The Firefighter Meets His Match (Red Hot Reunions Book 4) (7 page)

“Listen, I know CPR,” Mick said. “Faith taught me not long after we got together. And I’ve got a sharp eye, am in good physical condition, and spent half my summers growing up in a boat with my dad. I know how to handle myself around water. I can be an asset to one of your teams.”

Jake shook his head again, but Mick could tell by the look in his eyes he was wavering.

“And I can follow orders,” Mick said, pressing on before Jake could speak. “I won’t do anything crazy, and I’ll listen to whoever you put in charge. Just please, Jake, let me help.”

Jake pressed his lips together, but before he could respond a young woman in an orange windbreaker appeared at the top of the stars.

“Chief Hansen,” she said, sounding out of breath. “We just got a call from the bar down the street. We’ve got two men who didn’t heed the evacuation order who say they’re smelling gas on the main floor of their building. They think a line might be leaking but the shut off valve is underwater.”

Jake muttered something beneath his breath Mick suspected was a curse.

“Give me a second,” Jake said to the woman before turning back to Mick. “I’ll send you out on the next boat with Ben, as long as you understand that when you find her there’s a chance you’ll be finding a crime scene. And if that happens you will not be allowed to touch anything, or disturb evidence. Do you understand?”

Mick’s jaw clenched as he nodded. “I understand.”

But he refused to think about being too late. Faith wasn’t going to die. He couldn’t lose her, not now, not when they were so close to starting their life together. She’d been so warm and alive in his arms this morning, he had to believe she would be in his arms again before night fell.

“All right,” Jake said, eyes softening as he put his hand on Mick’s shoulder. “I’ll be praying for you, and I’m already praying for her. I don’t want to imagine a world without our Faith in it.”

“We’re going to find her,” Mick said, swallowing hard. “I can feel it.”

He wanted to believe he was telling the truth, but all he knew for sure was that he was grateful to be following Ben to the police cruiser idling outside the firehouse, and catching a ride to where the boats were launching. His heart was still pounding in his throat and his thoughts racing, but at least he was on the way to help with the search.

The officer driving the cruiser pulled to a stop at the top of a hill, letting Ben and Mick out fifty feet from where an ambulance, a television van with a camera mounted on top, and several other police cruisers were parked. On the other side of the gathering of vehicles, the road sloped down as it led into the Thousand Oaks Subdivision. The road was covered in swiftly moving water, eddies visible on the surface as it rushed through the trees on the left and on toward the water logged homes. The subdivision’s concrete sign was completely submerged and most of the houses beyond had floodwater up to the top of their first-story windows.

“They were at the rear of the subdivision when she disappeared,” Ben said, pointing toward the far edge of the clusters of houses as they walked. “They said the water’s moving faster there since there aren’t as many obstacles to slow it down.”

Mick nodded, but didn’t say a word except to mumble his name as he was introduced to the man and woman he and Ben would be going out with. The woman, Tami, was a member of the SPD, and the man, Kelvin, was a trained search and rescue volunteer and former Navy Seal, a big guy who looked like he was pushing forty with a formidable build that made Mick breathe a little easier. If Faith was pinned by debris, together he and Kelvin should be able to move just about anything.

Hell, Mick felt capable of lifting a car off the ground with one hand. He was so ramped up on adrenaline, he barely noticed how unexpectedly cool the water was as he waded out to the boat. His fear for Faith was keeping him warm.

Now, he could only hope she’d found someplace to get out of the water and seek shelter. If she stayed in the water too long, she could risk suffering from exposure, despite the fact that it was seventy-five degrees outside.

As the outboard motor rumbled to life and Ben guided the small craft out into the water, Mick sent out a prayer that they would find Faith before it was too late.

CHAPTER NINE

Brandon

Brandon opened his eyes to find a heart-shaped face dominated by big brown eyes staring down at him, and smiled.

So it hadn’t been a dream after all.

“Good morning,” he whispered, his voice rough with sleep. “Did you sleep okay?”

