Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 71015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
She hadn’t realized that there was anybody behind her.
The motor of my air compressor had been running as was the steamer that was cleaning the parts to the transmission I’d just broken down. Pairing that with the crackling of the fire, and it made it generally impossible to hear anything out here.
After ascertaining she was okay, only rattled, I turned my attention back to Colby.
“What are you doing back here? This is private property,” I said coldly.
“Saw smoke. Worried there was something on fire,” he answered quickly.
“Normally, you’d check with the front door…ya’ know?” I replied coolly.
“I’m going to have to give you a ticket for this, you know,” Colby said, gesturing to the fire behind him.
I blinked. “What are you talking about? You can’t give tickets for burning outside the city limits.”
Colby looked surprised that I’d called him on the fact that he’d overstepped his bounds, but I wasn’t going to bend over and take his shit. I wasn’t his bitch, and I damn sure wasn’t someone he could pull his cop attitude on. I was a hothead when I was younger, and still was, only I controlled it better. If he wanted to deal it out, I’d dish it right back at him.
Which brought up the next question. Why was he out of the city limits, anyway?
Was he here because of us? He didn’t just happen by my place of business. He had to take three back roads out of town to get to it.
“I was called in because your neighbors called the Sherriff, but they were all busy,” he hesitated.
“Well,” I said, giving him that out. “How about you just call the Sherriff’s Department and tell them to come out when they can? You have no jurisdiction. Not to mention that there’s not a burn ban, and there’s no reason I can’t burn - other than you just don’t like it.”
I tried not to spit the words at him, but it was hard. The guy was really getting on my fucking nerves.
Making up excuses to come out here. He probably had just been sitting out there when he saw the smoke, what little of it there was, coming from the back, giving him just the excuse he needed.
What a dick.
“That’s not possible. Now that I’m back here, I see that there’s not a water source…” Colby tried, but I wasn’t having that.
“There’s a water source on the other side of the barrel. Not to mention a fire extinguisher right there,” I said pointing towards the back wall where I’d moved the extinguisher, which I’d shown Tru how to use. “Now, I’d like you to leave unless you’re arresting me, for which I’d like to request my lawyer.”
Colby looked like I’d force fed him a lemon.
I wasn’t some ignorant civilian he was pulling this crap on. I knew the laws, especially those which pertained to fires. I was a goddamn firefighter, after all.
Colby turned and pinned Tru with a glare before he walked off. His hand on the butt of his gun the entire way.
I followed him, making sure he actually left.
Which he did, for the most part.
My suspicions were confirmed when he went to his personal car across the street and dropped down into it, looking over his shoulder at the building as he went.
Once settled, he sat there while he placed a phone call, gave one last look at the building, and left.
I felt Tru’s stare as soon as I rounded the corner of the building.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered once I was close enough to hear her.
I took her into my arms. “The guy’s a dick. Not like you have any control of that. He shouldn’t be a police officer, though. He’s probably done a lot worse to other people that didn’t know the law like I do.”
She nodded. “Still. I feel like it’s my fault he’s focused in on you. I’ve just been ignoring him, but since you came along, he seems to have gotten a lot worse.”
That wasn’t surprising.
The man had a hard-on for Tru.
He’d probably been able to ignore the fact that she’d rejected him when she wasn’t seeing anybody, but the moment I came into the picture, he wasn’t able to ignore it any longer.
Chapter 12
Truckies don’t need to know how to handle a hose. They let their women take care of their hoses at home.
-T-shirt.
Torren
“What do you make?” The man Molly was on a date with, asked.
I blinked, knowing that if I spoke aloud, my mouth just might get away from me.
Tru had no such compunction.
She told him exactly what I’d been feeling every single time somebody asked me that over the course of my career.
“Why do you care what he makes? Obviously, though, it’s not enough. He’s the one who’ll hold your mother’s hand while his friends cut her out of her car. He’s the one that gets up in the middle of the night and risks his life responding to an emergency call. He’s the one who does life-saving CPR on your best friend while you look on in shock. Whatever he makes, is not fucking enough. It’ll never be enough. Because what he gives you is his time. His heart. His love. And in some truly awful instances, his life. All so you can have yours. Something that he doesn’t have to give, but does so anyway of his own free will,” Tru seethed.
Tru was also drunk. As a skunk.
She’d been having fun with all the ladies at the party, and this was the first time I’d managed to get her away from them all night.
“So she wears the pants in your relationship?” Douche Canoe asked, slinging his arm around Molly possessively.
What on earth was Molly thinking bringing some Wall street-type to a Warden’s party?
Sure, we tried not to get too rowdy since we were all, in some capacity, part of the civil services, but bringing someone that was so obviously out of place here was just plain stupid.
And Cleo, for his part, knew it. Cleo’s eyes narrowed on the interloper, and was probably about two seconds away from shoving his fist into the man’s throat.