Everything Bared (Six-Alarm Sexy)

by Cayne, Kristine

  Thankfully, Erica took pity on her. “Okay, you can keep your secret. But, you know it’ll come out eventually.”

  Not if she could help it. They had a little over two weeks left before their arrangement ended, and she was going to make the most of it. If keeping it a secret let her have Will, then her lips were sealed with Super Glue.

  And she’d use the same glue to repair her broken heart after he told her goodbye.

  William had just parked his car outside O’Riley’s, when his cell phone beeped. Thinking—hoping—it was Danielle, he checked his messages. It wasn’t from her though. Chad wanted to know if he was free.

  Having dinner with Drew at O’Riley’s. Want to join us? William texted.

  A minute later, Chad replied: b right there.

  William pocketed his phone and pushed open the heavy wood door to the pub. The interior was dark and smelled of grilled meat and spilled beer. Not his typical place at all, but Drew swore the pub had the best ultra-spicy chicken wings on the planet. He smiled. What would Kathleen think of such a place? He could easily imagine her lips curled into a sneer as she picked her way through the sticky tables and sweaty bodies. Danielle, on the other hand, probably frequented this place often. It was a regular hangout for the local cops and firefighters.

  Drew was seated at a booth in the back, a large pitcher of beer and three mugs already on the table. Draft. William shuddered. This was going to be a long evening. But when his brother looked up, eyes bright and a smile on his face, William relaxed. He didn’t spend nearly enough time with Drew anymore. They’d been very close growing up, and he wanted to get back to that place.

  He dropped onto the opposite bench and indicated the extra mug. “I see Chad texted you too.”

  Drew frowned. “No. Haven’t spoken to him all day.”

  “He’s on his way. Who’s the mug for then?”

  “Hollywood said he was bored, so I invited him along. That’s not a problem is it?”

  “Not for me.” He’d met Jamie’s friend and fellow lieutenant on many occasions. Other than his enormous ego and thinking he was God’s gift to women, Hollywood was a nice enough guy.

  Raising his hand, Drew signaled the waitress. “We’ll need a fourth mug and another order of wings.”

  The waitress, a pretty perky blonde, flashed Drew a flirty smile and ran her nails down his arm. “Anything else you need, handsome?”

  Drew grinned. “Not just yet, sweetheart.”

  William laughed when Drew’s gaze followed the sexy sway of the waitress’ ass all the way to the bar. He cuffed the side of his brother’s head. “Hey, I thought this was a guy’s night.”

  “Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the view.” Drew shot him a sour look, then poured beer into two of the mugs. “Not all of us have a hot babe at home.”

  William raised his mug and they knocked their glasses together before drinking deeply. He barely managed not to gag. Drew smirked. “It gets better after the fourth or fifth pitcher.”

  “Christ, I hope so.”

  The waitress arrived with a plate of steaming wings. He grabbed one and bit into it, hoping it would kill the bitter taste in his mouth. Holy shit! Were these things coated in molten lava? Flames ignited from his lips to his stomach, singeing his esophagus.

  When his face turned red, the waitress laughed and nudged Drew’s shoulder. “You should have warned the new guy. Guess I should bring him some water, huh?”

  William grabbed the pitcher and downed great gulps, trying to put out the fire in his throat.

  “Told you they were the best ultra-spicy wings.”

  “I’m not sure what’s worse,” William said, when he’d finally doused the flames. “The disgusting excuse for beer, or these undercooked lumps of Tabasco sauce.”

  “Whiner.”

  “You have no taste buds. Probably burned them off eating this crap.”

  “Need a referee?” Hollywood asked, plopping onto the bench beside Drew. “I forgot my whistle, but I can yell pretty loud.”

  “Hey man.” Drew clapped him on the back. “It’s good to see you.”

  Hollywood turned to William. “Thanks for letting me tag along.”

  “A friend of my brothers’ is a friend of mine.”

  Drew snorted. “Yeah, and he takes that very seriously. Did you know Dani’s staying at his place, in Jamie’s old room?”

  His jaw clenching, William kicked his brother under the table. Hadn’t they just talked about what could happen to Danielle’s job if word got out about their living arrangements?

