Rekindle The Flames (The Men of CLE-FD Book 4) (21 page)

Chapter Twenty Six

Two months had passed since Iona’s tragic death. James
Jones retired and relocated to Miami, Florida now that Iona was no longer a
thorn in his side. He was happily living with the love of his life and enjoyed
being a grandfather to Connor’s children. Ryan patiently waited for the day
when he could announce another grandchild would be joining the family. 
However, that news still eluded him.  As often as they tried, Megan had not yet
gotten pregnant.

The alarm at the fire house blared getting the attention
of the men lazing around. The day had been uneventful which was unusual for
Station 30. The unit requested to respond was Rescue Squad 1.  Ryan dropped his
fork on the plate and ran to the squad yelling behind him. “Hey, don’t throw my
plate away,” he instructed.

They cut in and out of traffic making their way to
Edgewater Park where a report of people stranded on a boat was in flames. One
person was in the water. Ryan suited up in his water rescue gear. This was his
first water rescue and he was nervous.

Once they got to the lake, the occupants of the boat had
managed to put the small fire out.  Ryan swam out to help secure the boat until
it could be towed back to the docks.  Diving under water to make sure the boat
was secured, he spotted a body floating in a dense patch of seaweed. He swam to
the surface and radioed his lieutenant.  “Lieutenant, get CPD out here.  I got
a floater about five feet under.”

Rescue workers cut the body free of its watery grave and
transported it to the beach. The coroner removed the plastic bag that covered
the deceased victim’s head. “Shit!” Ryan grumbled as he walked away from the
gruesome scene.  He got on the squad and dropped his head in his hands—again he
would have to deliver bad news to Megan.

At the station, Ryan went to the dorm.  He called Eddie.
“Hey, I need to see you.  Can you come to the station?”

“What’s going on, Ryan? I’m kinda in the middle of
something if you know what I mean. I got up the courage to ask Lolita out.”

Ryan took the phone from his ear and looked at it.
Wonderful!
I have another complication to throw on an already hot fire
. He returned to
the call and said, “She’ll have to wait to get her boots knocked later, Eddie.
My unit pulled Emin from Lake Erie today.  I need answers, man.”

Eddie arrived at the firehouse within the hour.  Ryan met
him outside to keep the conversation private. Ryan paced the driveway.  The nip
in the air was an indication colder weather was on the horizon, along with the
increase in house fires due to residents using space heaters and other
alternative heating sources improperly.

“What’s going on, Eddie? I have to tell Megan that another
person that was once close to her is dead.”

Eddie put his hands on his hips. “I don’t know what
happened to Emin.  I’m as surprised as you are that he is dead.”

“You’re telling me this is all by coincidence? First, Iona
is burned alive at a spa she is visiting, and two months later Emin is sea
food? I’m not buying it, man.  Something ain’t right with this picture.” Ryan
glared at his brother hoping to get him to spill what he knew.

“I’m not a killer, Ryan.  I don’t go around throwing
people in the lake with cement blocks tied to their ankles.  My hands are clean
of this. But, as I see it—good riddance. Both of those assholes are finally out
of Megan’s life.”

He nodded. “In a sick way it is good this is finally
over.  Nonetheless, I have to know if foul play was involved. What if the
police start an investigation? I want to make sure none of this shit comes back
to anyone in our family. You got me, bro?” The shift in Eddie’s eyes sent a
jolt through Ryan.

“I got you, bro. If you're done with me, there is a lady
at my house waiting for my return.”  Eddie gave Ryan a playful smack on the
cheek. “Don’t forget who is older, Ryan.  I fix your messes and keep you out of
trouble. So before you start barking orders at me; you might want to rethink
ever doing that again.”

“This mess was never been fixed, Eddie. We’re talking
about possible murder. Megan is not stupid. She will automatically assume her
father had something to do with it.”

Eddie scanned the area around him before he spoke to Ryan
in a low voice. “Look, Mr. Jones removed me from any dealing with Iona and Emin
after he saw how upset you got the day at his office. He had someone else
watching Iona’s every move.  Somehow, Emin gave them the slip.  Mr. Jones
stopped looking for him and assumed he fled to Armenia. Are you satisfied now?
I had nothing to do with his death.”

