Oxygen Deprived (Kilgore Fire Book 3) (3 page)

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” I slammed the bedroom door in his face.

I immediately ran to the bed and buried my face into the pillows.

Nobody believed me.

It was the same thing, over and over again, and it was beginning to really get to me.

It hadn’t been my fault that he’d cheated. I’d done everything right.

I’d been a fucking awesome girlfriend.

I’d taken his uniforms to and from the dry cleaners.

I’d visited him at work.

I’d brought him dinner to work, which had been what I was doing the night I found him with his hands down the back of his partner’s pants and his mouth latched onto her breast.

My first thought had been ‘had he forgotten he’d asked me to bring him dinner?’

Then it’d quickly changed into anger. Pure, white hot rage.

I’d been so mad, I couldn’t even see straight.

I’d walked back to his truck, which I’d borrowed because I’d taken it to get the oil changed while he was at work.

Then I’d purposefully driven his truck off the road, slamming it into the nearest brick wall I could find, which happened to be the sign that sat in front of the police station.

Before it’d read ‘Kilgore Police Department.’ Now it
just read ‘gore.’

Once I’d shaken myself from my stupor of being in a wreck, I’d gotten out of the car and reached for the tire iron that Danny kept in the back for emergency purposes. Then proceeded to take the tire iron to the rest of Danny’s truck that hadn’t been damaged in the accident.

By the time I’d rounded the truck to the other side and finished off with breaking the glass of the passenger side window, I’d caught the attention of most of the police department.

They’d all stared at me in shock, including my brother.

Then Danny had showed up and completely lost his shit.

So I’d done the only thing I could think of doing, which had been to throw the tire iron at him to keep him from beating the crap out of me.

It’d beamed him right on the forehead, and he’d gone down like a sack of potatoes in front of about ten cops and even more bystanders.

His partner, the bitch who I’d cooked dinner for and let borrow my best dress to go out on a date with a man whose name she refused to tell me.

“God,” I moaned. “My life sucks.”

Downy had done the best that he could under the circumstances.

Danny was well liked throughout the department, and I’d gone and beaten the crap out of his truck.

I’d brought it all upon myself, and I didn’t have anyone to complain to.

Even Naomi, his sister, had been a little appalled at my behavior, and she’d done some pretty sketchy stuff in her time.

“He’s gone!” My neighbor yelled through my closed door. “The turkey’s out in the trashcan behind your house, and I’m going to lock the door, okay?”

“Thank you,” I yelled back, then promptly burst into tears.

14,000 people are having sex right now. 156,000 are kissing. Then there’s you. You’re reading this instead of getting some.

-Coffee Cup

Drew

I was walking my trashcan out to the trash the next night when the little imp next door came out into her yard, and started wiggling her bare toes in the grass.

“Evening,” I said to her almost out of habit.

She snapped her head up.

“Uhh, hi,” she smiled slightly.

Jesus, that just did it for me.

I was forty-two years old, and never once in my life had I had a woman affect me like this woman did.

A woman that’d somehow gotten on house arrest and was probably
her own special brand of crazy.

“Can you get your trash all the way out?” I asked her.

She nodded, pointing to the trashcan that was barely at the side of the road. Mostly, it was behind her shrubs that lined her mailbox, and I could just see the garbage man missing it.

So, like a nice guy, I walked over and pulled the trashcan down until it sat where it belonged.

“Thanks,” she smiled. “I debated whether to even put it out.”

I looked down in the trashcan and saw the whole thing filled to the brim with pictures and…clothes?

“You don’t need these clothes anymore?” I asked her.

She shook her head.

“You remember that ex-boyfriend I was talking about?” She turned her head.

I nodded, looking up at her and studying her face.

How anyone could leave her was beyond me. She was a freakin’ vision.

Although she was really short, I would guess no more than five feet two inches or so, she had long, curly brown hair that fell down to her waist. The biggest blue eyes in Texas, and a beautiful mouth that just begged for kissing.

Her breasts were full and round, just perfect. Not too big, not too small.

