Page 1 of A Sudden Response

CHAPTER 1

“Fresh meat,” Eric said, reading the homemade sign drawn on the back of an old pizza box with a chuckle as he pulled on the light-blue uniform shirt over his white tee-shirt. “You must be Greg.”

The man currently tied to a backboard began nodding frantically as Eric took in the boys’ recent work. They had Greg strapped to a backboard in nothing but his boxers. His mouth was taped shut with a piece of two-inch white medical tape. Someone, probably Johnson, drew a happy face on his stomach. To top it off, they’d leaned Greg back against the chain-link fence with the sign taped across his hips for the entire world to see.

Eric put his bag down on the sidewalk and worked on fixing his uniform as he said, “I’m really sorry about this, Greg. I meant to get here sooner, but I got held up.”

Greg tried to shrug it off against his restraints.

“I gotta tell you that I’m a little embarrassed to work with these guys,” Eric said, sighing heavily as he gestured lazily in Greg’s direction, who nodded in understanding.

“I tell the boys if they’re going to do something, do it right the first time. We take a lot of pride in our work around here, but this,” Eric said, shaking his head in disgust with a heavysigh as he grabbed a can of spray paint from his bag and shook it, “has amateur written all over it. I’m sorry, Greg, but I have a reputation to protect.”

With that, Eric spray-painted Greg’s brown hair a lovely shade of green.

After a few minutes, Eric stepped back to examine his work. “Better, but not quite what I’m looking for,” he murmured only to follow that up with a heavy sigh as he retrieved a red marker from his bag and set to work.

“There, that’s much better,” Eric said with an approving nod a moment later as he stepped back to examine his work. The green hair and full, pouty red lips definitely worked for him.

With that, Eric picked up his bag and gave Greg a smile. “Welcome to the 707,” Eric said as he walked away, leaving Greg behind to enjoy a lovely afternoon.

“What’s up, Eric?” Aaron asked as Eric stepped inside the old fire station.

“Not much,” Eric said absently as he made his way upstairs to find the rest of the overnight crew watching the game.

“Eric!” they shouted in unison when they saw him.

“Gentlemen, I see that you greeted my third rider,” Eric said with a heavy sigh and a sad shake of his head. “Very disappointing work.”

Ethan winced as he ran a hand over his bald head. “We had to rush it. The game was coming on.”

Eric looked at the large flatscreen television where the Yankees were playing Boston at Fenway. “My apologies, gentlemen,” he drawled as he made his way to the sleeping quarters in the back. He headed to the last room on the right and threw his bag on the first bed, noting that the other bed was empty, letting him know that his partner for the overnight shift wasn’t here yet. He didn’t bother making up his bunk since thelast fucking thing that he wanted to do was to spend more time with the asshole.

He wasn’t supposed to be working tonight, but the lieutenant called him a few hours ago and asked if he could come in and train a third rider. Since his social life had turned shit sometime in the last year, he’d jumped at the chance to earn some extra money for medic school.

“Eric, you have a call!” Jeff yelled as Eric made his way back to the rec room, absently noting the guys were now watching him instead of the game. Wondering what they were up to, he headed to the counter where Jeff stood, grinning hugely as he placed his hand over the phone.

“It’s a woman. God, she sounds sexy as hell!” Jeff whispered with a wink as he handed the phone to Eric.

“This is Eric,” he said, having absolutely no idea who would be calling him at work.

“Hi, sweetie!”came the warm welcome that had Eric biting back a sigh as he looked back at the men and promptly gave them a one-finger salute that had them laughing their asses off.

“Hey, Mom, what’s going on?” Eric asked as he leaned back against the counter.

“I’m calling to make sure that you’re coming tomorrow night for dinner. Your brother will be here with his new girlfriend.”

“I’ll be there,” Eric said, praying like hell that this wasn’t another one of his mother’s matchmaking attempts. According to his mother, it didn’t matter that he was a grown man, she had a responsibility to make sure he was happy, and of course, that meant finding him a wife.

“I wanted to tell you about this lovely girl that I met at the grocery store yesterday.”

“Oh, Christ, Mom, you didn’t,” Eric said, feeling a headache coming on.

She, of course, ignored him and continued.“She’s pretty, single, young, and did I mention head cashier?”

“Mom, call her and cancel. I’m not interested.”

“I don’t see why I should. I offered the poor girl a homemade meal and I intend to keep that promise. Now, since you’ll be here anyway, you can help keep her company.”

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