Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mick had just hung up his office phone the day before the beginning of spring when Peter Russo knocked on the door and pushed inside.
Most of the other crew members had learned to give him space lately, or risk the consequences of his constantly sour mood, but they’d been friends for years, and Peter must have thought that gave him special privileges and immunity.
He would have to talk to him about that when he finally felt human. That wasn’t today.
“Hey, Chief. You just get off a call? You’ve been holed up in here all afternoon on the phone.”
“It’s been a busy one. Have a seat, Russo.”
He studied the other man for a few seconds, a knot forming in his belly. Had he been listening outside the door? If he had, through how many calls?
Rather than sit in one of the guest chairs, Peter slumped back on the sofa, where Mick had found Rachel on the first day they’d met.
Personally, he’d avoided sitting there all week.
Since Cameron Phillips’s arrest, and the kid’s confession that he’d targeted the Hoffman family because of the cadet program rejection, he hadn’t been as diligent in observing members of the crew. Maybe that had been a mistake.
“Any new discussions with the village council?”
“Some,” he said vaguely, growing more suspicious.
“Have you talked to Riley Hoffman?”
Now Mick pursed his lips and narrowed his gaze. “Why are you asking all that?”
Peter threw his head back and laughed. “Because he told me what you did for him, boss. I think it’s amazing.”
Mick’s shoulders, which had crept up during the interrogation, relaxed. Beyond that Peter had picked up Riley from rehab, he hadn’t even been aware that those two were such good friends. “Does everyone know?”
“Probably by now,” Peter said, wincing. “It was great of you to convince Mayor Bilski and the village council to bring Hoffman back as assistant chief.”
“The plan still has to go before the full council, but after he lost everything but his garage in the fire, it’ll be hard for them to say no.” Especially now that the computer forensic investigator had proven the station’s books were hacked.
It still bothered Mick that longtime Mayor Clay Bilksi had required a lot of persuading, and had insisted Riley’s employment was contingent on his continued sobriety. But a mention of a possible lawsuit for wrongful dismissal had gotten the ball rolling.
Mick didn’t share those details or that he’d volunteered to resign so Riley could have his old job back.
Rachel’s brother had nixed that idea himself, requesting a position with less responsibility while he worked his program and became stronger in his sobriety.
Mick had to respect that even if it meant being in Mount Isabel a little longer and risking seeing Rachel every time he walked in the grocery store.
“Any other new developments in the arson cases?”
Mick narrowed his gaze at Peter again. The guy really was milking him for information today. “Just what you read in the Informer.”
“If we relied on the information coming from the local weekly with its exclusives from the Public Safety Office, we still wouldn’t know multiple arrests have been made,” Peter said.
“From what I’ve heard, nearly a dozen kids have already been rounded up from that TORCH video game.
Among them, they’d set all the suspicious fires lately, and the Phillips kid was the ringleader.
A computer genius at that. There’s even a chance he might have invented that game. ”
He kept a carefully blank expression. “Can neither confirm nor deny.”
Peter’s sources were good. Mick would have to remember that.
“You’re no help. I’ve even heard the kid who left the gas can in the middle of the living room in that one house fire turned himself in after your quote in the paper,” Peter said. “And that his confession helped police build their case against Phillips for attempted murder.”
Mick chuckled and shook his head. “Sounds like if the Informer is looking for a new reporter, you might be the man for the job. If you want to quit fighting fires, anyway.”
“Does that mean my information’s accurate?”
Spot-on, but there was no way Peter would hear that from Mick. “Again, I can neither confirm nor deny. I like keeping my job. So, are you about done with your fact-finding mission?”
“I am. Sorry, boss. I had to try. It’s the most interesting story that’s happened around Mount Isabel in decades.”
On that, his friend would be dead wrong, but Mick wasn’t volunteering that either.
“Well, we’ve got training this afternoon, and I thought you were working on your EMT Basic certification online work, so—”
“So, I’ll be getting out of your hair.” Peter stepped into the hall and then stuck his head back inside. “Oh, one more thing, Chief.”
Mick rolled his eyes. “What’s that?”
“Rachel Hoffman and her girls are waiting for you in the day room.” He grinned as he added, “They’ve been waiting there a while.”
* * *
Mick was still grumbling when he made it to the front of the station though he probably could have competed for a medal with the time he took getting there. He found Rachel and the twins sitting in the recliners in the day room, some cartoon kids’ show on the seventy-two-inch TV screen.
“He’s here,” Carissa called out as she leaped up from her chair and held out a rectangular box of chocolates.
“Hi, Mr. Mick.” Carly popped up like her sister had, only she had a cellophane-wrapped bouquet of daisies in her hands.
Rachel was slower than the other two, but she carefully stood and held out a pizza box, the scent already filling the room. “Hi. What took you so long?”
“I was waylaid.” He frowned at Peter, who grinned back, unrepentant.
Mick turned back to his three guests and held his hands wide. “What is all this?”
He glanced to his left and right and then looked all the way behind him to the kitchen.
Sure enough, every crew member on the shift had taken a few minutes from other assignments or gym time to get to watch this show, and that included Scott Ingram, who was back on dinner duty cooking up something else that smelled amazing.
Why did they have to be slow on calls today?
“It’s just that you make it tough for someone trying to organize a grand gesture.”
“Grand gesture?” He took in the candy, the flowers, the pizza, his gaze narrowing as his thoughts took on a life of their own. Was Rachel—? Could this mean—?
“You have sort of single-handedly created a new position for my brother.”
Mick nodded and looked at the floor. He would have tried to say that he’d only done it for Riley, but it would be hard to lie in front of all these people. Part of it was for her. Maybe most of it.
