Sin City Uniform 01 - All Fired Up (3 page)

“I don’t think this one can be saved.”

Trent grunted. He was a man of few words. Literally. Why jabber on endlessly when most subjects required no more than a couple of well-picked phrases?

“I’ll fry up a couple burgers.”

Lee seemed to consider, then reject the idea. “That’s okay, I’ll just grab myself a ham sandwich.”

They went about the business of fixing themselves something to eat. The other two guys who had been out on the call were still taking care of the engine. Trent and Lee had handled it the previous time, so it was their turn. The medics were in the garage with them taking care of their own truck.

The common area was comprised of a long counter with cabinets on one end where the kitchen was. Alongside it were the appliances. There was enough room for two or three men to function comfortably at the same time and still have room for an eight-person dining table.

Beyond that was a ten by ten square piece of carpeting which was topped with a sofa and two easy chairs. Of course, the requisite television was located in that spot as well.

Everything was very basic and utilitarian. However, they were fortunate that Vegas’ budget was rather generous in comparison to other fire agencies that Trent had visited in smaller areas. The big tourist dollars paid well, but the ten stations within a three mile radius attested to the need for strong fire and rescue support. The incident they had just returned from was a perfect example of that need.

Lee picked up a piece of ham that had escaped the confines of his bread and fallen on the plate. He popped it in his mouth, narrowing his eyes at Trent as he chewed.

Trent frowned. “Something I can help you with?”

“You sure jumped right in tonight.”

“Uh huh.” Trent took a healthy bite of the lean beef burger he’d prepared for himself and pointedly ignored Lee as he munched away.

“You’re aware that Ben and Jamal were on scene, right?”

Trent didn’t answer, he just kept eating. He made a show of carefully examining his sandwich as if it were the most interesting thing ever, before taking additional bites.

Unfortunately, he was almost out of burger.

“I know you’re never going to bust out with any heartfelt declarations of love…”

Trent raised both eyebrows as he locked eyes with Lee. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. As if Lee needed to reiterate that such a thing would never happen.

“…but the way you reacted tonight… Damn. I barely had a chance to inhale and you were freaking out, and in the water.”

“I don’t freak out.” He’d said it as he’d swiped across his mouth with a paper towel then crumpled it up, dropping it on his empty plate.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you acted around him at the blood drive. You’ve only ever had that look on your face when you were around Paul.” Lee’s voice softened. “I haven’t seen it on you since he died.”

The chair scraped loudly as Trent forcefully pushed it back. “I have some paperwork to finish before I head to my bunk.”

“Trent, come on. Would it hurt you to have an actual conversation with me? Fuck, you’d think you hated me instead of being my buddy since our glorious days of ruling over Pahrump High.” Lee crossed his arms in front of himself, glowering.

Trent pressed his lips together, hating that his friend was right. Even if soul-baring conversations amounted to one of his least favorite activities on the planet, it didn’t mean he had to be a total dick to the only person he felt any sort of real bond with.

Trent sighed in resignation. “Walt and I are getting together tomorrow night. He’s moved into town, thinking of settling here for good.”

“And you’re telling me this because…?”

“We thought we might give it a try again.”

Lee threw his hands in the air before letting them land on the top of his thighs with a loud smack. “Are you high?”

“That’s not amusing.”

“You’re right. But what is really amusing is you getting back with a guy who you told me you never loved, never did it for you that much, and who you had nothing in common with. What are you thinking?”

Trent shrugged. “He’s a nice guy.” Glaring at Lee, he continued, “And I don’t ever remember telling you anything about him ‘not doing it for me’ as you so eloquently put it—as if that would ever be any of your business.”

Lee snorted. “First off, I could tell. I could
really
tell once you and Paul got together.

Fucking night and day.” Lee cleared his throat and shifted in his seat a bit. “And besides, Walt sorta mentioned something one night when you guys got in a fight.”

“What?”

Walt disclosing personal information to one of his friends would be the first topic of conversation the following night. Even if the disclosure had probably occurred four or five years earlier, it was exactly the type of thing that made him uncomfortable.

