Come Gentle the Dawn (3 page)

Brie risked a glance at the tall, ruggedly built man in a red polo shirt and faded, well-worn jeans that emphasized his superb build. He was scowling at her, and she tried to gird herself against his obvious dislike of her. She turned her attention to Saxon.

“Hi, Chief,” she said breathlessly, “I’m sorry I’m late. There was a tanker on I-76 without placards indicating what chemicals he was hauling, and I pulled him over.”

Saxon patted her hand. “See, Mr. Tanner? I told you there would be a reason our Brie was late.”

Linc slowly inclined his head toward her. He saw a great deal in her suddenly darkened eyes: distrust, wariness and fear. Why fear? Did he look like an ogre to her? More than likely. He managed a sour smile. “So you did, Chief Saxon, so you did.”

Brie matched his scowl, immediately on guard against the insinuation in Tanner’s carefully modulated voice. Had he accused her of being late because she was a woman? Brie felt anger surge through her, and she swallowed hard, holding his dark blue gaze.

“Brie, I’d like you to meet Linc Tanner, your new partner. Linc, this is Brie Williams.”

Linc extended his long, tapered fingers. “Ms. Williams.”

Brie slid her damp hand into his, very aware of his blatant maleness. “Mr. Tanner.”

The waitress came up, shattering the icy tension. “Something to drink?” she asked them, smiling warmly at Linc.

“Coffee for me,” he said.

Brie hadn’t missed the waitress’s moon-eyed reaction to Tanner. He wasn’t pretty-boy handsome. No, his face had been molded by experience. Harsh experience, she would bet. There were deep lines at the corners of his eyes and grooves on either side of his well-shaped mouth. Despite his unshakable arrogance, Brie found herself liking Tanner’s mouth because it wasn’t as hard
as the rest of his rugged features, which could have been hewn out of stone. “I’ll have a vodka gimlet,” she told the woman. It was one of the few times that she would use alcohol to settle her taut nerves. One look at Tanner’s disapproving look and her stomach automatically knotted.

“Drinking on the job?” he queried softly.

“It’s my day off, Mr. Tanner. Do you object?”

Linc heard the warning in her husky voice. Strike two. “I’m not your keeper, Ms. Williams. You drink whenever you feel the need.”

Brie gave him a sizzling glare, locking with his cobalt eyes. The arrogant bastard. He was gunning for her. And right in front of the chief. Pulling the napkin into her lap, she fixed a brittle smile on her lips. “I’m glad we agree on one thing, Mr. Tanner.”

“So am I, Ms. Williams.” He wanted to kick himself. He had stepped into it with her and he hadn’t meant to. Most women wouldn’t have challenged his innuendo. But she had. A part of him admired her gutsiness. Not many women—or for that matter, men—took him on.

Saxon cleared his throat, thanking the waitress when she returned with their drinks and the menus. He gave Tanner a warning that spoke volumes. “Brie works fifty to sixty hours a week, Linc. It’s rare she gets a day off. And when she does, she’s on twenty-four-hour call for haz-mat accidents up in her quadrant. She made a special trip down here today to pick you up and take you to Canton to start looking for an apartment.”

Linc inclined his head, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “I owe the lady an apology then, plus thanks for going an extra yard on my benefit.” The car he had
driven from the East Coast had developed transmission trouble. The garage said it would take at least a week to repair, leaving Linc without any transportation. An auspicious start, he thought, to the whole assignment.

He saw her eyes widen momentarily, as if shocked by his sudden good manners. Good God, he wasn’t an animal! And when Brie quickly averted her gaze and picked up her drink to take a healthy gulp, Linc felt a tinge of guilt. He missed nothing from being an agent for so many years. The fact that her long fingers trembled made him feel like a heel. He was supposed to protect her, get her confidence, not make life rough for her. If Cramer saw how he was behaving, he’d yank him off the case. Fortunately, Cramer wasn’t around to see his spectacular hoof-and-mouth act, and Saxon didn’t know his true identity, so he was safe. This time.

They ordered lunch, and Linc noticed Brie wanted nothing but a salad. The uniform she wore hung loosely on her, telling him she had lost weight. Of course, if he had been nearly killed, he wouldn’t have much of an appetite, either. There were hints of shadows beneath Brie’s eyes. She didn’t get much sleep. Was it due to the trauma or just the fact that Saxon was working his people to death?

Linc folded his hands, resting his chin on them. “Fifty or sixty hours a week is a lot,” he said to no one in particular.

“It doesn’t do much for your personal life, either,” Brie said, sipping her drink and hoping he would take her comment as a joke, which would ease the tension between them.

He met and held her nervous gaze. “Do you have one?”

He was taking her seriously! “If I did, it wouldn’t be your concern, Mr. Tanner.”