Ryan shoved his hands in his pants to ward off the chill.
“I believe you.  I hope I can convince Megan her father is not involved if she
starts to ask questions.”

Eddie hit the chirp on his car to unlock the door. “I
can’t stop her from jumping to conclusions about her father. I suggest you
forget about this for tonight and when your shift ends, go home to your
beautiful wife and enjoy your life without the threat of Emin coming after
her.”

Eddie waited until Ryan was inside the firehouse.  He made
a call on his cell phone. “Emin has been located.”

“Excellent.  I hope he’s in the morgue.”

“He is. Firefighters pulled his body from Lake Erie hours
ago. I think I was able to convince Ryan you had nothing to do with Emin’s
death.”

“Eddie, I didn’t have anything to do with the fire that
caused Iona’s death.  She had made an enemy out of Emin and knew she had a
price tag on her head.”

“I heard the fire at the spa was arson.  It’s still an
ongoing investigation.  Do you think Emin had anything to do with it?”

“Between me and you, he did.  According to my sources,
Emin and Iona were in a heated argument at the spa. When he learned Megan
wasn’t Iona’s biological daughter, that caused the argument to turn physical,
and he choked Iona.  One of the spa workers saw the fight and Iona sprawled on
the floor. Emin panicked thinking Iona was dead.  He locked the attendant in a
room with Iona and set the area on fire.  The fire quickly spread to the rest
of the building.”

“That’s jacked up, Mr. Jones. What about Emin?  Was his
death revenge for what he did to Iona?”

“You’re asking too many questions, Eddie. But it’s no
secret my ex-wife, and I didn’t care for each other.  Regardless of that, she
was my son’s mother.  Connor had to have an ending too.”

“Got it. Good night, Mr. Jones.”

“Good night, Eddie.”

*****

Ryan went straight home after his shift to check on
Megan.  He hated to give her the news over the phone about Emin’s death, but
with the every news agency getting ready to report it, he wanted her to hear it
from him first.  She seemed to take it with a grain of salt, but he knew his
wife.  She would be upset and shaken.

“Megan! Megan, I’m home.”  He closed the front door and
looked around the front room.  Nothing was out of order in the house, and her
car was in the driveway.  He checked the bedroom. She was sitting on the bed
tying a big red bow around the neck of a St. Bernard.

“Baby, what are you doing with that dog?”

She petted the lovable dog on the head. “I wanted to
surprise you.  I know Herman won’t replace Sparky, but I know how much you miss
him.  Are you upset with me?”

Ryan put his hands on his hips feeling some sort of way.
“How can I be mad at you? This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for
me.”  He whistled for the dog, and he immediately came over to sniff his hand.
“He’s beautifully groomed.  Is he trained?”

“Yes, fully trained.  I got him from a doctor at work. 
His new wife is scared to death of dogs.  I figured since we can’t have a baby;
Herman would be our big baby.”

Ryan sat next to her on the bed. “We’re going to have a
baby, Megan.  We just have to be patient.  Um, do you want to talk about Emin?”

Megan folded her arms tightly across her chest. “Not
really.”

“He was once your boyfriend.  You have memories of him
before he went off the deep end.”

Tears filled her eyes.  “I would mourn him if he were the
same person I knew years ago. Why do money and power have to change people? 
Ryan, he should not be dead…Iona is the cause of his death too.  She turned a
decent man with a bright future ahead of him into a monster just like her.”

“I’m not standing up for Iona, but Emin had his own
agenda. He didn’t care that you were married. Even when I checked him on that,
he still tried to get you.  So, if I sound cruel, it’s because I didn’t see him
as a good man. It may have cost him some dollars, but he was willing to pay any
amount to get you.”

Megan wiped her face. “That is all behind us now.  We have
a new lease on life, Ryan.  Herman is a new addition to our family, and we
should show him off by taking a walk around the neighborhood with him.”

“That’s a great idea, babe,” Ryan said amazed how his wife
bounced back from heartbreaking tragedies.

*****

Megan dragged most of the morning.  Every negative remark
a doctor made or if a patient complained too much sent her into a crazed fit. 
She couldn’t wait until lunch to get away from the ER and its patients for an
hour.

