Bad Boy's Touch (Firemen in Love Book 3) Read online

  Something cold and hard pressed against my temple. Rico stood over me, his gun pointed directly at my head. His eyes burned with anger.

  “Look what we got here – my very own piggy to play with.”

  I put my hands up. “Don't shoot, Rico. We can all work this out together.”

  He grabbed my arm and forced me onto my feet. “Here's how we work it out. You tell your pig friends to back off, or I'm gonna blow your brains all over the sidewalk.”

  He yelled to his men. My stomach churned. How could I have let this happen? Instead of saving the day, I just made things worse.

  “Change of plans, boys. We're marching out the front door thanks to my new bargaining chip here.”

  Brett said I couldn't do this alone. That I was only one woman.

  I hated to admit it, but he was right.

  Chapter 3 - Brett

  It was a real treat, watching Madison's tight ass jiggle as she got in the crawlspace. One look at her sent my mind to a very dirty place. My cock hardened despite the chaos outside.

  But though I highly enjoyed staring at her, I knew she was making a huge mistake.

  “What now, man?” Ian patted Candy's back in an attempt to comfort her. “The cop ditched us. I say we run for it while we can.”

  In most cases, I would be inclined to agree. But now, I got that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Whenever I got that feeling, it meant something bad was about to happen. Something real bad.

  “She went after Rico by herself. What the hell is she thinking?”

  “Who cares? If she wants to play hero, let her.” He held out his hand. “Come on, Candy. Let's get out of here.”

  She sniffled. “But the other girls... There are guys shooting out there!”

  “They'll be fine. Those men are only interested in escaping. We leave them alone, they won't mess with us.” He reached for the doorknob. “Don't hear anyone out in the hall. Brett, you coming with us or what?”

  Getting out of here with them would have been easy. It'd also have been the smart thing to do.

  The smart thing – but not the right thing.

  “You get out of here. I'm going to make sure Madison's okay.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You have a crush on the cop who tried to arrest you.”

  “Hey, I can't control my heart's desires. Besides, she might need help. I couldn't live with myself if I left her to deal with that bastard. He's insane; Lord knows what he might do to her.”

  I cracked the door and listened. The gunfire had stopped for now, but that made me kind of nervous. Meant I didn't know where Rico's thugs were, and if I wasn't careful, they could take me by surprise.

  “Put your weapons down and your hands up,” a cop yelled through his megaphone.

  Two guys guarded the door. I didn't know guns very well, but one of them held what looked to be an assault rifle.

  “Where's Rico? Did he get out yet?”

  “Be patient, dude. He's gonna get these pigs off our backs. You know he wouldn't ditch us.”

  I waved for Ian and Candy to get moving. He nodded, then they slipped down the hall to the kitchen where the emergency exit was.

  Just as they reached the door, there was a horrible noise from somewhere nearby, followed by a woman's scream.

  “Madison!”

  Rico's shouts made the feeling in my stomach even worse. Oh, shit. He'd found her.

  “Take Candy and get out. I've got to help her.”

  “How? They've got guns.” Ian's eyes widened. “Take the catwalk. It'll let you get the drop on him from above.”

  The two of them bolted for safety. I grabbed a chef's knife from the kitchen counter, then climbed the ladder to the second-story catwalk. It led all around the club, so I could probably make my way through unnoticed.

  “Get your hands off me!” Madison howled. “You are under arrest, you hear me?”

  Rico laughed. “Your friends gotta catch me first. But they know better than to try when I've got you as collateral.”

  I kept low to the floor and followed the sound of her voice. She was trying to stay calm and in charge, but she couldn't hide her panic.

  I found them in the bar area. He was dragging her along with him, a gun pointed at her head. Seeing that filled me with rage, the kind of fury strong enough to put someone in the hospital – or in a grave.

  “Stop struggling, woman. It'd be a shame to shoot you in your pretty face.”

  She glared. “You won't. You need me.”

