Chapter 13
13
Asher
“Well, aren’t you just a pleasant asshole today,” Hawk snapped as he picked up a busted side mirror off the road. It once belonged to the black BMW that had caused this mess. Now it was scrap.
We were in the middle of I-40 during peak rush hour traffic, finishing a clean-up of shattered car parts and fluid from a two-car accident. How was I supposed to be? It was the hottest part of the day, for fuck’s sake. And this shit wasn’t our job to do.
At least I wasn’t in the sand, full body armor, full kit, buddy over my shoulders bleeding out while dodging bullets, but at least there, heartache came in a different form. I needed to dig deep. Get out of my own head.
“If people learned to drive, we wouldn’t be sweeping the fucking highway.” I pushed my broom. Glass was a bitch to sweep off of hot roadway. It wasn’t our job, but when it was mixed with oil and antifreeze, that part of clean-up fell on us.
Hawk tossed part of the cracked bumper into the back seat of the car that got rear-ended by the BMW while the tow truck operator hooked it up onto the flatbed. “I’m guessing the date didn’t go well last night.”
I ignored him.
“And there’s my answer.”
Truth was, the date had been fantastic. The sounds of Sienna moaning in my mouth as I’d kissed her kept replaying over and over again like a dirty porno, which is why none of this made sense.
After kissing her senseless after dinner, we’d caught part of the show on the stage on the other side of the venue. This city was the birthplace of country music, and slow dancing with a hot woman to a great song was something no man in his right mind passed up. I’d seized the opportunity to hold her, falling for the way she was looking up at me, as if I was some sort of hero in her eyes.
Her body had been pressed up against mine for a few songs as we swayed to the music. It was another one of the highlights I kept on revisiting. Taking the liberty to kiss her whenever I felt like had made me feel invincible.
But when I’d wrapped her arms up around my neck, she had winced in pain. That’s when I’d learned she had a bad shoulder. Sienna had said she had an old injury which made it stiff sometimes, so I’d apologized for making her hurt.
My entire body was made up of old injuries, so I was familiar with aches and pains. I’d fucked up both shoulders on numerous occasions. I’d made a mental note to be gentler with her.
It had been getting late, and my shift started at seven in the morning, so after a quick stroll down Broadway, weaving in and out of the crowds that always packed the street, I’d gotten her back safely in my truck.
I’d driven her home, where our goodbye kiss had turned into a full on make-out session. I almost pulled her onto my lap. My mind had already moved her into the back seat to take it farther, but the back seat wasn’t where I wanted her to be. I could sense her retreating the longer we went at it.
That was fine. I got it. Respected it like hell. If she would have invited me back into her place to fuck the shit out of me, well, I don’t think that would have settled right, even though my body was fully onboard with that idea.
Sienna wasn’t that kind of girl, though, which made her all the more desirable. She wasn’t some woman who just fucked guys indiscriminately, which was a relief. And I know I hadn’t misread any of the ways she was equally as into me, kissing me just as hard and desperate. That shit was clear as fucking day.
And it wasn’t the alcohol either. She’d barely had half a glass of sangria while I only drank one beer, so the whole “I was drunk and didn’t have control of what I was doing” didn’t apply.
So why ice me out?
I’d opened the door for her when she was ready to leave me with my aching hard-on, pressing her one last time into the back door of my truck for one last goodbye.
Sienna had laughed in my mouth as we’d tumbled back into the door, drifting her nails up through my beard and tugging on my hair. Fuck, that was such a turn-on. We stood there, gazing into each other’s eyes, trying to catch our breaths. That connection went deep. I felt it.
She’d smiled as she backed away on those sexy high heels, giving me a wave with her fingers. I’d left her happy.
I gave my broom an extra push and decided the cleanup was good enough. The tow truck guys would finish the rest. With the cars out of the highway and the drivers and one passenger cleared by medical, we headed back to the station.
I strapped into my seat and grabbed a rag out of my jacket to wipe the sweat off of me. Hawk, Hollywood, and Fed rounded out our crew in the jump seats, all of us tired and hungry.
I checked my phone again and felt the silence like a punch to the gut. I know Hawk saw me checking. That fucker didn’t miss a thing. But he was also reading my mood, which was not to fuck with me. Not now.
The clock hit ten o’clock and still nothing. No text back. Nothing but my screen showing mine had been delivered. The men had scattered, all doing something to keep busy. Hawk was sound asleep in the lounge chair by the TV, all scrunched up with his boots crossed at the ankles.
Sienna’s radio silence was stirring all sorts of shit in my head—visions that made me uneasy. Fuck it. I hit the button and called her. Either way I’d get an answer.
The phone rang and rang until I finally got a message. “I’m sorry. The person you are trying to reach has a voice mail box that has not been set up yet. Please try your call again. Goodbye.”
Hearing that robotic bullshit cut deep.
That first month of Army Ranger training had been brutal. We had no time to think about the people we’d left back home. We lived and breathed pain and exhaustion. And that first mail call, seeing soldier after soldier get that Dear John letter, that anger and rage that immediately followed, made me grateful I’d scraped Jillian off.
I couldn’t sleep, even though I tried. My watch said it was now after one in the morning. Still nothing. I wasn’t going to call anymore. Fuck that.
My eyes had just drifted shut when tones echoed through the building, followed by dispatch telling us we had another multi-vehicle accident.
At this time of night, it wasn’t going to be good.
The highway southbound was lit up with flashing lights. Multi-agencies had been dispatched. State police. Four ambulances. They cleared a landing zone for Medevac. Two trauma codes, three trauma alerts, and two or three possibly deceased. Engine 47. Engine 42 assist. And the coroner.
One car was underneath a tractor trailer, crushed. Another vehicle was smashed up against the median. And one car in the middle of the road was fully engulfed.
It wouldn’t matter how fast we ran or how much water we dumped on it. Death had taken another soul. The heat wafting off of it was intense, but we pushed through.
I saw it clearer as we doused the flames. It was a dark car with four doors.
I tried to block it. Tried not to let it kill me. But right then and there on the dark highway, my world stopped spinning.