Bad Boy's Touch (Firemen in Love Book 3) (4 page)

In most cases, I would be inclined to agree. But now, I got that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Whenever I got that feeling, it meant something bad was about to happen. Something
real
bad.

“She went after Rico by herself. What the hell is she thinking?”

“Who cares? If she wants to play hero, let her.” He held out his hand. “Come on, Candy. Let's get out of here.”

She sniffled. “But the other girls... There are guys shooting out there!”

“They'll be fine. Those men are only interested in escaping. We leave them alone, they won't mess with us.” He reached for the doorknob. “Don't hear anyone out in the hall. Brett, you coming with us or what?”

Getting out of here with them would have been easy. It'd also have been the smart thing to do.

The smart thing – but not the
right
thing.

“You get out of here. I'm going to make sure Madison's okay.”

He rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You have a crush on the cop who tried to arrest you.”

“Hey, I can't control my heart's desires. Besides, she might need help. I couldn't live with myself if I left her to deal with that bastard. He's insane; Lord knows what he might do to her.”

I cracked the door and listened. The gunfire had stopped for now, but that made me kind of nervous. Meant I didn't know where Rico's thugs were, and if I wasn't careful, they could take me by surprise.

“Put your weapons down and your hands up,” a cop yelled through his megaphone.

Two guys guarded the door. I didn't know guns very well, but one of them held what looked to be an assault rifle.

“Where's Rico? Did he get out yet?”

“Be patient, dude. He's gonna get these pigs off our backs. You know he wouldn't ditch us.”

I waved for Ian and Candy to get moving. He nodded, then they slipped down the hall to the kitchen where the emergency exit was.

Just as they reached the door, there was a horrible noise from somewhere nearby, followed by a woman's scream.

“Madison!”

Rico's shouts made the feeling in my stomach even worse. Oh, shit. He'd found her.

“Take Candy and get out. I've got to help her.”

“How? They've got guns.” Ian's eyes widened. “Take the catwalk. It'll let you get the drop on him from above.”

The two of them bolted for safety. I grabbed a chef's knife from the kitchen counter, then climbed the ladder to the second-story catwalk. It led all around the club, so I could probably make my way through unnoticed.

“Get your hands off me!” Madison howled. “You are under arrest, you hear me?”

Rico laughed. “Your friends gotta catch me first. But they know better than to try when I've got you as collateral.”

I kept low to the floor and followed the sound of her voice. She was trying to stay calm and in charge, but she couldn't hide her panic.

I found them in the bar area. He was dragging her along with him, a gun pointed at her head. Seeing that filled me with rage, the kind of fury strong enough to put someone in the hospital – or in a grave.

“Stop struggling, woman. It'd be a shame to shoot you in your pretty face.”

She glared. “You won't. You need me.”

I carefully climbed onto the catwalk railing, swung one leg over, then the other. Rico didn't look up. I steadied the knife in my hand and jumped.

Landing on him broke my fall and knocked the piece of shit to the floor. He wailed in pain as he tried to escape my grasp.

“Silver!” Madison rolled away and snatched her dropped gun. “What are you
doing?
”

I pinned his arms behind his back and put all my weight on him so he couldn't move. Though he tried to throw me off, the injuries I'd inflicted earlier were taking their toll.

“Get off me,
pendejo!
The fuck's your problem, huh?” He tried uselessly to kick me. “Don't you ever cross me. You're dead.
Dead!
”

Madison sprung into action, clapping the cuffs she'd used on me around his wrists instead. He cursed at her, calling her pretty much every derogatory name for women he could think of.

“Shoot him already,” I urged her.

“I'm not going to shoot him!” She glanced at her gun for a moment, clearly considering it. “I need to bring him in.”

“For what? You can lock him up temporarily, but he'll get out and be back on the street causing trouble in no time.”

Rico chuckled. “Fool's right. Y'all can't keep me down. I got connections. You really wanna mess with me? Both of you gonna be sorry.”

She put the gun down. “I can't just
kill
him. He deserves justice. He's a human being.”

I scoffed. “Now that's debatable.”

From behind the bar, a shadowy figure caught my eye. I held my breath and listened. That wasn't one of Rico's guys trying to sneak up on us. They weren't smart enough to do that.

Madison yelled for my help getting Rico on his feet. I raised a hand to quiet her. Something felt off.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway behind the bar. Then the familiar sound of a match striking rough paper. The stink of sulfur filled my nostrils seconds later.

Wait a sec. A match?

The burning stick flew through the open doorway and landed on the floor, its small flame wavering madly. For a moment nothing happened.

Why was the floor shiny? Oh, someone had spilled something on it. Water? No, it smelled like...

“Run!”

My instincts were on the money. The tiny, unassuming match lit up the puddle of alcohol like a bonfire. Flames leaped hot and high as the fire traveled in the bar's direction.

Madison stared at the disaster unfolding with big, confused eyes. She was far too close to the bar. Why wasn't she moving, damn it?

“I said run! The whole thing's going to –”

With a growl, Rico pushed me off of him and bolted for freedom. I didn't give a shit about him anymore.

I launched myself off the floor. Sprang for Madison. She shrieked as I pushed her down, shielding her small body beneath my heavy frame.

The trail of flames went up the wooden shelves easy enough. Someone had tipped over a vodka bottle, from which spilled a puddle of booze.

I rolled away with Madison in my arms just as the bottle exploded. Chunks of glass shot in every direction like shrapnel from a grenade. Some of the shards sliced into my back. I winced because it hurt like hell, but better that than my eyes or face.

