Chapter 36
My muscles ache as I walk into the station. I’ve never been late to a shift before. And I’m not just a little late either—thirty freaking minutes. Maya is hot on my heels, even though we each drove our own car here.
We quickly discussed whether she should come in later, but neither of us wanted to go down that route again. She is no secret. She is my choice—and now officially my partner. Not that we will be stupid about it. No. We have a plan.
We talked about it the whole night. I will speak to Salisar, and she will come clean in her article since she is no longer objective.
She can mitigate how it reflects on her credibility by disclaiming our relationship.
It would out us both, so we agreed that we will tell those who need to know first. Like the Chief and my crew.
Tommy’s eyes narrow as I rush in. He opens his mouth to speak but I raise my hand. I have no time. I take long strides past his desk while he glares at me furiously, but as I push through the door I hear his voice, chipper as always.
“Maya, how are you today?”
I roll my eyes. He is such a suck-up. But Maya has no time for it today either, and she is not afraid to tell him.
I grin as I feel her right behind me, nearly jogging now to keep up.
I glance over my shoulder apologetically.
There’s no time to slow down. But she just winks and I feel my stomach flutter.
The warmth spreads to my cheeks. I really am the luckiest woman in the world. She chose me—twice.
We cross the bay and I can already hear Díaz’s laughter. But before we can walk up the steel stairs, a wolf whistle echoes through the hall. I freeze on the spot and whip my head back toward the sound. Moreno from the ladder crew flashes me a disgusting grin.
“Thirty minutes late, huh, Gonzales? Did you score with your little lady here last night?”
The way he lets his gaze roam over Maya makes my blood boil. But the way she folds into herself really sets me off. I move toward him, but a hand clamps down on my shoulder and holds me back just in time. I try to shrug it off, but it stays firmly in place.
“Back off, Moreno. You are way out of line.”
Rivera steps in front of me now, his posture rigid and his free hand clenched into a fist. He normally isn’t an aggressive person—this behavior isn’t like him at all—but the way he defends me gives me pause.
I glance back at Maya, who is staring at us with those big innocent eyes.
This time I don’t hesitate and pull her closer, my eyes scanning her face.
When her gaze meets mine, I see her swallow and slightly straighten her spine. Good girl.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, Rivera, look at them. Everyone knows they like to get steamy in the shower.”
“Excuse you?” I snap, twisting my head back toward him.
The heated tone of our conversation garners attention and both our crews gather around. My molars are grinding so hard into each other that I might actually break one.
“What? You trying to tell me you are not tapping that?” Moreno gestures at Maya.
“You will do yourself a favor and not speak about anybody in that manner,” I snarl back through gritted teeth. “Especially not if it involves a guest.”
“What the hell is going on here?”
Torres puffs out his chest as he comes up from the back. His eyes dark and calculating. They jump from Maya, to me, to Moreno. His lips turn into a tight line and his nostrils flare.
“What is it with you and assaulting my crew?”
His voice is laced with venom. Before I respond, though, Rivera closes the distance between him and Torres, towering over him. Their chests nearly touch as he looks down.
“You filthy little rat. Asking what is going on as if this is not exactly what you were gunning for the whole time.” I’ve never heard his voice this low, this threatening.
“What I was gunning for?” Torres lifts his chin and raises an eyebrow.
“Yes, exactly what I said. With your gossip and your stories. You are nothing but a disgrace to the station. A rat that is too scared to talk to his co-workers, so he goes running to the chief instead.”
“For crying out loud, that wasn’t me.”
Torres lets his gaze fall onto Maya and then onto me. There is something else in his eyes now. Not sorrow or regret, but an understanding. An offering. Rivera puffs out his chest again, but before he can make a mistake that all of us will pay for, I call him off.
“Enough, Eduardo.”
He turns slowly as he hears me refer to him by his first name. His eyes soften before he nods and takes two steps back, next to me and Maya.
“Speak,” he growls.
“I never spoke to Salisar. Even though the… well, the situation is kind of clear to everyone with eyes.” Torres shakes his head, but doesn’t smile.
There is no amusement in his voice. “Gonzales, you must know that none of us are like that. We are all firefighters here. Yeah, our crews might get competitive, but we are all part of the same family, are we not?”
His eyes look at me, pleading. For the first time since that night in the parking lot, I feel like I might have made a mistake. But if it wasn’t him, then who was it?
“Clearly not. Someone here decided my personal choices were of concern.” I glance around the room, turning to face every single person there. “Anybody willing to fess up?”
“They won’t,” Torres whispers, before he clears his throat. “They won’t because the person who did it is not in this room.”
Both Rivera and I spin to face him again.
“You know who it is…”
“Yes. After… after I saw what it did to you,” he looks into Maya’s eyes, “I realized that all of this was wrong.” He turns his gaze to me.
“And then I understood why you were so angry at me. If you thought I had spoken to the Chief…” He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“…if I had thought that about anybody else, I would have punched them too.”
Maya gasps next to me, grasping at my arm. “You hit him?”
I nod once, but my eyes don’t leave his. When he looks back at me again, he smiles sadly.
“I am truly sorry this happened to you, Elena. To both of you. But we work together every day. We run into burning buildings while having each other’s backs.
We need that trust in order to keep safe.
So, I decided to do a little digging. After all, everyone thought I hated you.
