Chapter One

 

 

 

 

 

Tori

Seven years later

 

 

 

As soon as I was in the middle of the backseat, I pulled the helmet off of my head and let it drop to the floor of the truck with a small groan. We’d been on the scene for almost nine hours and every muscle in my body was sore. Couple that with the intense huger and extreme fatigue and I was a hot mess.

“God, that sucked.” Nick Christos had his helmet off, too, and his head was resting against the seat behind him. His face was dirty- stained with sweat, soot, and who the hell knows what else. I was sure mine didn’t look any better. “I need a shower, some food, and a nap.”

Our lieutenant and one of my good friends, Simon Owens, made a noise of agreement from the front seat but didn’t say anything else. The driver of our rig, Tyson Lennox, was already in behind the wheel and currently chugging down one of the bottles of water a Good Samaritan had been handing out at the scene.

Gil Trujillo finally climbed into the seat next to me and shut the door. Owens mumbled something to Lennox and the truck lurched forward almost immediately. I let my eyes close and tried to ignore how disgusting I felt or how much we all smelled. Even though I was used to it, there were some days that it was almost too much for even me.

I had been a firefighter for nine of my twenty-eight years, having started as a first responder at just eighteen and entering the academy at nineteen. Since the moment I’d been old enough to understand what a firefighter did, I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life. My brother felt the same way and the two of us had spent our lives pushing each other to be as good as possible.

It didn’t take long before we were pulling into the bay of the New Hope Fire Department, Station Three, and none of us moved even after Lennox had turned off the engine. Hell, I wasn’t even sure we were all awake.

“Get out, guys,” Owens finally said, taking his own advice and pushing open his door. “Rinse down so you can go home and pass out.”

“I told Renee I’d get Eli after our shift,” Christos grumbled as he heaved himself out of the truck, not bothering to offer me a helping hand. He knew I’d break it if he did. I jumped down after him and we both went to hang up our turnout gear.

“I’m sure she’ll understand. I bet she’d rather keep him than risk you falling asleep mid-feed.”

Christos and one of my other close friends, Kelly, had married a little over a year before. Just four months ago, Kelly had given birth to their son, Elias, and I’d seen Christos mature leaps and bounds with those two in his life. Gone was the playboy who chased skirts like they were going out of style and instead a devoted family man had replaced him. I was happy for them both. Besides, I got the cutest little pseudo-nephew out of the deal.

Christos muttered something that sounded like an agreement as he followed me up the stairs to the second floor of the station house. That level housed the basic comforts of home, including the kitchen, dining room, entertainment room, bunkrooms, and bathrooms. The areas were occupied with members of the 22^nd company, who had started their shifts two hours ago when ours were supposed to end.

They weren’t offended when we walked past where they were eating breakfast and watching TV, barely mumbling our hellos. They knew how tiring long shifts could be so they left us alone to go bathe the souvenirs of fire off us.

As we neared the bunkrooms, the guys started moving a bit faster. They rushed to get to their rooms for clean clothes and raced one another to the bathroom. There were only six stalls in the men’s room and nine male members of the company. Showers after the end of our long shifts were always a frenzied race. I joked at one point that some of them could shower together to save water and paid for it later when the assholes hid the cookies from me.

Touchy little boys.

Being the only female in the company had its perks, at least with the New Hope Fire Department. Not only did I get my own bunkroom because sharing with males wasn’t an option, I also had the women’s bathroom all to myself. That meant never having to wait for a shower and never having to worry about dealing with some of the rancid smells that came along with nine people sharing two toilets and two urinals.

Both also had locking doors which meant I didn’t have to worry about my safety.

I ducked into my own room to grab a change of clothes and didn’t waste any time heading into the bathroom. My shower supplies were on a shelf in there next to one other woman’s. She was a member of the 23rd and the only other woman that was assigned to our station house.

My clothes were disgusting. Still damp with sweat in places, I left them on the floor and stepped into the spray, sighing in relief the second the hot water hit my sore muscles. My bi-weekly massage appointment was scheduled for the next day and the thought alone was enough to put a smile on my face.

Although I could have stayed in the water forever, I got out once I was sure I didn’t stink anymore. Since I was going off-shift, I pulled on a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt that was at least a size too big.

Despite it being the middle of summer in Southern Nevada, I refused to wear shorts, tank tops, or fitted tees around my co-workers. I learned my lesson after my experience in Vegas. If the men saw me as an attractive female, they treated me like I was nothing more than that. I could deal with it if it was just being seen as weaker. It wasn’t hard to prove to most of the guys that I was stronger than them, even the ones that outweighed me by a hundred pounds.

The sexual harassment and sexual assault, on the other hand, had the potential to break me.

