Heaven Sent (7 page)

“You want to know about Dire, I suggest getting to know him. He’s a guy
but a good one. And yeah, I noticed your girl soaking up all the male
attention. It gives the guys something to do by treating her special.
A way to keep the bad memories at bay.
The ones we save keep
us sane, keeps us doing our job. When a victim becomes family all rules go out
the window. I’m sure someone’s talked with you about hero worship. If that’s
all you think you feel for Dire,
be
honest, upfront
and don’t string him along.”

Mia shook her head.

Alpha silenced her. “When you two hook up, Ashland will have more uncles
than she’ll know what to do with.
A big bunch of overbearing
Neanderthals.
I’ve seen it happen in other houses. The poor boys at her
school won’t know what to do when she—”

“
Whitier
. Stop. Don’t tank my chance at getting
the girl.” Mia hadn’t heard
Dire
approach she’d been
so into her conversation.

Alpha rolled her eyes and moved from the chair. “I’m going to go have a
swing of that turkey, pretend to knock down each of your ugly mugs with it.”

“How you feeling Mia?
I thought you looked
a bit tired when I glanced over.
Ready to call it a day?”

“Ash is having fun.”

“Not at all what I asked.”

“Maybe I’m a little tired and have a slight but insignificant headache,”
she admitted because staring at his worried face, she couldn’t muster the lie
that she was fine.

“You’ve only been home for four days. You didn’t think you would be all
healed up by now, did you?”

“I don’t know. The doctor told me I might have headaches for up to six
weeks and to not do any driving if I didn’t have to for a while. I’m just used
to being busy or at work. Sitting home doing nothing was nice the first day but
boring. I’m not into daytime soaps.” She rolled the hem of the blanket around
her fingers. “Ashland leaves tonight. Her father’s parents are sending a car
for her. I get to look forward to
Sinclaire
hovering
over me.”

“I bet we can get you addicted to the movie networks. Have you taken your
pain meds?”

He’d have to ask that one out point blank as they’d spent an hour arguing
the night before about the bottle of pills she refused to take. “I took
something for my headache.” Her evasive maneuver didn’t work.

Dire crossed his arms giving her
the
not buying your story
quirked eyebrow.

“What did you take and when?”

“Two over the counter pain reliever pills about three hours ago.”

“How long have you been sitting here hurting or
playing.
”
She missed the playful man she enjoyed seeing. In his place was the annoying
controlling persona promising to shove the meds down her throat if need be. She
saw her first glimpse of his serious alter ego at the hospital.

“I don’t know. I’m always sort of not feeling a hundred percent. The
headaches come and go though.”

“
Volante
.”
Dire signaled to his
partner Rees, who jogged over to see what was going on.

“You need me?”

“Yeah, tell Ash to grab her things. It’s time to take her mom home. I’ll
go tell the Captain I’m taking them home now.”

“B-but aren’t you working?” She stammered the words as everyone around
her closed in.

“Does she need medical attention?” One of the medic trained men
approached.

“Hey Lopez, no.
What she needs is to get some rest and
to take the pills the doctor prescribed instead of riding out the pain and
further exhausting her body.” Samara nodded.

Okay, so his words had a smidge of merit behind them. She hadn’t thought
she was stressing her body. The pain pills she could handle but the muscle
relaxers made her feel so loopy she couldn’t stand it. So she opted to avoid
both and deal. Plenty of people did.

“Hey Mom.
The guys said you aren’t feeling good.”
Ashland’s cheery face held a definite frown.

“I’m okay baby, don’t worry.”

“But, I’m leaving with Grandma and Grandpa in a little bit. How am I
supposed to go have fun when you are in bed? At the hospital, going seemed like
such a good idea but now it doesn’t. You always make me feel better when I’m
not feeling good.”

“We talked about this Ashland, remember? About Alpha, Samara and I taking
care of your mom while you visit your friends and have a fun winter vacation.”

“I know, but she’s my mom.”

“I’m not dying, Ashland. Come on, let’s get you home and out of my hair
so you can have fun choosing between your guys.”

“Not cool, Mom.” Ashland stuffed her MP4 player into her pocket with a
sigh and stomped off.

“Ouch.” Dire held his hand out. Mia accepted the olive branch and stood
up with the blanket cocooning her. She folded the still warm fabric and set it
on the chair.

“I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” Mia attempted a smile that in
all reality, to her at least, came across as a grimace, since she felt her skin
pinch up and agony radiate through her back. Maybe skipping two doses of the
muscle relaxers weren’t such a good idea.

“Can you walk? Stretch those muscles out a bit?”

“I’m not sure. But if you touch me I might scream, so where does that
leave us?”

“Up shit creek without a paddle, but hey I’m all for improvising. How do
you want me to get you to the truck?”

“Can you zap us there with magic?” Her attempt at humor failed miserably.
“I knew staying out for a few hours was too much to handle right now.” She bit back
the tears welling up.

“Breathe. I’ll lift you over my shoulder and carry you to the car. I know
it’ll hurt a bit but not as much as walking. One condition, you have to take
your meds.”

“Slave driver.
You drive a hard bargain.” Mia closed
her eyes as he picked her up and gingerly carried her to the station SUV.

“I reckon I’ve heard that a time or two before.” He spoke as she nestled
into his body heat. With each step outside, a huff of white escaped her mouth.
In front of her Ashland climbed into the backseat and shut the door.

“She gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, she just has some figuring out to do on her own and doesn’t like
that I didn’t give her an easy answer or easy way out of her dilemma.” Dire
cradled her with one arm while opening the passenger door.

