Page 69 of Memories with Fire

“Irene?” I call, giving her my most charming smile, dimples and all, when she looks up. “Do you know how long that woman was waiting for me?”

Irene, a sweet woman who’s worked the front desk for a long time, comes to stand at the counter where I’ve stopped. Her blonde curls bounce as she nods gravely. “I tried to tell her you all wouldn’t be back for quite some time, but she wouldn’t leave. Said she’d wait for you. If I had known?—”

“It’s fine,” I cut her off with an understanding smile. No one here knew, and I wanted to keep it that way. Priscylla is a pest that won’t go away. “You couldn’t have known. But do you know if Hailey saw her?”

“Oh yes,” she tells me with a deep frown. My blood runs cold over the confirmation. “I listened to the whole thing. Hailey thought she was here for Liam.” Irene gives a little smirk a and laugh. I try to join her, but my smile is lacking any conviction. “Then she found out the lady was here for you. Showed her a flashy ring and that big baby bump. That bump was nearly as big as her lips.”

If Irene hadn’t given me the worst news of the day, I might laugh. But this was bad. Really bad.

“Thanks.” I give her a nod because I can’t give much more and head to the back of the firehouse, pulling Hailey’s contact up as I go. I hit send and listen for a ringtone, but all I get is her voicemail.

“Hailey, call me. I know you met Priscylla, but it’s not what you think. She’s not my fiancée, and that isn’t my baby. I’ve never touched that woman in my life. I swear to you,” I say, pleading. “I need to know you’re okay. Whatever happened at the accident… I’m here for you.”

I hang up and send her a text, again asking her to call me as soon as she gets it. Captain Bernard did say she had an appointment, so with any luck her phone is turned off for that. I have to wonder what that meeting is. She was supposed to be at work all day so whatever it is, it was scheduled between the accident and us getting back to the station.

Walking into Nate’s office, I find Liam and Brody already in there. Brody is in one of the chairs while Liam leans against a filing cabinet. He stands up straighter when I come in.

“Dude, I’m?—”

I put a hand up before Liam says another word. “I know. It’s fine. I would have done the same.” There’s no point in holding a grudge when I know why he was doing it.

He exhales in relief, physically deflating with the stress. “Who the hell was that woman?”

There’re footsteps in the hall just outside Nate’s office, and I glance out to find him coming towards us. Stepping further into the room so he can get through the doorway, the small space is cramped with the three of us. When Nate walks in there’s hardly room for us all to breathe.

“Out,” Nate says to Liam and Brody while he moves around the desk to his chair.

“It’s fine, let them stay. I’d rather only go over this once,” I tell him. Neither of them made a move to leave anyway.

Nate looks between the two of them before looking at me with a shrug. “Okay. You want to explain who that woman was?”

Not really. Actually, not even a little bit. This was one side of my life I wanted to keep in Waco. I came to Santa Rosé for a fresh start, to get away from the people who didn’t believe me and never looked at me the same after finding out the truth. While I know these three believed me in front of Priscylla, getting punched in the face has me feeling a little apprehensive.

“Whatever it is, I can almost promise I’ve been through worse,” Nate says, pulling me from my thoughts.

Movement from the corner of my eye has me looking at Brody who nods, and then at Liam who grimaces and also agrees. Meeting Nate’s stare, I suck in a breath, blowing it out as I tip my head back and look at the ceiling.

“Priscylla is a friend of my cousin Angela. She’s a little unhinged.”

“A little?” Liam interjects with a disbelieving laugh. For a moment my stomach bubbles with dread but settles when he continues. “Jordan and Savanna are a little unhinged on girls night at the bar. This woman claimed to be your fiancée and then looked at me like she wanted my cock on a platter for dinner. She’s bat-shit crazy.”

I nod solemnly. “She would have been happy to have it. I met her about a year ago. Another cousin, Angela’s brother, warned me about her behavior, so thankfully I steered clear.” If I hadn’t gotten that warning, there’s no telling how this story would have played out. “But she set her sights on me. Angela talked about me, told her I was single and wouldn’t settle down with anyone. She got it in her head that she would be the one to tame me.”

Liam snickers. “Fuckin’ chicks, man. Always thinking they can tame us.”

“Her words, not mine.” I roll my eyes at the memory of her telling me that one night at the bar. “Now look, back at home I had a reputation. I slept with a lot of women.”

“Sounds familiar,” Brody says with a look at Liam, then clears his throat, his eyes landing on me. “Sorry.”

I frown at all of them. If they keep interrupting, I’m never going to get through this. “Long story short, Priscylla disappeared for a time, ended up pregnant, but it wasn’t with my kid. I never touched her. The thing is, she told everyone it was mine, and they all believed her because of my reputation. It wasn’t until I proved it with a paternity test they started to believe me.”

“How did you get a test done? The kid isn’t even born,” Liam asks, totally perplexed by this notion.

“They can do them during pregnancy,” I explain to him. I’ve been told about Liam and his lack of knowledge when it comes to women and anything besides sex. Emotionally stunted was the way Hailey described it. “Which she wouldn’t do until I got a court order making her do it. By then she’d turned half of Waco against me, including my own family. She wasn’t pleased when the results came back, but the damage was mostly done by then.”

“That doesn’t explain the restraining order,” Nate speaks up, leaning back in the chair behind his desk. “That’s pretty serious stuff.”

“So is breaking into my apartment on more than one occasion. The last straw was when I came home with a girl from the bar and there she was, lying naked in my bed, waiting for me,” I tell them, reaching up to scrub a hand along my cheek.

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