After that video was released, Dunsworth was suspended by the captain and chief but the damage was done. The other guys in the house took that as a green light to approach me, asking if I wanted to take a ride on their dick or telling me how pretty my tits were. They didn’t stop at words, either. Some of them walked in on me in the shower, others actually copped a feel of either my ass or my breasts. I’d even woken up to one of the guys jacking off in my bunkroom while he watched me sleep.

It was a nightmare. I didn’t feel safe and no one took me seriously anymore. I ended up taking a leave of absence from the department but never went back to LVFR.

It became so bad in Vegas that I couldn’t even just transfer to another station house. I had to leave the city altogether. I had come to New Hope and left the old Victoria Jones behind. I refused to make friends with my co-workers. Hell, I refused to be friendly at all. About two years passed before I realized that I could trust the men I was around and finally stopped being a total bitch to them. That didn’t mean I had let my guard down completely, though.

Dunsworth lost his job with LVFR and after I pressed charges, he ended up spending a single year in Nevada State Prison for Unlawful Dissemination of an Intimate Image. Or, you know, Revenge Porn. All of that because I was performing better than him at work.

Lt. Widener was forced into a quiet, very early retirement about three months after everything happened and after the union finally brought to light how he was failing to protect me. Tim Palumbo had been the one to succeed him as lieutenant, a title very worthy for him.

I had seen Widener on the streets about a year later and honestly thought he was going to hit me. Luckily, I was with Vincent, who didn’t see the former lieutenant, and Widener ended up glaring before turning around.

I ran a brush through my blonde hair, which was now cut to my shoulders, but didn’t do anything with it otherwise. It was just going up into a ponytail once it was dry anyway. No make-up was added to my plain face and I barely took the time to look at my reflection before scooping up my dirty clothes and heading out of the bathroom. I was in my room getting my crap together so I could leave when someone knocked on the door softly.

“Yeah?”

The door cracked open and a head popped in. Lennox offered me a small smile as he jerked his chin in my direction. “Want to go grab lunch?”

He was a handsome man. Built like a tank and about eight inches taller than my five-nine, Tyson was one of the few people I knew I couldn’t take down. His dishwater blonde hair was cut short on his head and his knowing chocolate brown eyes seemed to see everything. It was unnerving sometimes.

“I appreciate the invite, but I’m so fucking beat.” I reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “Rain check?”

He grinned and nodded his head. “Deal, but you’re paying next time since you’re postponing.”

“Whatever.” I shoved his shoulder and the two of us headed down the hall towards the staircase. We passed more members of the 22^nd, waving goodbye to them as we did, and Owens was talking to the captain at the bottom of the stairs. They turned towards us when they heard Lennox and me coming, and Captain Stevenson nodded at us.

“Good work today. Both of you.”

“Thanks, Cap,” I replied while Lennox just nodded. Owens smiled and put his hands on his hips.

“Megs told me that you ladies are having a spa day tomorrow.”

I rolled my eyes. His brand new bride, Megan, was a great friend and even better person. She was good for Owens and I appreciated the way she’d instilled new life into him since they met.

“Your wife calls it a spa day, I call it my standing appointment with the masseuse to keep my body from aging too quickly.”

“My wife,” he said, emphasizing the second word like he always did. He was so proud to call her that. “Has delusions of grandeur. I think she dreams of doing the real spa experience with you one day.”

“She has to be delusional. She married you after all.” I cast him a smirk and held my hand up in a wave. “I’m out of here. I need sleep. See ya, Cap… Lieu.”

Lennox muttered his own goodbye and we both headed out the door, getting blasted in the face with over one-hundred degree temperatures instantly. I turned to look at him as we approached my SUV.

“What are you doing for the next two days?”

He shrugged his shoulders and leaned against the hood while I shoved my backpack inside. “I’ll probably indulge in too much TV.”

“Are you going to spend time with the mystery man?” I asked and Ty immediately looked away from me.

Tyson Lennox was about ten years older than me and I was pretty sure that most of our co-workers thought we were involved. Like me, he had some crappy experiences in his past that had him putting a front on at work to protect himself.

He started out as a firefighter in the state of Wyoming and had been forced to transfer after more than ten years at the same station once they found out he was gay. No one would work with him and they had harassed him until he was completely miserable.

After that, he only stayed at station houses for a year or so, moving on once someone found out his secret. He’d been with us for more than a year at that point without anyone finding out.

He told me his secret while we had been in Vegas the summer before. We were both quite a few drinks in and I might have kissed him on the dance floor. Not my finest moment, honestly. I was lonely, drunk, and feeling sorry for myself so I came on to my poor co-worker.