“W-what's going on?” She trembled beneath me. “Oh God, it's all burning up.”

Another bottle erupted, then another. We crawled together, staying almost flat on the ground, as we struggled to reach the exit.

Most of the bar was made of old wood, which burned up real nicely. In seconds, the whole room was an inferno, with flames so blistering, they scorched my skin even from a dozen feet away.

“Got to reach the door,” I yelled over the thunderous noise. “If the rest of those bottles blow, we're screwed.”

We got there safely and breathed in clean air while we could. In the main room, it was chaos.

Staff members and guests fled screaming for the exit. Where the hell were Madison's partners? Thought they'd have pushed their way in by now.

“Rico's missing,” one of his guys shouted.

“We can't go out the front or they'll nab us. Gotta head out the back and run for it.”

Madison bristled as they bolted past us without a second look.

“Can't believe I'm just letting them all get away.”

“Don't be ridiculous. The building's on fire. Who cares if a couple of low-life morons go free, so long as we get everyone out of here?”

She nodded, but obviously didn't quite agree with me.

Those idiots had barricaded the entrance with chairs and a heavy planter. We tore through them, kicked open the door, and burst outside to freedom.

Six cop cars were parked there, with at least a dozen officers on the scene. Madison jogged up to one of them, a pudgy older guy with a mustache.

“Harvey!”

He looked relieved to see her. “Holy hell, what's going on in there? Is that smoke coming out of the windows?”

“Fire,” she panted. “Rico?”

“Haven't seen the guy, but never mind him right now.” He picked up his radio. “Dispatch, get some fire trucks out here ASAP. Twinkles is on fire and it's spreading quick.”

I went back to my car to get a shirt on. Madison followed me there. Normally, I would have made a flirty joke about how much she wanted me.

Now, though? I was pissed.

I knew what I saw. Someone set that fire on purpose. They were trying to
kill
us.

“Where do you think you're going?”

I grabbed a sweatshirt from the backseat. “Are you still trying to arrest me? Because after I saved your ass from Rico, I figured I'd get a free pass.”

She looked away. “No, I... I'm not. I just wanted to thank you. You were brave, to do what you did.”

“It's my job to be brave.”

“You're not going to yell? Maybe tell me what an idiot I was?”

I pulled the shirt over my head, only mildly annoyed that my bloody wounds stained the fabric. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I was stupid. I wanted to catch Rico so badly, I went after him on my own.” She frowned. “If my boss found out about this, I'd be cleaning out my desk.”

We leaned against the car and listened to the fire engines getting closer. This was the first chance I'd had to relax, to really breathe, since I came to the club tonight.

“What you did was stupid, true,” I admitted. “But I get it. You've got that same drive, the same urge to win, that I do.”

“I just wanted to do the right thing. Letting criminals like him walk the streets...”

“You can tell yourself you chase the bad guys 'cause it's the 'right thing' to do. You know what I think the real reason is?”

She shrugged.

“The thrill of it. You like excitement. You want the rush.”

To this she said nothing, just stared off at the smoke clouds that painted the night sky gray.

“There's nothing wrong with that, so you know. It's part of the reason why I became a firefighter.”

“Part?” She cocked her head. “What's the other part?”

Dad's angry voice echoed in my head. The old man had died over ten years ago, but the cruel things he said would never leave me.

“Eh, it's a pretty boring story.” I faked a laugh. “Maybe it's best told some other time. Right now, I think we ought to talk about catching the guy who caused this mess.”

“Rico?”

“No. The man who threw the match.”

She gasped. She hadn't seen him, had she?

Actually, neither did I – but I heard his footsteps and watched that match fly through the air. Somebody was definitely there, and they caused this blaze deliberately.

“What are you talking about?”

“I had Rico pinned down. You were yelling at me to get him on his feet.” I rubbed my ankle; it was sore from the fall. “There were heavy footsteps in the hall behind the bar. A male, from the sound of things. He tossed a match – right in a conveniently placed puddle of spilled alcohol.”

The fire engines had arrived. I studied the crew that piled out. Oliver, Sammy, Billy. No Jayce; he must have been off tonight. Probably relaxing at home with his family.

Good thing he didn't go to strip clubs anymore, or he would've been devastated by this. Place used to be our favorite hangout not so long ago.

“So you're saying this was arson.”

“All I know is what I heard and saw. I got no concrete evidence, but I imagine this will be investigated once everything settles down.”

Her brow furrowed. “Why would anyone want to burn down a strip club?”

“Oh, I'm sure this place has lots of enemies. Could have been one of Rico's guys, trying to cause a diversion so he could escape.”

“But what are the odds? And they don't seem like the sharpest bunch.”

She had that right. No, I doubted they had anything to do with it. The way that booze had been spilled, it reminded me of a bomb fuse. The culprit dropped the match in it, giving him enough time to escape before fifty bottles of liquor exploded in his face.

“Whatever happened, I hope it's just a one-off thing. We've got enough criminals in this city without adding a serial arsonist to the mix.”

She and I headed back to the alley to retrieve her dropped radio. Her car was there too, the passenger side of it pocked with bullet holes.

“If it's excitement you like, then you should have become a cop instead,” she said with a chuckle. “Although until recently, most of my days were spent writing traffic tickets and responding to shoplifting calls. Getting shot at by gangsters isn't quite a daily occurrence.”

“You really think
I
could hack it as a cop?”