Sully Read online

  “Just here with a friend,” he said. “We needed some fresh air.”

  “Yeah…”

  Sutton eyeballed me, a skeptical look in his eyes. I smiled politely at him.

  “How are you doing, Sheriff?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer me immediately. He just kept eyeballing Dorian and me like he knew something was up.

  “It’s been a long night,” he said. “My old bones weren’t meant to stay up this late.”

  “Don’t be a stranger now,” Dorian said. “We play poker every night.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow at the bakery,” I added.

  Sutton didn’t pay us any attention. Dorian and I stood there as Sutton backed out of the alley and drove off. I sighed a deep breath of relief as soon as he was gone.

  “You know, he’s right,” I said. “It’s been a long night. I should probably head home now.”

  Dorian looked down at me and smiled.

  “Do you need a ride?”

  I bit my lip, trying and failing to hide my enthusiasm.

  “I could use a lift.”

  “I hope this won’t be the last time I see you at the clubhouse.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Dorian took my hand in his and led me out of the back alley.

  I had to thank Lydia for telling me to come out tonight. Things couldn’t have gone any better.

  Chapter 5

  DORIAN

  Just a quick glance at Burton was enough to tell you that he’d seen better days. His hair was long gone with a bunch of liver spots in its place. His skin was worn-out and wrinkled. The bags underneath his eyes looked like he hadn’t slept well in days. Understandable, considering the line of work he was in.

  But more than the belly that stretched out over his belt or the missing neck covered by the rolls of fat on his chin, the one thing about Burton that everybody agreed upon was that he was never in a good mood. He always looked like someone had just given him bad news.

  As I sat in front of his desk, I knew for sure he wasn’t in a good mood. He wouldn’t have called me into his office if that weren’t the case.

  His elbows propped up on his desk, he scratched the side of his temple as he read the paper in front of him.

  “I’m reading Adams’s report,” he said. “Said here that you didn’t vent the building.”

  “There wasn’t any time—”

  “I’m not finished. It says you went into the building against his advice and jumped through a window with ‘reckless abandon.’”

  Burton slowly shifted his eyes up at me.

  “Are you telling me that didn’t happen?” he asked.

  I sighed a deep breath before responding.

  “I don’t think the words ‘reckless abandon’ are the words I would use to describe what I did.”

  “And what words would you use? Heroic? Courageous? Brave?”

  “Necessary. I did what I had to do to save that man. If the circumstances were the same, I would do it again.”

  Burton glared at me and clenched his jaw. I wasn’t going to lie to him even if he didn’t like hearing the truth.

  He got up from his seat and moved over to the window of his office. He stared out into the city with his arms behind his back.

  “I can’t figure you out,” he said as he shook his head. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to be a hero or if you actually believe everything you say.”

  “I’m not trying to be anything,” I responded. “I’m only trying to do what’s right.”

  “The right thing to do would have been to vent the building.”

  “If we took the time to vent the building, that old man would have suffocated before I got to him.”

  “And if you were a second later, you would have been there with him. The backdraft would have swallowed you up before you got back.”

  “I got back. I made it.”

  Burton slowly turned back toward me. The disappointment in his eyes was undeniable. There was no point in trying to reason with him.

  “Look, kid,” he said as he moved back toward his desk. “I know you were trying to do the right thing. But if I let every man at the station do whatever he wanted, this place would be Hell.”

  “I understand.”

  “I know you went through the academy just like everybody else. It’s a pleasure to have you here. But if you want to be more than just a volunteer, you’re going to have to follow procedure. You got that?”

  “I got it.”

  “Good. You’re working graveyard.”

  He said it so bluntly, I thought I’d misheard him.

  “What—”

  “You’re working graveyard. This isn’t a discussion, Sullivan. The only reason I haven’t suspended you is because that old man is alive. But if it happens again, I’ll have no choice.”

  I gritted my teeth and let out another frustrated sigh. I knew why Burton had to do it but I wasn’t happy about it.

  “If that happens again, that means someone is going to die,” I said.

  “Follow procedure, Sullivan. End of discussion.”

  “…Is there anything else you want to talk to me about?”

  Burton shook his head.

  I got up from my seat just as he turned his attention back to all of the work on his desk. I put my hand on the door handle but stopped just before I left.

  “Is there something wrong, Sullivan?” he said.

  I slowly turned around and looked at him.

  “Chief Burton, can I ask you something?”

  “What is it?”

  “Why did you become a firefighter?”

  He kept reading the papers on his desk like he hadn’t heard me. I waited patiently before he finally responded.

  “I’ve lived in this town my whole life,” he said. “Joining the academy and coming to the station felt like the right thing to do. I wanted to do my part to help Ivory.”

  “Right. You did the right thing. You wanted to do your part. Just like I did when I saved that old man in his house.”

  Burton took a deep breath and exhaled it through his nostrils, his eyes locked on me. As intimidating as he was, I wasn’t about to back down from him.

