Page 84 of Protecting What's Mine

“So is your manfriend,” he said, with a knowing tilt of his head. “Benevolence monitors the physical fitness of its firefighters annually. The station has its own tests of aerobic capacity, grip strength, endurance. That kind of thing. But they are also required to submit to a physical exam every year.”

Double shit.

“Linc isn’t feeling very manfriendly toward me right now,” she said.

“Care to talk about it?” Russell offered.

He meant it, she realized. And there was something both comforting and dismaying about that.

“I’d rather let it fester a while,” she told him.

“Don’t let it fester too loudly,” he warned. “Freida will sense it and latch on.”

“Sense what?” Freida appeared in the door wearing scrubs with little firefighters and dalmatians on them.

“Nice scrubs,” Mack said.

“Bought ’em special for today. I love firefighter physical day! When are we leaving? What will I sense?”

THEBENEVOLENCEFIREDEPARTMENTwas a large, two-story building that took up half of a block on the south side of town. Three huge garage bays, all of them open to the crisp fall breeze, held gleaming trucks—apparatus—ready and waiting to be called up for duty.

The floors, a polished concrete looked clean enough to eat from. There was a wall of cherry red metal lockers stocked with personal protection equipment. The space smelled like diesel and oil and polish.

“Hey, doc.” Assistant Chief Kelly Wu was a sharp, take-charge kind of woman who wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. As demonstrated by the engine grease she was wiping off on a rag.

“Nice to see you, Kelly,” Mack said, glancing around but not seeing Linc. Her stomach tickled like it did on her way to a call. Nerves and excitement. The fight had raised her adrenaline, and she wondered if the apology would do the same.

“Same place as usual?” Freida asked, patting her med bag.

“You got it. They put the screens up so you can go back and forth between exam rooms,” Kelly said, nodding toward the stairs.

He was probably up there.Was he still mad? Was he still thinking about what an ass she’d made of herself? Had he given up on her? Was he even now turning his attention to some other less frustrating woman? Maybe one of the nurses from the ED.

Russell was right,she thought with a wince.Shame didn’t help.

She’d fucked up. Now she’d own up to it. And if he wasn’t interested in getting naked with her now, it was his loss. She was excellent in bed.

“You all want some help with the bags?” Kelly offered.

“No thanks,” Mack said, adjusting her grip on her own. “We’ve got ’em.”

Freida looked disappointed. “You’re still going to make them take their shirts off, though, right?” she whispered as they mounted the steps.

The stairway opened up into a common room with a kitchen shoved into the corner and a semi-circle of recliners facing a billboard-sized TV. In another section, there was a pool table and a couple of couches and tables. Squished between the TV area and the pool area was a folding table in front of two makeshift exam spaces that looked more like blanket forts.

“Doc, Freida,” Brody Lighthorse approached from the hallway, a cup of coffee in his hand.

“That better be black, and you all better be fasted for the blood draw,” Mack said, eyeing the mug.

“Not our first rodeo. And just so you know, everyone’s already bitching about being hungry.” There was just the slightest edge to his tone. But Mack had been programmed from birth to pick up on subtle cues.

“Let’s do the blood draws first, then circle back to the physicals,” she decided.

“Good enough,” he said. He gave her a long, quiet look.

It gave her the distinct impression that Linc may have mentioned her asshole snitfit from the night before. They probably all knew. That familiar, ugly shame curled again in her belly.

“I’ll round up the guys,” he said and disappeared down the stairs. Mack ignored the bad vibes, the nerves, and helped Freida set up the blood draw station. A minute later, Brody’s voice crackled through the speakers in the building.