  I carefully climbed onto the catwalk railing, swung one leg over, then the other. Rico didn't look up. I steadied the knife in my hand and jumped.

  Landing on him broke my fall and knocked the piece of shit to the floor. He wailed in pain as he tried to escape my grasp.

  “Silver!” Madison rolled away and snatched her dropped gun. “What are you doing?”

  I pinned his arms behind his back and put all my weight on him so he couldn't move. Though he tried to throw me off, the injuries I'd inflicted earlier were taking their toll.

  “Get off me, pendejo! The fuck's your problem, huh?” He tried uselessly to kick me. “Don't you ever cross me. You're dead. Dead!”

  Madison sprung into action, clapping the cuffs she'd used on me around his wrists instead. He cursed at her, calling her pretty much every derogatory name for women he could think of.

  “Shoot him already,” I urged her.

  “I'm not going to shoot him!” She glanced at her gun for a moment, clearly considering it. “I need to bring him in.”

  “For what? You can lock him up temporarily, but he'll get out and be back on the street causing trouble in no time.”

  Rico chuckled. “Fool's right. Y'all can't keep me down. I got connections. You really wanna mess with me? Both of you gonna be sorry.”

  She put the gun down. “I can't just kill him. He deserves justice. He's a human being.”

  I scoffed. “Now that's debatable.”

  From behind the bar, a shadowy figure caught my eye. I held my breath and listened. That wasn't one of Rico's guys trying to sneak up on us. They weren't smart enough to do that.

  Madison yelled for my help getting Rico on his feet. I raised a hand to quiet her. Something felt off.

  Footsteps echoed in the hallway behind the bar. Then the familiar sound of a match striking rough paper. The stink of sulfur filled my nostrils seconds later.

  Wait a sec. A match?

  The burning stick flew through the open doorway and landed on the floor, its small flame wavering madly. For a moment nothing happened.

  Why was the floor shiny? Oh, someone had spilled something on it. Water? No, it smelled like...

  “Run!”

  My instincts were on the money. The tiny, unassuming match lit up the puddle of alcohol like a bonfire. Flames leaped hot and high as the fire traveled in the bar's direction.

  Madison stared at the disaster unfolding with big, confused eyes. She was far too close to the bar. Why wasn't she moving, damn it?

  “I said run! The whole thing's going to –”

  With a growl, Rico pushed me off of him and bolted for freedom. I didn't give a shit about him anymore.

  I launched myself off the floor. Sprang for Madison. She shrieked as I pushed her down, shielding her small body beneath my heavy frame.

  The trail of flames went up the wooden shelves easy enough. Someone had tipped over a vodka bottle, from which spilled a puddle of booze.

  I rolled away with Madison in my arms just as the bottle exploded. Chunks of glass shot in every direction like shrapnel from a grenade. Some of the shards sliced into my back. I winced because it hurt like hell, but better that than my eyes or face.

  “W-what's going on?” She trembled beneath me. “Oh God, it's all burning up.”

  Another bottle erupted, then another. We crawled together, staying almost flat on the ground, as we struggled to reach the exit.

  Most of the bar was made of old wood, which burned up real n
icely. In seconds, the whole room was an inferno, with flames so blistering, they scorched my skin even from a dozen feet away.

  “Got to reach the door,” I yelled over the thunderous noise. “If the rest of those bottles blow, we're screwed.”

  We got there safely and breathed in clean air while we could. In the main room, it was chaos.

  Staff members and guests fled screaming for the exit. Where the hell were Madison's partners? Thought they'd have pushed their way in by now.

  “Rico's missing,” one of his guys shouted.

  “We can't go out the front or they'll nab us. Gotta head out the back and run for it.”

  Madison bristled as they bolted past us without a second look.

  “Can't believe I'm just letting them all get away.”

  “Don't be ridiculous. The building's on fire. Who cares if a couple of low-life morons go free, so long as we get everyone out of here?”

  She nodded, but obviously didn't quite agree with me.

