Safe From the Fire Read Online Free Page B

game. 
The department had been sorely lacking in women firefighters for the last few
years, and the place was starting to look and sound a little too much like a
frat house for Matt’s liking.
    Matt
beelined for the First Aid cabinet on the wall, ignoring the cackles of
laughter from Lance Young and Jackson Dupar.
    “Heard
Grace Mallow shot you down,” offered Jackson with a grin.
    “Is
that what’s got your panties in a bunch?” added Lance in his exaggerated
Southern drawl.  He was from Virginia, but the man always sounded like an extra
from Gone With the Wind.
    Matt
didn’t reply, but started cleaning his knuckles, savoring the sting of the
alcohol as he worked to get the grit out.
    “Leave
him alone, guys,” ordered Rafael.
    “You’re
better off, Harris,” continued Lance, apparently unaware that he was seconds
away from having his intestines removed through his nostrils, “Don’t you know
the girl is some sort of witchy sexual deviant?  I heard she likes to cut the
heads off of live roosters and have orgies in the blood.”
    “I
heard you’ve been talking out of your ass for so long, you don’t know which end
to wipe,” offered Syd, prompting guffaws from the rest.
    Matt
seethed, but finished patching up his hand with jerky movements.
    “Seriously,
man,” said Jackson, “Ever seen her at the clubs across the bay?”
    He
whistled.
    “A
girl dresses like that, you can be sure she’s asking for something freaky from
any guy that comes along.”
    Matt
wasn’t aware of moving, but one second he was standing there, a red haze
creeping over his vision, and the next he had Jackson on the floor, an arm to
his windpipe.  He could hear shouts, feel Rafael pulling at his shoulders, but
the fear and shock in the downed man’s face was really what pulled him back
from the edge.
    “Don’t
– ” Matt gritted out, “don’t fucking talk about her that way.”
    “I’m
sorry,” wheezed Jackson, terrified.
    “See? 
He’s sorry.  Let him go,” urged Rafael.
    “He’s
not worth it, son,” advised Gordon, watching the situation carefully.
    “Don’t
talk about her at all, ” Matt said, pressing down ever so slightly. 
    Jackson
nodded frantically as best he could, and Matt abruptly let him go.  Jackson scuttled
backward like a terrified crab, clutching his throat.
    “You’re
fucking crazy, man.”
    Matt
left Rafael to smooth things over and didn’t even feel bad about it.  Right now
he just wanted to stand in the shower and let the hot water wash away the grime,
and maybe while he was in there, he’d scrub hard enough to get Grace Mallow out
from under his skin.
    Fat
fucking chance.

CHAPTER THREE
     
    GRACE
COULD FEEL HER blood singing as she stepped past the bouncer into the club.  God,
she loved this.  For such a little space, the new owners had done a great job,
and the room pulsed with music, lights, and people that crowded the bar and the
dance floor.  A live band rocked out onstage.  Grace scanned the crowd – there
were a few locals, but most of them looked like transplants from several of the
small towns across the bay, which wasn’t terribly surprising.  Unless you
wanted to make the trek to Boston, you had to put up with running into the same
people over and over again.
    “Can
I get you a drink?” Adam asked, shouting over the music.
    Grace
was startled for a second, but then she laughed.
    “I
keep forgetting that you’re over twenty-one.”
    “By
a couple of months now,” replied Adam with that pride that only just-twenty-one-year-olds
seem to have.
    “I’d
love one,” Grace said, smiling, but had to swallow back tears as her brother
fished through a nearly empty wallet, checking its contents.
    Casually,
she tugged a credit card from a tight pocket.
    “Why
don’t you just start a tab?  You can pay me back later.”
    She
spoke lightly, but Adam gave her a wry smile that threatened to unravel her on
the spot.  He hesitated for just a moment, and then took the card