They’d probably fit perfectly in my mouth…

Shit!

I tore my eyes away from her breasts, turning them to gaze at the shrub behind her house, and immediately winced.

“You need to get that tree/shrub thing trimmed,” I said off handedly.

I wasn’t able to turn off the firefighter in me. It was always there in the background, pulsing like a living thing deep inside me.

She turned to study the tree where it was brushing the power line above it and shrugged indifferently.

“I don’t have the money to pay for that right now,” she admitted. “It’s taking almost my whole month’s paycheck just to cover my rent, my car—which, might I add, I’m not allowed to use—and the costs to pay for my house arrest.”

I could tell that she really didn’t want to admit that.

“Get your brother to take care of it,” I told her.

She shook her head.

“If I had my way, I wouldn’t ever have to talk to him again,” she admitted. “Thanks for putting my trash out. If you have a chance after they empty it, could you push it back into my yard?”

I nodded.

“I can,” I said, knowing when to shut up.

She smiled sadly at me and then turned to go to the side of her house.

I stayed watching her for way too long and ended up seeing her again about a minute later when she came out on the other side of her house next to the offending shrub I’d told her to trim.

She didn’t lift her gaze from the ground as she walked, turned the corner at the front of her yard and then disappeared down the side of the house.

Shaking my head, I pulled the keys to my truck out of my pocket and unlocked the doors.

The locks clicked open and I got inside, enjoying the new car smell that assaulted my senses the moment I got inside.

Pushing the button to the window, I lowered it nearly all the way, shivering slightly at the way the cold hit me to the bone.

As I backed out of the driveway, after starting it, I idly wondered why she didn’t have shoes on, but chose not to give it, or her, too much thought.

She was a grown woman.

There was no need for me to be her daddy.

If she wanted to walk around in the nearly twenty-five-degree weather without any shoes on, who was I to say anything?

Of course, thoughts of frostbite on her cute little toes assaulted me all the way to the station. As I pulled in, my mind still hadn’t managed to shake off thoughts of her.

I parked in my usual spot, getting out on autopilot as I made my way into the bay where all the firetrucks and ambulances for the city were held.

“How’s it going, Naomi?” I asked one of the student paramedics that was obviously working with us today.

She was washing the quint—the fire truck—and I was glad that I didn’t have to do that today.

Especially with the wind that blew through not ten seconds later.

“It’s going, I guess,” she said, a smile always on her face. “Booth was just helping me, but his wife called him about something to do with a pet, so I decided to finish it up for him.”

“Thanks,” I replied distractedly. “I’m sure he appreciates it.”

Naomi grinned.

“Hey,” I stopped and turned to look at her. “I saw you at my neighbor’s house.”

Her brows rose.

“Which one?” She wondered.

“The cute brunette with the ankle monitor,” I gestured to my own ankle.

Her brows pinched down in confusion.

“Who?” She asked.

I laughed.

“You know more than one?” I asked laughingly.

She suddenly grinned.

“Well, no,” she replied sheepishly. “I only heard half of what you said before I saw him.”

She gestured to PD, one of my fellow firefighters.

My eyes followed the big fucker as he tried valiantly to carry about fifteen bags of food from his car at once.

“So?” I asked, turning back to her.

“So what?” She asked distractedly.

Chuckling to myself, I turned and left her to her lustful adoration.

PD was a kinky fucker. If she wasn’t into that, he probably wouldn’t be into her.

How he got into that shit, I didn’t know. But, hey, to each their own, it’s not my business to judge what gets him off. I never cited him for his feelings and beliefs.

He could do what he wanted with the women he brought to his bed, and I’d continue to enjoy the ones I brought to my bed my way.

“How’s it going,” Booth muttered as he stared blankly at the kitchen stove.

“Good,” I said. “What’s up?”

“Fuckin’ dog catcher caught the dog outside our house again,” he muttered, sounding miffed.

“Thought you put a new fence in,” I mumbled, walking to the fridge and pulling out the eggs and bacon from the top shelf.

