Bad Boy's Touch (Firemen in Love Book 3) (13 page)

At last, we put the fire out. All that remained of most trailers, though, was the metal frame and not much else.

By the time I could sit down to rest, those weird guys with the baseball hats had gone. Jayce and the others packed up the trucks and prepared to head out.

“Hey, man. You coming?”

“I'm gonna hang around a bit. Search the place before the trail goes cold.”

He glanced at Madison. “Well, you two have fun.”

News vans pulled up, full of reporters eager to interview the hapless victims. Madison worked quickly to set up crime scene barricades before folks got any funny ideas.

“Ma'am, I'm Brian with Fox 6 News. Can you please tell me what you experienced?”

A blubbering woman wearing nothing but her nightgown sniffled and then blew her nose loudly into her sleeve.

“Everything's gone,” she wailed. “There was a horrible noise in the trailer next door, and then all of a sudden, I see it's on fire. I smelled smoke and figured out my place was on fire, too.”

“Any idea what could have caused this tragic event?”

“Oh, those neighbors of mine.” She scowled. “I always knew they was up to no good. Cooking up drugs and selling them at all hours of the night. How are the cops gonna get 'em now with all the evidence burned up?”

Madison joined me as I picked through the rubble. That woman was right; not much remained and figuring out what really happened here would be tough.

“It could have been a mishap with the drug lab,” she suggested. “Are you sure the guy you saw was the right one?”

“Had to be. I just got a feeling, you know? He was standing there, staring straight at me. And he ran when you yelled at him.”

“Then he must have left some kind of clue.”

I stared at her ass as she wandered off to look around. It bugged me that she said nothing about that night, as if it never happened. Was she regretting it?

What did I have to do to get her in my arms again?

“This is gonna take a long time to clean up,” I said as we circled the bombed trailer. “Need to call in the hazmat crew. Ugh, I think these fumes are giving me cancer.”

Her shoulders fell. “There's really nothing left in there. If the culprit left evidence of arson, it's long burned up by now.”

At first, I thought she was just seriously dedicated to her job. But when she started to tear up, I knew it was more than that.

“Hey, chin up.” I gently put an arm around her. “We'll figure this thing out. No need to cry.”

She glared as if I had somehow pissed her off. Figures; my big mouth always found a way to ruin things.

“Assholes like this,” she muttered, gesturing to the chaos around us. “They need to be stopped. They're awful, shitty excuses for human beings who don't deserve to walk the streets free.”

I got the sense she was a cannon about to erupt, so I let her go before I took the full brunt of it. She immediately began pacing in a line, back and forth, like an angry bull.

“I mean, yeah, burning buildings down is horrible, I agree. But you don't gotta take it so personally.”

She turned her face from me, but not fast enough to cover up her tears. Now, it had been a long while since I bothered putting up with an emotional woman – but seeing Madison like this hurt me, too.

I wanted to help her, but how?

“You don't understand.” She sniffled. “I... I have first-hand experience with this sort of thing.”

“What do you mean?” I took her hands in mine. “Tell me.”

She faked a smile. “N-nothing. It's not your job to be burdened by my mental problems.”

Dang it, what had I got myself into? This was one of the reasons I avoided getting close with a girl. The drama, the arguments, the stress, none of it was ever worth the trouble, no matter how good the sex.

“You're not burdening me,” I said as calmly as I could. “I want to know.”

She sighed deeply and walked the other way. I followed, not content to let her slip away so easily.

There was a picnic table and grill area off to the side, away from the mayhem. She sat there, and so did I.

“I was a girl back then, nine years old. Lived in a nice house with my family – brother and sister, plus dad.”

She didn't mention her mother, which I supposed meant I probably shouldn't either.

“We had everything a kid could ask for. Our own rooms, swimming pool, playground, all that good stuff. I was happy, but living in a bubble. I'd yet to realize that the Devil wasn't the only evil one in this world, that humans could be even more wicked than that.”

When I put an arm around her this time, she let me. Why was she trembling like this? Maybe I shouldn't have pushed her to tell me when she wasn't ready. I was such an ass.

“I woke up one night to the odor of smoke, coughing and barely able to breathe.” She shuddered. “Our house was on fire, but the alarms never went off – so by the time we realized it, the blaze had spread to the second floor.”

“Oh, God. I'm sorry for asking. I... I had no idea.”

“Getting out through the bottom floor was impossible. My sister, Jenna, got stuck in her room. I can still hear her screaming as dad tried to break down the door.”

“She got out okay.”

“Yes, but she's not been the same since.” She gave me her hand. “Now do you see why I have to catch this man?”

“You're saying someone burned down your house?”

She nodded. “The firefighters figured it out easy enough. The alarms hadn't gone off because the batteries had been removed from them. The arsonist was an amateur, they thought. His method was to sprinkle lighter fluid on the couch, carpet, anything flammable he could find.”

“Did they ever catch him?”

“No, never were able to. That's why I want to find this nutcase so bad, you know? It would make me feel better. Like even though I couldn't save my home, maybe I can do something to save another's.”

I cradled her in the nook of my elbow, enjoying it when she rested her head on my shoulder. The sudden urge that struck me to protect her, to make sure nothing hurt her ever again, was so powerful it took my breath away.

“Is that why you became a cop?”

“Pretty much. After that day, I wasn't an innocent little kid anymore. I discovered the world was full of horrible people, ones who liked to make others suffer. I wanted to stop them.” She gazed up at me. “Why did
you
become a firefighter?”

It wasn't a story I liked to talk about, but she'd shared hers, so it was only fair.

