Authors: Dani Jace
“Thirty-six isn’t old and you’ll soon be a firefighter.” She touched her friend’s shoulder.
The blonde’s dark brown eyes lit up behind thick black lashes. “You think I can use being a firefighter as a pick-up line?”
“Don’t think you need to, but being one might help you find a nice guy. You’ll meet a lot of people on the job.”
“Honestly, Jo, I signed up because I need a decent job on a high school diploma with kids going to college. I always thought I was strong and fearless. Until the burn tower. Now I’m rethinking this idea.”
She’d nearly freaked during the simulated burn. For Jo, fire was like facing a tremendous wave you maneuvered. With the ocean, she used her board. With flames she wielded a wily hose. “You’re just apprehensive. We all have our fears. The accident scene reminded me of my dad’s death, and I nearly puked. After a couple of good fires under your belt, you’ll be knocking them out of the park.”
“So far, I’m better with a bat than a hose, but then I’ve had a lot more practice.” She giggled.
“Touché.” She pretended to sip her beer.
Tami grew quiet and Jo stared unblinking as late afternoon waves lolled onto the sandy beach in shades of aqua and jade leaving a thick layer of white foam. All this beauty and she was a fucked up mess.
She could have been in Myrtle Beach with the hottest firefighter in a dozen counties, if not the entire state. She slumped in her chair. They’d never even made love on the beach. Now he was gone and she probably had a psycho stalking her.
“Something’s got you down, girl.” Tami snatched Jo from her solemn thoughts. “We’re graduating. Everything should be golden. What’s up? Did you and Ray have a fight or something?”
She avoided Tami’s gaze.
“Shit, girl. You got to work that out. Am I going to have to drive you over to his place or what?”
Jo shook her head.
“So you had a fight. Just call him.” She slapped Jo’s knee.
She didn’t dare relay the circumstances of their fight or his accusation. Or, God forbid, she might be knocked-up. “I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Getting on your knees might help.” She winked.
How had life become so complicated? After California, everything should have been simple. Get out of jail almost free and live life easy on the beach. Now Vic was free and his henchmen were probably the ones fucking with her first and now Bobby. What the hell happened?
She’d left the academy in a panic that day. When she couldn’t reach Ray, she’d called Harley, not wanting to burden Bobby. By the time she drove home, she’d imagined all the ways Vic could hurt or kill her brother and Ray.
After what she said to him at the accident scene about him ditching on their relationship, what would she say now?
I fucked up and oh, I think I might be carrying your baby
. If nothing else, she’d discover his true feelings for her.
“So, are we partying at The Casino after our graduation ceremony?” Jo asked.
“Definitely. I’ll be stud hunting for one who can go all night. Like the one you’re allowing his meat to loaf. I’m serious Jo. Ray is prime Grade A, Angus on the hoof. You don’t want him wandering off to greener pastures. In fact, call him and invite him to graduation.” She grabbed another beer.
She slipped out her cell, touched the display and faltered.
“Has he tried to make up? For whatever he said or did?”
Her gaze returned to the ocean. “Sort of.”
“I know the guy in Cali messed with your head, but Ray’s a good man. Played the field a bit from what I’ve heard, but now he’s stuck on you. He’s practically been living with you since Christmas. Don’t lose something good because of pride, girl. Been there and done that.”
Tami’s sound reasoning made her stomach queasy.
After her visit, Jo trudged to the bathroom. A few minutes later, she stood holding a plastic device she’d just tinkled on. One day she’d love to have Ray’s baby, but right now was the worst possible time.
She closed her eyes and found the salty taste of her tears oddly comforting. After prayer and swallowing over a boulder in her throat, she opened her eyelids.
Time to face her fate.
She gazed into the display, refocused and sank to her knees.
Ray almost called Jo to let her know of his trip to Pennsylvania. Would she even care? Instead, he set his phone back on the console as he headed north on I-64 before dawn. This would make the third time he’d moved his mom back to OBX. Who was he to talk? He and Jo hadn’t made it six months before he split.
Like father like son
.
