Flash Point (Kilgore Fire Book 2) (20 page)

I grinned at her.

“Where’d you put all my old clothes?” I asked her as she headed into the bathroom.

“Top drawer,” she answered.

I went to the drawers and pulled the one she’d indicated open, smiling when I saw a pair of my old sweat pants on top.

Pulling them out, I pulled them on, sans underwear, and walked back into the living room to find my brother enjoying my kolaches.

“Hey, fuckface,” I snapped. “Those are mine.”

“There’s no way in hell I’m touching those donuts,” he said, indicating the box that’d somehow ended up on the floor.

I grinned and bent down, picking the box up and withdrawing a plain glaze donut.

“Yeah,” I said, sinking my teeth into the delicious morsel. “Fuck these are good,” I moaned, spraying some glaze into the air around us.

He waved me off and reached for one of my chocolate milks, pushing me away as he did.

I held my hand out for one and took a seat on the sofa that was catty corner to the one he was on, and stared at him.

He looked better today, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Why are you out of the rehab facility?” I asked him.

He shrugged, downing half of one kolache in one bite.

“Apparently, I’m doing better than they expected at this point in time,” he took another bite. “I’m officially allowed to be outpatient, as long as I make it to every appointment.”

“That’s awesome, Aaron!” Masen called from the door to her bedroom. “Does anyone want coffee?”

“Yes,” we both said at the same time.

“Got it,” Masen said, disappearing around the corner.

“So why’d you stay at my house?” I asked, taking another bite.

“I didn’t want to stay at our mom and dad’s,” he said. “And I’m not going back to mine. Will you help me move?”

“Hey,” Masen interrupted, coming back in with the pot of coffee and two cups. “You should move in here.”

“You live here,” he pointed out. “And won’t my brother have a problem with us sharing such close quarters?”

She rolled her eyes and handed us each a cup. “Your brother just put his ring on my finger, and I don’t see myself staying here much longer.”

Aaron looked around the living room with new eyes.

“You own it?” he asked.

“No, my grandmother does. But she’s willing to sell it. She only held onto it because I was living in it,” she explained. “Speaking of,” she turned to me. “Do you want to go to the retirement home’s Thanksgiving dinner with me?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Their food sucks. Can we just take her to my parent’s dinner?”

She pursed her lips and tapped the lower one with one thumb. “Yeah, as long as your parents don’t mind.”

“Yours still don’t have Thanksgiving?” Aaron asked.

She frowned sadly.

“No,” she shook her head. “They haven’t since Daniela’s death.”

My stomach clenched slightly.

“Invite them, too,” I ordered, taking a sip of the hot coffee.

Masen sat down beside me, and we both watched as Aaron finished off the last of the kolache, then boldly reached for a glazed donut.

“These better not have anything else on them,” Aaron glared at the both of us.

“Like jizz?” Masen asked boldly, making Aaron choke slightly. “There aren’t any crème filled ones, so if you find one, you might not want to finish it.”

Aaron gagged.

I laughed and pulled her tighter into me, lifting my coffee over her shoulder and sitting it on the ridge of the couch.

She nuzzled my bare chest, lazily lifting her hand up to play with my chest hair.

“What time is dinner today?” she drew circles on my chest. “I can’t believe I got it off, though. We should make sure to say a Thanksgiving prayer for that.”

“Four, from what I remember. Although, I was supposed to bring a pie from the shop in town,” I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut and pinching the bridge of my nose. “Shit.”

“I can go get one after I get my grandma,” she offered.

“You’re never going to get your grandmother into the truck,” Aaron pointed out. “You can use the new one I just bought.”

“You bought a new car?” Masen asked.

Both of us looked at Masen like she was joking, but obviously she wasn’t.

“What?” she pursed her lips, taking a sip of my coffee and handing it back to me.

I took it and took my own sip before I placed it back on the ledge of the couch.

“You do remember, right, how he got the burns?” I asked finally.

Her eyes widened, and then a blush stole over her face.

“Shit,” she covered her mouth, causing Aaron to laugh.

