Up in Flames [The Heroes of Silver Springs 10] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) (11 page)

It didn’t matter what her words sounded like when they left the taste of bile in her mouth. God, it wasn’t the decision she wanted to make, but Dean had been right that morning. She felt obligated to be there for her father. Forget that Kingsford was barely an hour drive from Silver Springs. That hour could make a world of difference if he needed her.

Dean put a hand on her shoulder. “And you’ve considered what this will do to your career? You’ve thought about all your reasons for coming to Silver Springs rather than staying on at the Kingsford office in the first place?”

Regina closed her eyes when they started to burn. As if nearly bursting into tears at the automotive shop in front of Max this morning hadn’t been bad enough. She had to fight not to bawl like an angry child on Dean’s shoulder. “Yes. I’ve considered and thought and pulled out my hair and cursed like a sailor and a whole lot more I’m not admitting to right now.”

Like surrendering to Max Jasper, letting him touch me, letting him kiss me, and letting him get me off in the middle of a fucking crime scene, for Christ’s sake.

“Then I guess there’s nothing I can do to change your mind,” Dean said softly, acceptingly, as he hooked his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a comforting hug.

* * * *

Terri Vega hopped down from the back of Rescue 4 and stretched the kinked muscles in her back and thighs. She’d been hutched over or kneeling in the back of the EMT truck for going on an hour taking inventory. It should’ve been Cory’s turn to do it but, thanks to the bet she’d made last week,
and lost
, she’d found herself doing it for the second month in a row.

She turned, tossed the clipboard onto the bed of the truck, and spotted the lieutenant kicked back in a lawn chair under a tree at the corner of the firehouse, his feet propped in a folding chair in front of him, and a computer in his lap. Voices from the back of the firehouse drew her attention around the corner of Rescue 4. Both back-bay doors had been lifted, and she could see most of the engine and ladder company engaging one another in an apparently fun and intense game of basketball.

Downtime at the station, she thought with a wide grin. Gotta love it and hope we get more of it.

She peered around the other side of Rescue 4, checking to be sure no one was in listening distance before she spoke to the lieutenant. “She got to you again, huh? Or is that frown left over from last night?”

Max pulled his attention from the computer screen to glance at her from beneath his long lashes. Jeez Louise, she didn’t have a thing for Max, but his eyes deserved every woman’s adoration.

Those eyes returned to the computer, and Terri pursed her lips. Okay, then. That very obvious “butt out” should have sent her back inside Rescue 4 to finish her inventory. But, being the hard-headed woman she was, she just couldn’t bring herself to let it ride.

“I’ll take that look as a yes on both counts.”

Max closed the lid on his laptop and pinned her with a gaze that was remarkably steely and lost at the same time. “Come here. Please,” he added, almost as an afterthought.

Hey, now.
The lieutenant was finally going to spill his guts. She’d known he needed someone to talk to. All it had taken was a little nudging and persuasion and he was caving already.

Terri wiped her hands on the legs of her uniform cargo pants and started toward him. A car pulled into the visitor lot to Max’s right, drawing her attention its way, and she slowed her step. She didn’t recognize the sleek, black, late-model Dodge Charger, and,
boy howdy
, she definitely didn’t recognize the man that got out of it and headed her direction.

Jiminy Cricket.
Her heart rate climbed with her gaze as he got nearer and kept right on racing as her attention moved over short, mussed, sandy-blond hair, truly do-me green eyes, and a long, totally ripped body that backed up the challenge. He wore well-worn jeans with equally worn brown cowboy boots and a brown pullover shirt that clung to his body with sheer perfection.

“Afternoon.” His voice was as thick as syrup in a mason jar, and Terri thought if he’d been wearing a cowboy hat to match the boots, he likely would’ve tipped it at her.

“Can I help you?”
Please, say yes. Please, say yes.

Down, girl. What the hell are you thinking?

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that he’s freaking hawt!

“Hope so.” The man’s lips stretched into a smile that reached his do-me eyes.

