Flash Point (Kilgore Fire Book 2) (11 page)

She pursed her lips, and I could see her mind gearing up to yell out something that she probably didn’t mean.

That was who Masen was.

Exactly like her sister had described.

React first, think second.

“Listen,” I said, pulling her up by the backs of her arms.

She came reluctantly, glaring at me as she did.

“What?” She hissed.

“I fucking love you, okay?” I said
. “I’ve loved you for so long that I don’t even know how to love someone else. When I married Emily, I felt like I cheated on you, even though we weren’t technically even together,” I continued. “You’re the executor of my will. You’re the beneficiary for all of my stuff. If I die, you’ll be the first one they call. Trust me, you’re it for me and always have been.”

Her mouth dropped open.

“Why do you have a will?” She inquired a tad shrilly.

“Every soldier going on deployment is urged to file a will and testament along with a few other things with an attorney in case of the worst,” I said.

Her eyes opened wide.

“It’s like they’re admitting that you may die!” She cried.

“It’s a very real possibility that every soldier faces,” I said. “Each and every soldier deployed might not come back. That’s just a fact of life. It happens and can happen to anyone.”

She shook her head.

“That’s fucked up,” she said. “How come you didn’t tell me that you put me on all of that? Since, apparently, you had it even before you left.”

“I did have it before I left,” I said. “But I didn’t really want you thinking about how bad it could be. The possibility of me not coming home is not what I wanted you to focus on.”

She crossed her arms over her chest.

“This sucks,” she said.

I nodded. “It did.”

“What about your job now? There’s not a requirement to have a will for that, is there?” She pouted.

I sat down onto the couch and pulled her into my side.

She fell with a soft plop and placed her head down on my chest.

My heart pounded slow and steady as I spoke.

“My job now is different, but still dangerous,” I said. “There’s always the possibility that I’ll die while on a scene. But it’s definitely something you need to be aware of. A firefighter isn’t the easiest or safest job in the world.”

She sighed.

“I liked it better when I didn’t know,” she said. “It’s easier to feign ignorance that way.”

I snorted.

“So who do you think sent you the letter, my mom or my dad?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I planned on asking, unless you don’t want me to.”

“Oh, I want to know. I can’t believe they did that.” She gestured to the piece of paper that’d fallen onto the floor where she’d been standing when I’d pulled her into me.

“Well we can ask them tomorrow,” I said.

“Tomorrow?” Her brows rose.

I nodded. “You said you had dinner with them, correct?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d want to come.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked.

She shrugged and rolled her head up to look at me.

“I never told my parents why, exactly, we broke up. They just know that I broke it off,” she admitted.

I nodded.

“I figured as much. My parents know it all, though,” I said. “They’ve been lecturing me for years. They’ve also been really good about giving me all the information I want on you without making me feel stupid for hanging on so tight.”

She snorted.

“You’re terrible. I think I had my mom stalking you. As did my dad. And your dad, for that matter,” she giggled. “We’re two of a kind, aren’t we?”

I pulled her until her face was inches from mine and said. “We were made for each other.”

Then I kissed the shit out of her.

Dinner with the parents should earn you at least a cookie. No…a whole fucking cake.

-Masen’s secret thoughts

Masen

I glanced nervously at the door as we pulled up on Booth’s motorcycle.

I was dressed head to toe in leather.

We’d spent the day riding, and now we were in front of my parents’ door.

And my parents didn’t know that Booth was coming.

“Just chill out,” Booth said for the fifth time. “They liked me before, well, once they got over you dating me anyway. There’s no reason they won’t like me now.”

I willed my stomach to chill out and swung my leg over, standing up to my full height and staring at the mailbox in disgust. It was brand new. Again.

“Someone hit my parent’s box again,” I said. “They do that once a month. On purpose.”

“What?” He asked. “Why?”

I shook my head and shrugged.

“No clue. All I know is that they replace it, and it’ll take about three or four days before they fix it. Then within a week it’s broken again,” I explained.

