Blazing Hotter (Love Under Fire Book 2) (12 page)

“Are you sure you’ve never shot before?” Frankie asked, staring at how many of the bullets hit their mark. Five of the ten holes in the paper were within range of the chest. The others went wide but still hit the paper man.

Cassie removed her earphones, shrugging as she turned around and brushed hair behind her ear. “I’ve never shot, but I do understand how things work. I’m confident I’ll be able to hit what I’m aiming for. The real question is whether or not I can pull the trigger if there’s a person on the other side of my gun.” She shook her head and stared down out her hands, which Frankie noted shook slightly. “Even to save my own life, that seems like more than I can handle.”

He reached out to enclose her trembling hands in his. “This is a precaution. You’ll probably never have to shoot that gun, but I want you to know how. Truthfully, you’re a better shot than most people, and I know you’ll be better than me. I’ve never used my left hand before, but I’m hoping if the need arises for me to use a gun, I’ll be okay at close range.”

“You’re right. This is just in case, not because you think I’ll have to use it. I’m glad you’re teaching me. Especially with the new...” Cassie’s eyes went wide and she shrugged. “You know.”

He did know. The new threat had them both more freaked out. At least it had knocked sense into Cassie and she was now willing to make a report. There was a difference between not trusting the cops and being plain stupid. He was happy to see she understood that difference and was every bit as smart as he always thought she was.

Cassie pulled her hands from his grasp and turned around, replacing the target with a new one with a greater air of confidence. “Your dad loaded three different clips, and I’m sure I can figure out how to reload them for you so practice all you need.” She pressed the button, sending the target out half the distance from where she had practiced. “Let’s see what you got.”

She stepped out of his way, and Frankie nudged the control of the wheelchair to get him into place. When he first planned to come to the firing range, he figured he’d be stuck sitting down and struggling to look over the top of the lower partition in the spot designated for differently-abled people. This chair made a huge difference. He could stand beside Cassie, as an equal. Sure, the straps beneath his armpits that did most of the work of holding him upright put pressure against his arms and he couldn’t stand like this indefinitely, but it was a vast improvement to what he’d expected. Cassie really was the most remarkable woman, more practical and thoughtful than he’d imagined her to be.

With a shaking hand, he held the gun in the awkward grip of his left hand. The barrel jerked around so much, Frankie knew he didn’t have a chance of coming close to the target, even with the shorter distance. In the past, he never cared what Cassie thought of him, whether she believed him to be less of a man for not being able to do the things she asked of him. Now, everything had changed. He wanted to be the man she could count on. Was that possible if he couldn’t even manage to squeeze out one bullet from a damn gun?

Suddenly, Cassie was beside him, pulling back his ear protection. Her hot breath rushed against his ear and neck. “You’ve got this, Frank. I know you can do it. You learned to eat with that left hand and everything else that you really need to be able to do. You’re one of the strongest men I’ve ever met, living through what you have, and I know you can figure this out too.”

She replaced the earphone and he sensed more than saw her back away. The warmth of her words stayed with him, though, echoing throughout his mind.

He took a deep breath, forcing his hand to steady. She believed in him, and regardless of the mistakes he’d made in the past, he believed in himself too.

His right hand might be nearly defunct, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t help out some. Frankie raised it, ignoring the shooting nerve pain that traveled along his arm when he moved it. Holding it against the butt of the gun, he used his palm to press against it, stopping the trembling of the barrel.

After another deep breath, Frankie looked down the sights along the top of the pistol, raised it up slightly, and slowly depressed his left index finger against the trigger. The recoil, mild as it was in the lower caliber gun, jerked it nearly out of his grasp, but he recovered control before looking at the target.

“You did it!” Cassie’s muffled voice sounded full of excitement. “You hit it!”

She might be excited, but Frankie had only hit the blank white paper at the top of the target, not the figure. He could do better than that. He had too.

Taking another breath, Frankie steadied the gun between his hands and continued firing.

