Chapter Twenty-Eight

 

 

 

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

 

“So, let me get this straight,” Captain Stevenson said the next day as I sat in his office with Owens. “Someone got their hands on a pair of Kelly’s panties that she’d somehow left here, tore them up, and send it to you as a wedding gift?”

“Right.”

“And these panties were in your bunkroom?”

I ran my fingers through my hair and nodded once. “Yeah. I had them in my pocket while we were out on a call.” That earned me an eye roll but I kept going. “And when we made it back to the house, I put them in my backpack. I never thought about them again because the wedding was the next day.”

“So somewhere between when you shoved them in your bag and the next evening, someone got them out, massacred them, wrapped them up, and got them to your wedding,” Owens mused with a concerned look on his face. “Why would someone do that? Even if you get on our nerves, everyone loves Kelly.”

“Not everyone,” I pointed out, my tone sharp. “Hughes has had some vendetta against her since she wouldn’t sleep with him last year.”

The box with the torn underwear was on the desk in front of the captain. As much as I hated anyone else seeing her sexy, tiny thong, I needed help.

Cap cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to pull the surveillance tapes from that day. The cameras aren’t in the rooms but the ones from the hall should show us who walked into the room that wasn’t you or Barthe and then we can go from there.”

“I want to talk to Phil about this,” Owens said suddenly. Phil was his stepfather and also a sergeant with the New Hope Police Department. “I just want his take on everything.”

I nodded my head in agreement. I wasn’t sure if it was a big deal or not but I wasn’t going to take any chances where my wife and child were concerned. “Okay.”

The captain promised to let me know what he found when he pulled the tapes. Accessing them required getting permission from the Chief’s office so he couldn’t give me a timeline on exactly when. Between him and Owens, I knew we’d figure out who had sent them and hopefully get a ‘why’ in the meantime.

I was trying not to let it make me crazy. That didn’t stop me from glaring at my co-workers for the rest of my shift. Hughes especially. Just thinking about the fact that he could have possibly been involved with putting any stress on Kelly made me shake with anger. It wasn’t until we were all eating dinner that someone mentioned it.

“What the fuck is with you, Christos?” Dickerson asked as he shoved a piece of pizza in his mouth. It was Jones’ turn for chow duty and her cooking skills were tied with Owens for worst in the house. When she pulled duty, it was always something instant.

I swallowed my own bite of pizza and met Owens’ eyes. He shook his head every-so-slightly so I shrugged. “Just tired. Hard going from paradise with a gorgeous woman to this place with all of you ugly fuckers.”

“How was Hawaii?” Lennox asked, taking the pepperonis that Jones had pulled off of her pizza and popping them into his mouth. Trujillo nudged Lennox and offered me a shit-eating grin.

“You’re definitely not married, Lennox. My wife and I barely left the room on our honeymoon.”

I chuckled with a slight nod. “We saw the sights. Even pregnant, that woman has more energy than anyone I know.”

“I can’t believe there’s going to be any spawn of Christos in this world,” Barthe said, causing Jones to snort.

“Between his obnoxiousness and her attitude, the world is doomed.”

I caught the eye roll Hughes gave his pizza and I narrowed my own. “Got a problem, Hughes?”

“Go to hell, Christos.”

“Shut up,” Cap growled around his bite of food. “Both of you.”

Not bothering to stop glaring, I did as I was told and continued eating my pizza. I had no idea if he was involved but if I found out he’d touched my wife’s underwear, shit wasn’t going to be pretty. Hell, whoever had touched her sexy lingerie better pray I never got my hands on him.

Jones and I cleaned up the kitchen once everyone filtered out and she rest her hip against the counter when we were done.

“What’s up with you?”

I stared at the woman I considered to be one of my closest friends. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a small ponytail and there wasn’t a touch of make-up on her face. Her bright green eyes stared at me as she waited for me to answer.

I sighed and mimicked her stance with my arms crossed. “Someone’s fucking with us.”

Her eyes narrowed as I told her the story about the underwear and her body was tense when I finished. She was pissed, too.

“You really think it could be Hughes? Why would he do that, though?” she asked, her voice quiet so only I could hear and I shrugged my shoulders.

“Just to be a dick? I don’t know. Just do me a favor and keep your eyes open.”

She nodded her head and pushed away from the counter. “Will do. Let me know if there’s any way I can help.”

She disappeared down the hall in the direction of the bunkrooms and I headed towards the staircase. The couches at the top of the stairs were occupied by the guys as they played a video game and I didn’t bother saying anything as descended to the first floor. I passed the offices and didn’t stop until I was in the gym.

One of the guys, Ross Simpson, was on the treadmill with his earbuds in and he nodded at me before returning his attention to TV in front of him. I stripped off my t-shirt and went to the power tower in the corner. I started doing dips and lost myself in my own thoughts.

I’d moved on to hanging knee raises when the red lights began flashing and the alarm sounded loudly. Simpson immediately turned off his treadmill and I quickly toweled down so I could pull my shirt back on. The two of us each grabbed a bottle of water from the small fridge and walked down the hall towards the bays.

