Flashpoint

Chapter 10

After dancing with Cristina, Zach moved to the coolers to get a drink. He pulled out a soda, then stood there with the waves at his back, looking for Brooke.

She’d been dancing with Blake, but now was with Sam, who was making the most of his time with her. Twice the firefighter’s hands slipped to her ass, and twice Brooke lifted them to her waist.

Sam grinned in a can’t-blame-a-guy-for-trying way, and Zach considered going over there and tossing him into the ocean, but he didn’t.

An hour ago, Brooke had been in his arms, panting his name as she came all over him. She’d let loose now. Washed him right out of her system and that was fine. Hell, that was great. He’d just move on, too, and-

“You holding up?” Tommy asked, stopping next to Zach, sipping a beer.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Haven’t heard from you in a few hours. Couldn’t figure out if I should be worried, or if it was because you were finally trusting me to do my job.”

Zach let out a long breath. “And how is that going? Your job?”

Tommy just took a drink.

“Shit. Don’t tell me it’s not going.”

“I’m not saying that. I’m not saying anything.”

“Well, then, say something.”

“You’re just going to have to trust me a little bit longer.”

Unfortunately, he really had no choice. Tommy walked away, and Zach watched Brooke dance some more. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair a little wild. She’d definitely loosened up tonight, and he couldn’t tear his gaze off her. Forcing himself to, he moved to stand by Blake, who was back at the bonfire.

The other firefighter tossed a log into the flames, watched it catch. “You could just ask her to dance.”

“Who?”

Blake shook his head in disgust, then tossed another log into the fire before swiping a forearm over his sweaty brow. He didn’t look so good, and Zach frowned. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you take a break, let me relieve you for a few?”

“I’ve got it.”

Blake had been quiet and down all year since Lynn had died. Of all of them, Zach thought maybe he at least knew a little of what he was feeling. “Blake-”

“I said I’m good.”

Great. They were both good.

And they were both liars.

For Zach, the next few days whirled by, a blurry, crazy merge of calls. He didn’t sleep well, and finally gave up even trying, ending up at the firehouse kitchen table with his laptop, going through all his gathered arson information to distract himself from daydreaming about the feel of Brooke’s curves, the taste of her skin…

And then the object of his fantasies walked into the room.

She was early for her shift, looking a little sleepy and a whole lot sexy as she headed directly toward the coffeepot on the counter.

They hadn’t had a chance to speak alone since she’d worn that pretty dress with her hair down, her body soft and giving and sweet.

So goddamn sweet.

Her mouth was still soft and sweet now, but she was back in the uniform, complete with her hair all carefully pulled back.

Buttoned-up.

It didn’t matter. He remembered what she looked like with her hair down, not to mention without her clothes, and he wanted to undo her all over again.

He wanted that. He, the one who’d not wanted a relationship.

Jesus. He really needed more sleep.

Brooke doctored herself some coffee, then looked at him. “What are you doing?”

Since the answer to that was, “something I shouldn’t be,” he shut the laptop.

“You and Blake. I caught him looking at porn, too.”

“Excuse me, but I was not looking at porn.”

Over her mug, she raised a brow. “What was it Viagra Man said? Guys will be guys?”

“For God’s sake.” He opened the laptop back up. “Come here and look for yourself.”

“Oh no, thank you.” She was laughing now, and lifted her free hand. “What you do in your own spare time-”

Reaching out, he grabbed her hand and tugged her over, letting go just before she fell right into his lap, where he really wanted her.

She sat in the chair next to him and looked at him for a long beat; he looked back.

“Hi,” she whispered.

He smiled. “Hi.”

Turning her head, she stared at the screen, at the list of property deeds and the records of ownership he’d been studying, and her smile faded.

“The fires,” she said quietly. “The arsons.”

“Yeah. Doing some research.” Which was getting him nowhere. Nothing matched. None of the current owners, none of the past owners, none of the three properties were related to each other in any way. After all these weeks, he was at an impasse, and was afraid Tommy was, too.

“You’re trying to link them together.”

He wasn’t supposed to be doing any such thing. He certainly shouldn’t be discussing it.

“What about the way the fires were started?” she asked.

They’d all been started in a wire-mesh trash can, with a second point of origin as bait for the investigator to find and be misdirected, but he was afraid he was the only one who knew that. “Similar,” he admitted.

“Suspects?”

He stared at her. She wasn’t lecturing him on how stupid it was to risk his job digging into this. She wasn’t telling him all the reasons why these fires hadn’t been arson. She was sitting here, believing him, believing in him. “Most arson is committed by the owners. But the owners of these properties aren’t connected in any way that I can see.”