  Those idiots had barricaded the entrance with chairs and a heavy planter. We tore through them, kicked open the door, and burst outside to freedom.

  Six cop cars were parked there, with at least a dozen officers on the scene. Madison jogged up to one of them, a pudgy older guy with a mustache.

  “Harvey!”

  He looked relieved to see her. “Holy hell, what's going on in there? Is that smoke coming out of the windows?”

  “Fire,” she panted. “Rico?”

  “Haven't seen the guy, but never mind him right now.” He picked up his radio. “Dispatch, get some fire trucks out here ASAP. Twinkles is on fire and it's spreading quick.”

  I went back to my car to get a shirt on. Madison followed me there. Normally, I would have made a flirty joke about how much she wanted me.

  Now, though? I was pissed.

  I knew what I saw. Someone set that fire on purpose. They were trying to kill us.

  “Where do you think you're going?”

  I grabbed a sweatshirt from the backseat. “Are you still trying to arrest me? Because after I saved your ass from Rico, I figured I'd get a free pass.”

  She looked away. “No, I... I'm not. I just wanted to thank you. You were brave, to do what you did.”

  “It's my job to be brave.”

  “You're not going to yell? Maybe tell me what an idiot I was?”

  I pulled the shirt over my head, only mildly annoyed that my bloody wounds stained the fabric. “Why would I do that?”

  “Because I was stupid. I wanted to catch Rico so badly, I went after him on my own.” She frowned. “If my boss found out about this, I'd be cleaning out my desk.”

  We leaned against the car and listened to the fire engines getting closer. This was the first chance I'd had to relax, to really breathe, since I came to the club tonight.

  “What you did was stupid, true,” I admitted. “But I get it. You've got that same drive, the same urge to win, that I do.”

  “I just wanted to do the right thing. Letting criminals like him walk the streets...”

  “You can tell yourself you chase the bad guys 'cause it's the 'right thing' to do. You know what I think the real reason is?”

  She shrugged.

  “The thrill of it. You like excitement. You want the rush.”

  To this she said nothing, just stared off at the smoke clouds that painted the night sky gray.

  “There's nothing wrong with that, so you know. It's part of the reason why I became a firefighter.”

  “Part?” She cocked her head. “What's the other part?”

  Dad's angry voice echoed in my head. The old man had died over ten years ago, but the cruel things he said would never leave me.

  “Eh, it's a pretty boring story.” I faked a laugh. “Maybe it's best told some other time. Right now, I think we ought to talk about catching the guy who caused this mess.”

  “Rico?”

  “No. The man who threw the match.”

  She gasped. She hadn't seen him, had she?

  Actually, neither did I – but I heard his footsteps and watched that match fly through the air. Somebody was definitely there, and they caused this blaze deliberately.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I had Rico pinned down. You were yelling at me to get him on his feet.” I rubbed my ankle; it was sore from the fall. “There were heavy footsteps in the hall behind the bar. A male, from the sound of things. He tossed a match – right in a conveniently placed puddle of spilled alcohol.”

  The fire engines had arrived. I studied the crew that piled out. Oliver, Sammy, Billy. No Jayce; he must have been off tonight. Probably relaxing at home with his family.

  Good thing he didn't go to strip clubs anymore, or he would've been devastated by this. Place used to be our favorite hangout not so long ago.

  “So you're saying this was arson.”

  “All I know is what I heard and saw. I got no concrete evidence, but I imagine this will be investigated once everything settles down.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Why would anyone want to burn down a strip club?”

  “Oh, I'm sure this place has lots of enemies. Could have been one of Rico's guys, trying to cause a diversion so he could escape.”

  “But what are the odds? And they don't seem like the sharpest bunch.”

  She had that right. No, I doubted they had anything to do with it. The way that booze had been spilled, it reminded me of a bomb fuse. The culprit dropped the match in it, giving him enough time to escape before fifty bottles of liquor exploded in his face.

