Firestarter (3 page)

Ted tossed his head back, letting the liquid burn his throat before a pleasant numbness stole over him. If he could always feel this way, maybe he’d stay drunk for the rest of his life, which might not be much longer if Bob had any say in the matter. He raised his hand again, happy to see the bartender already refilling their order.

16

Chapter Two

Keanu sat at the stoplight and looked over in time to see a group of guys surrounding a woman with flaming red hair. He hit his turn signal, intending to pull over, when the gorgeous creature hit one of the men. “Son of a bitch,” he swore. Getting into a fight on his first night home was not on his agenda. He waited while the men argued and then disappeared back inside the bar, before he relaxed.

Exhaling, he sat through the green light, mesmerized by the sight of the woman’s ass as she stalked away. She was tall, but not so tall she couldn’t wear a pair of fuck-me heels when they went out.
Damn, I must be tired.
Now he was making plans to go out on a date with a woman he didn’t even know. Shit, he really needed to get laid, but damn, she had a fine ass and hair that looked like flames.

He tapped his steering wheel, and then gunned the engine of his Jeep. Sleep first, then eat, and then find a woman. That was his short-term plan.

The place he’d called home for the first half of his life looked the same as it always had, with an air of welcome, and a sense of home unlike anywhere else. Keanu felt a weight lift off his shoulders. His grandfather was waiting for him as he shut off the engine and climbed out of the vehicle.

“Ah, Keanu, I’m so happy you came. Come, sit,” Alo Raine said, indicating the seat next to him.

“Thanks, Grandfather, but I’d like to stretch my legs.” Keanu arched his back. “How’re you feeling?”

Alo huffed and waved his arm. “Don’t worry about me, I’ve many years left on this Earth.”

Keanu leaned against the railing. “Mama says you’ll outlive us all. I think she may be right,”

he said looking over his shoulder at an older version of himself.

“Humph, Aiyana is a wonderful daughter. I didn’t think she was foolish too.”

His grandfather’s words made Keanu grin. “Where’s she at? I thought she’d be here to greet me.” Keanu looked in through the big picture window.

“I wanted to talk to you first. I couldn’t say everything over the phone.” Alo stared straight ahead before he continued. “There is much danger here.”

17

Keanu decided he should sit at the ominous words. His grandfather, with his spiritual guide the eagle, had been the shaman of their small tribe since he’d been a boy. If they felt danger, then Keanu would do all he could to help protect his family.

“There have been several small fires, all surrounding the plant. It’s getting worse daily, and one of the local firefighters was almost killed. As it is, he may never be able to work again.”

A sick feeling took up residence in Keanu’s stomach. He contemplated how he’d feel if he could never be a firefighter again, and knew without a shadow of a doubt, he’d go crazy. Take away the fact that fire was part of him, fighting them was too.

“What can I do?”

“Ah, always the impatient one,” Alo said wickedly.

“Don’t play me, old man. You know as well as I do that you already have a plan.”

“Old man, huh? Such disrespect to your elders, but since it is true…” He shrugged.

Keanu raised his brows. His grandfather was a sneaky old bastard, but by far, the smartest person Keanu had ever met.

“Was he in my old precinct or the one on the other side of town?”

He listened as Alo explained that the fireman was indeed from the station he was heading back to. Small towns still had their ways of getting around all the red tape that larger ones didn’t.

All it took was a phone call, and Keanu had secured a temporary position, filling in for the injured man.

“There are my two favorite men.” Aiyana Raine walked up the steps.

Keanu hopped up and grabbed his mother in a hug, always amazed at her tiny frame. His

mother was the quintessential Indian woman, barely over five feet, with long black hair and snapping brown eyes.

“You get prettier with every year, Mama.”

His mother placed her small palms on his cheeks, bringing him down to kiss him on his

forehead, just like she’d done since he was a small child. The gesture, so comforting, made him smile.

Aiyana’s eyes sparkled with mirth. “You, my son, are a silver-tongued devil.” She left unsaid the words,
just like your father
.

* * * *

18

Cammie reached over and slapped the offending thing making all the noise, still not ready to get up and face the day. Hearing the insistent beeping of her alarm clock, she finally rolled over and hit the snooze. If she could get ten more minutes, she would get up with a smile, or at least a facsimile of one.

