Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“Well,” Winter sighed. “That’d do it.”
“Do what?” I asked.
“Get him to break out the ‘bad boy’ that his brother is always accusing him of being,” she said.
My brows rose.
“I’ve yet to see him be a ‘bad boy,’” I admitted.
Catching myself in a lie, my lips thinned as I thought about him drag racing down the main street in town not even two nights ago.
“Oh, he’s a bad boy,” Winter said. “He just hides it better than most.”
I didn’t doubt it for a second.
Chapter 9
Don’t piss off a firefighter. They’re the ones that’ll make sure your ass stays alive when it counts.
-Fact of life
Tai
“What are we doing?” Charlie Bronx, the fire inspector for the city of Kilgore, asked.
“I want you to go in there and find something to write that bitch a ticket for,” I said, pointing at the building for Jenner’s Heating and Air.
Charlie frowned.
“Why?” He asked.
I relayed what I’d walked in on yesterday before the dinner with my brother.
His mouth dropped open.
“You’re shitting me,” he gasped.
Charlie was a good man.
He was married to his high school sweetheart, who happened to be a cop. He and his wife were happily married with five kids, and one on the way.
He was the epitome of ‘in love’ and he cherished the hell out of his woman.
He was brought up on a farm outside of the city limits and had a protective streak a mile long that had him wanting to protect every woman he met, most of all his wife.
It was the one thing they always fought about.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not. Listened to that bitch say those words. So callous and rude. I wanted to reach through the phone and ring her fucking neck with my bare hands.”
A woman gasped beside me, and I glared.
“What?” I asked.
She shook her head and hurried away, pushing a baby stroller as fast as her legs could carry her.
“Women don’t like it when you curse in front of their kids,” Charlie teased.
I shrugged.
“I’m in the bourbon district,” I said. “What the fuck is she doing here with a kid anyway?” I asked.
The Bourbon District was a strip of shops that centered around alcohol. Bars, liquor stores, and restaurants.
Right in the middle of it was Jenner Heating and Air.
“Well, let’s do it,” Charlie said.
I gestured to the boys and they piled out of the truck and headed in my direction.
We all crossed the street at once, and we stopped just inside the entrance of the front lobby.
“Well, hello,” the woman behind the front counter said pleasantly. “What can I help you with?”
Charlie stepped forward and offered his hand to the woman.
She took it, shaking it like only a woman could. Just barely giving him her fingers and shaking once before dropping it.
“We’ve received some complaints on the fire code of this building by a customer, and we’re here to inspect the building for any possible violations,” Charlie said.
He handed over a packet of papers to the woman, who took it with a shocked face.
“Well, okay,” she said after scanning the papers. “That’s fine. Let me know if you need anything.”
The boys and I spread out, and it didn’t take long for me to find four violations on my own.
When we met back up, I handed over my sheet of the area I’d inspected.
Then I’d looked at the sheets PD, Fatbaby and Drew handed over.
My mouth kicked up into a grin as the boys and I left without another word.
“You gave her a violation on the toilet paper being a fire hazard?” I asked PD with laughter in my voice.
He grinned.
“It was under the heater in the hall closet. Definitely a fire hazard if I’ve ever seen one,” PD explained, not an ounce of sorrow in his voice.
“Bitch deserves it,” Charlie said as he finally joined us. “Her husband owns the business, and she had the nerve to ask me if you were single.”
I lifted up my lip in a silent snarl.
“Wouldn’t touch that bitch with a ten-foot pole,” I grumbled. “She better hope she doesn’t have a fire here that requires more than someone pissing on it to put out. She inadvertently pissed off the whole fire department with the way she spoke about Mia.”
Charlie nodded.
“That won’t affect the way you do your job,” PD said. “Nor will it affect how I do mine. It just means that we won’t go back in after her cat.”
I laughed.
A delicate sniff from behind us had me turning to see a woman standing there…the same one from earlier that I’d cursed in front of.
“Can we help you, ma’am?” Fatbaby asked.
The woman sneered.
“No,” she said. “But you should be careful about what you say on public streets. There are ears everywhere.”
I didn’t necessarily get the thought that she was talking about anything other than the cussing until the chief called me into his office later that afternoon.