“Move quick, ladies,” Captain Stevenson shouted, putting on his own turnout gear. “The 18^th was called in from station one, too. It sounds like a doozy.”

As soon as my pants and boots were on, I grabbed my coat and pulled myself into the truck. Jones was already inside, sitting in the middle seat, and Trujillo got in on the side opposite of where I was. Owens took the passenger seat while Lennox slid in behind the steering wheel.

We pulled out of the station, following behind Ladder Company, and I listened to the details of the structure fire as they came in through my headset. Cap was right- it was going to be a doozy. From what we were being told, an apartment building was on fire

It sucked.

One half of the three story structure was already in flames and the 18^th company was trying to keep the fire from spreading to the other half. Their rescue company, the equivalent to our engine company, was preparing to go inside to look for missing tenants on the third floor. Jones, Owens, Trujillo, and myself strapped on our tanks, situated our SCBA masks, and went up the stairs to the second floor.

Trujillo and I went right while the other two went into the apartment to the left, and it was dark as shit the second we stepped through the door. I turned on my body light but the thick smoke limited the visibility. The smoke detectors in small place were chirping like crazy but the sound was muffled to my ears.

“We need ventilation or blowers on the second floor,” Owens’ voice demanded through the radio and I nodded in agreement even though no one could see me.

Trujillo and I searched the small two bedroom space without finding anyone. The walls of both rooms were covered in flames and we were just heading back to the front door when huge chunks of charred ceiling started falling around us.

“We have loose debris coming from the third floor,” I said, barely jumping out of the way when another panel of drywall fell. “Active flames on the east walls. The unit is clear of civilians.”

“We’re clear on the west. Trujillo, Christos- get lines into that unit and start cooling things down.”

“Copy, Lieu,” I replied to Owens and followed Trujillo back to where our engines were already set up. Both of us grabbed hoses and we made the trek back up the stairs. Without having to say anything, we both hugged the walls in the hallway and each took a separate bedroom to spray down.

After about three minutes, a loud alarm went off behind me and I turned off my hose quickly so I could find Trujillo.

“Trujillo’s PASS is screaming,” I said into my radio, dropping my hose and leaving my room to find my partner. When a PASS alarm went off on a firefighter, it meant that they’d stopped moving for too long.

I found Trujillo slumped on the floor, his hose going nuts from where he’d dropped it and a chunk of ceiling near his head.

“Trujillo’s down!” I ripped my gloves off so I could try and assess him while yelling his name into the radio. I’d just put my fingers to his neck when his eyes fluttered open. “Shit. Are you okay?”

“I’m good,” he replied with a groan. “Really. It just knocked my ass out.”

Hughes, Barthe, and Owens appeared just seconds later and we helped get Trujillo to his feet so he could be walked out. Hughes stayed behind, picking up where Trujillo had left off, and neither of us said anything to each other as I went back to my own hose.

It took us almost four hours to clear the scene but there weren’t any more issues beyond the normal stuff that popped up. We all loaded up shortly after nine and Lennox drove our engine back to the station. Trujillo wasn’t with us since he’d been taken to the hospital for a mandatory observation but everyone had said that he was going to be fine.

Coats were hung up, gear was checked, and people started to filter upstairs towards the showers as soon as we were done. I’d just taken two steps when I heard someone say my name behind me. I paused and turned to find Hughes staring at me, his face streaked with sweat and soot.

“Can we talk?”

I almost said no. I also almost sucker punched the fucker in the face. Instead of doing either of those, I nodded my head and followed him back down the stairs. He stopped the hallway that led to the offices and gym and turned to face me with his arms crossed.

“Look. I want to apologize for how I acted and the shit I said.” He swallowed, looking nervous, but I kept my eyes fixed on him while I tried to get to the bottom of the bullshit he was spewing. “I liked Kelly, okay? I liked her from the second we met her that day at the park and she never even gave me the time of day. I was pissed and jealous. That day in our room… I was just upset and jealous.”

My jaw was clenched, but I somehow managed to speak anyway. “That’s no excuse.”

“I know. Fuck, I know.” He scratched his chin and let out a long sigh. “I just wanted to say that I was sorry. I’ll apologize to Kelly, too. I regret the things I did and regret losing you as a friend.”

“Tell me the truth, Chad. Was the underwear thing you?”

His eyebrows rose and he looked genuinely confused. “Underwear thing? What are you talking about?”

Again, I searched his face for any sign that he was lying but didn’t find any. Finally, I shook my head. “Nothing. I don’t think we’ll ever get back to where we were but I appreciate the apology. I know my wife would, too. I didn’t realize that you liked her back then, not like that. We didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I’m over it. I was a dick and I know it. I just wanted to clear the air.”

I nodded and held my hand out to him. He stared at it for a second before gripping it with his. We shook for a moment and I reached around to pat him on the back. Without saying anything else, I turned to head upstairs. I need to shower and to hear my wife’s voice.