Lucy nodded, the hair sticking out around her head bobbing softly. She looked like a wild thing who’d been raised by wolves, or an elf escaped from one of those fantasy movies his brother, Kurt, used to watch when he and Brandon were kids.

Growing up, Kurt had loved anything with an orc, dragon, or elf in it, and spent most of his time with his nose in a book, or online playing World of Warcraft. He’d been a nerdy kid—not a jock like Brandon—but he’d never seemed particularly unhappy. He was simply quiet, the kind of person who kept their thoughts to themselves and enjoyed the company of imaginary people more than real ones.

But in high school, things had changed. Some guys in his gym class had started bullying Kurt, calling him a fag and making his life miserable. For the first time, Brandon hadn’t been there to protect his big brother. They were only fourteen months apart, but that meant Kurt had gone on to ninth grade alone, leaving Brandon behind in middle school for one more year.

After his mom found Kurt in the garage, Brandon had wondered if things would have been different if he’d been at school to defend Kurt, to see how bad things were getting and put a stop to it before it was too late. For a long time, he’d blamed himself for his brother’s suicide. But finally, with time, he’d been able to forgive himself, and promised to do whatever he could to keep what happened to Kurt from happening to anyone else.

That was part of the reason he’d let Lucy come home with him last night. He might not be sure he believed in premonitions and sixth senses, but he could tell she was genuinely worried about him and wanted to keep him safe, and that was a feeling he could empathize with.

Besides, waking up to a beautiful girl—even if she’d slept in his bed, while he couched it in the living room—wasn’t something Brandon was going to complain about. Not in the least.

“So I guess I’m still alive,” he said, stretching his arms over his head, wincing at the crick in his lower back. The couch was fine for a night, but if Lucy insisted on keeping vigil tonight, Brandon might have to blow up an air mattress.

“You are,” Lucy said, with a confused shake of her head.

“Don’t look so disappointed.” Brandon smiled.

Lucy’s mouth curved before she pulled her full bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m not disappointed, just confused. I really thought…” She trailed off with a shrug. “Maybe I read the energy wrong. There were a lot of people around last night, and I am out of practice. Or it could be that it hasn’t happened yet.” She frowned, her thin brows drawing together as she shook her head. “But I’m not getting any negative energy from you this morning.”

Brandon sat up, swinging his feet down to the floor. Lucy was sitting cross-legged on the leather-covered coffee table Brandon had inherited from his parents when they moved to South Carolina. They’d left as soon as Brandon graduated from the academy and joined the Summerville Fire Department, past ready to escape the house where they’d lost their oldest son. They hardly ever came back to Summerville anymore, preferring to pay to fly Brandon up for visits on holidays and during his vacation time.

Brandon had grown accustomed to walking softly around people years ago. After Kurt’s death, his parents hadn’t healed so much as closed themselves up, refusing to talk about Kurt, or the dark year after his suicide, when Brandon’s dad had moved into an apartment for a few months and he and Brandon’s mom had discussed divorce. By sixteen, Brandon was a pro at skirting issues, and making sure he didn’t say anything his parents didn’t want to hear.

But Lucy wasn’t his mom or dad, and if they were going to have the kind of relationship he wanted them to have, he had to be honest with her.

“Listen,” Brandon said, taking her small hand between his, warming her cool fingers. “I’m not sure what to believe about your gift, but I’m glad you’re here. And I’m glad you cared enough to want to keep me safe.”

Lucy met his eyes with that piercing look she had, the one that made him sure she could read every thought in his head. It unnerved him and made him acutely aware of how damned cute she was and how much he wanted to kiss her, all at the same time.

“You’re going to believe, Brandon,” she said. “Even the skeptics at the police department in Atlanta came around eventually. And those guys weren’t open-minded. They were the kind of men who had the same breakfast every morning for twenty years just to avoid trying something new.”

