Chapter 43

Gabe

I looked at her lying beside me in her bed and couldn’t help but reach out and touch her. I pressed my lips to her temple as I ran my fingers over the curve of her hip. Man, this was how it was supposed to be. Allegra was satisfied, fast asleep and breathing softly, her blonde hair spread on the pillow like a halo.

She was my angel and I wouldn’t let anyone take that away from me, ever again. She made me feel saved. Whole. Like I’d had a damn date with John the Baptist and my sins had been washed clean. I’d go mad without her. When she was angry, when there was the off chance that she didn’t want to see me again, my life became a waking fucking nightmare.

I ran my finger down the line of her jaw and rested it on her chin. She pouted and blew air out of the tiny parting of her lips, then snorted in a breath through her nose.

Christ, could she be any cuter? Like every motion and emotion she exhibited was a musical note in the perfect concerto.

I rolled onto my back and sat up slowly. It was past midnight, but I couldn’t sleep.

My shit was not together, and that meant Allegra could get hurt. I wouldn’t stand for it after nearly losing her for what… the millionth time? Prick Extraordinaire, Donovan Moreno wouldn’t take no for an answer. But I’d make him see sense, even if it meant losing every cent. It was dirty blood money anyway. I didn’t need it. I didn’t want it.

I stood and stretched, groaning at the tightness in my muscles. I grinned — that always happened after a session with Allegra. She worked every part of my body, teasing me to the edge and pushing me over while my nerve endings screamed for more, more, more.

More Allegra. Because there could never be enough.

I walked to the kitchen, enjoying the cold air on my ass. The heat of earlier had me on a low burn, and sweat tracked down my back. I needed a drink of water and to figure out how to approach my father about this.

He had to realize that I couldn’t commit to Faith, and I certainly couldn’t commit to her baby without knowing that it really carried my DNA. Allegra had been right about that. I owed it to myself. Hell. I owed it to Faith too, even though she’d never admit it.

I clicked on the kitchen light and headed for the sink. My ringtone sounded from the living room where I’d left my jeans.

“Shit,” I said, turning on my heel and striding in that direction. This could only be work. I grabbed my jeans and wrestled the phone out of the front pocket.

“Yeah?” I answered, discomfit brewing in my guts.

“We got trouble, Gabby,” Roger roared into the phone. Gabby was his little joke, but I let him get away with it because he was fucking massive and could turn me into mincemeat in a minute or less. Besides, he meant it as an endearment. That three-hundred-pound linebacker loved my scrawny ass. He’d saved it a few times too.

“What kind of trouble?”

“Blaze at the Mill City Museum, man, get your ass down to Second Street before Chief has an aneurysm.” Roger hung up.

“Fuck it,” I said, tempted to dump the jeans and phone on the sofa and go snuggle with Allegra instead. But duty called. I tugged on the jeans and got my shirt out from the sofa, then pulled on my coat and boots.

I scribbled a note on the pad attached to her fridge so she’d know where I’d gone, then bolted out the door.

Fuck it, a blaze? Roger hardly ever used that official sounding word. This shit had to be serious. I hit the street and trudged through the snow. There wasn’t too much of it, but it would make for a cold Valentine’s Day.

Hopefully, Allegra would qualify as my sweetheart. Damn. I needed to get her a present. Something sparkly.

I left my anger at Faith and my father in the snow and got into my vehicle. The car sped through the streets, skidding around corners and heading for the station so I could suit up. Once I was there, Rog filled me in on the details.

“It’s getting real man, glad you made it in time,” he said, hanging onto the side of the truck. “We’ve got to go.”

“Was the museum empty?” I asked, hopping up beside him and adjusting my uniform.

“For the most part. We’ll still have to check it out.” Rog turned his attention to the road.

The siren started up, red lights flashing, and we pulled out of the station. Adrenaline pounded through me, the pre-burn before the fire. Man, I loved what I did for a living, it was so good to do what I wanted to do, instead of what my father wanted me to do.

This was life. The icy wind whipping against my cheeks, the cold bar beneath my fingertips and the uniform. All of it together made me breathe deeper, feel more.

Fuck it, and none of it compares to Allegra. None of it compares to how I feel when I’m with her.

And it wasn’t the sex either, it was deeper than that. Standing in her kitchen and making eggs while she slept was part of it, even if we’d abandoned the food to feast on each other instead.

A haze lined the horizon, orange and red, accompanied by the thick smell of smoke. My eyes watered and I cleared my throat. We rounded the corner and the truck pulled up beside another.

Firefighters ran left and right, setting up hoses, calling out to each other in the organized chaos. The heat, the acrid smog, would’ve been unbearable, but I was accustomed to it.

We all were. This was just another day at the office. The fire chewed through the historical building in a fury. Flames licked out of windows, blackening the sills and reaching for the roof.

It would tear the place down if it got a chance. And that would be a huge loss for this urban area. Hell, for the whole state really. Every time we fought a fire, I had the same thought, got the same feeling. The fire was as alive as we were. It was as hell-bent on destruction as we were on preservation. On occasion, it felt like it could think and move at whim.

Roger jumped down from the side of the truck and I followed.

“Told you it’s a shit storm, Gabby.” Roger began unraveling the hose and I went over to help him.

A cry rang out from a window overhead. Young and feral, filled with terror. My nerves tingled and I looked up immediately. A woman hung out of a top story window, waving furiously. The scream brought a wave of nausea with it. Reminding me of the night I’d saved my Allegra from the fire in her bakery. The night my entire life changed.

Flames tumbled out of the window beside her, just a couple feet to the right.

“Get the ladder up,” I yelled, slapping the side of the truck. Nothing could stop me from saving this young lady.

I clambered onto it as it was raised, riding the bottom half until it hit the brick on the side of the building.

“Don’t be a fucking hero, Gabby,” Roger called up after me, his flame retardant coat barely concealing his huge belly. I glanced down, but I’d already started the ascent. I wouldn’t let a soul die in that building. Not a fucking soul. Not on my watch.

Our station was famous for its save rate. We hadn’t had a single death in over five years, an ongoing record we would uphold. I monkeyed up the ladder and called for the woman to back up a step, then I put my outstretched arms through the window to capture her and help her out on to the ladder.

Smoke engulfed me as I gripped the damsel in distress and lowered her down on to the top rung. She clung to me a moment longer than was necessary out of fear, and I shielded her from a fall with my body, standing behind her as she climbed down.

“Are you good to go, ma’am?”

“Yes, I’m quite all right, thank you,” she said in a British accent. Probably a curator of the museum.

“Great. Keep looking at the building, all right? I’m behind you all the way, you won’t fall while I’m here.”

She nodded but didn’t say a word. Her mousy brown hair hung in sooty tangles down her back. She resembled Mrs. Bradshaw, my librarian back in high school. She used to give me her sternest look and censure me about my lack of reading the classics. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the only thing I ever read was my dad’s Playboy. It took us ten minutes to get all the way down, and we paused halfway when the window we’d come from erupted in a plume of smoke and fire.

When I reached the bottom, I’d made up my mind. There wasn’t a slim chance in hell I’d ever let Allegra go, and that meant growing a pair and standing up to my father and to Faith. Once and for all.