Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 90721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“Listen, Captain. I know what I saw. How does it make sense that two apartment fires happened within two weeks of each other with the same accelerant used, the same grill as a starting point, and the same type of building? I know what I’m talking about here. I think the two investigators need to compare notes.” I explained.
Devon’s mouth pursed as if he’d tasted something sour. “You’re not an investigator. You don’t have anything other than coincidences. Go get your chores done.”
My mouth compressed as I left Devon’s office before I could say or do anything that would look bad to my parole officer.
I’d been arrested around a year ago for taking a gun into a hospital that was supposedly a ‘weapon’s free facility.’ The gun that’d been in question had really been James’ gun; he’d shot the man that had been threatening my father’s and sister’s life.
I’d taken the blame for shooting the man in self-defense. James is an officer of the law, and it wouldn’t have looked good for them to convict him of shooting a man. Especially when he’d just started a life with my sister. I’d wanted them to be happy, so I’d made an executive decision to take the fall.
However, I’d thought, at the time, that they wouldn’t be able to pin a damn thing on me since it was obvious that the man James had shot was going in loaded for bear. He’d been carrying three handguns and a sawed off shotgun on his person, at the time. I’d thought it would be a cut and dry case. I’d been wrong. They’d pinned a weapons charge on me for bringing in a weapon in a weapon’s free facility. A crime punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Luckily, I’d only been pinned with a $10,000 fine and a year probation with monitored activity.
When that charge had come down, I’d been a lieutenant, much to the Chief’s chagrin. When the charges were laid at my feet, I’d been demoted, and nearly canned. However, my pull with the Chief and the community’s high standing and public outrage were the only thing that kept me on the job.
It was days like today that I didn’t think keeping my job was worth it.
Sure, many of my friends worked with the Benton Fire Department, but I wasn’t the least bit happy. They always seemed to need my help, and never once had I complained. I knew I’d, supposedly, done wrong and needed to own up to those faults, but that didn’t give the Captain the right to treat me like a pile of crap that he accidentally stepped in.
And let’s not even get into the fact that I hadn’t had sex in over a fucking month.
I’d woken up the next morning, after the apartment fire I’d volunteered at with Baylee, to a raging hard on and a very warm, willing woman in my arms.
Her overheated sex had been so hot and slippery, when I’d woken, that all it would’ve taken was a tiny push from me, and my dick would’ve slid in with zero effort. She’d soaked the front of my underwear just by rubbing up against me. It’d taken nearly all the strength in the world, times ten, to pull myself away from her and get out of bed when James had come to call.
At the time, I’d been thankful that we hadn’t done anything, but now, as frustrated and sexually deprived as I was two weeks later, I’d have given anything to go back to that morning. Fuck her like I really wanted to. God.
“Yo, Ian. What the fuck?” Kettle asked as I walked in the room, while waved his hand in front of my face.
I hated it when he called me Ian. My name was Sebastian. Not Ian.
I blinked, and stared up at the other man. “What?” I growled.
“You’ve got a phone call. Sounds like your woman.” Kettle grinned mischievously.
“What’d you say to her?” I asked suspiciously.
“Nothing.” I laughed and left the room.
I walked towards the kitchen where the old phone with the stretched out yellow cord sat on the counter face up.
Picking it up and placing it to my ear, I listened to Baylee talk to someone instead of saying hello.
“I told you to bring me a hamburger with no onions. Now I’m going to have bad breath when I meet him for dinner later.” Baylee grumbled.
The response from a woman in the background made me laugh. “Just suck his dick; he won’t care what your breath smells like.”
I secretly agreed with, who I guessed was, Winter.
The sound of my laugh made her aware that I was listening, and she snorted. “Ian, huh? Kettle said you were in need of a good fucking. Do you agree?” Baylee teased.
We’d spoken on the phone constantly for the past two weeks, and texted in between those times. We were like two teenagers with the way we carried on.
We hadn’t been able to see each other since the day James and Jack, Winter’s husband, had come to pick Shiloh’s car up, and had taken Baylee home, as well. Our jobs had kept us busy, and when that wasn’t happening, I had a son to take care of and visits from my PO.
My parole officer had decided to do a surprise visit to search for contraband, and that had taken away the one night I’d planned to drive to Baylee’s and take her out to dinner. My parole officer had just laughed when I’d told him what I was missing.
My response of, “Two more weeks, and this’ll be over and done with,” just didn’t help.
Baylee’s tinkling laughter abruptly shifted my thoughts from my parole officer to her.
“I’m getting out on time tonight. I think...” I hesitated.
She laughed again. “Do your best. Do you like going by Ian?”
I thought about that for a second. I didn’t hate the name, per say, but I didn’t respond to it, either. “I guess it’s okay. I’ve just always gone by Sebastian and nothing else.”