Under Control

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Published by The Hartwood Publishing Group, LLC,

Hartwood Publishing, Phoenix, Arizona

www.hartwoodpublishing.com

Under Control

Copyright © 2016 by Em Petrova

Digital Release: April 2016

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

When a woman delivers a package to the fire station, Gabriel takes one look at it and throws her to the floor—right before it explodes. With a rattled and very feisty woman beneath him, his body’s reaction makes him wonder if his lover, Joey, will welcome a third in their bed.

Discovering that her ex sent her to deliver the package and that she’s in danger forces Gabriel’s protective instincts to the frontline. He has no choice but to take her to the only place she’ll be truly safe—the apartment he shares with Joey.

While Joey was looking forward to a night in with Gabriel, he can’t deny that Jayla adds a bit of spice—especially when the springs of the guest bed start squeaking. Between her little moans through the paper-thin walls and Gabriel’s restlessness, Joey doesn’t think he’ll survive a night let alone weeks of having Jayla there.

Infuriated that her ex put her in harm’s way and that the police can’t prove he is the one starting fires around the city with the same lethal mixture of chemicals, Jayla is determined to uncover the facts on her own. Only that means dragging the new hunky men in her life through the flames. And they don’t deserve to be burned.

The only way Jayla is leaving Gabriel and Joey’s sight is if she goes into witness protection and she’s far safer in their bed, sandwiched between them. Will they be able to convince their insatiable ward to let them handle the situation before anything more buildings go up in flames—and she becomes the target?

Thanks to Barbie for the yummy bits for a certain scene at the end and to all my sprint buddies who push me daily.

“Hey, Gabriel, you’re needed. Chief and Corey are out in the field and you’re next in command.”

Gabriel set aside his hammer and spat the nails he’d been holding in his mouth into his palm. Fixing shit around East Street Firehouse was getting old. He’d rather be dealing with fires and accidents than stabilizing this wall. “What’s the problem?”

“Well,” Herc drawled, folding his arms over his broad chest, “she’s about five-feet-six with long wavy hair and a bod to kill for. Says she’s got something to give to the chief.”

Gabriel dropped his hammer and nails. Dusting his hands on his jeans, he strode past Herc. He had no idea who this woman could be, but finding out was much better than making improvements to bring the firehouse up to code.

As he strode through the space, he passed guys hanging out playing video games or taking a nap. Things were quiet around here today—a change from the past few weeks. With an arsonist on the loose, they’d had plenty to keep them busy, and it was good to have some down time. Unfortunately, Gabriel and some of the handier guys on the team were stuck fixing things.

Can’t believe we didn’t really catch the arsonist.
At one point they’d thought they’d nabbed him, but it turned out to be a breaking and entering job and wasn’t the arsonist who’d been effing up their lives for months. His fellow teammate, Jagger, had left twin dents in his locker after learning they had the wrong criminal, since he’d had a personal investment in the case.

When he stepped around the ladder truck and spotted a woman waiting for him, he stopped in his tracks.

Whoa
. Herc hadn’t been lying about the body to kill for. Rounded breasts and a notch in her waist made for grabbing. Full hips made to torment. And that hair… It invited a man’s hands to sink into the mass of chocolate brown gleaming waves. To twist it around his fist and draw her head back while he burrowed into her tight body.

Shit. What’s that about?

He wasn’t a pussy hound, and especially when he had a good relationship with his male partner, Joey. Both he and Joey found the female sex attractive, but—

Time to stop staring and speak.

He stuck out his hand. “I’m Gabriel. What can I do for you?”

She juggled a package to her other hand in order to shake his. When her cool, smooth fingers met his, an instant spark of heat sidled through his arm and into his shoulder. His senses zapped to life at the scent of expensive moisturizer.

“I’m Jayla. Is your fire chief here?”

“No, he’s out but I can assist you.”

Her features hazed over with worry, and she bit down on her plump lower lip. He followed the action, aware of what a perfect mouth she had. Perfect for kissing, sucking, and fitting around his cock—or Joey’s.

Her rich, smoky voice interrupted his errant thoughts. “I just have something to give him.”

He eyed the package. Accepting a brown paper bundle from an unknown person wasn’t a good idea. Gabriel’s hours of training kicked in and yelled
beware.

“Do you know the chief?”

“Not personally. I was told to deliver it—”

Fuck. He reached toward the bundle. How gullible was this woman? Didn’t everybody know not to handle things you don’t know the origin of? Anything could be wrapped inside that bundle—C4. Drugs. Deadly gas. Bio warfare.

He fought to slow his racing heart. “Do you know what’s in the package?”

For the first time, her eyes widened. The blue orbs seemed lost in the whites, and her face drained of color.

“Okay, sweetheart, set it down carefully and step away. I’ll have a member of our bomb team—”

She dropped it. Gabriel didn’t have a full second to react, but he took what he had and threw himself at the woman. They crashed to the floor just as the package detonated. A piercing scream in his ear, and he whipped his arms up and over her head to protect her from the blast.

Choking smoke clogged the air, and within seconds his team was upon them. Too pissed for trivial things like shock, he let his mind tick furiously over the facts.
A woman brings a package meant for the chief, and it explodes.

She’s insanely soft beneath me.

