Up in Flames (Center City First Responders #7)

Chapter 1

ONE

KALEO

The day Kaleo Kenney met the woman he would fall in love with, he had been in Center City for all of thirty minutes.

Leaving Hawaii had been a bit of culture shock for him, the overnight flight from Hawaii's Daniel Inouye Airport to Chicago had been its own adventure when his flight had been canceled and then the airport rerouted him through Seattle to Chicago and he was actually jonesing for a cup of coffee, but he wanted to sit his ass down somewhere that wouldn't mind his big ass duffel bag.

So he'd gotten on Center City's answer to the Disney People Mover.

Okay, so it was a train, but that was the only thing Kaleo had been on on the continental US that was anything close.

In Hawaii they had the RAIL system, but that was.

.. ridiculous and didn't seem to serve its purpose, at least people rode the People Mover.

Looking down at his cell phone, he looked at the map of the train stations and looked up at the electronic map up above the door connecting the cars.

Three more stops until he was going to get off at the station to get to his hotel.

The doors below the sign opened up and three guys walked in.

His first instinct was to look away from the men. They were all older than he was, but every movement said that they were tough.

Like they were likely carrying some kind of weapon on them 'tough.'

Kaleo took in a deep breath and let it out.

He didn't want to get into a fight, but he wasn't about to lose everything he had on the first day in Center City.

Well, hell, the first hour.

The men sauntered past the first few rows of seats, looking everyone over as they went.

This wasn't just curiosity about other passengers.

They were looking for something.

Probably easy pickings.

He'd seen the same kind of thing when he was a kid on the school bus.

Bigger, meaner kids looking for weaker kids to pick on.

He let out his breath in a rush through his nose and settled his shoulders.

If they were going to try and rob him, he'd do something about it.

The men stopped a few rows before him, looking at the woman sitting in the row.

She leaned away from them, her shoulder flattening against the window.

They didn't reach for her or say anything.

The guy at the front of the three snorted a laugh and moved on.

The two behind him made a gesture at her, one with his face, a sneering smile, the other with his hand that wasn't something you should do in public.

They moved on and Kaleo knew that he was next. There wasn't anyone else in the seats between them.

The man at the front got up to his side and looked down at him.

"You new in town?"

Kaleo managed a little smile. "That obvious, huh?"

The man's expression changed a little and then he lifted his chin toward the bag at Kaleo's side. Raising his eyebrows a little, he smiled. "Army?"

Kaleo smiled a little, too.

The duffel he was using as a suitcase was his grandfather's army duffel from the Korean War.

Kaleo nodded. "Yeah."

The man who came up behind the first nodded. "You look a little young to be from the service."

Kaleo hadn't told a lie per se. The bag was Army.

It just wasn't his.

And yeah, he probably looked a little young to be out of the service.

He hadn't been in the service.

He'd chosen to go into the Honolulu Fire Department as soon as he could. He'd put in his application as soon as he'd turned eighteen.

Still, he was hoping his grandfather was going to do him a solid.

The last man who'd come up, shrugged. "Leave him alone. Let's go to the next car."

Kaleo managed not to breathe out a sigh of relief until he heard the doors behind him close.

"Thanks, Yeye." His grandfather had been Chinese-Hawaiian, but instead of calling him Tutu Kane, grandpa in Hawaiian, he liked to be called grandpa in Chinese instead.

Sure, he might not have been in the Army himself, but the men had given him a pass thanks to his grandfather's duffel.

He owed him one for that. And so many other things.

Kaleo managed to pull himself out of his memories of his grandfather in time to get up and get off at the right station.

He was halfway down the stairs to the ground when he lost his phone from his hand and stood there watching as his phone hit every three steps until it hit the sidewalk.

"Shit."

Shaking his head at his butterfingers, he sighed as he jogged down the steps and reached for his phone.

When he stood up, he turned it over to look at the screen.

It was cracked.

He'd already seen the cracks on the back of the phone, right through the case.

Yeah, he was going to need-

"You're going to need a new phone."

He looked up toward the voice he'd just heard and forgot how to breathe.

She had, without a doubt, the most beautiful smile he'd seen.

Ever.

And the look in her eyes was mix of empathy and something he couldn't name.

