America's Bravest (5 page)

Tears welled in Rachel’s eyes again, but this
time they spilled over. She swiped at them impatiently. The
adrenaline rush had subsided, and she was shaky, uncertain, even
cold, making her shiver despite the warm air that filtered in
through the open screens.

Grabbing a throw, Alexis put it around
Rachel’s shoulders. It was as soft as a kitten’s fur. “Jesus, I
don’t think I’ve seen you cry in years. I’m sorry, honey.”

“We’re trained in confined-space maneuvers,
and besides the space wasn’t that small. Still, being trapped was
awful.”

“How big was the area?”

Rachel looked directly at her sister. “Big
enough to have sex in.”

Alexis’s eyes widened.
“What?”

“I was with the hot captain I told you
about.” There were few secrets between the sisters. “He confessed
he felt the same about me as I did about him. I told you before I
thought that might be true. We, um, thought we weren’t going to get
out.”

“So you gave in to your feelings?”

“Uh-huh.” She sipped the drink that had gone
untouched on the table. The tart liquid gave her the punch she
needed. “What a mess.”

“First, tell me how good it was.”

Rachel smiled at Alexis’s mischievous
expression. “He’s got great hands. He was so tender, then at the
end, so…forceful. Hell, I sound like the heroine of the romance
novels you’re always reading.”

“Romance novels got me through med school,
girl.”

“Anyway, he was wonderful, and I haven’t felt
that close to a guy…in I don’t know when.”

“It certainly wasn’t with Awful Edward.”

The man Rachel had been engaged to. The man
who’d dumped her when she wanted to join the fire department.
Couldn’t have a CEO of a major corporation with a woman who smelled
like smoke half the time. Rachel had given up a lot to be a
firefighter, and now she’d jeopardized all she’d fought Edward and
her parents to achieve.

“So what are you going to do now?” Alexis
asked.

“Forget about what happened between me and
Gabe.” She held up her hand, palm forward. “Before you give me the
‘firefighting isn’t everything’ talk, know that as soon as we were
rescued, Gabe turned cold and abrupt. When I said we needed to
talk, he gave me the complete brush-off.” She took another sip of
the whiskey. “Shit, I would have suggested we forget what happened
if I’d had a chance, but he turned into a typical boy bastard.”

“I’m sorry, Rach. Really. You could look at
it this way—you had some hot sex with a hot guy.”

“For which I’ll pay dearly. How can I face
him every day?”

“You have time to mull that over. Remember,
we have four days off, both of us.”

“Yeah, I forgot. Think we can stay below the
parents’ radar?”

“Yep. We’ve always been good at that. I say
we hole up here with our phones off, sit out in the sun, swim and
drink wine.”

Rachel heartily agreed to the time she’d have
alone with her sister, an unexpected treat. Deciding to throw
herself into that, she ordered herself not to think about her
ordeal in the basement with Gabe Malvaso.

On their next shift, a night rotation,
Firefighter Wellington breezed into the station house so bright and
bushy tailed that Gabe wanted to snarl at her. He’d had a hell of
time during their four-day furlough and she looked rested and
tanned. Even her hair sported pretty blond highlights. Had she gone
to fucking Italy after what they’d been through? He, on the other
hand, had walked around his house simultaneously kicking himself in
the butt for his unethical actions and remembering what she felt
like under him. With little sleep behind him, Gabe was ready for a
fight.

“’Afternoon, everyone.” She set two big, pink
boxes on the table. “Got us a treat from La Belle Gourmand.”

“Hey great,” Ramirez told her. “Sophia loves
the pastry from that place.”

“Take her home a few,” Rachel said,
smiling.

O’Malley looked up from a magazine he was
reading. “What’s the occasion?”

“Dummy.” This from Ramirez, who’d gotten up
to hug Rachel. “She cheated the dark force. She’s still
celebrating.”

Across the room at the big urn, Gabe turned
his back, poured coffee and tried not to listen. It was useless, of
course.

“Yeah, Wellington, tell us how you spent
those extra days.” Sands again, in that teenage wheedling voice
that belied a very good firefighter. “Did you get away for a few
days with your main man?”

Coffee sloshed over Gabe’s hand and he
swore.

“You okay, Cap?” Ramirez called over.

“Just peachy.” He turned, but they weren’t
watching him.