“Ahh, you’re a breath of fresh air, Mase,” Aaron grinned, reaching for another donut.

“You’re going to eat all of my donuts, aren’t you?” I asked him. “There are a ton of sprinkled ones there.”

Aaron shrugged and took a bite.

I rolled my eyes.

“Maybe this afternoon I can talk to your grandmother about buying her house. And you can tell our parents that you’re getting married,” Aaron said.

I turned to Masen and smiled.

“They’re going to freak out.”

She nodded in confirmation.

“They sure are.”

Masen

“Mom,” I wheezed through a constricted wind pipe. “I can’t breathe.”

“I’m so happy for you, honey,” she whispered. “So, so happy.”

My mom finally let me go and I stretched my neck to ensure proper blood flow began going back into my head. My mom jumped from me to my father, and when I say jump, she literally jumped.

“Chill out, Karen,” my dad ordered. “You’re embarrassing me.”

I laughed.

That was as far from the truth as it could possibly be.

My mom didn’t embarrass my father at all; in fact, my father was worse than my mother in his excitement.

“Let’s toast!” Booth’s mother said. “Gather round.”

Adria passed out goblets for the champagne that Booth had forced us to stop and get on the way to pick up my Grammy.

Once every one had a glass, Booth’s stepfather spoke.

“Alright,” Bill said. “I know, just like we all know, that this day was bound to happen. I can’t help but feel excited that it’s finally come, and I can’t wait to bring Masen officially into our family.”

My belly warmed deliciously at Bill’s kind words.

“It’s been a hell of a long time since we’ve all been together like this, and I can’t wait for next year, and all the years to come,” Bill finished. “Cheers.”

Booth rolled his eyes from across the room where he was leaning against the door, speaking with my grandmother in low tones.

I grinned at him and turned to the picture that still graced the Sims’ wall.

There, in a place of honor, was a picture of me and Daniela, the first year we’d come over to spend Thanksgiving with the Sims’ family.

I was holding on to Daniela’s hand as she tried to force feed me a bite of pumpkin pie, the most horrid pie on the planet.

Tears clogged my throat as I looked at that picture, one moment frozen in time of one of the happiest moments of my life.

I licked my lips just as two strong arms wrapped around my chest from behind.

“You okay?” Booth rumbled, pressing his lips against my neck.

I shivered as his bristled jaw rubbed deliciously against my sensitive skin, causing goose bumps to break out all over my body.

Patting his hands, I leaned back against him and said, “I wish she was here.”

“Me, too,” he said. “She’s missed.”

She was.

Although my parents were here and happy, they weren’t happy at first to be celebrating.

We hadn’t had Thanksgiving or Christmas at all since she’d died.

Those two days were just like any other day for me, and I was happy to see that both of my parents were enjoying the day despite missing one integral part of our family.

I looked over at our parents as they planned our wedding already and smiled.

“We did good, big boy,” I said.

“Yeah, we did good,” he agreed.

“Next year we might have a baby,” I whispered, nerves making my belly swim.

“You can count on that,” he teased roughly against my throat.

My insides tightened, and I found myself quite excited about the future.

Next year would be completely different, and I couldn’t wait to experience it.

Beware of old men in a profession where they usually die young.

-Fact of Life

Masen

“Do you mind if we stop by to get my mail?” I asked Mia. “I’ve got to cash the check I’m expecting back from my credit card company for overpaying them.”

“No problem,” she agreed. “But it would be better for me if you dropped me off with Tai for a few minutes so I could see him. He’s going to be on shift for forty-eight hours, and I want to say hi before he has to go into work.”

I nodded.

Tai and Mia lived on the way to my parents’ house, and I had pass the street that they lived on to get to where I was going anyway.

“What was up with them all having to pull a double shift, anyway?” I asked, stopping at the stoplight and waiting for it to turn green.

“A man on A-shift got married yesterday, and the entire shift requested a day off,” Mia explained.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, I guess I’m going to be requiring the same thing soon, huh?” I said thoughtfully.