“He could tell you weren’t really into him. He said there wasn’t any passion.”

Trent groaned. “He was probably drunk.”

That had been one of their major conflicts. Trent didn’t mind knocking back a couple of beers, but Walt liked to over-indulge on a regular basis and hang out at the bars almost every night. It wasn’t Trent’s scene, but since they’d been emailing each other recently, Walt had insisted he’d changed.

“Yeah. He was. But it doesn’t change the fact that he knew you weren’t feeling it, if you catch my drift.”

It was time for another head shaking.

“Is there a point to all of this?”

“Officer Shawn Everly.”

“Don’t. I mean it. Don’t.”

“Why the fuck not, asshole? Are you punishing yourself or something? You’re gonna try to resurrect a dead relationship that was only ever on life support anyway instead of giving someone a chance who really does it for you?”

“Give him a chance…?” Trent grunted. “We’ve barely spoken to one another. I don’t have any idea if he’d even be interested. It’s not as if we’ve really interacted or anything.”

Lee arched an eyebrow. “You mean other than a public butt fondling.”

Trent flushed. “I mean it, Lee…”

“And
I
have an idea as to how interested he is.”

Trent carefully schooled his expression, focused on keeping his tone neutral.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Lee inclined toward him as if they were involved in a deep conspiracy.

“Oh, I think I do. I most definitely know what I’m talking about. He’s not as crafty at hiding his feelings as you are ’cause he was eating you up with his gaze at the blood drive, and tonight? I thought he was gonna fucking swoon or something.”

Still maintaining his composure, even as Lee’s words ignited an excited flutter in his chest, Trent stared his friend down.

“He almost drowned. You’re misinterpreting his behavior.”

Lee covered his face with his hands before dropping them back down. “You’re such an idiot. What you shoulda done was carry him to the stretcher. That would have gotten you a date like that.” Lee snapped his fingers.

Trent took a deep breath then stood. “Goodnight, Lee.”

Lee crossed his arms in front of himself again in seeming aggravation. “Yeah, fucking idiot all right.”

After turning his back on his friend, he stomped off, grateful that his shift would be over by noon the next day. He needed a couple of days away from Lee’s prying. Once he got to the room he shared with his buddy and Jamal, he plopped down on the bed. He still needed to fill out an incident report, but his head was all fucked up, his thoughts uncharacteristically jumbled.

So what if he wanted Shawn? It made no difference. He’d already sworn to himself he would never get involved with another cop ever again. Paul had been the absolute love of his life, and a disgusting excuse for a human being had snatched Paul’s life away while trying to rob a casino. Even though two years had passed since his lover’s death and he’d grieved the loss of the man he’d thought he would spend his life with, it didn’t change one significant thing. The gut-wrenching agony that had sliced through him when he’d received the news.

He hadn’t known that emotional pain could cut so deep. That type of hurt was something he never wanted to experience again.

When Walt had casually inquired as to where a good area would be to move to in Vegas, it had led to a discussion of one another’s romantic status. It wasn’t true that he hadn’t loved Walt—he merely hadn’t been
in
love with him. Like he’d told Lee, Walt was a nice guy. Maybe not too ambitious, still trying to figure out what he wanted to be when he grew up, and of course, there’d been the issue with the drinking. But Walt was easygoing, steady and obviously cared about Trent. He would have a regular companion—maybe begin to build a life with someone again. He didn’t need that all-encompassing love and passion that he’d had with Paul. It hurt too much when it got ripped away.

* * * *

“You could’ve taken tonight off, you know.”

Vicki cast her eyes around at everyone going by as they strolled down the Boulevard.

Shawn did the same. It would be another hot and busy night.

“I’m totally fine, Vicki. And it’s not as if I had a hot date or anything.”

“That’s because you’re too slow.”

Her statement made Shawn come to a complete stop.

“What does that mean?”

He made sure to stay close to her. They were surrounded on all sides by masses of noisy partiers and the last thing he wanted to do was shout his personal business all over the Strip. The display with Lieutenant Marshall the evening before had been mortifying enough.

