Page 41 of Judgments of Fire and Desire

I nodded and sat back in the chair I was in. She glanced at me and said, “I really like the haircut, Chief.”

“Thank you.”

She nodded. “I called him with some information I found out. He apparently had found something as well, because we’re suspecting involvement from the same person. He knew hewasn’t safe at Grandma Jean’s. That’s the only reason I could think that he would leave.”

I nodded as I tried to think of all the people that were supposed to be investigating this case. “I’ll be able to see him in an hour or so. Are you going to hang around?”

“Yes,” she said as she tensed slightly.

I looked up to see the lieutenant approaching us. “Why in the hell did he leave the safe house?”

“I don’t know,” she answered calmly. “We haven’t been able to see him yet.

“Hello, Chief. Congratulations again on your position. I’m Lieutenant Gamble.”

I nodded. “Hello. I’m familiar, sir.”

Detective Johnson stood and said, “We’ll be right back.”

I nodded as I watched them walk away. She glanced back at me. I was sure she was communicating something. I just wasn’t sure what. It definitely had to do with Lieutenant Gamble. There was no way I could let Kyrie continue to deal with these people alone. He’d already gotten into two accidents, survived a drive-by, and survived a fire. The next attempt, he may not be so lucky.

After his text message earlier, my heart was soft. Although I’d only responded with a simple thank you, my heart wanted to say so much more. It wanted to ask him if his pride was greater than our love.

It wanted to ask him if what we had was worth losing over a disagreement.

It wanted to ask him if there was some sort of agreement we could come to and meet each other in the middle.

I’d had other relationships in the past, but he and I had something so special. The way I felt for him in such a short amount of time was overwhelming. I was only twenty-seven years old, but I couldn’t see myself with anyone but him. He’d gotten my soft nurturing side… a side I barely knew even existedanymore. She didn’t come out of hiding easily, but with him, because of how we met, she was front and center from day one.

As I sat, waiting to see Kyrie, I received a text from a fellow firefighter.Chief, when are you coming back? Bransford is walking around here getting on everyone’s nerves about how he should be running the place and how you’ll eventually mess up. I’m ready to punch him right in his hating ass lips.

I took a deep breath. I just knew Bransford would have put in his transfer by now. He was hanging around, seemingly to make everyone miserable. I had been at training class at the Downtown fire station all week. So they hadn’t seen me but for a couple of hours a day. However, he didn’t know me as well as he thought. I would make him just as miserable. I responded to the text message.

Next week, I will be back full time, and I promise, he will hate every minute of it. He hates taking orders, especially from me. We will talk when I get back.

He sent the smiling devil emoji, and I chuckled. I’d never seen a firefighter more disliked than Bransford. Now my chief said a guy named Oscar Monroe was the fire chief before him, and he was hell on wheels. He said he was hell on wheels before he even became chief. More women came to that fire station than a few, and he was a married man. I could only shake my head at that revelation. I prayed that I would never have to deal with a man with wandering eyes. If Kyrie and I could work through our differences, I would probably never have to deal with such blatant disrespect.

“Chief?”

I turned to see a nurse beckoning me over to her. I quickly stood and made my way to her. “It hasn’t been an hour yet, but he’s awake and asking for you. The procedure was short and only done to stabilize the bones. If nothing else pops up, he will be good to go,” she said as I followed her to the back.

“What about the lacerations? How bad were they?”

“He had one in his arm that was pretty deep. They cleaned it out real good. There was still glass in it. So he has stitches there and in another spot on his leg. The others were all minor and will heal in time.”

I nodded. When she got to where he was in recovery, I could see him lying still and staring straight ahead. He was propped up with quite a bit of pillows. I made note of that so I would know how to take care of him and how he should be taken care of when I couldn’t be there.

When he looked over and saw me, he gave me a tight smile. The nurse smiled at him and asked, “Is this beautiful lady who you wanted?”

“Yeah. Thanks,” he said softly.

I went to his bedside and slid my hand in his. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he replied. “I like your cut. It’s beautiful on you.”

I smiled and ran my hand down the back of my head. “Thank you.”

“You’re blushing.”

---