“My father,” I began. “I'd like to say he inspired me, pushed me to shoot for the stars, crap like that. But he didn't. To him, I was lower than the dirt on his shoe.”

“That's terrible.”

“Oh, you got no idea. The guy was a bastard, always treating me and my mom like crap.” I cringed when his face flitted into my thoughts. “He thought I was worthless. No matter what I did, what I achieved, it was never good enough for him. Not good grades, not winning at sports. When I was a boy, all I wanted to do was impress him somehow.”

“My dad was harsh, but fair. I can't even imagine.”

“He told me over and over I would never amount to anything. Called me a sissy, a weakling, good for nothing. Every day, he made sure to let me know what a failure I was.” I glared at the smoldering trailers. “He died before I took this job, but it didn't matter. Years of that shit took its toll. I had something to prove, if only to myself.”

I left out the part where he enjoyed beating me with his belt for such failures as getting a C on my test, or maybe leaving a smudge on a dish I had washed.

“But you can't believe that. You're not good for nothing. You're strong. Brave.”

I laughed, though her kind words flattered me somewhat. “You sure as heck seemed to think I was a bad guy just a couple of days ago.”

“No, not bad. Just misguided.”

We sat there for a while like that, watching the trailer park residents run about like headless chickens while the news crew tried to chase them down for interviews. Some were trying in vain to get into the charred remains of their homes in hopes that some of their belongings survived the disaster. Figured I'd better go stop them before they hurt themselves.

But I didn't want to let Madison go. She had this pensive look about her, as if thinking hard about something. Was she upset because of me? Maybe I said too much.

“Could you ever give it up, do you think?” she asked finally. “The street racing, fighting, the... girls?”

She hesitated on that last bit. Wished I could tell her how I felt, that no other woman compared to her, but I couldn't.

Dad was right. I really
was
a sissy.

“Give that stuff up? I don't think so. That's part of me. Who I am.”

“But you don't have to be that way. People change.”

“And what if I don't want to change? Sometimes it feels like there's a monster inside me. If I don't let that fury out sometimes, if I gotta keep it bottled up inside, it isn't pretty.”

That was another reason I chose this job, though I wouldn't tell her that. Rushing into a burning building was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes out there, like a drug almost. I loved it so much, I wondered if there was something wrong with me.

I was an angry guy in general, but it was hard to be mad at anything with this beautiful woman by my side. What was I supposed to do about her? Apologize for not calling, for just ditching her like she was one of my usual one-night flings?

“There's a monster in me, too,” she said. “But I've tamed mine. I had to for my own sanity, and for Jenna. When you love someone, you do what's best for them.”

I didn't know what love was exactly, but I did know one thing for sure: there was nobody in my life to love now, and maybe there never really had been.

Realizing that made me feel hollow and empty. The discomfort made me pull away from Madison. She didn't look happy, but she could never understand.

But then she perked up all of a sudden, like a startled rabbit, and took off running without a word.

“Madison, wait!”

She bolted across the lawn toward one of the still-smoking trailers, the one that had just exploded. Those three shady guys were hovering around it, looking all nervous and definitely guilty of something not at all good.

“Stop right there. Don't any of you move,” she yelled.

The men almost fled, but lucky for them, they thought better of it. I didn't doubt she'd take all three of them down by herself if she had to. That was one tough-ass woman.

Was it any wonder I found her so damn sexy?

“Yo, lady, what's the deal? We didn't do nothing wrong,” said one, a grungy-looking dude with a scraggly beard and a torn wife-beater shirt.

Another, with piercings in both ears, his nose, and lip too, agreed. “We were just, ah, curious. That's all.”

“What are your names? Do you live in this park?”

They reluctantly introduced themselves. Craig was the bearded one, Larry the pierced one. The third guy, a young kid with bright red hair, called himself Ryan.

“Well, I
used
to live here.” Craig gestured to the blown-out trailer. “Until my house exploded.”

Madison whipped out her notebook and a voice recorder. I stood off to the side and gave the boys my best pissed-off face, just in case they got any dumb ideas.

“Any ideas why it exploded, or how the fire got started?”

“Must have been some cleaning supplies that somebody lit up,” suggested Ryan.

“Yeah, or Ginny down the way at two six two,” said Larry. “Idiot's been stockpiling propane tanks for years. Wouldn't be surprised if it's all his fault.”

Craig nodded. “You should go question him. Guy's totally suspicious.”

“Thank you. I'll do that – when we're done here.”

The guys eyed one another, clearly nervous. They had something to hide, though extracting the truth from them wouldn't be so simple.

“Everyone knows Forest Hill has a prolonged history with drugs,” she said carefully. “Methamphetamine, to be exact. You all wouldn't happen to know anything about that?”

They fidgeted, stuffing their hands in pockets and shuffling from foot to foot. Ryan's cheeks turned red as his hair. Boy, these guys were terrible at keeping a secret.

“Drugs?” Craig squeaked. “N-no, we'd never... We don't touch that stuff.”

She frowned. “I didn't say
you
had anything to do with it.”

I strolled around their trailer while she worked on wearing them down. The walls and roof had collapsed on top of the innards, so getting inside to check it out would take some work. When I lifted a side panel out of the way, Craig protested loudly.

“Hey, what the hell? That's my property, dude.”

“I'm with the Waco Fire Department,” I told him. “I'm working with the Kingston police to ensure the area's secure. We don't want any stray embers sparking another fire, do we?”

The trailer's aluminum siding wasn't all that heavy, just bulky. I knocked it over with one good ram from my shoulder.