  Hollywood looked between the two brothers before nodding and staring intently at William. “It’s okay. Dani told me when she first moved in. She’s not only a fellow firefighter; she’s my friend. I’d never do anything to hurt her.” His blond brows furrowed. “And I’d beat the shit out of anyone who did.”

  Message received. William brought his mug to his lips and sipped, suppressing a grimace. “Good to know. I’d hate to have to kick your ass.”

  It was pure bravado, of course. At six four and over two hundred pounds of muscle, the blond giant would be lethal. Hollywood’s brow smoothed and he smiled. “You’ve got balls. I like that.”

  Drew poured the newcomer a beer from a fresh pitcher and topped off the other mugs. Hollywood had just started to swallow when his eyes rounded and horror flashed across his face. Beer sprayed out of his mouth all over the table, and William. “What the fuck happened to you?” Hollywood bellowed.

  Turning to see what had him so horrified, William caught sight of Chad, and his lungs seized. His baby brother’s face was bruised and swollen, his lip split. The telltale black and yellow of a shiner was slowly spreading under his right eye. William’s chest tightened in sympathy as Chad gingerly lowered himself into the booth while holding his ribcage. “What the hell?”

  Chad glanced around the table, his eyes skipping over Hollywood. Drew shoved a full mug of beer across the table. “Maybe this will loosen your tongue.”

  “Thanks.” Leaning close to William, Chad hissed, “You should have told me he’d be here.”

  It took William a moment to get past the sight of his brother’s battered face and make sense of his words. “Hollywood? I didn’t know. Is there a problem?”

  “He hates fags,” Chad said, his tone flat and obviously louder than he’d intended.

  “Not true,” Hollywood said. “I just don’t like you.”

  Drew elbowed him in the side. “Shut the fuck up, Hollywood. I want to hear what happened.”

  Chad shrugged, then winced when the movement jarred his ribs. “Some homophobes decided I’d make a great punching bag. Saved you the trouble,” Chad said, sneering at Hollywood.

  William glared at both men. “Can the attitude, both of you. Chad, start at the beginning.”

  Chad swallowed the rest of his beer. When he reached to refill his mug, his face contorted into a grimace. Hollywood smacked his hand out of the way and did the honors. “Talk,” he said, his voice a deep growl.

  “Liam and I were on a call. It was a pretty simple case, a teen with a few cuts on his arm. We bandaged him up and left. When we got out, several pinheads were spray painting my ambulance again. I yelled at Liam to call the cops. They took off and I gave chase.”

  “How many?” Hollywood asked.

  “Four.”

  “Not the smartest thing you’ve ever done,” William said. What had Chad been thinking, taking on four guys alone?

  Chad cracked his neck then rubbed it. “Probably not.”

  “I take it you caught up to them,” Hollywood prodded.

  “Yeah. I thought I was the shit tackling the slowest guy. Figured the cops could question him about the others. But then his three buddies came back and jumped me.”

  “How’d you get away?” Drew asked.

  “Liam’s brother. He’s a cop. Anyway, he was only two minutes away when Liam called him. As soon as he showed up, the guys took off.”

  “That’s it?”
Drew asked, his right brow in a skeptical arch.

  Chad spun his mug between his fingers. “Yep.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Hollywood glared, his hand slamming down on the top of Chad’s glass.

  William’s little brother was no slouch. He met Hollywood’s glare and held it. “Yes, it is.”

  It was clear Chad was hiding something, but what and why? William’s eyes flicked between the two men, both determined to win the staring contest. He remembered a detail Chad had mentioned earlier. “What did they write on the ambulance?”

  Chad clenched his beer with both hands. “It’s not important.”

  “Chad,” William said, using the voice he’d used on Danielle.

  “Okay. I’ll tell you. Fuck. They were after me, all right? I was the target.” His gaze bore into Hollywood. “Happy now?”

  “What. Did. They. Write,” William barked.

  His brother stared into his empty beer glass. “A ‘C’.”

  “For Chad?”

  “No.”