  “You did good,” he said. “You saved a man’s life. That family owes you a debt of gratitude.”

  “What if you were in my shoes? What would you have done?”

  He shook his head at me.

  “I’m not here to answer your hypotheticals,” he said. “All I know is what happened. Follow your orders.”

  He pointed his index finger at me to emphasize his point.

  It was futile trying to reason with the old bastard. He had a point but I wasn’t about to keep pushing him. I just had to accept the fate he’d given me.

  I left his office and made my way back through the station. As soon as I got into the garage, everybody turned their attention to me.

  “Well, well, well, look who it is.”

  Adams’s voice was just as grating as it always was. He sounded so satisfied that I knew I didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

  “The town hero has been relegated to the graveyard shift,” he said. “Poor guy. That’s no way to treat a hero.”

  Adams chuckled at himself. His joke got some laughs from the other firefighters.

  I got on my bike and continued to try and ignore him.

  “Maybe that’ll teach you a lesson,” he said. “Follow orders.”

  “Follow orders,” I finally responded. “That’s just the kind of man you are, Adams. You can’t even think for yourself.”

  I managed to wipe the confident smirk off of his face. He took a step toward me as the rest of the garage fell silent. All of the other men had their eyes locked on us.

  “Don’t think you’re special because you did something reckless,” Adams said.

  “Reckless? That’s part of the job. We have to risk our lives to save other people.”

  “There’s a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it, Sulliv
an.”

  “I went through the academy, same as you. Don’t talk to me about right or wrong.”

  “You have no authority here. You’re still just a volunteer. As long as you’re a volunteer, you follow orders. You got that?”

  I clenched my jaw. There was a part of me that wanted to ball my fist and slug him right across the mouth.

  “You got that?”

  He repeated it again as he took another step toward me.

  “Whoa, Adams.”

  “Settle down, man.”

  A couple of other firefighters stepped up to hold him back. Adams never liked me but he’d never shown such hostility to me before. I wasn’t about to get into it with him even though I wanted to.

  I shook my head at him and put my head down. The garage open, I revved my engine and let the loud sound of exhaust fill the room.

  “Don’t think you’re fooling anybody,” Adams continued. “Just because you’re working here at the station doesn’t mean you get a free pass. You’re a fucking biker. You’ve got no respect for this town. If it were up to me, every man wearing leather would be thrown in fucking jail.”

  It was one thing to insult me. But disrespecting the patch was something else. Adams wasn’t talking about me. He was talking about every Reaper who wore my colors.

  I had to do something.

  I laughed softly to myself and cut my engine off.

  “That’s it,” Adams said as he nodded, that confident grin back on his lips. “You fucking bikers… Talk shit about your pussy ass little club and all of sudden you get emotional like you’re on your periods.”

  The other firefighters continued to hold Adams back. As I stepped up to him, another set of firefighters stood next to me. They wouldn’t have been able to hold me back if I wanted to do something.

  “Don’t disrespect the patch,” I said.

  “Or else what? Are you threatening me?”

  “What if I am?”

  “You hear that, boys? He’s just like all of the other club members in this town. Riding on their bikes, above the law. Their noses in the air. Thinking they’re better than everybody else.”

  “The Reapers care more about this town than you ever did.”

  “Bullshit! I’m out here helping. You’ve got the town on edge so bad that federal agents had to come here to clean up the mess you made.”

  “There’s no mess that they need to clean up. But if you keep talking, there will be.”

  I took a step toward Adams and two of the other firefighters grabbed my arms to hold me back.

  “Hey!”

  The unmistakable bark of Burton’s voice filled the room. Everybody in the garage turned toward him.

  “What the fuck is going on here?” he said.

  We all looked at one another but nobody said anything.

  “Are you fucking deaf?” Burton continued. “I asked you all a question.”

  “It’s nothing,” Adams responded. “I was just wishing the volunteer here some good luck with the graveyard shift. A lot of bad shit happens at night. I wanted to let him know to be careful.”

  Adams smirked at me and took a step back. I broke free from the grip the two firefighters had on me and made my way back to my bike. Burton grumbled as he headed back into his office.

  I could feel Adams’s eyes on me as I hopped back onto my bike. I started my engine and revved it, letting the sound of the exhaust fill the garage. I gave Adams one last glance as he stared at me from a distance.

  There was no point in giving him any more attention. I looked away and sped off down the street.

  I always enjoyed the time I spent at the fire station but right now, I needed to be anywhere else.

  Chapter 6

  GINA

  The usual morning rush consisted of people who needed their caffeine and sugar fix for the rest of the day. But the start of the weekend meant there weren’t as many people in the bakery. There were just enough customers to keep me occupied but not enough to have me scrambling all over the place. I didn’t have weekends off, so I was grateful that I could enjoy my Saturdays the same as everybody else in town.

  It was the middle of the day on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

  “Hello, Gina!”

