“Nothing, Abby. If my sister was working at this job, I’d want to know she was doing okay. We have to look out for each other.”
“I don’t need that paternalistic bullshit from you or anyone on this crew, Acosta. Take your ‘someone to watch over me’ attitude and shove it.”
“Abby!”
I push past him and practically burst into Luke’s office before I realize he’s not alone. Captain Wyatt Fox, Luke’s foster brother and my academy instructor, is also present.
“Captain.” I nod at Wyatt, who nods back with a graveled, “Sullivan.”
“I can come back,” I say to Luke. “When you’re not busy.”
“No problem. How’s your speech coming along?”
The memorial service honoring my mother and the other fallen firefighters is in a few days. I’m supposed to be working on my speech but it’s hard to represent the future of women in CFD when I’m screwing up so spectacularly.
“It’s slow going. You guys going to say something?”
“Leaving it to Wyatt.”
Wyatt’s biological brother, Logan Keyes, also died in that high-rise fire with his foster father Sean. Alex and Eli named both their boys after their lost loved ones, which is so sweet it forms a lump in my throat.
Wyatt sniffs. “Heard you’re savin’ firefighters who should know better.”
“You taught me well.”
His lips twitch. “Wozniak has the worst luck with his equipment. Good thing you were there.”
“Or is it?” Luke comments with a chuckle.
The most recent incident, and Woz’s role in it, is currently under investigation. As I’m not on duty I haven’t had to face him.
No one has told me I shouldn’t have landed that punch, though.
“You here to ask about transferring to my crew?” Luke grins. “When you’re back from your suspension?”
I divide a look between the two of them, figuring that Luke has broached the topic and it’s okay to discuss it in front of his brother.
“I don’t want to assume anything, and it would mean you’d have to switch Jude to Lieutenant Rossi’s platoon. I understand it if you feel there’s already a bond there.”
Luke strums his fingers on his desk. “We’re already having to rethink some assignments. If Woz makes it out of the investigation intact, he’ll probably be on C-shift because Rossi won’t stand to have him on his team. And as much as we’d like to be shot of him, we’re not in the business of exporting our problems to another engine. We prefer to deal with it in house.”
Okay. Time to grovel.
“I know it might seem like I’m a troublemaker. I’m not, really. Sure, I disobeyed an order and ended up on light duty. And I disobeyed another one from Rom—Lieutenant Rossi, but I truly thought it was for the best because I knew exactly where he was on that landing. And I punched Woz, but it was more of a reflex—”
“We’ve all had those,” Wyatt deadpans.
“Yeah, you actually hit the mayor at City Hall. Though less of a reflex and more premeditated.” Luke grins at his brother, then shares that grin with me. “Then the asshole married into the family so we can’t hit him anymore. My sister would beat me to a pulp if I harm a hair on Pretty Boy Cooper’s head.”
Speaking of harming hairs, Alex has already been in touch to congratulate me on my excellent problem-solving skills regarding Woz.
Wyatt raises an eyebrow. “At least when I punch someone I’m not stupid enough to let someone record it.”
Luke tips an imaginary hat at that observation, clearly amused by the memory. A few years ago, a YouTube-covered dust-up between Luke and a CPD officer in Dempseys’ bar resulted in notorious headlines, a firefighters-with-kittens calendar, and at least three marriages.
“So, Sullivan,” Luke says, “what we’re saying is that punching someone who probably deserves it is pretty much a rite of passage at this house.”
Wyatt adds, “And is generally not a reason for excluding someone from a crew.”
“Though I have to wonder what you meant when you called Wozniak a ‘blackmailing little turd,’” Luke says casually.
Gage must have blabbed. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, I think it does. You want on my crew, you need to spill.”
Reluctantly, I relay the conversation I had with Wozniak a week ago. By the time I’m finished, Luke’s entire demeanor has changed from jocular to stiff-as-a-board.
“How is it possible that dick has sunk lower in my already rock-bottom opinion? And you didn’t tell Rossi?”
“He would have gone nuts, and with the thin ice he’s on with my father, it seemed best to handle it myself.”
“With a right hook.” Wyatt stares at me. “Might be a spot for you in the Battle of the Badges, Sullivan.”
My laugh is joyless. “What I just told you about Woz, any chance we can keep that from Roman?”
Luke and Wyatt look at each other, a whole conversation happening before my eyes. Having witnessed this kind of silent dialogue between Jude and Sam, I recognize that the answer is a big fat negative.
Luke locks his hands behind his head. “So you and Rossi? Can you still work in the same house, now that you two are no longer a couple?”
“I can be professional. And he’s been nothing but.”
“Except for sleeping with his candidate,” Wyatt comments drily.
I feel a blush coming on. “Except for that.”
Both of them look sympathetic. “Sorry, we’re just teasing,” Luke says. “Abby, you’re welcome on my crew anytime. As long as you square it with Torres.”
“Yeah, I’ll leave the best crew in CFD so you can avoid your bae at work.” Jude and I are in my aunt Kathleen’s kitchen, having both arrived at the same time for Sunday lunch.
“You know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
He gives me a fond look. “Abs, I’m kidding. Of course I’ll switch. Probably better to spread the bitch badassery around anyway.”
So I would miss the opportunity to work with Alex when she returned from maternity leave, but them’s the breaks. “I owe you big time.”
“Yeah ya do. So are we not going to even talk about it?”
“What?”
“You and Rossi. We’re gonna pretend that never happened? Or that you actually kept this a secret from me but somehow Sam knows?”
The big doofus blabbermouth walks into the kitchen at that very moment.
“You had to squeal, Killian.”
“You and your LT?” Sam picks up one of my aunt’s rosemary rolls and takes a bite. “Thought it was common knowledge now that it’s pistols at dawn over at Northwestern Memorial.”
I face Jude again. “Big Mouth here guessed that day we ran into Roman at the diner. I didn’t tell you because the fewer people who know about that kind of thing, the better. And now everyone knows and it’s finished. Donezo.”
Jude and Sam exchange a glance.
“Don’t do that.”
“What?” they both say in unison.
“Act like I’m a problem to be solved. I’m not.” I acknowledge Jude’s eyebrow lift and relieve Sam of his half-eaten bread roll. “Okay, so this shift switch thing is a problem and you’ve helped me solve it, but that’s it. The rest, is just …” I lower my voice. “S-e-x.”