Chapter Twelve
Evangeline
“M AY I ASK why you left the fire department?” I asked once our order arrived.
He paused mid-chew, studying me.
I waved my hand. “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too hard, but I’d really like to know.”
He sighed. “It wasn’t just one thing.”
“Decisions like that rarely are.”
“I guess it started with my buddy, Lincoln Marxx. We got the call that there was a bad two-car accident, drunk driver. Linc was on shift with us when we arrived on scene. It was his wife’s car, and it was engulfed in flames.”
“Holy hell,” I breathed out.
Shep nodded. “Lincoln got his little boy, Ezra out, but Jennifer was DOA. She was pregnant with their second baby. Ezra died two days later.”
I bit back tears. “Oh my god.”
“Yeah, it was a fuckin’ nightmare. He quit soon after. But he’s with a good woman now. Rides with a club out of Savannah and has a couple of kids.”
“Rides with a club?”
“Motorcycle Club. Dogs of Fire. Great bunch of Guys. Goes by Doom and has found his happy. We get together a few times a year.”
“It’s good you still get together.”
“Yeah.”
“But you stayed after that?” I pressed.
“Yeah. I stayed on for another three years.” He dragged his free hand down his face. “It was a house fire. Four-alarm. Arrived on scene to find a woman standing out front and it took some time to get out of her that her kids were still inside.”
“Wait, what? She didn’t get them out?”
“It gets worse. She not only didn’t get them out, she set the fire. Twelve, eight, and four. The twelve-year-old was able to untie himself—”
“What?” I squeaked.
“The motherfucking cunt had drugged him and tied him to his bed before she set the house on fire,” Shep bit out. “What we learned later was whatever she’d put in his drink made it taste funny, so he dumped it down the drain when she wasn’t lookin’ and was woken up when the fire alarm went off. He got himself loose and went looking for his little sisters. He found the four-year-old, got her out. Hid her from their mama in the bushes around the side of the house but couldn’t find the eight-year-old.”
“Oh my god, Shep.”
“He went back into that goddammed house three times looking for her before we got there and then fought us tooth and nail when we wouldn’t let him back in.”
“Did you find her?”
“Yeah,” he rasped. “Locked in a trunk at the end of the mother’s bed.”
“Holy hell,” I rasped.
“The kid said she’d lock them in there when they were misbehaving,” he hissed. “This was one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in all of Savannah. No one had any idea any of this was going on. No one sounded the alarm. No one called CPS, no one had any idea these kids were being abused. She was a single mother with no family, so there was no one looking out for them. She lived on her family’s trust fund.”
“CPS probably couldn’t have helped, Shep. They’re working with one hand tied behind their back as it is.”
“Probably.”
“What happened to the surviving kids?”
“Daegan and Ramsey. They had no surviving relatives, so Doom and Lyric actually took them in.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. They’re really good people.”
“Sounds like it.”
“And a couple of the fire crew ride with the Dogs, so the kids have both a fire family and a club family that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.”
“That sounds incredible.”
“It is.”
I stood, making my way to him and cupping his face. “You know you did everything you could, right?”
“Yeah, baby. I don’t hold onto that. I just couldn’t deal with seeing another dead baby.”
“I get that.”
“Can I be done baring my soul for today?”
I smiled gently. “For today.”
“How about you bare something else?” he suggested, untying my robe.
For the rest of the evening, we forgot the past and just focused on the present, and everything Shep Waller could do with his mouth.
* * *
Shep
T wo days later, I drove Evangeline to the airport. She was headed back to Boston, and I was sticking around Savannah for another day or two before flying home to Nashville. I was not happy with this arrangement.
“Will you come to Boston?” she asked, once she’d checked in.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, great. Just let me know when you want to come, and we’ll coordinate schedules.”
I nodded.
“Hey.” She frowned, squeezing my hand. “Where’d you go?”
I sighed. “Not likin’ this long distance bullshit, Lina.”
“Long distance bullshit?” she challenged. “We’d have to be in a relationship to put that kind of label on it, wouldn’t we?”
I slid my hand to her neck and tugged her forward. “Yeah.”
I felt her shiver as she met my eyes. “Don’t do that, Shep.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t make it harder than it already is. Just let me walk away from you and we can leave it where it is.”
“Leave it where it is?” I frowned. “And where is it, Lina?”
“Great sex, good conversation. Friends with—”
“If you say friends with benefits, I’ll lose my shit.”
“Friends with positive gains?”
I let out a quiet snort. “I swear to Christ, woman, you’re not helping.”
“Look, I don’t do the relationship thing.” She patted my chest. “Can we not put a label on it and let it just be great sex for now?”
I sighed, stroking her pulse. “Yeah, we can do that. But I’m going on record that I don’t like it.”
“Noted.”
I leaned down to kiss her. “Text me when you land.”
“I will.” She gave me a sassy grin. “Don’t fall in love with me, Shep. It won’t go well for you.”
“Or it could be the best thing for both of us. Don’t know unless you try, baby.” Her guard suddenly went up again, and I sighed. “Don’t do that, Lina.”
She met my eyes and then fell against me. “Sorry. I forget sometimes.”
“I know.” I held her tight for a few precious seconds.
“I need to get through security.”
“I’m aware,” I growled.
“You’re going to have to let me go so I can do that,” she pressed.
I gave her a squeeze, then kissed her one more time before letting her walk away. I had a feeling I was gonna regret it, I just didn’t know how deep that regret would be.