The effect of that smile tore Terri from her mental conversation with herself only to zing through her system and settle in her pussy. Heaven help her. She hadn’t had this kind of reaction to a man since meeting Owen Banks.

“I’m Gage Britt.” He waited for Terri to put her hand in his extended one and added, “Arson Prosecutor for the Kingsford district.”

His hand didn’t feel like any attorney’s Terri had ever held, and she’d actually shaken several. She could feel the calluses on his palm and more on the long fingers that curled around her hand. She felt heat, too, a sizzling sensation that traveled up her arm and threatened to go straight to her head.

She lifted both brows as she stared into his do-me eyes. “Arson prosecutor?”

He chuckled, bowed his head, and shook it once. “Go ahead. Say what you’re really thinkin’. I don’t look like an arson prosecutor. Probably don’t sound like one either.”

Terri couldn’t help but grin. “I don’t know. Maybe if you’d said you were from some district in Texas, I would’ve believed you quicker.”

“That would be ’cause I am from Texas. San Antonio is where I’ve always called home. But, the place I lay my head at night and the job I go to in the mornin’ is in Kingsford.”

“So, you’re a transplant?” Terri teased and, oh, man, he had one hell of a sexy laugh.

“We’ll go with that.” He released her hand and started to reach for his back pocket. “I can give you a business card if it helps.”

Only if it’s got your personal phone number on it.

“That won’t be necessary.”

He held her gaze for another moment before letting it slide over her shoulder and into the firehouse. “I was told I might be able to find Fire Investigator Regina Zimmer here.”

“She’s—” Terri started to say, but Max cut her off.

“She’s in the captain’s office.”

Terri shot the lieutenant a look, knowing surprise was likely etched all over her face. The last time she’d checked, Veronica was in Wolcott’s office. She hadn’t even known Regina was at the station.

It does explain the frown on Lieutenant Unhappy’s face though.

“I can show you to his office if you like,” Terri offered, shifting her attention back to Gage.

“Naw, I’ll just wait out here if you don’t mind.”

“Want this chair?” Max lifted his feet as if he expected Gage to take the metal folding chair from under them.

“Thanks, but no. You look too comfortable for me to take your footrest.”

Max put his feet back down and reopened his laptop, but his attention remained fixed on Gage. “Silver Springs is a bit out of your jurisdiction, isn’t it? Unless you’ve got a license to practice in Mississippi, too.”

Gage shook his head. “Only in Alabama.”

“You aren’t working a case with Zimmer, then?”

Terri eyed Max and couldn’t miss the jealously she saw swirling in his wise, dark eyes. Yep, Lieutenant Max Jasper had it bad for the spunky fire investigator. No doubt about them apples. Not that she hadn’t figured that out last night. Seeing the way Max had stiffened when Gage asked about Regina and listening as the lieutenant grilled the man about the fire investigator only confirmed her suspicion.

Gage apparently caught on to it, too. “I’ve worked closely with Regina’s father, Ethan, for a number of years. We’ve put away quite a few arsonists together and built a pretty solid friendship. That friendship trickled down to Red.” He lifted a broad shoulder. “I suppose you could say I’m a friend of the family.”

Terri saw Max’s shoulders visibly relax and quickly turned her head before he saw the smile on her lips she failed to hide. “Does she know you’re in town?”

“Not yet. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I had some free time on my calendar, Ethan asked me to come check on her, and here I am.” His arms at his sides, he turned his hands over, his palms facing out as if to show he was really standing there.

Here you are indeed.
Terri managed not to drool, barely, as she slid her gaze down him in a leisurely appraisal. She really shouldn’t be looking at him as if he were a vanilla milkshake she couldn’t wait to gulp down with a straw, but, come on, it had been way too long since she’d allowed herself a fling.

You’re not supposed to be going after flings anymore. You’re supposed to be settling down, remember?

