Page 21 of Too Much Heat

“No, Erin,” he said grasping her arm. “Let’s go outside.”

She pouted. “I want to have dinner with you and your sisters. Jimmy used to. I belong with you.”

He managed to nudge her out the door without manhandling her. Once on the side of The Lantern’s porch, he gave her a disgusted look. God, she’d caked on the makeup big time. “This is the end of your shenanigans. I’m fed up with you mauling me, intruding on dinners like this. Or movie nights. Or you calling me. You have to leave me alone, or this time, I’ll tell Ma and Pa what you’re doing to me and not to invite you to family dinners. And if you continue to stalk me in public, like tonight, I’ll get a restraining order.”

“You don’t mean that Joey.”

“I do.”

“Jimmy would be ashamed of you!”

“You have that backwards. Jimmy would be ashamed ofyou.”

She raised her chin. He’d boxed her in she knew it. Erin wasn’t dumb. She was just self-centered.

When she didn’t move, he stared her down.

A weird expression crossed her face. “All right, I’ll stop. But you’ll be sorry about this.” Then she stalked off.

Knowing that was an empty threat, he went back inside and could see the girls were upset. When he sat, he took each oftheir hands. “We can’t let her spoil tonight. And I gave her an ultimatum. I don’t think Erin’s going to be bothering me anymore.”

Caroline shook her head. “You’ve tried before, Joey.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t mention a restraining order then.”

* * *

Today was cleaning day. Lara had stripped all the beds in the bunkroom when her cell rang.

Please don’t let this be about Sammy.

“Swanson here.”

“Firefighter Swanson. This is Chief Hansen’s secretary.”

“Hi, Mrs. Sullivan.”

“The chief would like you to come to his office after your shift ends.”

“I—”

“He said no excuses.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The woman disconnected without saying goodbye, and Lara sat down on her own bunk. What to do? Sammy was with his mother. He didn’t like it when Lara was late getting home. She had no choice though. So she punched in a number. “Hello.”

“Ma, this is Lara. I got called to the chief’s office after work. I have to go. I’m sorry. Can you stay a bit longer?”

“Of course. Lara, you can’t lose your job. The insurance…”

Sammy’s mother always anticipated the worst thing happening.

“I don’t expect to. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“All right. Good luck.”

Hell. Now she was spooked. She set down the phone.

---