“Call me Linc. I don’t like standing on formality any more than necessary.”

“I would think with your military training, you’d enjoy it.”

He picked up his cup, holding it to his lips. Saucy, aren’t you? He took a sip of coffee. “What I learned in the military can’t be applied too much in civilian life, Ms. Williams.” Linc waited for her to drop her guard and ask him to call her by her first name just as he had done. But she didn’t.

“That’s what I told the chief: you can’t apply war games to haz-mat.”

Tanner smiled slightly. Okay, I’ll let you play with me. I spat and hissed first, so now you get your turn. I’ll take my lumps before the chief has a cardiac arrest in front of us. “From what I understand, haz-mat is taking on certain aspects of war.”

Brie stiffened at his inference, her spine going rigid. “I hope you left your Marine Corps training where it belongs, in the past.”

“I try to. But sometimes, in some situations, it comes in handy.”

“One thing is in your favor for being in service, Mr. Tanner.”

“What’s that?” he asked amiably, deciding a friendlier tone might have a soothing effect on her.

“You know how to take orders.”

His blue eyes gleamed as he held her gaze. “I also know when to question them, Ms. Williams. I don’t just blindly walk into a situation without first assessing it properly.”

Brie was stung. Was Tanner hinting that she hadn’t properly analyzed the situation in Cleveland that had gotten John killed?

H
alfway through lunch, Chief Saxon’s emergency beeper went off. He gave Brie and Linc an apologetic look and went to find a phone.

Linc leaped at the opportunity. Since his last idiotic comment, Brie had sat there pale and shaken. The fork she used to push the salad around in her bowl trembled from time to time.

“Listen, Brie,” he said, using her first name deliberately, “I do owe you an apology. We got off on the wrong foot.” He gave her a lopsided grin, trying to figure out how to dissolve the fear he saw in the depths of her jade-green eyes. “I think we’ve both had a pretty rough week, and we’re a little more sensitive and jumpy than usual.” He raised his hand, holding it out to her. “Forgiven?”

Brie stared at his large, well-shaped callused hand.
The nails were short and blunt, the fingers beautifully tapered. Searching his pensive face, Brie tried to see if this was all a game with him. There was some undefinable nuance about him that made her instincts go on guard. Was it the look in Tanner’s eyes? The glint in them told her on a gut level there was more to him than what he presented. He was a man of secrets. But what secrets? He made Brie uncomfortable. “You’ve got a razor for a tongue.”

Linc winced. “Yeah, I know I do. Usually it gets me out of trouble, not into it. When I’m tired, I get crabby. My ex-wife would gladly tell you that.” He kept his hand extended. “Well? Am I forgiven? Can we shake hands and start over?”

Some of her terror began to disintegrate, and she firmly shook Linc’s hand. “Forgiven,” she said, quickly retrieving her fingers. Had he noticed how damp and cold her skin was? If he did, he said nothing.

“But not forgotten,” he added.

“I’d like to forget everything,” Brie said, “and settle in for a long, hot bath and ten hours of uninterrupted sleep.”

A glimmer came to his eyes. “Is that an invitation?”

Brie gave him a flat stare. It took her a few seconds to realize he was baiting her and wasn’t serious. At least she didn’t think he was. “Like I said before: you join haz-mat and you have no personal life to speak of, Mr. Tanner. It’s probably just as well you’re divorced because your wife wouldn’t be seeing much of you anyway except late at night and in bed.”

Linc speared a few French fries with his fork, his gaze never leaving Brie’s. She was an open book, he realized. There was a translucence to her every expression, and
her lovely eyes reflected everything she was feeling. That was good. He wouldn’t have to work at prying things out of Brie. All he had to do was drop a verbal bomb, and she’d react plenty. “Is there anything more important than a night in bed? I could live with that.”

“I’m sure you could, Mr. Tanner.”

“You’re beginning to sound like a prude, Ms. Williams. I didn’t realize there were any left.”

“I’m hardly a prude. What happens between two people should be private, not a topic for a luncheon meeting.”

Linc grinned. “I’ve been told I have a terrible case of hoof-and-mouth disease. Think there’s any truth to it?”

The man was impossible! But Brie found a grudging smile inching across her lips. “I don’t mean to sound like I’m perfect, Mr. Tanner. I know I’ve got my share of faults, maybe not as obvious as some of yours.”

Linc gave her a long, appraising look. “You look pretty perfect to me.” When he saw the color rise in her cheeks, something wrenched inside his heavily guarded heart. Didn’t men compliment her on her good looks? Not according to her reaction. “Bet you had to chase the boys away from your door when you were in college.”

Brie managed a shy smile. “Being an honor student through four years in chemistry didn’t leave me much time for anything else.”

