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But if he got too impulsive with the plan—
Burn,the voice demanded, turning the thought to ash.You know what to do. One flicker. One flame. Feed it. Feed it and watch it burn everything.
Burn. Burn, burn, burn, burn, BURNBURNBURN…
Malachi stood, his feet in motion before he could stop them.
This would end today.
* * *
“I swear to God,fourteen false alarms has to be some kind of a record.”
Lucy rubbed her eyes even though it did nothing to ease her urge to close them for the next two days. “Mmmm,” she managed, turning toward Kellan as they both got out of Engine Seventeen and plodded through the engine bay. The digital clock above the doors leading into the house read 0459, and Lucy reminded herself that false alarms—garbage can fires that had burned out before their arrival, three different hotel fire alarms with not one puff of smoke combined, bogus reports of car accidents or people in distress—they were all part of the deal. In truth, a part of her was glad that the calls (yes. All fourteen of them) had been minor and that Malachi seemed to be keeping his distance.
The other part of her just wanted to sleep.
“You okay?” came a voice from beside her, and just like that, Lucy managed a smile.
“Tired,” she said, and Sam huffed out a laugh to echo the sentiment.
“Yeah.” He nodded. Squad had gone on most of the day’s—and night’s—calls with them. Engine had taken the car accident calls with ambo, while squad had gone on not one, but two reports of carbon monoxide, both of which had been attributed to faulty detectors. Sam looked just as wrecked as Lucy felt, but seeing him still made her heart squeeze in the good way.
“Try to get at least a little sleep before shift change, okay?” he said quietly, and she nodded, because oh, that sounded so good right now.
“You, too. I’ll see you later.”
“I’m almost too much of a zombie to see how cute you two are,” Shae murmured, her honey-brown hair in a messy knot on top of her head and her voice thick with exhaustion as she made her way into the fire house.
Lucy managed a soft snort. “I’m definitely too much of a zombie to care if you give me shit.”
“Ooof,” Shae said, trudging into the bunks and dropping her voice to a whisper. “Then you really do need some sleep. ’Night.”
Lucy wanted to tell her it was actually morning, but her eyelids were already closed, and less than a minute later, she was fully asleep, her head barely on her pillow and boots still on her feet.
Lucy woke ninety minutes later with no fucking clue where she was. Her heart climbed her throat, her breath arriving on a hard gasp. But then she registered the feel of her mattress beneath her body, the sound of Kellan—or, no, that was Dempsey—moving quietly a few bunks over. She’d have sworn she’d shut her eyes for only a minute, but her cell phone said it was 0645, and she pushed her curls out of her face, rolling to her feet and grabbing the toiletries bag she always kept in her bunk. Brushing her teeth and washing her face did damn little to revive her, and she was so bleary that she literally smacked into Sam on her way out of the bathroom.
“Oh! Crap, sorry,” Lucy said, gripping Sam’s arm with her free hand to steady herself.
“All good,” he said, and God, that sexy little half-smile was totally her Kryptonite now. “Did you get some sleep?”
“A little,” Lucy admitted. “I’ll be glad to take a shower, turn off my phone, and properly crash at home, though.”
“Me, too,” Sam said. “How do you feel about dinner later? We can do our check-in with Intelligence, grab some takeout, and catch up on things that aren’t sleep.”
Warmth spread out in Lucy’s belly, quickly traveling south. “That sounds perfect.”
“Go get some real sleep.” He brushed his fingers over her forearm, and oh God, how right Gamble had been to suggest even a touch so simple could put nine kinds of filthy-dirty thoughts into a person’s mind. “Call me when you get up.”
“But what if I wake you?” she asked, her body lighting up again when his smile simply grew.
“I won’t care.”
Lucy made her way from the hall to the locker room to the engine bay, signing off on her equipment check before heading to her car. Her phone showed no messages, and they had their debrief with the Intelligence Unit later. Her father had been looped in on the RFD’s full alert, and the only message she’d had after they’d spoken at length on the phone two nights ago had been a “welcome back to work” text he’d sent yesterday. He had his hands full with the department’s safety measures. Plus, both he and someone from Intelligence would have called her if anything major had gone down.
Which, thank God, they hadn’t, because right now, she was so exhausted, she didn’t think she could handle anything more than making her way home and falling into bed.
Lucy took a large sip of coffee from the to-go mug she’d filled to the brim on her way to the engine bay, letting it wake her enough to ensure she could safely drive. She didn’t live far from Station Seventeen, and while she was in need of some extended shut-eye, she’d make it home safely. Navigating the streets with care, Lucy made the trip home. Her stomach dropped in dread when she realized someone was parked in her assigned spot, but she was too tired to double park and go into the management office to figure it out. She drove around the block, snagging a spot on the street behind the building, right between two work vans. She could come move her car later, and grab her duffel bag while she was at it. Right now, all she wanted was her bed.
