Chapter 20 #3
My sister had a way of making me smile. Ending the call, I slid my phone across the table, still exasperated from the events of the last few days.
Fifteen thousand dollars minimum for a support animal.
If I won the lottery, which I hadn’t played in years, that would be my first action.
Maybe I could get a loan. Yeah, right. My credit wasn’t exactly in the stellar range.
Oh, life was so frustrating.
I dropped my head into my hands, taking deep and controlled breaths to try to calm the heavy anxiety.
A slight commotion caught my attention less than a minute later. Jerking my head up, I tried to figure out what I was hearing. Not exactly shouting, but that had to be Mark’s deep voice. Rising from the chair, I headed in the direction of the noise.
“No, you cannot come into the firehouse,” Mark was stating in a much louder voice than normal and he was angry.
Who the hell was he talking to?
I stormed toward the front, certainly not surprised to see a group of people from Channel 9 News standing on the concrete driveway.
Of course their presence angered me. They’d followed me everywhere and I’d had enough.
I was at the point of finally telling them off.
However, in seeing every firefighter currently working the shift standing outside at attention, I was momentarily taken aback.
And hurt.
Suddenly, one of the male reporters caught sight of me and tried to bulldoze his way toward me.
His arm was already outstretched, the microphone pointed in my direction.
“Ms. O’Leary. Can you tell me the status of your relationship with Mr. Dmitriyev?
Are you aware of his ties to the criminal underworld?
What can you tell us about the assassination attempt on Mr. Dmitriyev’s life?
These are some pretty sexy pictures of the two of you together. ”
Heat swept up every inch of my face, the shock and horror creating a knot in my stomach.
My God. The pictures were even worse, even more intimate than what I’d seen floating on the internet. They’d been taken inside the restaurant and from the angle of the camera and the lens used, there was no doubt what was happening between the two of us.
Immediately nauseated, I’d never felt so humiliated in my life. Blinking furiously, I did everything in my power not to tear up. Not now. Not in front of my men.
I wasn’t usually the kind of woman to freeze when confronted by anything. Yet right now, I felt tongue tied. Maybe because I was standing in front of a group of men I’d tried very hard to impress over the years. Or maybe because I’d hoped that they would consider me a friend.
My fists were clenched, vicious anger just below the surface and beads of perspiration were tickling the back of my neck, but I was frozen like a statue.
It was quiet enough you could hear a pin drop. Goddamn it. They were waiting for me to say something. To make a fool of myself. I couldn’t give them or anyone else the satisfaction.
Even my feet seemed stuck to the concrete. Finally, I managed to take a couple of steps toward him and tried to smile. The firefighters were staring at me. This was horrible.
Mark exhaled, glanced from right to left and suddenly every firefighter stepped forward, momentarily blocking my view and the reporter’s.
“First of all,” Jeff started. “It’s Captain O’Leary and for the record, she’s one of the finest firefighters I’ve ever had the privilege of working with, so give her the respect she’s due.
Those pictures are disgusting and were taken without permission.
For you to use them for a story is disgusting. ”
“Second,” Mark continued, “who she dates is nobody’s business but hers. She’s an adult, trying to raise a child on her own, is a good person and deserves happiness.”
“I’ll say this as kindly and slowly as I can so maybe your pea brain will manage to get it, but from what I’ve read about the entire Dmitriyev family, they are highly respected and upstanding members of this city.
Insinuating otherwise highlights why Channel 9 has been losing viewers right and left.
” Camden could barely keep a grin off his face.
What they’d just said stunned me.
When Steve inched closer, I was even more shocked.
He would tell it like it was. Now was his moment to tell the world how horrible I was.
“And lastly, buddy. Our captain was there in the crossfire. She was a victim as well as her date for the evening. Try and remember that. She has a child to take care of and is doing so on her own, so why don’t you back the fuck up and leave her alone?
” He snatched the photographs from the reporter’s hand and I was certain he’d pocket them or at minimum take a long gaze so he could use them to make fun of me at a later time.
When he ripped them into tiny pieces, the reporter acted like he was going to stop him.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Mark snarled at him.
A second and more debilitating warm flush swept across my cheeks. I was both embarrassed they’d taken up for me and furious with myself for not doing so.
The reporter initially seemed exasperated then took a couple of steps back. That allowed me to move closer. He turned toward me, laughing. “Just one more question, Captain O’Leary. What would your dead husband think of you putting his daughter in harm’s way?”
That was it. Whatever moment of uncertainty I’d felt before was long gone. I simply snapped, taking two long strides forward and without thinking about the consequences, I reacted.
With throwing a hard right punch to his nose.