  Hollywood continued to watch Chad, his lips thinning, his eyes burning with rage. Clearly he knew and was pissed.

  “One of you better fucking tell me right now.”

  “‘C’ for cunt,” Hollywood said, his voice softer and gentler than William had ever heard it.

  Jesus Christ. The slur sliced through William like metal through skin. Drew hissed in a breath and Chad’s cheeks turned bright red. For the lieutenant to have guessed the word based on a single letter, it wasn’t the first time this had happened, and somehow Hollywood had known when none of Chad’s own brothers had. William wanted to hold his brother, to comfort him, but he knew Chad would welcome a punch in the face more easily right now. After a long silence, Chad looked up at Hollywood, his eyes glistening, his throat working hard. “Like I said, they saved you the trouble.”

  Hollywood closed his eyes and sighed before sitting back in the booth. “Believe whatever the fuck you want, man. But when I have something to say to you, I’ll say it to your face.”

  William cleared his throat. The tension around the table was choking him. He had no idea why Chad was so angry with the lieutenant, but he needed to hear the rest of the story. “Did the cops catch the guys?”

  “Yeah. But they won’t get more than a slap on the wrist. Me, on the other hand, I’ll be lucky if this asshole’s father”—he thrust his thumb toward Hollywood—“doesn’t use this as an excuse to kick me out of the fire service.”

  “His father?”

  Drew clarified. “Deputy Chief Wright is Hollywood’s dad.”

  “Like father, like son. The old man hates gays too.”

  “My father won’t do anything to you.” Hollywood rubbed his forehead. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  Chad narrowed his gaze. “Why would you bother?” William shoved his brother’s shoulder. Why was he being so stubborn?

  “You’re Jamie’s brother,” Hollywood said, as though it explained everything. And maybe for him, it did.

  “Fine. Whatever.” Chad waved his hand in a shooing gesture, then grinned at William. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, how about you tell us why you’re slumming with the peasants tonight. Is Vicenzo’s closed?”

  William cuffed him—gently—on the back of the head. “That’s no way to speak to your betters.”

  “Something’s up. You never hang out with us.”

  “Yeah, well. Maybe I want to change that.”

  Drew arched a brow. “And maybe he just needed a favor.”

  Chad instantly latched on to that bone. “Oh? Spill.”

  “Seems our little Dani kicked his ass. He wanted some pointers.”

  A silent message seemed to pass between the three men. As William looked from one stony face to the other, tension coiled in his stomach, mixing in with the already unpleasant heaviness from the beer. “What?” he said when he couldn’t take it anymore.

  Drew shook his head. Chad roared with laughter while clutching his ribs, and Hollywood just grinned.

  “What?” William demanded again with more force. This right here was why he didn’t hang out with his brothers much. There seemed to be some secret firefighter code he couldn’t crack, and it bugged the shit out of him. He hated feeling like the odd man out.

  Hollywood topped off everyone’s beer, then raised his mug. The other two followed suit. “Welcome to the club,” he said to William.

  “What club would that be? The I-don’t-know-what-the-fuck-you’re-talking-about club?”

  “Nope. The I-got-schooled-by-a-girl club.”

  “Wait,” William said, holding up his hand palm out. “You mean she—”

  “Yep. At one time or another, she bested each of us.”

  Chad nudged him with his knee. “You’ll do better next time.”

  William suddenly felt a lot better. He signaled to the waitress to bring more beer and wings. If he was going to go blue collar, he might as well go all the way.

  As they joked, ate, and drank, a sense of rightness, almost of belonging, settled in William’s chest. Other than those years when he’d partied with Jamie, and the year Jamie had lived with him during his separation from Erica, William hadn’t hung out much with his brothers. And when had he last spent some one-on-one time with Tori? His baby sister was turning twenty-five this year, and he barely knew her. Things had started to change when he’d gone to university in Jamie’s stead. He’d changed. At first he’d been too busy studying. Then it was late nights at the office. If it weren’t for the weekend lunches at his parents’—which he rarely missed—he’d never see his family at all. And why was that?