“Exactly,” Mia replied. “I still can’t believe you’re getting married.”

I grinned at her.

“What I can’t believe is that we’re going to do this before we go to work in the morning,” I grumbled as I pulled into traffic. “What the hell are we thinking?”

Mia giggled and turned her face to study the landscape.

“We do this every year. This year’s no different,” she pointed out. “You should just be happy that we had Thanksgiving off, or we really would’ve been dead.”

No doubt about that.

Mia and I had requested it off, even though we were sure we wouldn’t be getting it since we were so new at the hospital.

However, we were surprised to find out that we did, indeed, get the day off.

Normally we rolled into Thanksgiving about two hours after it’d already started.

Last year it was me going to the retirement home and eating cold dessert with Grammy.

This year was much more fun.

The drive to Mia’s house was harrowing at best, the Black Friday shoppers going strong at five minutes past six in the morning, and I drove as cautiously as I could with all the traffic.

“Just drop me off right here,” she pointed. “And if he comes out here, don’t tell him how much I bought. Tell him it’s all yours.”

My eyes flicked to the back of the truck that was housing over thirty bags of shit, belonging only to her.

Mine we’d already dropped off at my place where I’d changed for work. Mia had come already wearing her work clothes, which was what I should’ve done.

“He’s never going to believe that all that baby crap is mine,” I informed her, smiling as I did.

She shrugged. “He doesn’t have to know, though. Plausible deniability and all that jazz.”

I watched the door, but Tai never came out.

“Are you sure he’s here?” I asked.

She nodded and pointed to the truck still in the driveway.

“He hasn’t left yet.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll load some of it up into your car really quick if he doesn’t come out. He’ll never have to know.”

Her eyes lit and she gave me a thumb’s up. “Good idea!”

She hurried quickly to the door, and her luck stayed with her as she made it inside without him coming outside.

After she disappeared into her house, I loaded about half the bags, i.e. the ones I could reach without actually getting into the truck, into Mia’s backseat.

After locking the doors, I got into the truck and hurried over to my parents’ house.

I didn’t notice a thing out of place as I drove down the street.

Not the car parked outside our house. Not the man standing beside the car with a black bat wrapped in black electrical tape. And not even the way he glared at me as I came.

I was pulling into the driveway when I finally became aware of what exactly was going on, and by the time I realized that I should’ve paid more attention, I was already being pulled out of the truck and hit repeatedly with the bat.

Over and over, blow after blow, reigned down upon me.

“Where are my letters, you stupid cunt?” The man’s garbled scream came from behind his mask.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t look up, and couldn’t seem to make my body follow my mind’s directions.

Instead, I just laid there, hands covering my head, as I took the beating.

“Oh, my God!” My mother’s shrill cry came from somewhere up the yard. “Call 911!
Ron!
”

The blows finally stopped as I heard the footsteps of the man beating me retreat, but my body was hurting so badly I couldn’t force myself to move even then.

My fingers twitched as I finally split them, allowing myself to see for the first time since the attack had begun.

My consciousness waned as pain rippled through me, and I passed out the moment my mother’s cries made it to my side.

If there was ever a wish that I could wish for, it would be for the man I love to never have to respond to a call that involved me.

In a perfect world, that would come true.

However, we didn’t live in a perfect world.

We lived in reality, and reality meant that Booth did respond to calls that involved me.

I heard the scuffle before my eyes even opened.

“Not right now, motherfucker,” Booth said. “Get the fuck away from me.”

I tried to turn my head in the direction of that voice that usually sent shivers down my spine, but I couldn’t move. Something was holding me immobile.

“I need to talk to her,” another deep male voice said, sorrow filling his voice.

“Get the fuck away from me. Now, Roberts,” Booth ordered.

Cool, rough hands touched my cheek, and I opened my bleary eyes to find Booth’s staring straight into them.

“Hey,” I croaked. “What’s with all the f-bombs?”

I smiled, or tried to, and he dropped his forehead down to mine.

“Thank fucking God,” he whispered, tremors making his usually rough voice even rougher.