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I flipped him the bird.
This was my first long shift since the suspension. Hopefully, that meant I was back full time. Captain didn’t have much choice when we were a man down.
I tapped my knuckles on his partially open door.
“Come in.” The call was gruff from too many years of cigarettes and whiskey.
He sat behind his desk with an unlit cigar hanging from his mouth as he studied an open folder.
“Hollingsworth, you’re late.”
He hadn’t even looked at a clock. But I had before I turned off my truck. I was seven minutes early.
“You wanted to speak to me, sir.” I wasn’t in the mood for an argument.
“Don’t sit. This won’t take long.”
I was halfway in one of the chairs in front of his desk. As commanded, I stood back straight.
“Who told you to work that fire last night?” His haggard gaze finally appraised me.
“Burke said it was all hands-on deck. Everybody close by was there.”
“When did Burke become captain?”
I clamped my mouth closed. I was already on a razor-thin margin. Though the urge to defend myself pulsed underneath my surface. This time, Ihadn’tdone anything wrong. Only what I was asked.
“You’re out. Since Burke thinks he’s in charge, he can bring you your stuff from your locker.”
What?
“You need me on this shift. We’re down at least a man—”
“You’re done, Hollingsworth.”
It was like he spoke a foreign language.
“I just got here. You could’ve told me on the phone you didn’t want me in today.” I thrust my finger in the direction of the bunks. “Those guys need me. I’m here. And I’m staying.”
Captain crushed the end of his cigar in his fingers. Well, he wasn’t the only one mad. This was absurd, even for him. And after the past few weeks, if he wanted to be the recipient of all my pent-up frustration, that was fine by me.
“I have work to do.” I spun and stalked away from the man who’d had it in for me for as long as I could remember.
“Hollingsworth.”
I hesitated in the doorway when he called my name but didn’t turn around.
“You’re fired.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Pepper
Why didyou tell him you were homeless?
It wasn’t his business. Only one other person on this earth knew. Did I think because we’d spent a few nights together and he was nice to me I could trust him?
But that look on his face when I’d told him the truth.