“Dammit, I can’t believe I over-fucking-slept. Shit, shit, shit,” Cammie muttered an hour later. Rushing around, she grabbed a banana and a bottle of water, and ran out the door. The thought of being late for lunch with her mom and her nana, was about as appealing as the idea of torturing a small kitten for pleasure. She could hear and see them both with their frowns of disapproval.

She jumped in her pride and joy, a new four-door Jeep Wrangler, with its custom lift in platinum silver. Its chrome wheels finished off the sleek look. Her biological father might be a complete shit, but the man did have good taste in automobiles. He’d given Cammie her baby for her twenty-first birthday, and she treated it with kid gloves, much to her mother’s dismay.

She peeled out of her driveway, leaving a cloud of dust behind as she rushed to her family’s home. Seeing her mother’s beautiful face light up with pleasure eased Cammie’s worries.

Sending a thankful prayer she wasn’t getting the third degree for her tardiness, she waved.

Dyani opened the door. “You’re late.”

“I know, Mom. I’m sorry.”

“You’re here now.” Dyani motioned in the direction of the door. “Come inside.”

Cammie followed her mother into the home she shared with her nana and papa. They all had a love of log and stone homes, but her grandparents’ house was more luxurious. It was a three-story structure at the base of the mountains, near her family’s logging business set in the middle of the valley.

“You work too hard, baby,” Mahalu Hakun huffed.

“I love you too, Nana.” Cammie kissed her grandmother’s cheeks, and followed them into the kitchen, ignoring their regular argument.

“Of course you do, and I love you too, but you still work too hard. You need to find a nice fella and settle down. Give me great grandbabies to fuss over.”

19

Looking over her grandma’s head at her mother, Cammie mouthed the word
help
, but saw her mom was pretending not to laugh. She raised her eyebrow and promised retribution with that one look.

“So, Mom? How about you? Have you found a new beau? You know you’re still young, and

surely you could provide more grandbabies for nana to spoil.”

Coffee spewed out of Dyani’s mouth, and Cammie couldn’t help but laugh as her Mahalu

got up to pound her mom’s back.

“Honey, you need to be more careful, and drink slowly,” her nana warned.

Dyani’s eyes watered. “I’ve been too busy to think about that sort of thing, and besides, I have you. I think my hands are full.”

Laughing, Cammie raised her arms. She could see her mother was ready to laugh or throw one of her nana’s rolls at her head.

Lunch with her family would take all day if she allowed it. Even claiming she had chores to do before work wouldn’t deter her mother from making sure she cleaned her plate. It was only one of the reasons she loved her family so much.

“Lunch was delicious as always. If I keep eating like this, I’ll be no good for the firehouse.”

Cammie patted her flat stomach.

“Oh hush, you are too thin.” Her nana prepared to get up from the table, but stopped at the fierce look Cammie and her mother gave her. “Don’t give me that look, I invented it.”

“Mom, sit down. Cammie and I will clean this up.”

The way her papa got up to help his wife from her chair, made tears spring into her mother Dyani’s eyes. Cammie wished her mother would have found a man who did those things for her.

Dyani quickly hid her reaction by grabbing a stack of dishes, but Cammie saw it and regretted that her mom had given up her youth to raise a baby alone, although she was that child. Even knowing it wasn’t sadness that caused her to react that way, it still made Cammie sad to see her mother upset. They had the table clean, and leftovers put away in record time.

“I love you, Mom.” Such simple words, but they brought back the happiness that had fled Dyani’s face. Cammie knew her mother still hurt over the abandonment of her first love, Cammie’s father. For that alone Cammie would like to kick the jackhole in the ass. Her mother was the most loving and beautiful woman, and any man would be lucky to have her. Her father 20

was the one who was missing out on the best thing in the world, wherever he was. She hoped he was miserable.

“As I love you, Cammie. Now, I know you have to go. Go give your nana and papa a hug,

and call me when you get to the station. And don’t roll your eyes at me. I worry about you.”