Linc rubbed his jaw, his smile warmer. Brie had a nice trait of being unassuming, which was a plus in his book. “Ouch. I barely scraped through.”

“I imagine because you had the girls knocking down your door to get to you.”

His laughter was free and rolling. How good it felt to laugh again. “What are you? A mind reader?”

Brie shook her head, her shoulders slowly relaxing. Maybe Tanner wasn’t so arrogant after all. More than anything, Brie wanted to believe that he was just tired and out of sorts from his long trip from Washington. “With your good looks, it’s pretty easy to figure out.”

“Logic in a woman. A rare find,” he murmured.

“A lot of women have logic, Mr. Tanner,” she said stiffly, some of her defenses moving into place.

Careful, Linc. “Most of the women I’ve been around have little ability to add up one and one and make two. It’s not an insult. Just an observation.”

Brie toyed with her glass, enjoying the beaded coolness on her fingertips. “In this business, we go by the numbers and by the rules,” she put in with an edge of warning. “I’m not going to automatically assume you have that capability, Mr. Tanner. Just because you’re a man and men are supposed to be logical won’t wash with me. You’ll have to prove that out in the field to me before I believe it.”

Linc sat up, frowning heavily. “I’ll stack my logic up against yours anytime, Ms. Williams.”

Brie gave him a tight grin. There was something within her that loved challenge and competition. And Linc Tanner had just triggered it. “Fair enough, Mr. Tanner. Just as I’ll be assessing your abilities day in and day out, you can do the same to me.” She leaned forward, all business. “With one major difference: the final decision rests with me, not you. Jeff Laughlin, the other rookie, will tell you that I openly encourage your input and observations, but in the end, the responsibility is mine.”

He didn’t know whether to be angry with her or
admire her. Now she was talking like a hard-nosed businessman, and not a woman. “That’s damn democratic of you, boss.”

She held his stormy gaze calmly. “I’ll give you the chance you deserve, Mr. Tanner. I only hope you’ll extend that same courtesy to me and try to overlook the fact I’m a woman.”

“That’s going to be hard to do.”

“You haven’t worked around many women, have you?”

Linc was unsettled by her insight into him. “I never mix business with pleasure. Anything wrong with that?” he drawled.

Brie colored beneath his digging inspection. “In this case, yes. I’m a woman dealing with you in a business function. Something that I’m sure has never happened to you before, since you were a fire fighter and there are few women in the ranks.”

“Right again, Ms. Williams. But in your case, I see no reason we can’t mix a little business and pleasure.”

“Am I supposed to be flattered, Mr. Tanner?”

Linc gave her a disarming smile. “I would hope so.”

Brie saw Chief Saxon returning, his face serious. She blotted her mouth with her napkin. “I would never have thought you were a dreamer, Mr. Tanner.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Who knows? I like to learn from every new situation. Maybe I’ll find out logic and fantasy do mix.”

Brie shot him a withering look meant to deflate his ego. “Now who’s being illogical?”

Linc was about to answer when he caught Saxon out of the corner of his eye. The chief sat down and directed his conversation to Brie.

“Looks like McPeak has a good one going down near Dayton.”

Brie was relieved to get back to what she knew best: haz-mat. In that area, she felt safe and secure. Or she had before the explosion. Still, it was an escape from Linc Tanner’s challenging blue gaze and the dangerous parrying with him. “Oh?”

“Yeah, train derailment. Seems a couple of tank cars carrying some nasty chemical combinations have overturned and are burning. Jim’s having to call in quite a few of the surrounding fire departments to help coordinate a mass evacuation near Englewood where it occurred.”

“Sounds pretty serious. Any loss of life?”

Saxon blotted his forehead with his handkerchief. “None so far, thank God.”

Brie gave Tanner a glance. “Well, there goes the rest of my day off.”

“What do you mean?” Linc asked.

She patted the beeper that was hanging from her right pocket. “When McPeak gets a bad haz-mat incident, we get one, too. Don’t ask me why. It just seems to happen that way.”

“Better not,” Saxon said gruffly, handing the check and some bills to the waitress.

“Why?” Linc wanted to know.

Brie rose and slipped the strap of the purse across her shoulder. “Because Jeff’s over in Pennsylvania visiting his folks until Sunday afternoon. That would leave just me to handle the call. Chief Saxon believes in two heads being better than one in handling a haz-mat incident, and I agree.” She held up crossed fingers. “Chief, let’s
hope McPeak’s curse doesn’t land on us like the bluebird of happiness.”

Saxon grinned, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Is that like cows flying, Brie?”

Her laugh was full. “One and the same, Chief. Thanks for lunch. I’ll get Mr. Tanner’s gear, and we’ll head for Canton.”