Over the long drive, he contemplated calling. There wasn’t much to say. He didn’t truly believe she’d been with Harley that afternoon, except to talk. The fact she trusted him for protection over him ripped out his heart. If she’d have gone to Bobby, he wouldn’t have cared. She said Bobby had too much to deal with and it made him wonder if it involved the investigation in the department. He wasn’t being told everything.
What was he really afraid of, commitment, or loving her so much it scared him? Maybe she was right about him looking for an easy exit.
* * * *
Jo sat in the parking lot of Papagayos the next afternoon to commandeer her panic remote and sidearm.
Her pregnancy scare had proved to her how much she loved Ray. Anger had cost her last summer. Would she allow her stubborn nature to lose the man she truly loved? Since he’d left, she could hardly motivate herself. Her heartache equaled the loss of her father. She slipped her phone from her back pocket.
Is it too late to talk?
She tapped a text message and pressed the send key.
After waiting a few minutes and no reply, she exited the truck and drew open the bar’s heavy wooden door.
“On the house, babe.” Harley shoved an iced mug at her filled with Blue Moon.
Same as the first day she walked into the place. Shit, she wasn’t in much better shape now. “Thanks, but it’s a little early.”
“Not the way you look.” He eyeballed her.
“You’re right.” She slid onto a chair and took a long swill.
“You still haven’t called him?”
“Sent a text. Now what am I supposed to do, beg?” She propped her elbows on the bar feeling older than twenty-five.
“Three little words.” He grinned.
“Does that really make a difference to you guys?”
“More than you know. We’re all jelly inside.” He winked. “I’ll get your new toy.”
While he went to the back, she grabbed the gun he’d loaned her from her bag and laid it on the counter.
He returned and placed a small semi-automatic handgun on the bar and handed her a small black transmitter, no larger than a keyless remote for a vehicle. It had one button. Red. Wired for GPS, it would at least help someone find her body, unless Vic decided to drop her off the coast. She shivered then chugged the rest of her beer.
The bar phone chirped and Harley snatched up the receiver. “Papagayos.” Slowly, he turned and raised a brow. “Yep, taking care of that now. Okay. Will do. Uh huh.” He handed her the phone.
“Hello?”
“So is he hooking you up?” Ray’s voice crossed the line, low and unemotional.
“GPS panic unit and a gun.” Her stomach quivered.
“Is he going to train you to shoot?”
“I haven’t asked. I hoped you might be willing.”
He barked a short laugh. “I thought you said he’s more qualified to handle your situation.”
She turned her back to the bar, glad Harley had retreated to the cash register. “Fear of something happening to you.” She paused. “If Harley got hurt, I’d feel bad, but losing you, because of me… I love you. I miss you. Is this going to ruin everything between us?”
She tensed during an awkward silence.
“I’m in Pennsylvania right now. Won’t make it back in time for your graduation.”
She glanced to the floor. “I understand.”
“We’ll talk when I get back.”
“Say hi to Mona for me.”
“You can tell her yourself. She’s moving back. Again.”
“Bye.” The connection died before she finished. The good son. Always there for his mom, trying to make up for his father’s absence. He never talked about it. She pivoted on her stool. “Why did he call you?”
Harley kept hanging glasses. “Guess he thought you’d be here.”
She checked her cell. No missed calls.
Bullshit, he’d called the bar on purpose.
* * * *
Ray rubbed his knuckles together as Harley loaded his cash register. At eleven-thirty in the morning, Papagayos only hosted him.
Harley turned his head slightly and nodded. “Never expected you as my first customer.”
“You know why I’m here.”
He squinted. “I told you not to break her heart.”
“Oh, and you won’t. You’ve left a fucking trail of tears in your wake.”
“She doesn’t want me. She’s smarter than that. But if she did?” Harley locked eyes with the him. “Hurts doesn’t it, Ray? To think your woman is intrigued by me. A man you’re at odds with.” He laughed coldly.
“So is this payback for what you think I did?” His spine stiffened.
“What I know you did. Paying you back wasn’t my intent, but it’s fun to watch you suffer anyway.”
“You don’t know shit.” Harley wouldn’t believe him if he told him the truth about his fiancée. The man always had to win. He’d dealt with it up until now. With Jo, he drew the line.
“She’s right to be afraid. There’s more going on than you know. More than she knows.” He crossed his arms and leaned on the bar.