Sobbing. She’s sobbing.

He pushed back to see her face. “Are you all right?” His ears were ringing from the noise but otherwise, he was unscathed. Long seconds passed. His mind cleared, and he realized it wasn’t as untouched by shock as he’d thought. The world around him came into crystal clear focus.

Someone had tried to blow up the chief.

One of his guys grabbed his shoulder. “Gabriel, holy fuck. What the hell was that?”

“Get it checked for hazardous chemicals,” he shot out, his focus on the woman. Her hair tumbled into her eyes, which were pinched shut tightly.

“Man, we can see it’s a cocktail. Looks like chemicals.”

He rolled to his knees and put his hands on the woman. Feeling down her body for bones that would have broken from his two hundred pounds crushing her into a concrete floor. “Are you all right?” he asked again. “What’s your name?” She’d told him, but damn if he could recall it.

“J-Jayla.”

He leaned in. “Kayla?”

“No, Jayla,” she said with more force. Her eyes opened and she stared at him with stunned fear on her beautiful features. Those wide blue eyes…

“Okay, Jayla, does anything hurt?”

“No,” she said at once.

“Good.” He scooped her off the floor and into his arms. In a few steps he was away from the insanity around him—guys investigating the scene and talking about the damage done to the ladder truck. If the bomb was on a timer and Jayla hadn’t dropped the package when she had…

Gabriel’s chest walls seemed to compress around the air he suddenly couldn’t exhale. His protective instincts rose up as he carried Jayla into one of the dispatcher’s offices. Nobody was inside, and he kicked the door shut before settling Jayla on the desktop.

She burst into another round of noisy tears. “What was that? What have I done?”

He eyed her. “You’re going to be telling the police every bit of your story in a little while.”

“The police?” She tripped over the words, her fingers knotting together.

“Yeah, you carried a bomb in here. Who gave it to you to deliver?”

Her eyes widened again, and the sight plucked Gabriel’s damn heartstrings. It was all too clear. She didn’t mean to cause this mayhem—she was a victim.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned over her. “Tell me who gave you the package, Jayla.”

“My ex.”

Her words slammed him in the chest as much as that blast had. He rocked on his heels but didn’t let her go. Her bones were insanely delicate beneath his fingers. How had she not broken into pieces when he’d knocked her to the floor?

“Your ex gave you a package with instructions to hand it to the fire chief of East Street?”

She blinked. “Yes. I thought it…I thought it was…”

The door burst inward. “Gabriel, we’re evacuating. Chief’s orders.”

“Goddammit,” he growled and grabbed Jayla again. He didn’t bother seeing if she could walk. She seemed so dazed he didn’t trust her not to collapse. With her locked to his chest, he hurried from the building into the open air with her in his arms.

All cargo bay doors had been opened, and he was able to see the blackened metal of the ladder truck closest to the bomb. They’d both been standing
right there.
In all his years as a firefighter, he’d never had such a close call. Joey was going flip out.
I’ll call him as soon as I get a second.

He settled Jayla on the hood of a cop cruiser already parked nearby with lights flashing. “They’re going to question you. You’ve got to tell them the truth.”

She just blinked, and it hit him that she might lie to the police about who had sent her to deliver the bomb. She might protect her ex.

“You can’t keep something like this a secret. You’re already an accomplice.”

Her jaw dropped open, and panic seemed to filter into the cracks the explosion had created inside her. She leaped off the hood as if about to run. Gabriel’s instincts were to grab her and keep her close. She’d confided in him, either because he looked trustworthy or because she’d been in shock.

He flexed his arms around her, drawing her tight against his chest. “All right. Just calm down, sweetheart. Let me talk to the guys and the police. Will you promise to sit here and wait for me?”

She darted a look around at the chaos, and he knew the answer—she’d run the instant he walked away. Then she’d be hunted by the authorities.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Okay, I won’t go.” Was it his imagination or did she seem to melt a little with relief? He waved over a medic and asked him to check out Jayla. While she was having her blood pressure taken and being checked for contusions, he saw the chief pull in. Flagging him over, Gabriel debriefed in a hushed voice. The chief’s mouth was grim when he shot Jayla a glance.

“I don’t believe she had any knowledge of what she was delivering.”

“Probably not. She told you this was her ex?”

“Yeah. Which can present a bigger problem. She’s targeted by this fucker. He meant to do her harm as well as you.”

“Chief, we got something here.” Jagger strode across the parking lot. The way his jaw was set alerted Gabriel that it wasn’t good news. He and the chief swung Jagger’s direction. Jagger held something up on his palm. “Know what this is?”

They nodded at once. The same type of material they’d discovered in the past four arson investigations.

“Son of a bitch is showing off now,” Gabriel grated out. “Sending us the same material, claiming his crimes.”

Jagger nodded and the chief twisted on his heel, barking orders. After exchanging a nod with Jagger, Gabriel headed back to Jayla.

“She’s all clear,” the medic told him.

“Good. Thanks, man.” He looked into Jayla’s eyes and saw she was slightly less shell-shocked. A warm glow had come into her face, and her eyes weren’t so wide. The medic moved off, leaving them alone. Before the police descended with their questions, Gabriel needed to get the details from her himself.