She’d halted as well, but her gaze continued to flit around as she spoke. “Trent Marshall is never going to approach you. You’ll need to do it for him.”

Shawn gasped. “Wha—? How did you…? I mean…” He swallowed hard. Was it that obvious?

Vicki charged past him and he whirled around in time to see two guys punching it out near the curb. His first concern was for her safety, although, she had proven over and over that she could handle herself fine. Still, they weren’t in a position to know whether or not either man was armed.

“Stop it,
now
.”

Vicki yanked on the collar of one of the fighters, struggling to pull him back so that Shawn could wedge himself between the two men. The adrenaline was high. Both he and Vicki continued to shout at them to cease, but the men were out of control. Everything had happened so fast, there hadn’t been the opportunity to request backup.

The man Vicki had grabbed elbowed her, sending her flying backwards. She landed on the sidewalk with a loud grunt. Shawn released his suspect to lunge at the one who’d pushed Vicki to the ground. Grappling with him, he managed to get him in a headlock before shoving him face first to the ground. Still he struggled madly. Chaos erupted around him with the arrival of a cruiser, sirens blaring. Two officers landed on either side of Shawn and the belligerent perp, yelling for him to stop. They each took one of the man’s arms to try to force them behind is body so that they could cuff him. Shawn straightened enough to push a knee into the man’s lower back so that he couldn’t get away.

“Stop resisting! You’re making it worse for yourself. Put your hands behind your back!”

Several grueling moments later, the three of them managed to get the enraged suspect cuffed and had hauled him to his feet. He patted his fellow officer Darren on the shoulder, and wiped his lip. When he pulled his hand away he noted there was blood. Vicki handed him a tissue and he dabbed at it.

He was still worried about the tumble she’d taken.

“You okay?”

Her normally meticulously styled hair that she kept slicked back and tied in a neat bun had become severely dislodged.

“Yeah. Banged my elbow a bit, but I’ll live.”

“You should get it checked out.”

“Sure, Everly. I’ll do that when you’re getting your lip checked out.”

He tried to smirk at her, but it pulled on his cut. They were both stubborn asses when it came to things like that. They spent the next thirty minutes or so wrapping up the scene, getting the information they’d need for their reports later on and keeping the crowds back.

Darren and Parker would transport the suspect he and Vicki had fought and another cruiser would take the one Shawn had let go. The other officers had been able to chase him down with help from some witnesses.

Fire and Rescue came out from Station 32, but there was no engine in sight. He wanted to bust his own lip again for being so stupid as to think that Trent might be his hero once again. Vicki was right. If he wanted any action from the guy, he would have to be the one to make the first move.

Obviously, he has no clue I’ve been eyeing him the way he’s been eyeing me.

Their sergeant who’d shown up at the scene insisted they both get checked out by the paramedics. They jointly rolled their eyes at one another and went through the motions.

Once they’d finished with that, they went back to their patrol. In his peripheral vision, he noticed that Vicki was constantly stealing glances at him.

“You got something to say to me, Powell?”

“Just that you’re a little slow on the uptake, Everly.”

“Yeah? Any suggestions?”

“Tell him you like him and wanna get together some time.”

He resisted the urge to halt completely again. He’d been testing the waters as far as being openly gay was concerned. Vicki was the first person he’d come out to since moving and she’d actually wondered why he’d even brought it up. It had been awesome.

Besides the homophobe brother, the tough and hardcore task force he’d worked for in Los Angeles had not been the place for him to be out and proud. And despite the diversity of the large city, there was a very unhealthy assortment of bigots and racists in the department.

He’d been part of a macho group where he hadn’t felt completely comfortable disclosing his sexuality without it impacting his career. One of his hopes for his new home was that he could live more openly.

“Maybe I will.” He grinned. “Of course, I’ll have to get him to stand still long enough. He sure runs off quick.”

“See? Too slow.”

Shawn let out a good laugh. His radio crackled and he answered the call.