“He deserves the benefit of the doubt,” he said, though he no longer had any questions about Riley’s innocence. “And a second chance.”
“Don’t we all?”
Her grin reminded him when he’d said the same thing about her father.
“Though our gesture will never compete with something like that, the girls and I would like to ask you a question.”
Mick folded his hands in front of him and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Okay. So ask.”
“We would like to know if you would go on a first date with us,” Rachel said with a grin.
“Yes, will you, Mr. Mick?” Carissa called out, bouncing on her toes.
“Will you?” Carly chimed.
He lowered his hands to his sides, his chest feeling full. “Just a first date?”
Rachel set the pizza on the table next to one of the recliners, crossed her arms and gave him a warning look. “Now, don’t get ahead of yourself, but if you’re nice, and the girls approve, there could possibly be a second. And a third.”
“Well, thank you for your kind invitation. But I’ll have to think about it.” He’d never seen three prettier or sadder faces. There was no way he could hold back that grin. “Are you kidding? I accept.”
Rachel swiped at her forehead with the back of her sleeve. “Glad to hear it because this next part wouldn’t have worked if you’d said no.”
She took about five steps forward until she had to look up at him. “I know this is supposed to come at the end of a date, but let’s not get lost on technicalities.”
Then she did the thing he’d been dying for her to do from the moment he’d seen her in the station.
She lifted up on her toes, rested her hands on his shoulders and touched her lips to his.
Mick didn’t give her a chance to step back.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him, kissing her the way she deserved to be kissed.
And would be regularly, if she gave him the chance.
Only at the sounds of applause and wolf whistles did Mick pull back slightly, feeling dazed. Rachel stared back at him with wide eyes and a big smile. The girls had gathered on both sides of them, turning the whole thing into a group hug for four.
“Maybe he won’t be such a grouch now,” Scott called out from the kitchen.
“Hey, what’s all this PDA nonsense in the station?”
At the familiar voice, Mick turned to find Riley standing in the kitchen, clapping along with the others.
“This is where I come in,” Riley said. “How about the crew takes the twins on a tour of the station while those two head outside for a minute? Looks like they could use it to cool off.”
“Another tour?” Carly said, her shoulders curving forward.
“Fair point. How about someone lets you sit in Engine 1?”
With squeals, they headed off in the direction of the apparatus bay, with Peter and Riley trailing behind them.
Someone pressed Mick’s coat into his hands, Rachel slipped into hers, and soon they were standing outside in the parking lot next to his truck.
He leaned his back against the tailgate. “Now you’re sure you can do this? Us?”
She gave him an incredulous look. “I did just ask you out in front of the whole crew and my daughters. Especially my daughters.”
He nodded. She would never do anything to hurt them. “But you said—”
“I said a lot of things that day. Most of them wrong.”
“Where’d you mess up the worst?”
“When I thought I could walk away from you and not leave a part of my heart behind.” Though she’d been staring at the ground, she looked up and met his gaze. “I love you. I trust you, too. No escape hatches.”
“That’s good, since I fell in love with you the day I found you napping on my couch.”
“It was really comfortable,” she said with a grin.
He leaned in to press his lips to hers again, his touch gentle but purposeful.
But when she pulled back, she squinted at him.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just walk away from the Hoffmans entirely?
There are still so many questions about our father.
About Bilton. Riley and I have decided not to turn the records over to the police yet.
We will, eventually. Just not quite yet. ”
“I get it. A mystery that’s been buried for forty years can stay that way a little longer.”
“And I probably won’t be able to let it go entirely.”
He smiled at her admission. “Never thought for a minute that you would.”
“We still don’t know about the whole threatening quotes thing.”
“Cameron Phillips told police all about that idea. He did it to scare Riley and then you. Says he’s big into quotation websites. Your brother’s email wasn’t hard to find. Neither was your cell phone number.”
“And the thing at the school?”
“Yeah, that one took some creativity,” Mick said. “The police investigator told me that Phillips was really proud of that one. Loved that he terrorized all those people at the same time.”
Mick still believed there was more to that story, but since the police were accepting it, they would have to for now, as well.
Rachel shook her head, pursing her lips. “But there were two different cars. Did he say he drove both of them?”
“Says he dumped the white SUV after we saw him in it.”
She held her hands wide. “The kid’s going to take credit for everything that happened, whether it was his plan or not. And he’s not going to turn on anyone who was instructing him, either.”
“He kind of has to. It would ruin his street cred if he admitted he was just someone else’s puppet. This way he gets all the glory.”
“And, hopefully, all the prison time,” she said.
“Oh, that’ll happen. The prosecutor’s trying him as an adult. All the other local gamers who were playing TORCH, where Phillips suggested that they turn their favorite pyromaniacal fantasies into real fires, have chosen to testify against him to save their own skins.”
She frowned at that. “Guess they’re learning young how to get by in this world.”
“Can we get back to the kissing?” Mick shivered. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting cold.”
At his reminder about the temperature, Rachel shuddered, too. Then she lifted up again and touched her lips to his as she’d done inside.
“Now you’re sure you can do this? Us?” She grinned as she repeated the words he’d spoken moments before.
“I think I am. I just kissed you in front of my whole crew.” He grinned down at her. “And in front of your daughters.”
He dipped his head and gave her another long, tantalizing kiss that left both of them without any need for their coats.
When he pulled back, she reached up to touch the whiskers on his cheek before her fingers trailed over his sensitive lips.
“And you still want to take this fire engine ride with us?” she asked.
Mick kissed her once more and then smiled against her lips. “As long as when we’re in the rig, you let me drive.”