***

“I
’m so proud of us.” Cassie grinned at Frankie as she lowered the lift to his new van. “We’re bad asses.”

Frankie laughed, just like she’d hoped he would. For a few minutes there, she hadn’t been sure he’d try to fire his weapon. It wouldn’t have been the first time he refused to do something, simply because he wasn’t sure he’d be successful. This new side to him, the one willing to do whatever it took to protect her, was exciting and only made her attraction to him grow.

It was one thing to have a crush on a vulnerable man who depended on her and needed her help. That had made her feel rather dirty and unethical. However, the new and improved Frankie was not an injured bird in need of her care. Cassie liked the changes.

When the lift reached the pavement, Frankie wheeled himself into place. The entire process was seamless, and they worked together as a team practically like they’d been going out and about the town for years instead of her wheeling him to and from the therapy room.

Cassie flipped up the wheel locks and engaged the lift. “Where to next?”

“You know where,” Frankie said, a stern look crossing his face as he narrowed his eyebrows and frowned. “We have the letters and the flowers from today. We’re taking them to the police station.”

“You’re sure we shouldn’t try and track down our dancer first? I hate to bother the cops—”

“Cassie, stop that right now.”

Although she swallowed hard, fear of being laughed out of the police station still strong in her mind, she nodded. “It’s not like we can’t go track her down once we talk to the cops, right?”

“I’ll do anything you want to,” he agreed. “First, we report this and get them looking out for you. Besides, if this is the guy killing other women, you might have an important lead and not even realize it.”

He was right. Cassie owed it to the other women in this town to report anything she knew. If it helped catch a killer, she wasn’t only protecting herself. No matter how much she didn’t trust the police to help her, she had to try for the sake of all the women in Sayle.

She pushed closed the sliding door and rounded to the driver’s side of the van, hopping inside and starting it up. While the van was old, the engine purred like a contented kitten and it ran great. What with newer tires and a wheelchair lift system that operated perfectly, Big Frank couldn’t have found Frankie a better vehicle.

Especially now that Cassie wasn’t his doctor anymore and thus was free to be with him and help him get around town. He’d always need a driver, but she could imagine worse things than continuing to be a part of Frankie’s life.

“You’re quiet,” Frankie noted from his spot behind the passenger’s seat after they’d driven most of the way to the station. “Are you scared?”

She smiled up at him through the rearview mirror, hoping he wouldn’t somehow sense that her thoughts were in an entirely different mode than worrying about the cops for a few minutes as she imagined the life she could have with Frankie as her partner. “I’m okay, but thanks for asking. I don’t trust them and really believe they’ll brush off my concerns, but as long as you are with me, I can handle it.”

“I’ll be right by your side,” he promised. “I’m not going anywhere unless you say differently.”

She glanced up at the mirror to meet his intense gaze. “So, if I said I wanted you out of my house, you’d leave?”

Frankie nodded. “Once the killer is caught and I knew you weren’t in danger. I’d go right back to the rehab center until I can find a place of my own.”

“So, you aren’t planning on living in the center anymore?” And was he saying he planned to stay with her long term if she allowed it?

“You and Thayne are both right,” he said, another shock since those weren’t words she ever expected him to utter. “Shooting that gun today helped me realize that maybe I can handle the pain I have and do normal things. I need to start living life again. Sitting in my room, reliving every second of misery I’ve experienced in the last few years, replaying all the mistakes I made, that won’t change anything. It’s time I move on.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that.” She reached back, patting his leg, which was the only part of him she could touch at the moment. “I’ll help you in any way I can, once this is all over and we figure out who’s behind the threats.”

Frankie’s hand slid across the top of hers. “I want more from you than your help, but we’ll talk about that later. There’s the station.”

Cassie removed her hand from his and pulled into an empty handicapped parking spot that had a no parking zone on the right-hand side so she could utilize the chair lift. As she helped him from the van, she couldn’t help but wonder what Frankie was saying.