To Ty’s credit, he had been amazing in letting me down. He just smiled at me, taken my hand, and led me out the door of the club and casino we were at. While walking along the Las Vegas strip, he told me everything. In return, I confessed my secrets to him, too, and we had been close ever since.

He had been dating his current boyfriend for almost six months, although I still hadn’t met him. Ty was holding back a lot of details of the relationship and I knew it was out of fear. I didn’t push, though. Hell, I was his biggest cheerleader. I knew he’d tell me when he was ready. I hoped that between having friends and a man he loved, Ty would put down roots and choose to stay in New Hope permanently.

“Yeah, probably.”

“Six months is a long time.” I mirrored his position against my door. “I wish you trusted me enough to tell me more about this guy.”

“I do trust you, Tor. This has to do with issues both him and I have. You’ll be the first person to know. I promise.” He pushed off of my hood, leaned forward to kiss my forehead, and turned towards his car. “See ya, sweetheart.”

“Bye, Ty.” I got into my own vehicle and jammed the key into the ignition, turning the AC up to full blast. Just being out in the heat for those five minutes had sweat forming on my newly-showered body. Living in the desert sucked in the summer.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and went through my notifications while I waited for the car to cool down. Vincent had called once so I pressed his name and put the car into reverse just as he answered.

“Pizza Hut or Dominos?”

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “Neither. First of all, it’s not even lunch time and second, I’m sure you have a cardboard box you can eat instead.”

“It’s almost eleven, close enough.” His deep voice was full of humor and always instantly comforting. “I’m going with Pizza Hut. What are you doing? You’re exhausted.”

He wasn’t asking if I was tired because he already knew the answer to that. People dismissed the twin telepathy myth but Vincent and I were proof that it existed. We sensed things about each other and always had. It didn’t matter if we were in separate classrooms or a hundred miles apart, we felt it. My brother, older than me by six minutes and fifty-two seconds, was insanely protective of me and I felt the exact same way about him.

“I just got off shift. I need to do a grocery run and then I’m going to pass out. We were on the last call for six hours.”

Vincent hummed in acknowledgement. “Lucky. I spent my whole shift doing inspections. It was boring as hell.”

“You’re such an adrenaline junky.” I pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store and turned off my car, holding my phone to my ear when the Bluetooth disconnected. “Are you coming to Dad’s tomorrow?”

“Have you ever known me to turn down a home cooked meal from that man?”

I laughed and grabbed a cart from the front. “Never once in my life, actually.”

My father was a good man. He had moved to New Hope shortly after Vincent and I turned eighteen but had welcomed me with open arms when I needed to get away from Las Vegas. He let me wallow in his home and then supported me when I picked up the pieces of my life.

Our mother passed away when Vincent and I were just nine-years-old and I knew that raising rambunctious twins couldn’t have been easy. Dad was a plumber and although it didn’t sound glorious, he did well for himself. He made sure that his children were never without. He had started his own company when he moved to New Hope and it was a roaring success.

Beyond all of that, my father was a genuinely good man. He cared deeply about those closest to him and would give a stranger the shirt off his back without hesitation. He hadn’t been in any substantial relationships since my mom died, claiming that she was the love of his life, but if anyone deserved a second chance at love, it was Warren Jones.

I saw him more often than Vincent did since I lived just a few miles from him but the three of us made sure to have dinner every weekend when the two of us weren’t on shift. Dad was amazing in the kitchen and the moments spent with my two favorite men were the best.

Vincent and I chatted while I walked down the aisles, throwing crap I normally wouldn’t into my cart. Grocery shopping while starving was a terrible idea. By the time I made it to the registers, my cart was full of crap.

“Okay. I’m going to go pick up my pizza. See you tomorrow?”

“Yup.” I swiped my debit card and sighed. “See you tomorrow. Love you, Vin.”

“Love you, too, Vic.”

The line went dead just as I accepted my receipt and I pushed my cart out to the parking lot. The drive home was quick and easy and soon I was pulling into a nice, quiet neighborhood.

When I’d bought my house a few years ago, I’d been looking for two things: something with enough room for me to have a home gym and a whirlpool bathtub. I somehow ended up buying a newer home with four bedrooms that fit both of those categories. The thing was, it was in a very family-friendly neighborhood. Children were on bikes or outside playing with balls, and parents were taking walks with strollers while hand in hand. It wasn’t that those things necessarily bothered me.

I was jealous.

Here I was, approaching thirty, and I hadn’t had a real boyfriend since high school. I thought about getting a cat since having a dog with my schedule was out of the question, but I quickly realized that would just take me one step closer to spinster-hood.

I parked in the two-car garage that was attached to my house and sighed. Being sleep deprived and starving was starting to mess with me. I needed food and a nap and to shake my funk off.