They emerged from the restaurant and found the sunlight blinding and the bright blue Ohio sky sporting a few puffy clouds. Linc followed a bit behind Brie, openly admiring her. She was built more like a cat than a gazelle, he decided. There was definitely a feline grace to her walk and a nice, easy movement to her swaying hips. Maybe this assignment wasn’t going to be as horrendous as he had first thought. Despite her defensiveness, Brie had a decent sense of humor. And she looked like an ingenue of twenty-three, not twenty-nine.

“Well, here’s your home away from home, Tanner.” Brie stopped and gestured to the large white van sporting huge red letters on each side that said: Fire Marshal’s Office, Hazardous Material Team. “This van is affectionately called the white whale because it looks like one.” She looked up at his serious face.

“Any relation to Moby Dick?”

She smiled. “I hope not. We don’t need haz-mat trucks gobbling up people. Is your gear at the Fire Academy?”

“Yeah. With my car in for repair, the chief let me put my suitcases at the dormitory.”

Brie unlocked the passenger side door and opened it for him. She saw him grin. “Chauvinism is dead, Tanner. You might as well get used to it.”

He chuckled indulgently. “If you say so, Ms. Williams.”

Brie ignored his irreverent humor and climbed into the driver’s seat. She put on the safety belt and started up the van, all the while noticing that Tanner was looking over the various supplies inside. She headed out of the parking lot.

“Impressive,” he murmured, gesturing toward the rear. “Air packs, holding drums for toxic waste, gas suits. I can see no expense was spared to put this baby together.”

“When you realize Ohio is number two in the nation for toxic spills, you know why, Tanner. Chief Saxon single-handedly created the concept of splitting the state up into four quadrants, manning each one with a truck and two haz-mat techs to protect our people.” She pulled out into the lazy Saturday traffic, heading for the Fire Academy, which was located only a few miles away.

Linc faced front, and his gaze swept across the complex radio equipment that had been installed in the dashboard. There were special radios for the state police and for sheriff and fire departments. “There must be twenty thousand dollars wrapped up in this equipment alone,” he said, whistling.

“Close to it. If we have a full-scale haz-mat incident, it’s imperative we be able to get hold of all agencies in order to help evacuate the people who might be harmed by a spill.”

He nodded. “I’m impressed as hell.”

A slight smile appeared on Brie’s mouth. “Wait,” she told him softly, catching his glance. “There’s a natural high you get from coordinating such a massive effort. Not that I wish for those sorts of spills, but I like the knowledge that from this truck, we can mobilize an
entire county, if need be, from Disaster Services right up to the Red Cross in a matter of minutes.”

Linc digested her fervor. She loved her job. It was obvious from the luminous quality that had suddenly sprung to life in her bleak-looking eyes. “I can tell you’ve handled a few of those.”

“A few. And so far, my record is clean. Well, almost,” Brie said, stumbling.

“What do you mean?”

“Before John was murdered, in every call we answered in the past three years, there had been no loss of life.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. Brie hadn’t meant to discuss John with Tanner, but her enthusiasm for her job opened the guarded door to her grieving heart.

“I’m sorry it happened, Brie.”

She trembled; his husky voice was like thick, golden honey soothing her aching heart. “Thanks, Tanner.”

“Don’t you think we can begin to act civil with one another and call each other by our first names?”

He was right, Brie realized. She had been deliberately holding him at arm’s length because of the red flag her instincts had waved in front of her face. There was a searching quality to his voice. He wanted to smooth the waters between them, too. “Okay,” Brie agreed reluctantly. “Call me anything you want as long as it isn’t derogatory.”

“How about if it’s provocative?”

She glanced at him, again aware of the amusement in his eyes. With a laugh she said, “You’re incorrigible, Linc Tanner.”

He settled back in the seat, a pleased expression on his face. “So I’ve been told, Ms. Brie Williams, so I’ve been told.”

*

Brie stifled a yawn. The interstate stretched long and boringly in front of her as she drove the haz-mat truck toward Canton.

“Want me to take over for a while?” Linc asked, realizing how tired Brie was becoming. Those faint shadows beneath her eyes were darkening.

She shook her head. “No, thanks. We’ve only got little over an hour to go. Why don’t you get us some coffee from that thermos down there. I filled it before meeting you at the restaurant.”

Linc picked up the battered aluminum thermos, noting its quart size. “Who drinks this much coffee?” he asked, twisting off the cap.

“Me. There have been times when all I’ve lived on for three or four days were coffee and nerves.” She looked at him, offering him a slight smile. “Comes with the territory.”

“Saxon didn’t warn me about that,” Linc groused good-naturedly, handing her half a cup of the steaming coffee.

“Thanks,” Brie said. “He probably didn’t tell you too much for fear you’d turn down the job.”