It amazed Cammie how her mother could be both drill sergeant and loving mom, all rolled into one tiny woman. The hug she received was so strong that Cammie could do nothing else but squeeze back. She truly was lucky to have Dyani for a mom, and her nana and papa for

grandparents. She just wished her mother had a man to love like her grandparents. However, she was old enough to know not all wishes come true; life wasn’t a fairytale.

Her family stood on the porch as Cammie climbed back into her rig. She had several things to accomplish before going on rotation in the morning. First and foremost on that list was to get groceries. Cammie waved at them as she drove away, thinking of all the single men her mother’s age in town, and dismissed over three quarters of them. She’d just have to do a little more searching.

* * * *

Never in his thirty-three years had Keanu ever gotten car envy until now, when the hot little redhead from the night before just about plowed into his vehicle. Barely avoiding the collision with a quick twist of his wrist, and a slam on his brakes, he sat stunned and stared at the Jeep, as it came to a rocking stop.

Keanu lifted his left leg and rested it on the door jam, watching as the woman hopped out of her car, trying to apologize. The gorgeous creature jumped down, rushing toward him, talking so fast he had to repress a grin.

“Oh, shit. I’m so sorry,” she stammered.

His gaze roamed from her thick red hair, that looked lit from within, to her long shapely legs encased in the tiniest pair of white shorts, that had him picturing her wrapped around him. They hugged a butt he wanted to bite. He licked lips that were suddenly dry.

The thought of buying groceries before he reported to his new chief took a backseat to getting to know this woman. But first, he needed to unglue his tongue from the roof of his mouth.

21

“Hey, no harm, no foul. Nice set of wheels.” He nodded at the Jeep on steroids, while still sitting in his own vehicle.

“Thank you.” The mystery woman stared at him.

Fuckin’
A
, she looked even better in the daylight. Keanu felt a bead of sweat roll down between his shoulder blades, and a tightening in his groin. Drop-dead gorgeous didn’t even begin to cover how the woman looked standing next to his vehicle. He bet that if she bent over, he’d get a glimpse of her apple-shaped bottom. He didn’t even want to start on mental images of her lack of panties. There was abso-fucking-lutely no way she had any on, so he moved on to the red T-shirt, molded to her small but obviously firm breasts. He had an insane urge to wipe at his mouth.

He knew he was staring, but there was no helping it. Her lips were moving, and he had to make a conscientious effort to listen to the words coming out of her mouth.

“So, yeah, I’m sorry. I was in a hurry, which is no excuse.”

“You could make up for it by having dinner with me tonight,” Keanu said.

Color flooded her face and her feet shuffled, making him think of the juncture between her thighs. Shit, he needed to get his mind off of the dirty things he wanted to do to her, or with her.

Seriously, Raine, get a grip.

“Real smooth, Romeo, but I think I’ll pass.”

“Keanu.” He flashed a smile. “My name is Keanu.”

“I know.” She pressed a hand over her mouth.

He tried to put a name to the woman standing in front of him. Surely if they’d done the horizontal mambo, he’d remember her?

“I’m sorry, have we met?”

She rubbed her forehead. “This is so embarrassing.”

“What?” Keanu could feel the heat building inside his body.

“You saved my life, like ten years ago. I was stuck in a big pine.” She raised her hand above her head. “My name’s Cammie.” The words rushed from her mouth, while her hands made

gestures that had him smiling.

Damn, that was a long time ago, but he finally remembered. She’d been a scared little kid then. Her red hair was shorter back then, and she had definitely been a cute kid. However, the 22

creature standing in front of him didn’t stir the same feelings as the little girl he’d rescued. Not by a long shot.

“That was you?” Keanu asked with a chuckle. “Do you still find yourself stuck in trees?”

Okay, so that wasn’t the smartest thing to say, but he couldn’t picture that little girl, and this gorgeous woman, being one and the same. In his defense, it felt like half a lifetime ago, and the thoughts she roused in him now were nothing like before. When she’d been a girl, her tears had brought out his protective, big brother side. There was nothing brotherly boiling in his veins now.

“Ha, ha, ha. You’re a funny man. Yes, I still climb trees, I just don’t get stuck in them anymore.” She rolled her eyes.

“So, back to my first question.” He grinned. “Will you have dinner with me?”