“I did,” he muttered darkly. “Now I have a hundred and fifty-dollar ticket if I want to get the dog back.”

“If?” I drawled.

He grinned then, a rare smile lighting up his face.

“Yep,” he agreed. “If.”

“Your wife will kick your ass,” I told him. “You know that right? Then she’ll just go pay the fine anyway and you won’t get any sex for a month.”

“You know this for certain?” He asked.

I nodded. “Have an ex-wife. We were married for twelve years before we split. Trust me, it’s easier in the long run if you just give her what she wants.”

“You were married?” Booth asked.

This was the most I’d ever spoken to him with him being the new guy and all, so I decided to keep talking, despite the fact that it still chapped my ass to talk about Constance.

“Yeah,” the word a bitter taste in my mouth. “Right out of fire school and everything.”

“What happened?” He asked, leaning forward.

I sighed, pulling out the cast iron skillet out of the lower cabinet, then turned on the gas before lighting the burner with the long liter next to the stove.

“She and I grew apart,” I said. “She hated me being a firefighter. Hated that I had to work so much to keep us afloat. Her father hated me because I ‘made his daughter cry so much
.’
Which he loved to bring up every possible chance he got. It kept getting worse and worse until she finally filed for divorce.”

I dropped a dollop of butter down into the bottom of the pan.

“Do you still love her?” Booth asked.

“No,” I admitted. “I guess I felt obligated to stay with her. I would still be there if she hadn’t filed, though.”

“Kids?” He guessed.

I nodded. “Fifteen-year-old,” I nodded. “She turns sixteen this month.”

His mouth dropped open.

“You have a sixteen-year-old?” He asked in surprise.

I nodded. “I do.”

“Why doesn’t she come to any family functions that the department puts on?” He wondered.

I grimaced.

That was a sore subject, and it hurt every time I talked about it.

“She doesn’t like that I hurt her mom,” I told the truth, but not embellishing any. “And she has free reign to see me anytime she wants. I send child support checks to her mother once a month, but…” I shrugged.

Booth didn’t say anything, and I was glad.

At least he knew when a man had enough.

“I want mine over easy,” he said mildly.

I nodded.

“Scrambled!” Came Tai’s voice from the bathroom.

I snorted out a laugh, then laughed even louder when PD answered from the doorway with Naomi at his back.

“I want mine hard,” he said, his eyes drifting to Naomi as he said it.

I made a gagging motion with my finger pointed to my throat, and he winked at me.

He was trying to make her uncomfortable, and by the looks of her scalding red face, he’d accomplished it.

Just before I cracked the first egg, the tone dropped, signaling the first call of the shift.

“Fuck!” Tai called from the bathroom.

I laughed, turning off the gas and making sure the flame was out before I moved everything off the stove and started walking to the garage bay.

“Who’s on the medic today?” Naomi asked me as she jogged to catch up.

“Me,” I said.

I was usually the driver of the truck, but once every two weeks I worked the medic to keep my skills fresh, today being one of those days.

“Oh, yay,” she drawled sarcastically.

I tossed her a look that clearly said, ‘shut up.’

She closed her mouth and shut up, going to the side door of the ambulance and getting in the back without another word.

I got in the passenger seat, then pressed the ‘en route’ button on the screen to help Tai out. When a call came in, we had two minutes to get in the truck and go. By pressing it, I gave Tai a couple more seconds. A, because I wanted to, and B, because I didn’t want to have my ass chewed out by the captain because we didn’t respond to a call in less than the time we were allotted.

Speaking of which, Tai came running out of the door to the living quarters like his ass was on fire, buttoning his pants and fastening his belt as he did.

“Sorry,” he apologized breathlessly as he got in the front seat. “My wife decided to try something new for dinner last night, and it went straight through me. All night long.”

I snorted, reaching up to press the garage door button once we’d made it outside fully.

That’s when the rain decided to change to sleet.

“Shit,” Tai groaned. “This is already getting bad.”

I looked at the road, watching as the further we went from the station, the worse it seemed to get.