They all exchanged looks. Rachel mouthed,
“What?”

“Cranky.” Brody whispered the word. “Big
time.”

“I heard that,” Gabe said, joining them at
the table. “’Morning, Wellington. Nice treats.” He faced O’Malley.
“You’d be out of sorts if you’d almost died, too, Firefighter.”

Rachel gave him a wide smile. “But we’re
alive, Captain. Something I intend to remember. My new mantra is
No Bad Days
.”

“Good luck with that.” He pointed to the open
box. The scent of pastry filled the air. “I’ll have a half-moon
cookie.”

Sands passed him one as Felicia entered the
kitchen. “Hey, don’t eat those. I got dinner all planned.”

The guys rolled their eyes. Firefighters were
robust eaters no matter what snacks they consumed.

After she greeted Licia, Rachel grabbed the
newspaper and buried her nose in it.

Later, she got up to help Felicia.

During dinner, she was all sweetness and
light to everybody but Gabe, acting as if he wasn’t even there. As
if he hadn’t touched her everywhere. Been inside her. She even
approached their training—a review of the newest machine to test
for anthrax—in a good mood, chatting happily all through the drill.
Her Pollyanna act wore thin—and so did being near her, smelling her
scent, seeing her eyes crinkle with humor—so as soon as the
training was over, Gabe changed in the locker room and made a
beeline for their workout area upstairs. He’d get on his boxing
gloves and knock the shit out of a punching bag.

When he went inside the well-equipped room,
he found Rachel had beat him to the punch, so to speak. Dressed in
a pair of clingy white shorts and a dark navy muscle shirt, she
danced around the bag hanging in the corner, making it sway with
her attacks. Gabe raised his eyes to the heavens and said silently,
Gimme a freaking break!

But as he watched her, he realized they
couldn’t ignore the strain between them. So he locked the door and
crossed to her. When she acted as if she didn’t see him, he grabbed
the bag.

“Hey!” Finally she looked at him. Her eyes
were fiery and her face moist with perspiration. “What are you
doing?”

“I wanna talk to you.”

Cocking her head, she asked, “As my captain
or as a man?”

“A man.”

“No thanks.” She gave him her back and
started in on the bag again.

Jesus. At a loss for what to do, he caught
sight of the rack beside him. Hell, why not? Maybe it would help
release some of the tension smoldering between them. Quickly, he
suited up, then butted her arm with a helmet like the one he’d
donned. “Here, put this on.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Don’t be childish. You might as well take
shots at your real target.”

She arched a delicate brow. “That has
appeal.”

When she was ready, she faced him. “Give it
to me hard, Malvaso,” she said swinging first and landing the punch
on his shoulder.

He was so surprised by her suggestive remark
and her quick offensive, he didn’t even raise his hands to block
the attack.

Next time, he was ready and feinted left when
she swung, then he did a counterpunch to the side of her helmet.
“That what you want, Princess?”

She punched back, pulling it low to get him
on the chest. He stumbled. “Yeah, now shut up and do your
best.”

“I always do my best, but then you know that
firsthand, so to speak.”

Her blow hit square on his jaw.

After fifteen minutes, they were both covered
in sweat, and Gabe was sore as hell, so she had to be, too. Neither
had taken it easy with the other. He stepped back first.

“Done?” she asked, challenge in her
voice.

“Yeah, and so are you.”

“No, I’m not. I’m going to do some
weights.”

He wrested his gloves off, removed his
helmet, then grabbed her wrist. “Now I’m your captain. You’re done
exercising, because you won’t be able to lift your air tank if you
work out any more.”

“Fine.” She whipped off her helmet and threw
it on the rack. Her gloves were next and hit the floor. Her
antagonism didn’t surprise him, after how he’d acted in the
aftermath of being stuck in the basement with her. In fact, it told
him plenty. As she took a step toward the door, he pulled her back
by the shoulder. “We’re gonna have this out.”

She whirled on him. He wished her cheeks
weren’t so flushed, her hair not damp like it got after sex.
“What?”

“You know damn well what. You wanted to talk
after we were rescued and I wasn’t ready. I am now.”

“Tough shit. I don’t wanna talk anymore.”