Sure, it worked in theory. Except, the only guy she’d met and liked enough to even entertain the thought of keeping apparently didn’t feel the same about her. God, she’d been seeing Dr. Owen Banks, Mr. TDH, in her humble opinion, for six freaking months. They’d gone on dates, had movie nights at each other’s pads, and even kissed a time or twenty. That was as far as they’d gotten. They had even gone parking, for crying out loud. They had been two adults acting like teenagers, spending a day at the mall and following it up by going parking in her car at Lookout Point.

Where he kissed you, touched you, told you how crazy he was about you, and then gave you the whole
“I only want to be friends”
spiel.

Terri zoned back in on the here and now in the middle of Gage speaking.

“—would probably kick my ass back to Alabama if she knew I was talkin’ about this to strangers, but Ethan seems to think something’s goin’ on with her. Have either of you noticed anything off about Regina lately?” He let out a dry chuckle. “Hell, do either of you even know her well enough to pick up on it if somethin’
is
goin’ on?”

Terri exchanged a look with Max and waited to see what he would say. The lieutenant definitely had more inside information than he’d spilled to her, but she didn’t figure it likely he’d tell Gage. She was right.

“I haven’t noticed anything, but I don’t know her very well, either.”

Terri forced herself not to narrow her eyes at Max. All the years she had worked with the lieutenant and she’d never known he was such a masterful liar. His expression didn’t change. His tone didn’t waver. He didn’t give off a single indication whatsoever that he knew Regina well enough to pick her up at a bar, see she arrived home safely, and even call upon a favor to deliver her car to her before he called it a night.

And exactly what happened between the time you took the fire investigator home and the phone call you made to your sister’s apartment last night, Max?

Terri echoed Max’s statement, though it wasn’t a lie when she said the words. She really didn’t know Regina Zimmer well enough to pick up on it when something was bothering the woman. The only thing she knew was the fire investigator had been spending an awful lot of time with the captain in his office over the past few months.

“Why don’t I go see if her and the captain are about finished?” Terri suggested and started back-stepping to the firehouse. “I’ll let her know you’re out here. They’re probably discussing the fire that happened this morning.”

“Tell her not to rush,” Gage said. “I can catch up with her later.”

Terri nodded and held up a finger. “Wait here.” She turned on her heel and walked briskly to the captain’s office. The door was closed, so she knocked twice, simultaneously turning the knob and opening the door enough to poke her head inside. “Excuse me, Cap—”

Obviously startled, Terri watched as Regina Zimmer’s head snapped up from Dean Wolcott’s shoulder and the women sprang back out of the captain’s arms.

* * * *

“Were you hitting on Terri Vega?” Regina slid into a booth at Blazin’ Subs opposite Gage and propped her elbows on the table, a wide grin spread across her lips. Gage didn’t get a chance to answer before an older gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair and a bulging belly that represented too much time spent around food and sitting on his tail appeared at the booth.

Regina turned her smile on Buddy Fisk. The firefighter had been in retirement for a couple of years now and had filled his days with the operation of Blazin’ Subs, opening the business with his son who was a firefighter on C-shift.

“How’s life treating you, Buddy?”

Buddy beamed a wrinkled smile at her. “Can’t complain. Can’t complain. Wouldn’t do me any good if I did. What can I get for you and your friend here?”

Regina and Gage placed their orders and fell silent as Buddy walked away.

“Givin’ a woman my business card is not hittin’ on her,” Gage finally commented as he settled back in his seat.

“It is when you write your personal number on the back of the card,” Regina pointed out and then barked a laugh when he failed to hold her gaze. “You thought I didn’t see that, didn’t you? Have you forgotten being observant to every little detail is part of my job description?”

“Not when those little details have nothin’ to do with a fire investigation,” Gage grumbled. “She’s an attractive woman. I didn’t spend much time talkin’ to her outside the station, but I enjoyed the little I did.” He lifted a shoulder. “I’ll be in town a few days. If she calls, maybe we’ll get together. If not…”