scratched the thick hair growing on his face. His suspicion of where he knew Shawna from was growing clearer. A memory flashed in his head of him fucking Tori on a desk in her dorm as a redhead came into the room, yelled at them, then stormed out.

  “You know, it’s not good to be all alone in here. If you like, I can add some friends to your visitation list.” She smiled sweetly and walked out the door.

  Scott was lonesome; he chewed on that for a moment. He rolled his tray over and grabbed his phone, staring at it. He didn’t want to look needy, but the thought of Tori curled next to him brought comfort. He didn’t need her, and she damn well never seemed to need him. She was not his girlfriend—she made that abundantly clear—but the two of them had a lot of fun and unbelievable sexual chemistry. Tori, underneath her tough facade and behind the walls she’d built, was all heart. What if they could be more? He’d thought about that a lot, but it would be like taming a wild beast, at best.

  But hell, I can at least have fun trying.

  Scott picked up the phone and dialed Tori.

  Tori’s heart pounded nervously as she walked down the hall toward Scott’s room. She may have gone home from the bar a week ago and cried herself to sleep worrying about him. She may have lied to Keith when he’d walked in that night and caught her sobbing. She may have spent the last week checking her phone every five minutes. She may have texted Shauna and asked her to drop some hints to Scott.

  She quietly cracked open the door to his room. The blinds were drawn shut, and he lay sleeping in the darkened room. She shut the door gently behind her. It had been almost two years since she’d laid ey
es on him. She crept closer to the bed, glancing him over. Slightly leaner, but still in impeccable shape. His facial hair was thick and unkempt, framed by a tube giving him oxygen.

  He had some bruising and stitched cuts, but it didn’t detract from his looks at all, and she ashamedly thanked God the explosion spared his beautiful face; many of the men she’d passed in the hall were not as fortunate. She could see under the loose sheet where the mound of his left leg stopped and was missing.

  An IV bag was hooked to his arm, which donned a new tattoo of what looked like a Spartan with some lettering on his forearm extending below the tribal on his bicep she was familiar with. She lightly touched his fingertips, leaned closer, squinting in the dark room to make out the words. It looked like Latin or Greek, but she wasn’t sure.

  His hand gripped her wrist, yanking her down. Tori gasped, and her eyes bulged. He studied her for a moment. Gradually, his dark, cold expression disappeared, his grip loosened, and those soulful brown eyes softened. Her unease faded as a slight smile crept across his face.

  They locked eyes, neither of them saying a word, barely breathing. He pulled her in close by the back of her neck and kissed her sweetly. Familiarity washed over her as his lips touched hers, and a soft moan escaped her mouth.

  “Hey, you,” Scott said, his voice hoarse. He had the sultriest look in his eyes, slightly tainted with the weight of all he’d endured. He kissed her gently once more and caressed her cheek.

  “Hey, Sailor.” She pulled back and studied him.

  “You’re a sight for sore eyes.” His eyes raked her up and down. “You cut off your hair?” He tugged a strand of her blonde waves between his fingertips.

  She tucked it behind her ear and fiddled with her earrings. Her mouth quirked up as her eyes darted to the mound under the sheet. “You cut off your leg.”

  His face broke into a wide grin, and he laughed loudly, which made him cough and wheeze. “Touché.”

  Tori loved the way his eyes creased in the corners when he was amused. He carried a perpetually pissed off look that some would be intimidated by, but it was that impish grin that brought out the playful Scott, the Scott she’d met that night in the bar. God, he looks good.