Booth’s brows furrowed.

“That sounds like you need to put some surveillance up,” Booth said. “All you really need is like a deer camera or something to go off when it captures movement. Since they’re at the end of the block you shouldn’t get many cars down by the mailbox.”

I nodded. “That makes sense. I’ll run it by dad.”

My gaze went across the street, and I shuddered when I saw my parents’ neighbors that were directly across the street. They creeped me out, and had since I was younger.

Booth took my hand, diverting my attention, and led me up the front path to my parents’ house, stopping when we reached the front door.

Without hesitation, he knocked and stepped back, taking me with him.

He tucked me under his arm and stared calmly at the front door.

Which opened moments later.

My mom’s mouth hit the floor when she saw Booth.

“Michael Booth Jones,” she whispered, lurching forward. “I’m so glad to see you!”

I rolled my eyes.

My mom was such a shit.

She talked a good game, but when it came to ‘Mikey’ she was a sucker and always had been.

“Hi, Karen,” Booth smiled. “How are you doing?” He asked, patting her back.

I disentangled my arm from Booth’s and walked inside, looking for my dad.

“Dad!” I called.

Dad came out from behind me and scared the shit out of me.

“Shit,” I said, heart pounding. “Where’d you come from?”

My dad smiled and pointed over his shoulder at the side yard where he’d built a koi pond for my mother.

“I was feeding the fish,” he explained.

I nodded and walked to the door to look at the pond.

“The fish are getting big,” I noticed.

“The big white one was the small one of the bunch when we got him, now he’s the size of my foot,” he pointed at his foot.

I agreed.

He was getting big—the fish, not my dad.

“What are you feeding them, miracle grow?” I muttered.

My dad snorted.

“Your mother makes me buy them this high performance pet food, and I swear they doubled in size within a month of starting it,” he told me.

Then he froze as he got a look at who was inside with me.

Then a huge smile broke out over his face.

“Happy Veteran’s Day, Booth,” he called, offering Booth his hand.

Booth took it and shook, nodding his head. “Thank you.”

“What are you doing here?” My mom asked him bluntly.

Booth looked over at me, smiled, and then moved his gaze back to my mom.

“Masen and I are back together,” he said without preamble.

My mother’s mouth dropped open, but dad didn’t look too surprised, making me narrow my eyes.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I hissed.

He looked at me almost repentantly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied, but I could clearly see the smugness in his eyes.

I rolled my eyes at him, causing him to smile.

“Thank you,” I said softly.

He smiled down at me. “Anything for you, baby. It’s good to see you smile like that again.”

I felt something warm overtake my heart once again for the millionth time that day.

“I love you, daddy,” I whispered.

He winked at me.

“Your mom made his favorite, you know,” Dad said.

“What?” Booth
exclaimed, his ears perking up.

I laughed.

Booth was in love with my mother’s lasagna for some reason.

Hell, I thought it was just plain old lasagna.

Booth, however, freakin’ loved it.

“I made lasagna,” my mother exploded excitedly.

Booth left us without another word, leaving us all laughing like we used to do.

“I see he hasn’t changed,” my mom said with amusement.

I shook my head.

No, I guess he hadn’t.

Not where it counted, anyway.

Dinner was almost like it used to be before he’d left…except for Daniela’s trilling laughter not being there.

She loved Booth almost as much as I did, in a brotherly way of course.

She really used to have a crush on Booth’s step-brother, but they’d never progressed past anything but friendship. I think that was more on Daniela’s part rather than Aaron’s.

“Do you want more, Booth?” My mom held up the spatula with a small, pleased smile.

Booth eyed the pan as my mom was about to scoop him another slice from, and groaned in defeat.

“I can’t,” he said. “I’ve had way more than I could handle, and I’ll be lucky if I’ll be able to roll my way out of here.”

My mother smirked.

“You can take some home,” my dad offered. “She made two pans.”