“New structures? Or old?”

“Newer.”

“What about contractors, then?”

“All different.”

“Okay, then. Back to location.” Standing up, Brooke paced the length of the kitchen and back again. Leaning in over his shoulder, she typed on the keys of the laptop. “If we compare their footprints…”

He couldn’t stop staring at her, bowled over by her analytical mind, her quick thinking. “I already did.”

“And?”

And her scent was extremely distracting. As was the way her breast gently pressed into his arm. “They were all different square footage,” he told her. “Different building types. Different everything.”

“Show me.”

He brought up the map he’d created. Her arm was resting on his shoulder. Her skin looked so damned silky, and he knew from experience that she tasted amazing.

Everywhere.

“There’s got to be a connection.” She was studying the screen, her brow furrowed, her mouth grim. “Somewhere.”

She believed in him. The knowledge was staggering. “Brooke.”

“Somebody is connected in some way. An employee, a relative, someone…” She was thinking, chewing on her lower lip, eyes still glued to the screen, and he couldn’t take his off her.

“Maybe-”

“Brooke.” Her gaze cut to his questioningly.

And he lost his breath. Instead of talking, he tugged on her hand, so that she was forced to lean in closer until she lost her balance.

He caught her.

And then he kissed her.

With a soft murmur, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Oh yeah, this was what he’d needed for days-hell, maybe his entire life-and he kissed her until they had to break apart to breathe.

They were still staring at each other when the kitchen door opened and Aidan walked in. “Hey.”

Brooke leaped back to her chair like a Mexican jumping bean.

“Anyone got food?” Aidan asked.

“Uh…” Brooke put her hands to her cheeks. “I have cookies on the top shelf.”

“Score.” Aidan helped himself while Brooke rose to her feet.

“Gotta clock in,” she said and, with a last glance at Zach, left the room.

Zach thunked his head to the table.

“What?” Aidan took two fistfuls of cookies and plopped himself down next to Zach, peering at the laptop. “Trying to link them.” He nodded. “Hey, maybe if you-”

“Aidan.”

“Huh?”

He had to laugh. “I was sort of in the middle of something with Brooke.”

Aidan blinked. “Oh. You mean…” He pointed a finger at himself. “You wanted me to leave you two alone?”

“Man, you are quick.”

“I thought you two already knocked it out.”

Zach winced, and Aidan sat back. “Wow.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, it’s something.”

“Okay. You’re falling for her.”

The door burst open again and Brooke stood there looking more than a little ruffled.

Aidan got to his feet. “Apparently I’m supposed to leave you two alone.”

Zach rolled his eyes.

Brooke just kept staring at him until Aidan was gone. “Did you know everybody is talking about us? Why is everyone talking about us? It feels like we’re twelve and in middle school.”

“Since there’s sex involved, let’s call it high school. Ignore it. It’ll blow over.”

She glared at him. He couldn’t help it; he laughed. “It will.”

“You’re not bothered at all?” she asked.

“I’m just saying it’s what they do. Seriously, it’ll all fade away if you just-”

“Yeah, yeah. Let it go. But maybe I’m not like you, all cool and calm and so laid-back that I have to be checked for a pulse.”

Before he could say anything to that, she sighed and rubbed her eyes. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair. I guess I’m still having bad new-kid flashbacks.”

He moved toward her and lowered her hands from her face. “We’re adults, and we made a decision. A decision that turned out to be the best night of my entire summer. Don’t regret it, Brooke. Please don’t.”

As she looked at him, her eyes softened. Her body softened, too, and she nodded. “It was nice, wasn’t it?”

“Nice?” He shook his head. “Nice is a walk in the park. Nice is a sweet goodbye kiss. Nice is a lot of things, Brooke, but it doesn’t come even close to covering what we did on that rock.”

“Okay, so maybe nice isn’t quite the right word. How about good? Do you like that word better?”

He looked into her eyes. Beyond the irritation was a light that said she was playing with him now, but he’d show her good. Backing her to the refrigerator, Zach covered her mouth with his, swallowing her little gasp of surprise, a gasp that quickly turned into the hottest murmur of undeniable need and hunger he’d ever heard when his tongue swept alongside hers.

And though he’d meant only to show her up, he ended up showing himself something. That she fit against him as if she’d been made for the spot. That her scent filling his head, and the feel of her hands fisting in his shirt fueled his hunger as she sighed into his mouth, until it became so damn arousing he couldn’t bear it. Pulling back, he stroked a hand down her body and felt her knees buckle.

His own weren’t so steady, either, but a fierce sense of satisfaction went through him. Still holding her between the refrigerator and his own hard, aching body, he looked down into her face. “Tell me again that that was merely good. I dare you.”

