Page 69 of Sizzle
Capelli cleared his throat. “The SUV fire was over a week ago now, and there hasn’t been any threat to you or Sam since then.”
Xander’s eyes went wide in disbelief. “Dude. You said thatout loud.”
“Yes,” Capelli said, nonplussed. “That is typically how we communicate. Oh.” He blinked. “Well, I suppose it’s a good thing I believe in statistics, not superstitions. At this point, given the fact that he hasn’t engaged in any further attempts of harm in over a week, it’s probable that Malachi either knows you’re under police protection or he’s decided the SUV fire was enough and will move on.”
“Probable,” Sam said slowly, and Capelli nodded.
“Yes. I can calculate an actual percentage if you like, but I’d have to consider several variables to determine an acceptable margin of error, and—”
“I don’t think that will be necessary, Capelli,” Sinclair said around a small, wry smile. “I believe we can all agree that the threat to Lucy and Sam’s safety has decreased. It doesn’t mean we won’t still be vigilant,” he added, possibly because Sam was broadcasting a high-level frown across the room. “But given how much time has passed and the fact that there were no direct death threats made or active attempts on either of your lives, at this point, I think we can ease some of the safety restrictions we’ve got in place.”
Sam’s brow remained furrowed. “Which ones, exactly?”
“Well, as long as Captain Bridges is in agreement, I don’t see any reason why you two couldn’t go back to active duty at Station Seventeen while we continue to look for Yearwood.”
Relief flooded through Lucy, although it sputtered at the look on Dallas’s face. “While I agree that Lucy and Sam are very likely to be safe in a house full of firefighters, I also think it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that Malachi is clearly escalating. That’s not entirely a bad thing—increased loss of impulse control will almost certainly make him sloppy, and that’s how Cyrus was ultimately caught. But it will also make Malachi reckless, which means he probably won’t be able to keep from starting another fire.Soon.”
This time, Isabella and Capelli stilled, too, and Lucy was right there with them. Kellan and Shae might be their significant others, but they were Lucy’s family, too. Until Malachi was caught, anyone in the RFD could be at risk.
Which wasn’t lost on Sergeant Sinclair, thankfully. “We’ll work with the RFD to make sure all battalion chiefs are aware of the situation and the whole department is operating at a heightened state of awareness,” he said. “When Yearwood makes a mistake, we’ll be there to bring him in.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Lucy said.
Just as long as this guy didn’t put someone’s life on the line first.
27
Sam had never not been one hundred and ten percent fired up to go to work. Every time he faced down a shift, it didn’t matter if he was tired, hungover, or sore from a killer workout, he always dove right in. The fact that he might get to rappel down the side of a building or run through literal fire or cut through the roof of a car to save an injured accident victimwasone hell of an incentive for an adrenaline junkie like him. But way down deep, underneath all those (admittedly thick) layers of bravado, Sam was really just happy to do a job he loved.
So it was seriously fucking ironic that right now, as he sat in Station Seventeen’s parking lot with T-minus twenty-seven minutes until his first roll call in nearly a month, he was eyeing the door to the fire house like it would sprout teeth and bite him.
He blew out a breath that fogged the windshield. Okay, fine, so he was a little wary of going back on shift with all these feelings for Lucy. But it wasn’t because he worried she’d be in danger on calls. For Chrissake, she was one of the best firefighters he knew, and they both knew how to set their emotions aside in order to do the job. It wasn’t even that he was worried Malachi would try to go all revenge 2.0 on Lucy while they were on shift. The guy would have to be a special kind of stupid to try anything when she had seven other firefighters plus two paramedics and their captain at her back. No, the reason Sam was sitting here in the front seat of his Jeep with all sorts of capital-F Feelings about returning to shift was that he wasn’t sure that, despite his best efforts, he’d be able to keep the way he felt about Lucy off his face.
“Oh, stop being an ass,” he muttered to himself, releasing his seat belt and turning to grab his duffel bag from the backseat. Yes, he cared about her, and no, it wasn’t going to be easy to not think about the long, hot kiss they’d shared thirty minutes ago as he’d made sure she’d gotten into her new car safely and given him a ten-minute head start to the fire house. But Sam knew how much she needed privacy, and why. Of course he could give her that. He’d give her the goddamn moon if she asked for it.
A tap on the Jeep’s passenger window sent his heart into his windpipe and his ass halfway off the seat. He returned from the stratosphere with a thump as Lucy’s face materialized in the passenger window a second later, and he disengaged the locks and waved her into the warmth of the Jeep.
“Sorry,” she said, sliding in beside him with a sheepish smile. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
He felt like a living embodiment of that freaking emoji with the heart eyes, the one he and Tyler and Hawk had plastered all over Dempsey’s locker when he’d proposed to Addison, and God, Sam was so screwed.
“It’s all good,” he said, reaching for a grin. “You’re keeping me on my toes. Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I mean…yeah. I just, um, wanted to talk to you about something before we go on shift.”
Sam’s gut clenched. Neither one of them had brought up telling—ornottelling—any of their fellow firefighters about their relationship, but the last thing he wanted was for her to worry. “Lucy, listen. I know you want to keep this thing between us under wraps, and I—”
“Actually, I don’t.”
O…kay. “Huh?”
Lucy huffed out a soft laugh. “I don’t want to keep the fact that we’ve been seeing each other a secret.”
“But if we tell people, then Bridges will find out,” Sam said. Relationships between first responders who worked the same shift at the same house weren’t against the rules, but most captains didn’t love the potential for things to get messy if their firefighters fraternized. Disclosure meant the relationship would go on paper to HR, and there wasn’t anything much more official—and public—than that.
“Bridges would find out,” Lucy agreed. “Are you okay with that?”
“Are you kidding?” he blurted, making both of them laugh. “Christ, Lucy, yes. I’m very okay with that. But I need to be sureyou’reokay with it.”