“Score,” Booth crowed, leaning back and patting his full belly with one hand.

Not that you could tell it was full.

His abs still stood out blatantly despite his three pieces of lasagna.

Me, I’d had to unbutton my pants after the first piece and a half.

Not that anyone had noticed that I’d had to do it.

A strange beeping sound had me turning to see Booth staring in horror at a…
pager
?

“What is it?” I asked worriedly.

He sighed and stood up, trying not to grimace.

“SWAT,” he said.

Just one word had the power to bring me to my knees.

“What?” I asked.

He nodded. “I’m on the SWAT team, and there’s been a callout.”

On the SWAT team…and there’s been a callout.

“Since fucking when are you on the SWAT team?” I barked in horror at him.

He froze, looking at me with wariness now.

“Can we talk about this when I get back to your place tonight?” He asked carefully.

“If you get back to me tonight,” I muttered under my breath, staring at the table.

When next I looked up, it was to see Booth exiting the kitchen door and not looking back.

Shit.

For fox sake.

-Coffee Cup

Masen

I tossed and turned in my bed, finally settling on my back and glaring at the ceiling in annoyance.

I wasn’t going to sleep.

Not until I knew he was safe.

I moved my head to look at the clock on my nightstand and sighed, getting up to face my day.

It was only five in the morning, and I didn’t have to be at work until eight…but I couldn’t lay here anymore, worrying.

He’d been gone for well over eight hours now, and I’d been tossing and turning for six of them.

Throwing the covers off of me in a snap of fabric, I stood up and snagged my pants from the floor.

Yanking them on, one foot at a time, I grabbed the first pair of socks from the top of my laundry pile and sat on the side of the bed to slip them on. Then grabbed my tennis shoes from where I’d kicked them off earlier, when I’d come to bed, and shoved my feet into them without untying them first.

Then I walked out of my room and grabbed my taser/flashlight that hung right inside my back door.

Then, without another thought, I exited out my back door and rounded the corner of my house.

A house that I’d rented from my grandmother now that she’d moved into a retirement home.

It needed quite a bit of updating and could really use some special love and care, but I never planned on staying here that long.

It wasn’t really a place that I could see myself staying in for the rest of my life, and I knew for a fact that Booth didn’t like it.

He hated the location when my Grammy lived here and had always wanted to be somewhere far in the country.

Then I got even more upset with him because I didn’t know where he lived.

So I started out my run pissed off with the situation.

I’d texted Booth four times throughout the night, too scared to call him because I didn’t want to interrupt anything.

But surely he could’ve sent me a text message, right?

I ran for about four minutes before I got too tired to move my legs. Or maybe it was because I couldn’t breathe.

No matter the reason, I was walking when I realized that I wasn’t alone.

“Shit,” I said, whirling around.

A man stood there, not ten feet behind me, and I smiled at him. A smile that I hoped didn’t look more like a grimace.

“Oh, hi, Dash!” I called nervously. “You scared me.”

Dash waved me off.

Dash was my creepy neighbor. The son to my parents’ creepy neighbors.

He was the one thing I didn’t like when it came to my neighborhood, and if I could pick one thing to change, it would be to have him find another place to live that wasn’t within a fifty-mile radius of me.

“You’re really in the zone,” he grinned, sounding disturbing, as per his usual.

He probably wouldn’t be that bad if I never saw him…or talked to him.

But every time I seemed to be out of my house, he was out of his, too.

He lived across the street from me.

Without fail, whenever I walked out of my house, he walked out of his.

I put my trash out, he put out his.

I washed my car, he washed his car.

It was like he was some horror show copy-cat that watched my every move.

I kept walking, then circled around the cul-de-sac, and came back up.

This time I was on the opposite side of the street from Dash, but it didn’t stop me from clutching my taser even tighter. He was creepy.

My finger itched to press the button…I guess just to show him that I had something to protect myself since it would make that scary snapping sound when I pressed the button.