Page 32 of The Night Belongs To Fireman

She didn’t want to put Fred through anything like that. But what if she just told him on her own, without bringing her father into it? The thought made her slightly dizzy, as if she’d stepped onto the edge of a cliff.

If she were smart, she would avoid Fred completely. He was a link to that reporter, Ella Joy. But the truth was, she didn’t want to avoid him. The mulish, headstrong side of her rose up in revolt. Why should she have to avoid someone so great—and such a good kisser—because of something that had happened nearly twenty years ago? It wasn’t fair.

Marsden entered the kitchen. “All clear.”

As always. Sometimes she thought he had the most boring job in the world. “He could have sold me out, you know.”

Marsden just listened, in that stolid, calm way of his.

“The reporter was looking for the missing bridesmaid, and I was right there. She even tried to bribe him. But he didn’t give an inch. He threatened to charge her with trespassing.” She smiled at the memory. “I don’t think he likes to be pushed around.”

“Sounds solid.”

“He’s a good guy.” Somehow, that seemed like an understatement. In the short time she’d known him, Fred the Fireman had rescued her, protected her, and put himself on the line for her. Without any idea of who she was.

Didn’t she owe him the truth?

Her stomach growled. She thought of the pizza that had probably been delivered to Fred’s house by now. “Want to order a pizza?” she asked Marsden, who nodded.

“I could eat.”

Vader fed the length of four-inch hose toward Fred, who stood on a platform atop the hose tower. “You’re saying she skipped out on you again? Stud, you’re losing your touch.”

“I thought I didn’t have a touch.”

“Oh, you have a touch, all right. You’ve got your own fan club now. I saw a story on it.”

Fred pulled the hose over the top of the tower and straightened it. They’d just finished washing it and now it had to dry. “Let me guess. Ella Joy.”

“Yeah, dude. I think she’s obsessed with you.”

Fred groaned. “She’s trying to pressure me. But I’m not giving in. If I ever seem like I might give her an interview, I want you to tie me to this hose tower and stuff a rag in my mouth.”

“Kinky,” said Vader approvingly. “Didn’t know you had it in you.”

“What?” Fred shook his head. “What is wrong with you?”

“The question is what is right with me. Ask Cherie, she’ll tell you.”

Fred finished adjusting the hose and climbed down from the tower. “No thanks. I don’t need another lecture on the wonders of Vader Brown.”

Vader sighed happily, his rugged face going soft around the mouth. “I gotta tell you, Freddie, I never thought marriage would be such a good time. You should try it. Not with Courtney,” he added quickly.

Fred tightened his jaw. Courtney had left three messages on his phone over the past two weeks. He had no interest in calling her back. They hadn’t even dated that long, and they’d never had the kind of sparks he had with Rachel Allen.

But at least Courtney wasn’t mysterious, like Rachel. The doubts sown by Ella Joy had multiplied in his mind. He’d Googled the name “Rachel Allen” and found about a billion, none of whom seemed to be the Rachel Allen he knew. Or didn’t know.

“I broke it off with Courtney,” he told Vader. “But she’s pissed.”

Vader threw an arm across Fred’s shoulders. “Stay strong, bud. Stay strong. You know she’s not right for you. Want some advice?”

Fred wanted to refuse, but Vader barreled forward without a pause.

“Now that you’re a superstar, you’re going to have to grow some balls. I’m not finished.” He tightened his grip as Fred tried to pull away. “I know what a stand-up guy you are. Hell, you saved my mother’s life. I’m not calling you a pussy here. I’m saying that you bend over backwards for the ladies, and sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes they don’t want you to bend over backwards. They want you to bend them over while they beg you for—”

“Okay, okay,” said Fred hastily. “You’re a captain now, remember?”

“Right. You get the point. Standing up to Ella’s a good start. Breaking up with Courtney is good, even if it was a long time coming. Now you have to carry that same attitude into finding the right girl. Go after what you want. Don’t take no. But say no when you mean no. Get it?”

Before Fred could tell Vader what to do with his idiotic advice, the audio alarm interrupted them with a USAR call for Truck 1. Man stuck in a ravine—that meant a high-angle rescue. Fred ran to the apparatus bay, pulled on his jumpsuit and steel-toed boots, grabbed his bag of gear, and hauled himself onto Truck 1. On the way to the location he fastened himself into his harness and put on his helmet, then stuck his radio into a pocket of his jumpsuit.

Five minutes later Fred peered down from an overpass into a ravine, where a man had been stuck in a tree since four in the morning. The IC ordered a two-line rappel system set up, and told Fred, the best paramedic on scene, to lower himself down to the victim. As they worked, the victim, whose name was Diego Montoya, told them in a mix of Spanish and English about how he’d been running from his ex-girlfriend, who was coming after him with a knife. He’d climbed over the guardrail, then tumbled headlong into the upper branches of a eucalyptus tree. He was very anxious to know if there was a blond woman with a knife nearby.

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