“Good. You know, one of these days we have to go out on a real date,
instead of spending a majority of our alone time in vehicles.”

“I’m going to stay in bed for the next year, forget I said I was bored
earlier. I’d rather be bored than this.”

“You stay in bed for the next eight hours and I will be at your disposal
for the next forty-eight hours.
Deal?”

“You shouldn’t make open ended deals without specifics. What if I dole
you out to all the Cheer Moms? Make you a slave for two days or make you wear a
dress and wig?”

“I’d retaliate at the most opportune moment, sweet face. Buckle up.”

“It’s interesting that my place is rather close to your station. I guess
your guys would be the ones to show up if I ever went up in a blaze of glory?”
Mia closed her eyes as he navigated them through the streets.

“Yeah.
I’d come for you.”

Her insides melted into mush at his words.
Time to keep
him on subject.
“When a call comes in who goes where? I don’t know much
about the different trucks and teams.”

“A standard emergency would be an ambulance, an engine and pumper. Your
car wreck had a ladder truck, rescue, pumper and ambulance. Responding to a
house fire is two pumpers,
truck company
, rescue,
ambulance and Battalion Chief.”

“That is a lot.
What about the crazy stuff like people
going over a bridge or a building collapsing?”

“Everyone I just mentioned. The rescue truck holds all kinds of devices
to pull people out. I’d go in the water to save someone, over a bridge or team
up with recovery in a boat to find bodies. Not every station has a rescue team.
We’re centralized at locations that best provide quick response when needed.”

“I’m going to need you to not scare me with stories and daring rescues
you’ve made.”

“Deal.
I’m gonna need for you to not watch the
television during a rescue if you can’t handle the situation.”

“No deal. How can you ask me to not want an update?”

“So you do care.” Checkmate. He’d honed in on her too deep, too soon
feelings.

Mia clamped her lips shut and stared out the window as Dire turned on the
radio and hummed to Bing Crosby. She warred with wanting to strangle him for
his insight and kiss him for the sexiness she didn’t want to escape.

“And we’re here.” The back door opened and Ashland was out in a flash.
Her in-law’s service car waited in the driveway.

Mia turned to Dire. “You are too cocky for your own good.”

A van bearing the name Debbie’s Massages pulled up next to the service
car. “I wonder what that is all about.”

“Why don’t we go see.” Dire exited the vehicle and quickly crossed to her
door to assist her. As soon as she stepped out, he swept her up into his arms
and strode toward the house, meeting the masseuse and her foldable table at the
door.

“Can I help you?” Mia asked from
Dire’s
arms.

“I’m Ms. Meyers. I have a two o’clock appointment for
the works
for Mia Justice.”

“The works?
Who set this up?”

“A Miss
Sinclaire
, I’m already paid up, just
need to set up my table and grab my other supplies.”

“Please come in.” They all trailed in Ashland’s dust.

Mia could hear her running back and forth up stairs gathering her things.
Dire set her down and walked to the sink for a glass of water as she rummaged
through her handbag for her pills. Like a hawk, he watched her swallow the
medicine and then slowly guided her to a kitchen chair.

“I have to get back to the station. Call my cell if you need me. You’ll
see we sit around more than we go out and other days we go out all night
continually. Tonight’s not a full moon so don’t worry about my safety too
much.” He winked and she wanted to throw a pillow at him.

“Be safe.” She’d said those same words to Connor when he was deployed.
Could she do this again?
Different job, same hazards?

“Always Mia.
Always.
Merry Christmas.
I will see you when I get off work.” He
dropped a soft kiss on her mouth, brushed his thumb over her bottom lip and lit
out of her house like wildfire.

“Ash, if you don’t come down now you won’t have time to open your gifts
before you leave.”

“I’ll be down in a minute, Mom. Meet me by the tree, okay?”

“Ms. Meyers, I’ll be right back. I need ten minutes with my daughter
before we begin.” Mia excused herself and slowly headed to the lit up tree with
presents underneath.

“Ash let’s see how fast you can tear into these.”

Her daughter plunked down and began shredding the first wrapped package.
A pair of faux fur lined boots lay inside. “Yes, I’ve been
eyein
’
these for months now.”

Mia accepted her package and found her favorite perfume. “I was running
low. Thank you.”

The rest was all Ashland. She opened her gifts to find gift cards and a
new media player with a camera and texting capabilities. She also received a
new winter sweater, scarf and glove set, earrings, perfume, lotion and an
ereader loaded with new young adult books.
Watching her face
light up as she opened gifts made Mia’s day.
“You went all out. I’m so
excited. Now how am I going to pack all this up with my stuff?”

“I have no idea but you’ll figure it out, no doubt.
Merry
Christmas, baby.”

“Thanks Mom, I can’t wait to show my friends.
Whoot
whoot
.”
Ashland gathered her things and ran back up the stairs to finish packing.

Mia took a deep breath and moved at a snail’s pace back to where the
masseuse waited. “Ms. Meyers, I’m ready now. I appreciate your being patient.
Thanks for waiting.”

“It’s all right dear, this is a holiday. Let’s get you settled so you
have time to rest before your man returns home.
Sinclaire
tells me you had an accident recently. A massage will help you feel a thousand
times better.”

Mia pondered correcting the masseuse and asking why she was working
today. “I was in a car wreck.”

Ms. Meyers acknowledged with a smile. “Now, would you like to have your
massage in here or in your room? I’ll need room to work.”