When she returned to the nurses’ station, the head nurse
was on the telephone having an unpleasant conversation with someone.  Johanna
DeSantis was the one head nurse she didn’t get along with.  Megan felt Johanna
was a ducker.  When the ER was busy to the point not one nurse could take a
break or be forced to do overtime, Johanna found time to take her breaks and
leave at the end of her shift.  She delegated all her work to a staff that was
already oversaturated and she didn’t care. Although the nurses complained about
Johanna’s leadership among themselves, not one was willing to complain to the
people in charge to get the situation rectified.

Johanna held up her finger to get Megan’s attention.
Finally, she hung up the phone after Megan stood waiting for ten minutes.  Ten
minutes that could’ve have been spent doing a productive task.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Megan. We’re going to be
short a nurse today.  Lisa is sick and since you have the least seniority,
you’re covering her shift.  Sorry, hun, but it will be a long one for you
today, but the money will look nice on the paycheck.”

Megan fumed inside. “You’re out of you mind if you think
I’m doing a double shift on short notice.” She said it with a smile and knew
she was on the borderline of insubordination at the same time.

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

Her perfect smile slipped, becoming brittle. “You didn’t
hear me? I said no. I’m not staying past my shift.  I do have a life outside of
this hospital.”

Johanna raised her brow. “You don’t have an option, Megan.
You are staying or I’ll assume you don’t want this job.”

“Hmm, I have a union rep that will challenge that
decision.”  Megan shook her head, her brittle smile staying in place. She had
to keep the smile in order to make her sound less defensive. “There are
floaters to do call-offs; I used to be one. Did you even call for one of them
to come in?”

Johanna leaned into her with a smirk on her thick lips. “I
don’t want a floater.  I oversee the staff of the ER and I need a nurse that is
familiar with our department.”

“In that case, I guess you’ll have to ask one of the other
nurses to stay tonight.  I have a husband at home and would like to spend my
evening with him and not in the ER.  If you excuse me, I’m going to lunch.”

Megan walked away, her stomach was bubbling.  She didn’t
know what was wrong with her lately.  She’d mouth off at a doctor again and now
Johanna.  Though, it felt right to tell her demeaning butt off.  Her cell phone
vibrated in her pocket. Pressing the button for the elevator she removed her
phone and read the text message from Gabby.

She made her way to the respiratory department. Gabrielle
was in her office with Pam. “Why did you want me to meet you all here instead
of the cafeteria?”

“Girl, sit down,” Pam said in her usual cut-to-the chase
manner. “We need to have a talk with you.”

Megan hunched her shoulders. “What did I do?”

Gabby bit her bottom lip and said, “We know you have been
through a lot lately.  It is understandable that you’re releasing that tension
unknowingly, but recently you’ve been a little mean to people.”

“I have not!” Megan said raising her voice.

“Then what’s that?” Pam questioned. “You are high-strung,
Megan.  I bet if I touched you right now you’d bounce off the walls like a
ping-pong ball.”

Megan sighed.  It must be true if her friends sought to
sit her down and tell her about it. “I guess I have been wound a bit tight.  I
just snapped at Johanna.  She wanted me to work a double tonight.  Ryan is off
tonight and we have plans.”

Pam chuckled. “We’ll give you a pass on Johanna, she deserved
to be put in her place…she’s such a hag.”

Gabby took a box out of her drawer. “We all agree Johanna
deserved it. However, before you really piss someone off at the top and lose
your job, Megan; please take this test.”

Megan shook the box in her hand and frowned. “A pregnancy
test?  Really?”

Gabrielle nodded. “Yes, really.  I remember when I was
pregnant and how moody and unfriendly I could be to people.”

“I’m not pregnant. Ryan and I have been trying for months
and nothing! I’m moody and obnoxious because I’m mad as hell and don’t know how
to handle it.” She heard herself yelling again.  The look on Pam and Gabby’s
faces, she’d never see before.  Dammit! Anger coursed through her.

Gabby hugged her. “You have every right to be angry and
obnoxious considering what you’ve been through, Megan.  I’m asking as a friend
that you take the pregnancy test to make sure it is your hormones causing you
to become unscrewed.”

Megan hesitated to take the test; she couldn’t face
another failed pregnancy test. “Fine. I’ll take the damn test to prove to both
of you that I’m not pregnant, but a basket case waiting for a room in the psych
ward.”