“You’ve got her back, then?” He hated asking, but he loved Jo more than his pride.
“Since she first walked in that door and asked for a beer.”
“You hired her on purpose?”
What the fuck?
He stood.
“I needed a barkeep, and she’d blipped on DEA’s radar.” He smirked.
“DEA?”
“Yeah, I’m one of their CIs.”
“She knows?” Ray’s heart pounded. Holy shit, the guy was in deep.
“I didn’t tell her until she’d been cleared. I swore her to secrecy, so don’t hold it against her. Someone’s doing a nice job messing with her and Bobby.”
“You think its Vic?” His head began to throb.
“Someone local. Probably acting on the prick’s instructions. But now that Vic’s free, he’ll probably want to make it personal.”
Okay, he was officially out of his league. “So what’s your plan?”
“Like she told you on the phone, I gave her a gun, showed her the basics and gave her a panic remote.”
“Is she staying with you?” The answer would direct the rest of his life.
“She’s too stubborn for that.” Harley grinned. “But when she’s not here working, I’ve got her calling me a couple of times a day. My intel says the fucker is still in Florida. He’ll let her get comfortable before he tries anything. I am glad you’re back, though. Another set of eyes never hurts.”
“You added my number to the pager?”
“Yep. Between nine-one-one, Bobby, you and me, someone should be able to get to her if trouble knocks.”
“I hope you’re right, Harley.”
Jo finished adjusting her new uniform while waiting for Bobby. He arrived in his dress blues, without Sarah. Her heart broke a little more.
“Okay if we take the Bronco tonight? After the pinning ceremony, I’ll drop you at The Casino and then grab my stuff from her place.”
It seemed they were both doomed in relationships. She grabbed her bag and outfit for later. “You’re giving up?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “She gave me the ring back. What am I supposed to do, Jo?”
No one else would’ve caught the shadow crossing his face. They had learned to hide their hurt well after their mother left. Stepping into his space, she gave him a big hug. “I’m so sorry.”
Returning her embrace, he said, “Come on sis, tonight is about you. You’ve worked so hard, and I couldn’t be more proud.”
As much as she loved her brother, she ached to hear the words from Ray more.
Upon their arrival, she scanned the auditorium. No man there exuded a quiet, male confidence, poured into a frame that resembled an NFL tight end. She quelled a gloomy sigh and found Tami with her mom and kids.
Out of the nearly forty candidates who’d started, only twenty-five made the final cut. As Jo sat in her dress blues with her classmates, she scanned the crowd once more.
The county officials made their promotional speeches before the fire chief called each candidate individually to the stage. When he called her name, she made her way to the stage and shook hands, accepting her certificate.
Next, all fire candidates lined up at the front of the auditorium to accept their pin. Most graduates requested family members to present their metal. Bobby stepped in front of her. His eyes brightened as he fastened the insignia above her breast pocket.
“Congratulations, sis. Dad would have been so proud of you,” he whispered. With a light kiss to her cheek, he brushed away a rogue tear.
They were both silent during the drive to the nightclub. Jo wasn’t in the mood to party, but she didn’t want to help him leave Sarah’s either. Shaking hands with her buddy Jack seemed to fit the bill.
He wheeled into The Casino’s parking lot. “Just call me when you’re ready to leave.”
“Thanks.” She pecked his cheek. “I love you. Thanks for being there.”
“Ray would’ve come if he could have. You guys need to work on things.”
“Back at you. I’ll think about that tomorrow,” she finished in her most southern drawl.
“Okay, Scarlet, but remember how
Gone with the Wind
ended.”
“Yeah, and I never wanted to be a fucking steel magnolia, either, but here I am.” She grinned and slid from the seat.
She tugged at her snug denim skirt as she reached the entrance, wishing she’d brought jeans instead. The only man who mattered liked her in cutoffs and a tank top.
Her eyes adjusted to the subdued lighting as loud music echoed from the walls and skylights of the multi-level nightclub. A heavy brown-eyed stare willed her in the direction of a small table hidden in one of the alcoves.
Harley eyed her as she approached.
“Hey babe. Congratulations. Sorry, I don’t do the ceremony thing.”