“Okay.” She licked her lips, an action that didn’t help calm him down any. “Does shockingly incredible work for you, Officer Hottie?”

He rolled his eyes but could admit that yeah, shockingly incredible worked far better. “So what now?”

“The million-dollar question, Zach? From you? Really?”

He found himself staring at her. Holy shit, had he actually asked, “What now?”

“Yeah,” she said into the charged silence. “That’s what I thought. There’s nothing now. Both of us know it. We just have to remember it.”

Later that day, after having been out for hours on a series of nonemergency transport calls, Dustin and Brooke were directed to a familiar address for another Code Calico.

“How about you take it this time,” Brooke said to Dustin.

He looked amused. “You catch on quick.”

“I try.”

“You’re trying a lot of things lately. Or people. What?” he said innocently when she sent him a long look. “Just wondering about the status.”

“I’m not asking you the status of your love life.”

“Ha!” He grinned victoriously. “So you admit there is a love life.”

They arrived on scene, mercifully saving Brooke from having to answer, since she didn’t know the answer. The truth was, she no longer knew anything at all about what she and Zach were doing. Stepping out onto the sidewalk, she craned her neck, searching the three large trees out in front of Phyllis’s place for the cat.

No Cecile in sight.

“Dustin,” she said, watching as Aidan and Zach pulled up, moving with steady purpose toward the house, not the yard. “What’s going on?”

Dustin put the radio mic back in its place, his expression suddenly serious. “It’s not Cecile after all. Grab your bag.”

For a split second, she stared at his back as he headed to the front door, then grabbed her bag and ran after him.

Inside the house, the shades were drawn, but she could still see well enough. As her grandmother’s place had been, the house was filled to the brim with furniture from another era, upon which knickknacks covered every inch. But there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere, even the wood floors had been shined.

“In here!”

She and Dustin followed Zach’s voice down a hallway, its walls hidden by photographs from at least five decades, to a bedroom filled completely with lace. In the center, on the floor, lay Phyllis. Far too still at her feet sat Cecile, gaze glued to her mistress, tail twitching.

Zach was kneeling at Phyllis’s side, holding her hand, saying something to her.

Phyllis, eyes closed, responded with a nod. “Yes, Zachie, I can hear you. Tell Cecile I’m okay. She’s worried.”

“Phyllis, about your meds.” Zach spoke calmly, evenly, any personal concern well tucked away, but Brooke could see it in his eyes. “Did you forget to take them?”

“No, I took my damn pills. You hound me enough about it, I don’t forget.”

“Okay, good.” Zach squeezed her hand. “That’s good.”

Dustin moved in and crouched at her other side, and began taking vitals. Brooke recorded everything, all the while watching Zach be so sweet and gentle and kind.

Why she was surprised, she had no idea. She’d seen him in action before, with many victims by now, and he was always sweet and gentle and kind.

He’d been nothing but those things with her, as well.

And once, on a rock beneath a star littered sky, he’d been much, much more…

When it was determined that Phyllis had to be transported to the hospital, Zach helped get her on a gurney, where the older woman began to panic. “I can’t leave. What about Cecile?” Reaching out, she gripped Zach’s shirt with an iron fist. “I don’t want to go!”

“Phyllis.” Zach took both her hands in his. “Your doctor wants you to meet him at the hospital. He wants to stabilize your condition-”

“Condition shmondition. I don’t have time for him. I’m fine. Completely fine, I’m telling you.”

But she wasn’t. Her color was off, her breathing coming too shallow and too fast, and, given the grimace on her face, she knew it, too. “Damn it,” she said, sagging back. “Damn it. I’m not going.” But she said this much weaker than before. “I’m not. You can’t make me.”

“Phyllis.” Zach stroked back her gray hair as he leaned on the gurney to look into her eyes. “You do this for me and I’ll take care of Cecile. Okay?”

“You’ll take care of her?”

“I promise.”

Phyllis covered her mouth with a shaking hand and nodded. “Your mother would be so proud of you. I hope you know that.”

He squeezed her hand. “Just get better.” He gestured to Dustin and Aidan, and they carried her out of the bedroom, navigating down the tight, cramped hallway.

Zach looked around Phyllis’s room with an unreadable expression. Then, with a sigh, he grabbed the unhappy cat and tucked her into the crook of his arm. Turning to leave, he found Brooke watching him.

As it had since the beginning, their odd connection caused a spark to pinball off her insides, from one erotic zone to another, and all the ones in between-but this wasn’t about their crazy physical attraction. Standing there, looking at him, she suddenly knew. It didn’t matter that she’d told herself she wouldn’t get her heart involved.