Brandon nodded. “I’m open to coming around. I’m not going to look up at a blue sky and call it orange. I’ve just never known a psychic before, let alone dated one. It will take some getting used to.”

Lucy’s eyes dropped to their joined hands. “Well, I haven’t dated anyone at all in a long time. So…that might take a little bit of getting used to, too. For me.”

Brandon twined his fingers through hers, glad she was letting him hold her hand. “Your last relationship didn’t end well, I’m guessing?”

Lucy head bobbed, her eyes still glued to where they touched. “He passed away. Cancer. The quick kind.”

Brandon’s brow wrinkled. “I’m so sorry, Lucy. That must have been awful.”

“It was,” she said, finally lifting her gaze to his. “But he wouldn’t have wanted me to shut the world out. Or shut you out.” She took a deep breath. “So I want to be completely honest with you.”

“Okay,” Brandon said, brow still furrowed.

“I didn’t tell you everything last night,” she said. “I didn’t just sense that you were going to be in danger, I sensed that you and I… That we…”

She broke off with a laugh, eyes lifting to the ceiling. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I know I’m right, and I know you feel it too.”

Brandon’s forehead smoothed and a tentative smile teased at his lips. “That we’re going to be good together?”

Lucy’s nailed him with another intense look. “We’re going to be
great
together.”

Brandon’s smile took up more real estate on his face, even as a current of awareness swept through his body. “Well, I could have told you that months ago. The second I saw you get out of that little car of yours, I felt like I’d been struck by lightning. I’ve been trying to catch your attention since the first day I came over to pester you during your shift.”

Lucy grinned one of her irresistible grins. Even better, she shifted off the coffee table and into his arms, climbing into his lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

And it was, at least the most natural and easy thing Brandon had felt in a long time. And as she leaned in, pressing her lips to his, giving him his first sweet, sexy, perfectly Lucy kiss of the morning, his soul lit up and something broken inside him clicked back into place.

He and Lucy just…fit. It was enough to make a guy want to believe in psychic phenomenon and love at first sight and who knows what else. With Lucy, all kinds of previously unthinkable things suddenly seemed possible.

They kissed for a long time—long enough for Brandon to grow so hard it was painful—before Lucy finally pulled away, her breath coming fast. “I think now’s a good time for more than kissing. Don’t you?”

Brandon bit his lip, fighting the urge to groan as Lucy shifted on his lap, her hip nudging where he ached. “We can wait. I don’t want to rush you.”

“You’re not rushing me,” she said, standing and taking him by the hand, pulling him off the couch and toward his bedroom. “I’m rushing you. I’m the older, more experienced one, remember.”

Brandon smiled. “Older, anyway. I know a thing or two about a thing or two. I might surprise you, Miss Bledsoe.”

“You’ve already surprised me, Mr. Nordstrom,” she said, dropping his hand at the entrance to his bedroom and reaching for the bottom of her tee shirt.

A moment later it was over her head and Brandon got his first glance at her small, but perfectly shaped breasts. He’d known she wasn’t wearing a bra last night, but he’d forced himself not to think about it too much. Now, he didn’t try to force anything, he simply allowed his instincts free reign as he followed Lucy to the bed and rolled her beneath him.

The first taste of her skin was honeysuckle and salt water and cool, evening light. She tasted like beautiful secrets and a hint of sadness and sunshine waiting to burst out from behind the clouds. Many minutes later, when she pulled his lips to hers and kissed him with her entire heart as he pushed inside her sweet, tight heat, Brandon felt the last of his doubt melt away.

He was in love. For the first time in his life, he understood what it felt like to make love to a woman and he never wanted to stop, never wanted to leave Lucy’s arms, or lose the peace and bliss he’d found there.

And so when she woke him from a nap later that afternoon—shaking his arm, telling him she needed him to take her to the firehouse, that she’d had another vision while she was in the shower and knew exactly who was in trouble—he didn’t hesitate or worry what Jake or any of the other guys were going to say when he brought his psychic girlfriend in to tell them Faith was in danger.