“I’m sorry if I was abrupt and unkind in what
I said.” He tried to soften his tone, but she was being a real
brat, and it made him mad. “I don’t want to hurt you, Rachel.” He
couldn’t help himself. He ran his knuckles down her cheek.

She ratcheted back. “Don’t you
dare
touch me in this house! And don’t try to charm me out of being
furious with you. We weren’t even on solid ground yet when you
regretted what we’d done. What was it you said?
Uh-fucking-oh.
You never use that word around us. Then
after we were rescued, you said we should forget all about having
sex in that cellar. You treated me like yesterday’s trash.”

“I—”

“Well, you got your wish, Captain. I’ve
forgotten all about our little tryst.”

Her words sparked his own anger. “Yeah, with
who? The guy you spent the last four days with, getting that
tan?”

“I don’t believe you. Talk about dog in the
manger.”

Gabe couldn’t believe his behavior, either,
what she brought out of him. He had to get control of the
situation. “I admit I was a jerk.”

“An asshole is more like it.”

“Okay! I got it!” He ran a hand through his
hair. Who knew she had such a temper? She’d never once shown it
around the house. “Look, I apologize. I want to talk about where to
go from here.”

“We go absolutely nowhere, Gabe. Nowhere. If
you’d been halfway decent to me, I would have said then what I’m
saying now. We
do
have to forget what happened. I can’t
possibly be involved with my officer. My reputation in the
department would be ruined if we hooked up. It was over between us,
really, before it got started.”

He never expected that. “Then why are you so
mad?”

“Because you were
offended
by what
we did as two consenting adults.” She shook her head. “And here I
thought you’d be decent to women. I envied the dates you brought to
department events, was jealous of your wife. They’re welcome to
you.”

Turning, she stormed to the door. Yanked on
it. It wouldn’t open. Over her shoulder, she spat out, “Don’t ever
do something like this again. Being behind locked doors with you
will cause untold speculation about us.”

“The group’s outside playing basketball.”

“Don’t do it again.” She undid the lock, then
faced him. “As soon as I step out of this room, I’m going back to
being respectful and cooperative with you. But don’t mistake that
for anything more than what it is. Duty and responsibility.”

As she left, he muttered, “Fat chance of
forgetting that.”

oOo

Felicia White was a force to be reckoned
with. Cool, calm and determined, she was the best person to present
what she, Sydney and Rachel had come up with. They sat around a
conference table in the battalion chief’s office down the hall from
the firehouse proper, to discuss their publicity idea. Noah
Callahan had assigned the problem of Parker Allen to Erikson.

Rachel was satisfied with their proposal and
refused to be distracted by Gabe’s presence. He’d asked to be at
the meeting, probably because he felt responsible for everything.
Now he sat across from her, and instead of watching him, she
examined the Manwaring print on the chief’s wall. Rumor had it the
framed photo from the popular firefighter artist was real, which
would be costly.

All week, she’d tried hard not to think about
the regrets she had for behaving badly with Gabe when they’d boxed,
but today they’d come back full force. She and Gabe exchanged no
more unprofessional talk, and it was good to stay distanced, really
it was, even if he looked big and masculine in his crisp white
shirt, had gotten a haircut and a bit of sun.

Licia spoke up. “We want to start a blog of
our own to retaliate against Parker Allen. We’ll make it clear
that’s the purpose by titling the first blog entry
Make It
Right or Got It Wrong?
All the women in the department have
agreed to take a day to write an entry—on their own time—and
discuss their lives as firefighters. Readers will be invited to
respond. If we get good feedback, it’ll be ammunition for fighting
against the shrew.”

“Why single out women?” Gabe asked. When
forced to look at him more closely, she noticed a nick from his
razor on his chin. “The whole point of our experiment at House 7
was to integrate a gender-equal team to prove that we can work
together as well as all guys.”

“And we’ll discuss that, Gabe. But fire women
have a unique story to tell that’ll appeal to the public. We’ll
advertise on the all the fire sites as well as some global sites
that the general population goes to. Word will spread. We can start
with the history of women integrating the fire department, then
narrow down to the HCFD and our experiment at Rescue 7. We’ll also
talk about our daily lives as firefighters in and out of the
station houses.” She gave what passed for a smile from Licia.
“Besides, can you see Ed Snyder and his cronies over at Engine 4
writing about their feelings?”