  Had he really become that big of a snob? Or was he too self-absorbed? Neither of those answers felt right. He loved his family, actually enjoyed them. So why had he distanced himself? Whatever the reasons, he planned to change things. Starting right now.

  “You guys are coming to the Caldwell Fine Furnishings anniversary party on Saturday, right?”

  Drew and Chad exchanged a look. Chad rolled his eyes. “Elbow rubbing isn’t my thing.”

  “Did Dad say we have to go?” Drew asked.

  “No. I just thought you should know you’re welcome. The company is yours as much as it is mine.”

  Hollywood had remained silent during this discussion. He selected a wing and ate it slowly, consideringly. When he was done, he wiped the grease off his lips with the back of his hand. “Dani called me this afternoon,” he said to no one in particular.

  Random much? “Is this a rare occurrence?” William asked, having no idea why Hollywood had brought this up.

  “As a matter of fact, it is, which is why I answered her call despite it being my day off.”

  Unease stiffened William’s shoulders. Shit, and he’d just been starting to relax. He sensed in his gut where this was going, and he wasn’t at all sure how he felt about Danielle sharing CFF business with her coworker.

  “You going to tell us or are you just a tease?” Chad asked, eyes narrowed.

  “I don’t tease.”

  Chad snorted. Drew elbowed Hollywood. “Then shit or get off the pot.”

  The lieutenant stared at William, his expression neutral. “Not my story to tell.”

  Ah. So he’d been right. “I had expected her to talk to Jamie, not you. No offense.”

  “None taken. She asked me if I could work out some on-site support for you with my father.”

  “The deputy chief.”

  “That’s the one,” Hollywood said, the corner of his lips jumping up a little.

  Seemed he owed Danielle an apology. How many was that now? He’d told her he trusted her. Perhaps it was time he started acting like it.

  “Hold up,” Drew said. “On-site support for what?”

  “For the day of the CFF party.”

  Drew’s face darkened as he glared at his brother. “Is that why you asked us to go? So you could use us to get around the restrictions? That’s fucking low.” Even for you was left unsaid, but William
heard it loud and clear.

  “Of course not!”

  Chad seemed confused. “I don’t get it. Why is Dani running around trying to get the deputy chief to okay SFD’s presence at the party? We’ve never done that before.”

  “There was an incident today,” William said, his voice laced with frustration and bewilderment.

  Chad snorted. “William, here’s how conversations work: Someone asks a question. You answer it with actual substantive content that allows the listener to ask more questions, and so on. Get it?”

  William rubbed the pad of his index finger on the rim of the cheap mug. It didn’t make a sound at all. Not that he was surprised, crystal this wasn’t. “An anonymous call was made to the SFD reporting a safety violation at CFF. Danielle came to investigate. We found an emergency exit door that had been chained shut.”

  “Sabotage?” Drew asked.

  “Maybe. The union negotiations aren’t going well. But we won’t know anything for sure until the investigation is over.”

  Chad’s gaze flicked to the lieutenant. “What does this have to do with Hollywood’s dad?”

  “You’ve been a paramedic too long,” Drew teased. “Maybe you’ve forgotten the ‘employees only’ rule during safety investigations? While there’s an unresolved health-and-safety violation, only employees can be on-site.”

  William had to laugh at Chad’s expression. He looked like a little boy who badly wanted to stick his tongue out at someone. His lids fluttered closed for a moment. After he took a deep, seemingly painful breath, he turned to William. “Count me in, bro. I’ll be there, as a paramedic or not.”

  “Me too,” Drew chimed in.

  “I’ll get my dad to okay this. I’m not sure who’s on shift that day, but we’ll work something out.”

  “Thank you, all of you. The last thing we need are more problems at the party. With you guys there, I’ll feel a lot better.” And safer. He’d never admit it to his brothers aloud though. They’d razz him about it until he was on his deathbed.

  Drew raised his mug. “To family.”

  Chad and William raised theirs as well. “To family.”

  William eyed Hollywood, who sat unsmiling, looking like William had felt earlier: left out. He knocked his mug against the lieutenant’s, where it rested on the table. “Come on, man. You’re a part of this too.”