Page 39 of His Lovebug

“I know.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “And I promise you that there will be hell to pay.”

Tears pricked my eyes as a firefighter came toward me. She smiled and tugged the helmet off her head before shoving her filthy hand in my direction. Her eyes were a light shade of green that reminded me of spring leaves, and her short pointy nose somehow managed to make her look elfin despite being almost a foot taller than me. We shook, and then she did the same with Matt. Soot smudged her pretty face, and guilt rolled through me. While Matt and I were having sex, these people were fighting this fire and risking their lives.

“I’m Bay, and I’m the fire captain.” She brushed her short hair off her forehead, unsticking the strands from the sweat there.

“Oh,” I said, giving her a small smile. Matt wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I swiped at a few tears escaping the corners of my eyes. “Nice to meet you.”

She snorted and turned to stare at our burning house. “Sorry it wasn’t under better circumstances. Are you the homeowners?”

Matt and I both nodded, and he shared a small smile with me.

“I’m sorry we aren’t putting more oomph into this.” She winced at us. “But I had to make a decision. It’s a loss. I can’t risk sending anyone else inside, so we’re going to contain it and do everything we can from out here. I’m sorry. Safety hazards were too large by the time we got here. Life over material goods, you know?”

“Oh, yeah, I just.... There’s really nothing to be done?” I asked, feeling lost.

“Sorry, no. You didn’t have any pets or anyone else living with you?” She scowled at the building as if she wanted to yell at it.

“No,” Matt said when it was taking me too long to answer. Turned out I didn’t need to act very much. Thiswasupsetting. This was devastating. We didn’t have a home right now.

“Need to get back to work.” She smacked Matt on the shoulder. “Call your insurance company. They’ll send an adjuster. The faster the better!”

“Thank you,” I said.

She smiled at me, then jogged back toward the new fire truck and the firefighters who were running out hoses.

“Well, this isn’t much of a surprise.”

Holding in a groan, I whipped around, and Matt did the same.

O’Neill walked toward us with his hands jammed into his pockets. His partner was nowhere in sight.

“What are you doing here?” Matt growled at him, but the jerk didn’t seem to mind—he even smiled at us.

“Strange.” He stopped and tugged a mini bottle of antacids out of his suit jacket pocket. He watched the firefighters while he palmed a few, then popped them in his mouth. “A body turns up on your boyfriend’s shot-to-hell car today.” He talked around crunching the meds, and I bit my lip as my stomach turned. “Now your house is burning rubble.” He winked and stuffed thebottle back into his pocket. “You have a lot going on. Care to share?” He grinned at Matt, and I grabbed Matt’s arm when his hand squeezed into a fist.

“We don’t want you here after the awful way you acted,” I snapped at him. “You’re not welcome.”

The detective chuckled. “As if anyone gives a damn. Let me tell you something. Someone might care about the shit that came out of my mouth today if it wasn’t aimed at a couple of crooks. I’ve been doing this job a long, long time, and there isn’t a union boss or judge alive who gives a single fuck what any cop says to someone like you two. You’re career criminals.”

Matt’s face flushed, and my stomach swooped.

O’Neill nodded toward our burning house. “This has mob bullshit written all over it. I can assure you of one thing, the crimes that happened today will be thoroughly investigated.” He beamed at us, and it took me a few seconds to realize he was goading Matt, hoping to get Matt to snap and give him a reason to haul Matt downtown.

I rubbed Matt’s hand until he glanced at me.

Bay turned in our direction, then walked over with a large smile. “Detective? I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your name.”

“O’Neill,” he said, giving her a smarmy grin that had me rolling my eyes. She was pretty, but no one in their right mind would want to go on a date with him.

“Well, no one called the police in. We don’t have the fire contained yet, so we have nothing to share with you.”

“Oh, you will.”

“Off my property. Now,” Matt roared at O’Neill.

He held up his hands. “Fine.” He winked at Matt. “For now.”

Uneasily, we watched him walk away.

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