I pushed the thought from my mind. The arson case at Stella’s was close now—I wouldn’t have to deal with Tru again. It was time to do what I did best: move on.
3
Tru
“Please don’t terrorize him too much,” Dare said despairingly as he handed over the paper bag of scones. “I’m serious.”
“You really have so little faith in me.” I snorted. “I know how to read the room. Relax.”
“Yeah, you do, which is what’s so anxiety-inducing,” Dare grumbled. “Just make sure you tell him how grateful we are, okay?”
I threw Dare a playful salute, and then headed out to the Crew motel parking lot, where I loaded the scones into the saddlebag on my bike. I rode a vintage Superhawk, a sexy, functional bike that I’d put a hell of a lot of effort into fixing up myself, since it’d been running longer than I’d been alive. I loved the way it handled—it was so much more responsive than the sleek new bikes that crowded the roads these days.
With a grin, I threw my leg over the polished red body and gunned the engine toward Elkin Lake. Beau’s station, Elkin Lake South, was on the outskirts of the city, which led them to handle most of the calls in Junee while their sister station, Elkin Lake North, handled the majority of the city proper.
It was almost embarrassing how excited I was to see Beau again. This was still, technically, work-related, but now that he didn’t have to deal with actual work stuff while I talked to him, I couldn’t wait to see what kinds of reactions I could get out of him. He was so delightfully responsive. And he wanted me, I was pretty sure, at least on a physical level, but something was holding him back.
I was halfway to Elkin Lake when I saw smoke billowing into the sky, the distinctive, unpleasant smell making me wrinkle my nose. It looked like it was coming from an old barn, one I’d ridden past countless times. As I got closer, I saw the Elkin Lake South engine was parked out front, and from what I could tell, the fire was under control—the barn was smoldering, spitting smoke into the sky, but I didn’t see any flames.
I slowed my bike. Near the front of the fire truck, Beau stood with his helmet in hand, speaking seriously to one of the other firefighters. Both of them were smudged with dark ash, visible even from the road.
Something uncomfortable twisted in my gut. I knew the reality of Beau’s job—he literally fought fires!—but maybe it hadn’t actually clicked until I saw him on a still-active site. At least, on an active site that wasn’t the bakery.
I considered myself pretty well-acquainted with danger. You had to be, as a member of a motorcycle club. I’d had my ass whooped and whooped ass in return more times than I could count. My Muay Thai skills had served me well, but I’d had a few dicey instances with guns in my face, too. But something about a fire felt like a different kind of danger. It was so—uncontrollable. Unpredictable. It didn’t want anything, the way people did. It just burned, and burned, and burned.
And Beau went into those situations. Willingly! Every day!
Well—maybe not every day. But still. I’d respected him before this, but this made me even more curious about him. What drove him to do this kind of work? And what would I have to do to find that out?
I parked my bike a little upwind from the fire. At the sound of my rumbling engine, Beau glanced up from his conversation. A cute look of surprise crossed his face—eyes wide, mouth open—and then he quickly steeled it into something closer to annoyance. That was okay, though.
I could work with annoyed.
I thought he was going to ignore me and go back to his conversation, but to my surprise, he strode over purposefully. God, he looked sexy in uniform, with his overalls unzipped to reveal the tight black t-shirt he had on under it, his big steel-toed boots and his determined, slightly bowlegged gait, and a smudge of ash under his chin. I especially liked it when his sandy hair was a little mussed with sweat. It made me want to tangle my hands in it.
Beau cleared his throat pointedly. I blinked back into reality, and then casually glanced away like I hadn’t been openly checking him out two seconds prior.
“What are you doing here?” Beau asked. “This is an active fire scene.”
“You seem to have it under control,” I said with an easy shrug as I leaned against my bike. I crossed my legs at the ankle, stretching them long, and Beau’s gaze dragged down the length of them just like I’d hoped. “I saw the smoke and thought I’d see what was going on. The fact that you’re here is just a nice bonus.”
I winked. Beau huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. The position made his forearms look gorgeous—so functionally muscular. I wanted to run my hands down the defined tendons there.
“Where else would I be?” he asked. “You remember this is my job?”
“How could I forget?” I parried easily. That slightly irritated, slightly sanctimonious expression looked good on him. I was quickly becoming addicted to provoking it. Beau was so used to being in charge, it was like he’d never had to interact with someone who wasn’t intimidated by him. “You always make it obvious who’s in charge.”
“What does that mean?” Beau asked with his eyebrows raised, somewhere between annoyed and interested.
“Oh, nothing.” I examined my nails. “Just thinking about what it might look like if you were the one taking orders for a change.” I glanced up and briefly drew my lower lip between my teeth. “If you know what I mean.”
Beau’s eyes widened and a pale flush spread across his cheeks, barely visible on his tan skin. But there was heat in his eyes as his gaze fell to my mouth.
You’d think the poor guy hadn’t been laid in a century with how easy it was for me to get a rise out of him. And I fucking loved doing it. It sent a rush of power through me, knowing I could set this cool-headed, competent guy off balance with just a look and a few flirty words.
Beau looked like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to kiss me or curse me out. Honestly, I’d take either.
“All right,” Beau said after a long pause. “Get going, we’ve still got work to do over here.”
“Yessir,” I said with a smirk, just to watch Beau’s gaze darken. “Always a treat to chat.”
I could’ve told him where I was headed, but it’d be more fun just to ride down to the station and give him another little surprise when he returned. I hopped on my bike and shot Beau another playful wink before I got back on the highway and headed to the station.
After an easy ride to Elkin Lake, I pulled my bike into the wide asphalt driveway in front of the Elkin Lake South Station. On one side of the driveway, a woman in khakis and a fire station t-shirt was hosing down a white SUV with the Elkin Lake seal on the doors. She had dark hair and broad shoulders, and was visibly pregnant, though that didn’t seem to hinder her movement at all.
“Hi,” I said as I dismounted my bike with a grin. “I’m looking for Beau.” As if I didn’t know where he was.
The woman turned off the hose and gave me a once-over with a grin. “You must be one of the Liberty Crew guys.”
“What gave it away?” I asked, gesturing at my bike and my leather jacket. Even though my jacket had the Hell’s Ankhor logo on it, I wasn’t about to correct her. I pulled the paper bag out of my saddlebag. “I’m Tru. I wanted to drop by and thank Beau for all the work he—and all of you—have done for Stella’s. Brought some baked goods as a token of appreciation.”