Page 3 of Rescued Dreams (Last Chance Fire and Rescue #8)

THREE

Thinking about Benson always got her way back in her head. She didn’t need that. Now she resented Ridge for bringing it all back up. The captain from Benson—Coda, because he was the child of deaf parents—had been nice about it, but he knew the story.

Amelia didn’t want the past invading her life here. She was just going to shove it from her mind the way she’d been doing ever since she got back. Not that there weren’t plenty of problems in her history based here in Last Chance County, but at least those were all dead. Or in jail.

Izan rolled his shoulders, sat over in her spot in the passenger seat. “Gonna shut the engine off?”

The two women on her crew had hopped out.

Amelia put the rig in Park and shut the engine down, leaving the keys in the ignition. “Interesting day.”

“I’ll say.” He hopped out. “Pretty much a miracle we’re all mostly unscathed.”

They’d all been checked out by the medics on scene, and no one had needed to be taken to the hospital—which meant not only was everyone good, but Truck 14 was still in service.

Going out of service was a necessity sometimes.

They couldn’t respond to a callout if they were tied up at the hospital and had the fire truck with them.

She jumped out of the truck and rolled her shoulders, feeling the pull of her sore muscles. A good day of hard work. Tomorrow she would hit the gym where she was a member and use the sauna—get rid of the tension. Until then, she needed a hearty meal and a strong cup of tea.

Amelia got her gear stowed away and slipped her feet into running shoes she kept at the firehouse.

She pushed through the double doors into the hall that stretched from the engine bay to the front door.

The kitchen was to the left about halfway down one straight hall, off which was a U-shaped corridor with the bunk rooms, the gym, officers’ quarters, chief’s office, and the conference room so that the building was a square.

On slow days, they made the rookies race around the hall doing laps, and when they were bored and the chief was gone, they turned it into a relay with obstacles and those guns that shot foam darts.

She took the quiet hall past the bunk rooms to her office in the south hall, able to hear the chatter from the kitchen and living area on the north side of the building. Her counterpart for the next shift was already in the office, logging on to his laptop.

She knocked and entered. “I just have to grab my backpack.”

Lieutenant Morris was pushing fifty, heavyset with thick dark brows and not much hair on the top of his head. He took off his reading glasses and turned, making the chair creak. “Sounds like it was an eventful shift.”

“Excitement is better than sitting around waiting for the bell to go off.” She hated feeling antsy with too much energy and nothing to do. “How about you? Do anything interesting on your day off?” She swiped her book from the nightstand and dropped it in her backpack.

“Not really. The kids had a track meet, so I went to that. Chief James wants to talk to you on your way out.”

Amelia frowned. “Any idea what it’s about?” She’d been planning to change and head out, not get sucked into a meeting.

Morris shrugged. “I didn’t ask.”

She swung her backpack onto her shoulder. “Have a good one.”

He muttered something, but she ignored it.

Personal and work didn’t mix. She knew that better than anyone.

She didn’t have to work the same shift as Morris, and she liked it that way.

Amelia and Bryce had a friendly rivalry.

Morris would have been forever trying to undermine her just to make himself look better.

Something she’d had enough of for a lifetime.

Amelia was going to keep things professional with everyone, even if it killed her. Considering the alternative nearly had, she knew the stakes, and she was okay with doing her job to the best of her ability and then going home to her echoey house. No one could ask more of her than that.

She knocked on Macon’s door and heard a muffled “Come in.”

“You wanted to see me, Chief?”

He sat behind his desk, a gold ring on his left hand. A Styrofoam container on his desk that smelled like Italian seasoning. “Shut the door, Lieutenant.” His expression shifted, but she didn’t know what it meant.

Amelia eased the door shut. “Should I sit?”

“That might be a good idea.” His frown lines deepened as he sat back in his chair, his wide shoulders almost as broad as the seat. “I was going through the personnel files recently and discovered that yours doesn’t seem to have your rank qualification report included. Any idea why it’s missing?”

Amelia held herself very still. “From your files?”

“The system indicates the files were paper, not electronic. They were never scanned into the database by the admin pool, and I can’t seem to locate the paperwork.

Until I can, you’re technically not able to work as a lieutenant, as I only have the firefighter qualification for you.

Nothing after you passed the initial training. ”

She swallowed. “So it went missing? Or someone took it?”

Amelia needed to seem surprised, maybe confused. She was only confused about why it had taken him this long to realize there was a problem. Ridge. Macon had gone into the files to update Ridge’s rank and discovered the discrepancy in hers.

“I need a copy of your lieutenant paperwork, Patterson. ASAP. You have to get it to me by next shift, or you won’t be able to lead Truck.

Put in a call to the Benson FD and have them send it over.