  “Whatever happened, I hope it's just a one-off thing. We've got enough criminals in this city without adding a serial arsonist to the mix.”

  She and I headed back to the alley to retrieve her dropped radio. Her car was there too, the passenger side of it pocked with bullet holes.

  “If it's excitement you like, then you should have become a cop instead,” she said with a chuckle. “Although until recently, most of my days were spent writing traffic tickets and responding to shoplifting calls. Getting shot at by gangsters isn't quite a daily occurrence.”

  “You really think I could hack it as a cop?”

  She looked me up and down. “You've got a point.”

  It was past midnight now. My whole body ached from all this tension; I was exhausted from the fight – but that didn't stop my dick from perking up when I looked at Madison.

  The pale light of the full moon made her lovely face even prettier. She was covered in dirt and scratches. Her hair was a wild, tangled mess. She didn't seem to be wearing a lick of makeup.

  None of that mattered. She was truly the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen.

  She didn't know it yet, but I was gonna make her mine.

  “So you never answered my last question.”

  She didn't make eye contact as she popped open the trunk. A shotgun rested in its rack with a box of shells beside that.

  All right, maybe I'd better not put the moves on her too hard.

  “Don't know what you mean.”

  “Yes you do.” I sidled up next to her. She stiffened. “I asked if you were single.”

  “You're really going to go there, now of all times?”

  “Why not? We just dodged gunfire, fought off a violent psychopath criminal, and escaped a burning building by the skin of our teeth. You ask me, you ought to take a breather and appreciate the little things in life. Savor being alive, you know?”

  “That's surprisingly deep for a guy like you.”

  I feigned offense. “Like me? Honey, I dunno who you think I am, but I'm not some slack-jawed meat head with barely two brain cells to rub together.”

  “I'm sure you're not.” She came closer, so close I could smell her sweet shampoo. “Oh, by the way, Silver... Don't ever call me honey again.”

  Ouch. I'd already managed to piss her off – for the tenth time tonight. Damn, women were hard to figure out. This was why I usually stuck to one-night stands from the bar
.

  I had to figure this out fast. Come up with some way to seal the deal.

  “I wanna know why you won't answer me.”

  “I've gotta get back to the station and file a report before I can get home and into bed.”

  “The only thing I want is a yes or no. I wasn't asking for a written thesis.”

  She hesitated, the heat from her body mingling with mine.

  “I wouldn't push my luck, if I were you. If things had gone differently, you'd be in the back of my cruiser right now.” She gnawed her lip. “And if you keep this up, you just might spend the night in jail after all.”

  “I'd rather spend it in bed with you.”

  Her jaw fell. She wasn't used to men being aggressive with her, I could see. Probably didn't like it one bit.

  But that was precisely what she needed, and I was a guy who delivered.

  “You must have serious balls to say such things to me. I'm not the type of woman you pick up at these clubs.” She gestured to Twinkles.

  Words weren't working on her. Time to try something a little more drastic.

  One hand settled on her back. She flinched, but didn't protest. That was a great sign.

  “Oh, I know you're not that type. That's what I like about you.” Another hand, closer to her ass this time. She didn't move it away. “You're smart. Strong. A fighter. I've never met a lady like you.”

  “You don't know me.”

  “No, I don't. Not yet. But I want to.”

  The moment I saw that hesitation, that break in her defenses, I went in for the kill.

  I brought my lips to hers. She groaned, surprised, but pleased.

  She so obviously wanted this, but was too ashamed to admit it.

  I'd kissed plenty of strangers before. Girls I'd drunkenly met and hooked up with, ones whose names I couldn't remember or maybe never bothered to learn in the first place. They were gone in the morning and off my mind soon after.

  But as soon as I kissed Madison, I knew she wasn't one of them.

  How could I forget a kiss that made me feel so... Alive?

  When her fingers pressed into my back, when she sighed and rubbed up against me, it was like a drug. I had her now, so close...