Embracing Juliette (Texas Heroes: Station 9 #1)

Chapter 29

29

Dylan

“ Y o, guess who I saw the other night,” Cole said as he mopped the bay floor.

“Saw or saw ?” Brady replied with a crude gesture.

“Oh, I saw it all, alright.”

“Mel?” Brady guessed, looking over his shoulder as he continued washing the windows on the bay doors.

“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.”

I was about to vacuum inside the fire truck, but I paused when I heard Nicky’s friend’s name. I didn’t think Juliette had been out with Mel since the night we met, but I was curious about anything that might involve her, even a little.

Just as I was thinking about Juls, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

Juliette: I’m leaving in a few min to meet Jenna at the mall. Have a good day.

Me: Buy something sexy.

Juliette didn’t answer immediately, and I could see her in my mind, blushing and flustered, trying to come up with a flirtatious comeback. After another moment went by without a response, I put her out of her misery.

Me: You’d be sexy in a potato sack. Buy anything you want.

Juliette: I love you.

Juliette: I have to run, I’m about to be late.

Me: I love you too, baby. Drive safe.

I slid my phone back into my pocket and got to work vacuuming the floorboards, smiling to myself, ignoring Cole’s conversation, which had turned away from anything to do with Juliette. She was such a contradiction and I loved it. When it came to talking dirty, she could barely say a coherent word, even through text. But physically, when we were together—fuck, she was amazing. She was so free and confident now…losing herself in the moment, making the most wild, uninhibited sounds, so responsive to my every touch. I felt like a fucking king that she’d grown from the insecure girl I’d first met to the confident woman she was now. When she took the initiative…

I couldn’t hear anything over the rumble of the vacuum, but a shift in the air caught my attention. I pressed the button to shut it down and looked around.

Shit. Chief Pratt was here again and surprise, surprise, he looked mad.

“What if it was a kid who wandered in here instead of me? You think it’s okay for a young girl to hear you assholes bragging about getting a blow job?”

Shit. We were good guys, every single one of us. Even Cole, who’d apparently gotten busted, was respectful of women. His last girlfriend had burned him badly, and he was definitely in a reactionary phase, but he was still not an asshole. The last I’d heard of the conversation didn’t paint him in the way he deserved though, and who knew what Pratt had walked in on.

“All due respect, Chief,” Ryan said. “We would’ve seen anyone walking in from the street, and we would’ve stopped immediately. No one visiting would come in through the station like you did.”

Pratt glared at him and continued rambling on and on about how it’s our duty to be upstanding citizens. Fucking asshole. He had no idea how much we upheld the morals of being a firefighter. We lived and breathed this job. I saw the same restrained fury that I felt mirrored in my brothers’ eyes.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I hated that I had to ignore it. What if Juliette needed me? Finally, umpteen minutes and two texts later, Pratt ran out of shit to yell at us about. Thank God, because all I wanted to do was check my phone, but that would just cause another long lambasting.

“Get back to cleaning, and it better be spotless when you’re done.”

Thank fuck.

“I’ll stay to watch and inspect it.”

Asshole. I quickly finished vacuuming the interior of the fire truck, then went to the ambulance. The bigger size meant I had to go fully inside. Normally, I’d leave the doors open, but I hopped in and closed them behind me, crouching down to keep out of sight.

I stabbed the screen, taking two tries to enter my password correctly. Damn, I was pissed. Who the hell did he think he was?

There was a message from Juliette saying, be safe, and two from Kayla.

Kayla: You have no idea what you’ve done

Kayla: You’re going to pay for ruining my life

Motherfucker. I was so tired of her shit. Fury and fear—in almost equal parts—burned through my veins. Kayla was a loose cannon, and I was petrified that Juliette was directly in her path of destruction.

There were missed calls and voicemails from her too. I forwarded the messages to Quint without listening. It was none of Pratt’s business that my past was quickly spiraling out of control, and there’s no way he’d miss the psycho screams that were probably on those voicemails.

Me: She broke the restraining order. Arrest her ass.

Quint: On it.

I vacuumed the ambulance to within an inch of its life. Not a speck of dust made it past my rage.

We passed Chief Pratt’s condescending inspection, and just as I thought we’d have a moment of peace, the tones rang out.

As we sped towards a car accident, I shot off a quick text to Juliette warning her to be extra cautious.

“You think she’s coming down?” Ryan asked.

“It makes sense.” In the most messed up, saddest way. In the month since Leo left, there’d been a few incidents of Kayla acting out, threatening me like this, then she’d go silent until the next time. It infuriated me, but the pattern fit. Leo had been supplying her, and now without a steady source, her outbursts probably coincided with withdrawals. Aggression, paranoia, even psychosis were symptoms of withdrawal.

Another text came in just as the traffic finally moved out of our way and we pulled up to the scene.

Kayla: I’m coming for you

Fuck. I threw my phone into the console. God forgive me for the thought, but if Kayla’s threats did coincide with her crashing and she wasn’t willing to get clean, then couldn’t she stay just a tiny bit high? Just enough to leave us the fuck alone.