  I looked up as the bell attached to the front door rang. My boss Lydia waddled forward with a big smile on her face. Every day she looked closer and closer to exploding. I giggled at the sight of her.

  “Hey, boss,” I responded.

  “How are you doing this afternoon?”

  “I’m… I’m doing just fine.”

  I was focused on cleaning the display case. So focused I didn’t notice her standing right next to me, staring at me.

  “What’s with you?” I asked.

  “So… How was it?”

  “How was what?”

  “Oh, come on! You went out last night. For the first time in a long time. I take it you had a good time.”

  “Well…”

  Lydia wasn’t just my boss. She was my best friend, too. There was nothing I would have been ashamed to talk to her about. But there was something about the obnoxious grin on her face that made me reluctant to spill all of the details about the night before.

  “It went fine,” I said nonchalantly. “I had a drink. I danced a little bit.”

  “And then?”

  “And then I went home.”

  “And then?”

  “And then I fell asleep.”

  “Gina…”

  She used the same tone of voice my parents would use when they thought I was hiding something from them.

  I couldn’t deny that the time I spent with Dorian was still on my mind. Just hugging him as I rode his chopper through the streets would stick with me for a long time.

  I bit my lip as I tried to stop from grinning at the thought of it.

  “I’m not gonna leave you alone until you tell me,” she said.

  “Yeah, well, hopefully your water breaks before then…”

  “Hmm… He must really be something special.”

  There were only a few customers in the bakery but the place was small enough for them to overhear. I sighed a deep breath knowing my boss wasn’t gonna let this go.

  “All right,” I sighed.

  I walked to the back of the bakery and Lydia followed right behind me. She plopped down into a chair and leaned forward with her eyes wide and her grin even wider.

  “What happened?” she said. “I want all the details.”

  “I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

  “Oh, please! I’m not some prude. You can tell me.”

  “Since when did you carry about the details of my sexual exploits? Sean not giving it to you good enough?”

  “Sean’s giving it to me just fine. Not lately, because of the baby and all. But I’m curious. Maybe you can give Sean and me some ideas.”

  “Hmm… I never thought of it that way.”

  “So, tell me.”

  I shrugged as I tried to figure out a way to explain it to her.

  “What’s there to tell?” I said. “I met a guy.”

  “Okay. What was he like? Hot?”

  “Really hot. Tall. Tattoos. Leather vest.”

  “Okay, okay. Club member?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Go on…”

  The eagerness on Lydia’s face kept making me giggle. I turned around to see if there were any customers waiting for me, hoping for a chance to escape my nosy boss.

  “We talked,” I said. “I had a drink.”

  “And then?”

  “And then we did some stuff and he gave me a ride home.”

  “Hold on,” she said as she put her hands up. “You skipped over the best part.”

  I looked at her and sighed again. I knew she wasn’t going to stop until she got every last detail.

  “He took me out back,” I said. “And then I went down on him. That’s it.”

  “That’s it? Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I’m su
re. I wasn’t drunk.”

  “That seems kinda tame coming from you, Gina. Most of your stories are kinda wild…”

  “I guess it’s wild if you consider I was sitting on Sheriff Sutton’s police cruiser while I was doing it.”

  “You gave a club member head while you were sitting on Sheriff Sutton’s car? I knew you still had it in you!”

  She rocked her head back and cackled like some sort of evil villain. I couldn’t help but giggle right along with her.

  “It was fun,” I said. “That’s all it was though.”

  “That’s all that matters,” she said as she stopped laughing.

  She used all of her strength to push herself back up to her feet. Lydia put a hand on my shoulder and smiled softly at me.

  “I’m glad you had fun,” she said. “After what happened to you… You shouldn’t let that stop you from going out there and being who you are. If there’s anything you need from me…”

  “I know. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I’m fine, really. It was a good night out. I don’t know when I’ll do it again but it was nice to get it out of the way and party like I used to.”

  “You’re still young. You shouldn’t hold yourself back. Speaking of which…”

  “What is it?”

  I raised an eyebrow, curious at her sudden change in tone.

  “I hired a few new workers,” she said. “Once the baby comes, I won’t be around here as often as I can be.”

  “You shouldn’t even be around here now with that baby ready to come out.”

  “Maybe you’re right. In any case, you’ll be training some new staff. You won’t have as many hours but it means you’ll have a pay raise.”

  “A raise, hmm? That’s always nice.”

  “And you’ve got more free time. I know you want to get out there, Gina. I know the bakery isn’t as important to you as it is to me. I appreciate all of your hard work. But I can’t ask you to do any more than you’re already doing. Fewer hours means you’ll get more time to yourself.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” I sighed. “In this town, it’s tough to find something to occupy myself with.”

  “I don’t think you’ll have much trouble.”

  Just as she finished, the bell on the front door rang. I didn’t think much about it as I headed back out to the front of the bakery. But as soon as I saw him, my heart stopped in my chest.