I’m sure you’d rather not have Foster take your spot until this is cleared up, so get it figured out. Got it?”

“Yes, sir. Is that everything?”

The chief nodded. “See you Thursday.”

She got up, moving as easy as she could, keeping things smooth.

No jerky movements. “See you later, sir.” Amelia closed the door to his office.

She walked sedately to the front door. The receptionist who worked during the day on weekdays said something, but Amelia didn’t hear the words. It sounded like garbled whomps.

Then she was outside, and all she could hear was the rush of her own breath in her ears.

Amelia practically ran to her pickup truck, then slid in behind the wheel. She grasped the steering wheel while rain dropped on the windshield. She hadn’t even noticed it was raining. The sky was heavy with dark gray clouds.

Ridge walked by her truck, his duffel bag over his shoulder. She spotted Eddie and Izan walking together.

Amelia turned the truck on, shoved it into Drive, and peeled out before Ridge could open the passenger-side door and try to talk to her. Someone honked, but she didn’t know if she’d cut them off or simply had a taillight out.

She ignored everything. Shut off the music on her radio, tuned to the local country station. She drove to Main Street in town and pulled into the parking lot behind Bridgewater Café.

Amelia keyed in the code for the back door, letting herself in the employee entrance. Meg Andrews, the owner, had been Amelia’s best friend in high school. Back then, Amelia’s father had…She didn’t want to think about him.

Steven Hilden had run the town like a tyrant until local cops and first responders had exposed what he was doing a handful of years ago. He’d been the fire chief at the time—and he was responsible for Meg’s father’s death.

On the wall of the back hallway in the café hung an old photo of Meg’s father in his firefighter uniform. In the picture, he stood beside another firefighter with short blond hair and dark-brown eyes. Dad. The sweet man her mom had remarried when Amelia was five, Matt Patterson.

They’d both died on the same shift.

Not just because the fire had overtaken their position, leaving them with no way out, but also because the chief had known they disliked his extracurricular activities.

For the crime of believing a firefighter should be working to save lives and prevent fire—not working for his own personal gain through any and all illegal means—they’d been left to die.

She remembered fondly this man she had loved, who had doted on her. Amelia lifted her fist and knocked it against the frame of the photo in solidarity. But with how shaken she was, it rattled a little too much.

Meg stuck her head out of her office. “Whoa. What happened?”

Amelia shook her head. “It’s fine.”

“Fine enough you look like your cat ran onto the freeway.” Meg rolled her eyes. “Get a soda and get in here.”

Amelia went to the refrigerator in the kitchen and grabbed a diet plus a drink for Meg.

She set Meg’s on the desk in her tiny office—mostly covered with textbooks for the college courses she was taking.

Her friend was trying to get her degree in all the masses of spare time she had after running the café.

“Don’t tell me it’s fine. Tell me what it is.” Meg sat back in her chair and took a sip of her drink.

Amelia wanted to throw her drink at the wall, so she put it on the desk and turned to pace. “Macon asked for my lieutenant paperwork. By next shift.”

“Oh boy.” Meg paused. “We knew this could happen eventually.”

She wanted to explain that Ridge would get her spot on Truck, but that wasn’t even the point that made this whole thing so huge. “We knew it would blow up in my face.” She turned back to pace the other direction and shrugged. “Now it’s over. I’m done.”

“You’re not done until you quit.”

“I might as well quit.” She lifted her hands, then let them fall back to her sides. “What’s the point pretending I’m not an impostor?”

“You’re a fire department lieutenant.”

Amelia stopped pacing. “One who bribed the old fire chief to let me have the job because of what we knew he used to do for Steven Hilden…” She couldn’t say “my father.” Not out loud.

She had to pause just to breathe. “I coerced him to hire me as lieutenant when I have no official standing for this job.”

“You passed that test fair and square. It was just that…” Her words descended into muttering. “He?—”

“I know what he did. I was there.”

Meg leaned forward in her seat. “Maybe you should say it out loud for once instead of burying it or pretending you’ve forgotten. What did he do to you, Amelia?”

“He—”

“Use his name.”

Amelia let out a sound of frustration. “Nicholas Danielson, Benson FD captain. ” She shot Meg a look and saw her friend nod. “He wore me down until I agreed to date him, using his position as my superior to get me to cave. Then when things didn’t go his way?—”

“Or when you succeeded at anything .”

Amelia continued, “—he was vindictive, abusive, and undermined me.”

“And convinced all your coworkers that you were unhinged because he was drugging your coffee .”

Amelia closed her eyes. “There’s no paperwork. He destroyed it.”

“You earned that rank fair and square.”

She opened her eyes. “Doesn’t matter now. I’m done. My career is over.”

Meg held her gaze with a steady stare. “It’s only over when you say it is.”