Did he mean that he wanted to try for a future with her, that his flirtations weren’t all bluster because she was the only woman he saw beside his nurses on a regular basis? Or was he talking about something more innocent and her mind was going toward a life with him because she was horny and lonely and loved snuggling next to him in her bed last night?

After returning the van lift to its regular position, Cassie grabbed the flower box from this morning, which included both the threatening notes inside. Whether the cops listened to her or not, Frankie was right that they needed to try.

She locked the van and looked down at Frankie, feeling her nerves build now that they were actually at the police station. “Here goes nothing.”

T
hey had been left in an interior waiting room for over an hour, and Frankie was about to explode. Didn’t the dipshit working the front counter realize they had possible evidence in the three murders? Cassie had explained that when they walked in, but perhaps she hadn’t been forceful enough.

From the way she paced the small room they’d been put in, Frankie had a feeling she was getting ready to bolt. It was one thing to decide to report what had happened, but to be left sitting here all this time when she was already afraid they wouldn’t believe her... it was too much.

“I’ll be back,” he said, heading for the doorway as he raised his chair to the standing position.

“Where are you going?”

“Just sit tight,” he said, opening the door and heading left down the long corridor in the opposite direction that they’d been brought in. He’d find a damn cop to help him or else.

He rolled out into a large room filled with desks and offices along the outer wall.

“Sir, what are you doing back here?” A black woman in a business suit sitting at the nearest desk stared him down. “This is homicide, and we don’t have time to babysit people who are lost.”

“I’m not lost,” Frankie all but growled. “We’ve been waiting for an hour to speak to someone, and I’m assuming the homicide department is exactly who we need. Didn’t someone tell you we have possible information regarding those three women who were killed?”

The woman didn’t roll her eyes, but Frankie could tell she wanted to. She rose from her chair, sticking out her hand to shake his. “I’m Detective Emily Rogers.”

Frankie held up his burned hand, showing her the scars to clue her in that he wouldn’t be shaking hands. “Look, Detective Rogers, I’m sure you’re busy, but my girlfriend is being threatened, and she’s a dead ringer for the pictures of those women who were killed. They could all be sisters.”

“Sir, I’m sure you’re worried, and I understand. The entire city is worried. We’re doing all we can, but we don’t have time right now to speak to every single person who comes in claiming to have information. I’m sure one of the junior cops will be by soon to take your statement, if you’ll please go back down the hall.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Frankie said, his voice rising in volume to match the rise in his temper. “Cassie already doesn’t trust this police station because you blew her off once before when she was being stalked, but she is in real danger here, and I’m not letting you do it again.”

Detective Rogers took in a visible breath, blowing it out slowly. “Look, I know you must be stressed. We all are. We’re doing everything we can to keep people safe, but right now it is more important that I follow leads that look promising. The entire department is working on this case, I promise you. We will do everything we can.” She pointed back toward the hall. “Wait for an officer to take your statement, and if I think it could be helpful, I’ll call you when I have a spare minute.”

“Hey, little Emily,” called a detective sitting at a nearby desk. “Need me to take care of this for you?”

If Rogers was inconvenienced by talking to Frankie, she was downright hostile toward the other detective. “Why, Briggs? Because you’re a big, strong man and that’s what all us women need?”

The statement shocked Frankie. Isn’t that what he’d just done to Cassie? Telling her to stay put while he did the manly thing and took care of the police? He wondered if it pissed her off as much as it pissed Detective Rogers off. He was only trying to be helpful. Then again, the other detective was condescending, calling Rogers ‘little Emily’ rather than giving her the respect of her title or last name. Detective Rogers must have a big struggle making it work in a department that seemed to be run by a bunch of male dickheads.

“Detective Rogers, I’m not trying to make your job any harder,” Frankie said, cooling his tone and infusing all the respect he could into it. “But my girlfriend has received red roses two days in a row now with a threatening note in each. I’m not bullshitting you when I say she could be sisters with the other victims. I think this is a lead you shouldn’t ignore.”