It already was.

“You okay?” she whispered.

“Yeah. It’s just that she-” Shutting his mouth, he shook his head. Brooke moved closer and put her hand on his arm.

Something went between them at the touch. Not the usual heat but something much, much more.

Yeah, her heart was involved. Big-time.

Phyllis resisted getting into the ambulance. She wanted to stay home, she wanted her cat, she wanted everyone to get the hell away from her. She even tried a diversion technique.

“There was a man in my yard,” she claimed suddenly as they loaded her inside the rig. “Did you see him? He was holding something.”

“Phyllis,” Dustin said gently. “You’re going to the hospital. If not for me and Brooke, then for yourself.”

“I recognize his face, I just can’t quite place him…”

“It’s going to be okay.” Brooke sat with her and held her hand. “You’re going to be okay. We’re just going to the hospital so your doctor can check on you-”

Phyllis shook her head, her eyes cloudy as she struggled to get up. “You people are idiots.”

Brooke sighed. “You promised Zach you’d do this, remember?”

The old lady closed her eyes. “Zachie.”

“Yes. He gave you his word that he’d take care of Cecile. And you gave him yours that you’d go get checked out.”

Phyllis’s mouth tightened, but she stopped fighting at least. Zach’s name had calmed her down.

Brooke had a feeling Zach had that control over every woman in his life, whether he realized it or not.

“There really was a man in my yard with a blowtorch, or something like one,” Phyllis grumbled, sounding more like her old self.

In the back of the unit as she was, Brooke couldn’t see out. She met Dustin’s eyes in the rearview mirror and he shook his head. He didn’t see a man.

Brooke squeezed Phyllis’s hand.

The older woman held on with surprising strength as she looked into Brooke’s eyes, her own filled with grief and fear. “I really want to stay home.”

“You’ll go back soon.”

“Promise?”

She was so scared. Brooke’s throat tightened, burned. If there was one thing she never quite got used to, it was the helplessness she felt over the things she couldn’t make better. “Yes,” she whispered. “I promise.”

After dropping Phyllis off in the ambulance bay of the E.R., Brooke and Dustin were called to another transport. The minute they were free again, Brooke tracked down a nurse to find out what she could about Phyllis’s condition.

The nurse pulled her chart. “She’s in renal and heart failure.”

Brooke’s brain refused to process that. “What?”

“Yes, the doctor was just with her.”

“Oh my God.”

“It’s been happening for quite a while. Apparently the patient has actually known for months. She’ll be staying a while this time.”

“But-I promised her she’d be back home soon.”

The nurse frowned at her over the chart. “It’s not your job to make promises of any kind.”

“I…” Brooke knew that, so she had no idea why she’d done so. “I didn’t know about her condition.”

“Of course not, because you’re not her doctor.” The nurse looked down her nose at Brooke, reigning supreme. “Do yourself and your future patients a favor and don’t make rash promises. Don’t make any promises.” Spinning on her heels, she walked away.

Brooke staggered to a chair and let her weak legs sink until she was sitting. Renal and heart failure…

“Rough day?”

She looked up at Zach, in full firefighter gear and looking a little worse for wear himself. “Yeah. Rough day.” Damn it, she could barely speak past the huge lump in her throat. “But not as rough as Phyllis’s.”

“So you know.”

When she nodded miserably, he sighed and crouched in front of her. He was in her space but in a very lovely way, his big body sort of curled around her protectively, his eyes easy and calm and full of something she hadn’t known was missing in her life.

Simple and true affection.

“I’ve got Cecile at the firehouse,” he said. “Happily scratching the furniture and terrorizing the crew.”

He’d made a promise and had followed through. For some reason, that got to her. “Zach. I screwed up.”

“We all do.”

“I promised Phyllis she could go home soon. But-” Her voice cracked and she stopped talking. Had to stop talking because she couldn’t stand the thought of breaking a promise. Her past was a virtual wasteland of promises broken by her mother, and she’d made it a rule to never, ever do the same thing.

Zach let out a long breath, then reached for her hand.

“Now’s probably not a good time to be nice to me,” she managed. Damn it, she hated this. Hated that she’d failed, much less failed a woman she cared about. “When I’m near a breakdown and someone’s nice, I tend to lose it.”

“You should know I’m not so good with tears.”

She pulled her hand free and closed her eyes. “Well, then, you’re not going to like what’s coming next.” Eyes still shut, she felt him shift his weight. When he didn’t speak, she figured that he’d left her by herself, which was definitely for the best. With a sigh, she opened her eyes, prepared to be alone.

As she always had been.

But to Brooke’s shock, he’d never left her side.