"I'm glad you didn't fall, too."

He looked back at the stairs he'd just come down and then back to her. "I should have been paying more attention, or just waited until I got down the ground."

She waved a hand at his words. "The stairs from the train around here are ruthless. I swear they built them as an homage to Darwin."

He stared back at her, unsure if his voice would even work if he tried to use it.

A moment later she looked uncomfortable and winced. "Darwin was a scientist who's most known for-"

"Natural selection and more recently, the Darwin Awards, but I doubt he thought we'd ever come up with that."

She brightened, holding her textbooks to her chest as she rocked back on her heels. "It's crazy how stupid humans have become."

He nodded and looked down at the phone in his hand, turning it around for her to see. "I managed to mess up my phone on my first day in Center City."

She winced. "That does suck."

They both smiled at the straightforward way that she'd summed up his problem.

He opened his mouth to ask her a question, but she was already a step ahead of him.

"I did something similar to my phone a few weeks ago.

I wasn't looking and dropped my phone in the road.

It was raining and before I could run out and get it an ambulance ran over it.

Which is kind of insult to injury given that I'm studying to be a nurse. "

She shrugged and he looked at the text books in her arms.

He recognized a few of them from his own studies to qualify as an EMT.

"I almost took it as a sign to change my career, but I'm too stubborn for that!" She nodded her head with a certainty that made him unwilling to say anything. Instead, he nodded, too.

"So, I know of a place a few streets over that can probably fix it, if you want them to try."

He didn't want to turn her down, but, "Actually. If there's a Tellnet Cellular store around here, I paid through the nose for insurance so I can probably get it replaced."

She nodded and her gaze moved away from his face, giving her face a thoughtful look.

A moment later, she nodded. "I think I've seen one a few streets over."

He smiled when she looked up at him.

"I can take you there before my next class starts if you don't mind walking fast."

He wanted to tell her that in Hawaii, they talked about Hawaiian time, meaning that things were usually laid back, but he didn't want to miss the chance to get to know her.

And look for a chance to get her contact information.

"I'll keep up."

She raised an eyebrow at his words and gave him a look from head to toe.

He might have sucked in his stomach a little when her gaze moved over his middle, but he'd never admit to it.

She nodded, knowingly. "I think you can."

"Oh, I can," he assured her and then had to take a few ground eating strides as she took off walking.

Her legs might be shorter than his, but she walked like she was running, her legs moving quickly as she made her way down the sidewalk.

He had to adjust the hold on the strap of his duffel bag so it stayed tight against his back. The sidewalk was busier where they were walking and he didn't want to bump into anyone and knock them off of their feet.

The duffel bag that he had on his back was heavy enough. He'd paid to ship his bigger items to Center City, his clothes were mostly in the bag he'd slung over his back. Everything else he'd just buy while he was there. There had to be stores that carried the things he needed.

"Wuff." He grimaced as his side came in contact with someone's elbow, but he kept going, managing to keep her in sight as she turned a corner.

He hustled his steps and darted after her, coming to a quick stop when he saw her standing still a few feet in.

"I was worried for a second," she grinned at him. "I thought I'd lost you, but you did good keeping up."

His heart was beating a little fast in his chest, and his legs were a little achy.

He tried to blame the first on the brisk walk and the second on the fact that he'd been on two flights sitting down most of the time, but they were both lies.

She made his heart beat faster and his legs weak.

And he'd just met her.

His sister would call him a wuss.

His mother would have laughed and called him twitterpated. She did have a thing for the film Bambi.

Him?

He'd just fallen for a woman and didn't even know her name.

"Come on then," she turned and tipped her head down the street. "It's just at the end of this block."

She took a couple of steps, her gaze still on his face.

"Don't worry," he smiled at her, "I won't lose you."

She tipped her chin down and gave him a look that said she wasn't all that sure he could keep up.

"I promise," he held up the Scout Sign, and she rolled her eyes.

"You and my (cousin/brother.)"

She walked along and he took a few extra steps to walk up beside her as the sidewalk traffic slowed.

LEXIE

Okay now... breathe.

It hadn't been her intention to walk ahead of him, but that's what ended up happening at first.

Her heart was pounding too hard, and she swore she could hear the rapid beating in her ears.