Getting the culprit to talk wasn’t much of a challenge. ”
“Enough with the tale already,” Rivera hisses. “Who is it?”
“Tommy.”
For a moment the world freezes. Fucking Tommy? The goodie-two-shoes desk clerk? The one who’s always smiling in everybody’s face? That little piece of… Around us, more people gasp and even Moreno’s face falters.
“Yeah. I ran into him at The Dublin,” Torres explains.
“He was having a pint with his buddy and he didn’t realize I was sitting right behind him.
Tommy was going on about how he was going to tap the little hot reporter for sure if it wasn’t for you being in the way,” he nods at me once.
“But that he had found a solution for it, that would make you back off for sure. It wasn’t hard to figure out what he had done after that.
He tainted your good reputation for his own advantage. He is no better than a rat.”
I stare at Torres for a moment, the blood in my veins turned to ice.
But this time it’s not aimed at him. No, I feel some sort of…
gratitude toward him. Maya stirs next to me, and shuffles uncomfortably on her feet.
It seems to break the tension. Torres raises his chin and looks me straight in the eye when he steps forward with his hand extended.
“I should have come to you sooner, Elena. My apologies.”
I grab his hand and shake it firmly, raising my other hand to clap him on his shoulder.
“And I apologize for hitting you. I made a very bad call, Sergio.”
He scoffs and winks. “It takes a bit more than a brush to knock me down.” But he nods slightly and then turns toward Moreno. “Which I will demonstrate on you, if you don’t apologize within the next thirty seconds as well.”
Moreno gapes at him and then snaps his head toward Maya and me. When Torres moves toward him, he flinches and raises his hand.
“Okay, okay. Sorry, alright.”
“For what?” Rivera growls beside me and Moreno throws him a murderous look.
“I shouldn’t have said the things I said.”
“Wrong answer,” Torres threatens. “You should not have shown any disrespect to our guest here. Let alone defile her image by your own pubescent thoughts. Do I make myself clear?”
Moreno’s mouth drops open. “I… I wasn’t…”
“Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?”
“Yes, sir.” He looks at Maya now, the look in his eyes completely different. Filled with shame. “My apologies, Carter. I… I shamed my crew and our station.”
Maya’s cheeks burn as he addresses her directly. She shuffles on her feet again. Her shoulders move up and she throws him a weak smile.
“It’s okay.”
It really isn’t, but the last thing I want to do is make her even more uncomfortable.
Which is also the only reason that I am not storming over to the reception area right now to deal with that rat behind the counter, as Torres rightfully called Tommy.
I feel my nostrils flare and my jaw clench at the thought.
Maya sees me tense but doesn’t shrink at the sight.
She knows exactly what I am thinking. Her fingertips graze my wrist and she shakes her head, before she turns toward Torres and Moreno.
“Now that the air is cleared, we need to get to work. And talking about that… your rig can use some cleaning.”
She nods at some specks of mud on the side of Ladder 1.
Behind me, Díaz and Fernandes snicker. Torres just raises a surprised eyebrow and glances at the truck.
Rivera, Rodriques, and I freeze. It isn’t until Moreno lets out a bellowing laugh, that the tension seems to break.
His crew joins in and Torres turns back to me, grinning.
“Got yourself a good one there, boss.”
He tips an imaginary hat and turns around.
“Moreno, you are lucky you are not getting a note on your file for harassment, but let this be the last of it.” He glances over his shoulder and winks. “Alright crew. You heard the lady, let’s go!”
And with that, everyone is moving again like nothing ever happened. The air suddenly feeling a lot cleaner again.
***
“So, now what? What do we do about la rata?”
I bite the inside of my cheek to suppress the urge to grin at Tommy’s new nickname.
He more than deserves it. And I know he will never lose that name again.
It will be scribbled on his locker by the end of the week.
He’ll hear it whispered in the hallways and in the locker room.
It will always follow him around, even if he were to change stations, which is exactly what he deserves.
But as a lieutenant, I can’t say that. So, I stare at my crew—I look each and every one of them in the eye, Maya included.
“We are professionals. We do our job. We do not punish people here. Leave him to me.” My tone is flat, lacking its usual conviction.
Fernandes scoffs. “The hell we don’t. He betrayed you. He came after Maya. That rata is not to be trusted. He is not one of us…”
“Yeah, she’s right. If he dared to come for you, what will stop him from targeting others? Before you know it he’ll be running to the Chief with every little thing that comes to his ears.”
“The lieutenant won’t let it come to that, right Gonzales?”
Rodriques looks at me intently. His message is clear. I have to act and I have to do it now.
“I said to leave him to me. This will be addressed.”
I glance at Maya and fight the urge to reach for her hand. She looks at me, with those all-knowing blue eyes, and blinks softly. It’s all that I need in that moment. I am not doing this alone.
“If you think I won’t act on this, you are gravely mistaken,” I hiss while returning my focus to the crew. “We don’t eat our own here. That’s not who we are. I will brief the Chief about Tommy today, and you will consider it handled. Am I clear?”
A resounding “yes ma’am” echoes through the room, and I give them a curt nod in return.
We all know that la rata will be taken care of regardless.
Nobody wants to work with a traitor when their lives are on the line.
Tommy is about to feel what happens to somebody who betrays the family.
And I am not going to stop them unless I absolutely have to.