Reduced to Ashes

by Kay Gordon

  He was in his normal soccer attire except he had a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes. A smile was stretched across his handsome face and it took all I had not to return it with one of my own. Instead, I rolled my eyes and folded my arms across my chest.

  “I just wanted to see if you were shirking on your duties.”

  His raised brows told me he didn’t buy my story but he didn’t call me on it. “Well, I’m here. No shirking to be had.”

  “Good,” I grumbled, turning away from him before I embarrassed myself further.

  I waited a few more minutes before calling the girls in and making them do some basic stretches. The game started fifteen minutes later and I spent the entire time running along the sidelines, yelling instructions and words of encouragement.

  Evan was a fantastic co-coach. We worked great together and the kids seemed to respond to us really well. Sadly, we lost by one goal but they all worked hard and it made me sad to see their bummed little faces.

  “You played well, guys,” I said as they sat around eating their snacks. A mom had brought them individual bags of popcorn and I’d already inhaled my own. “That’s the important part. We’ll get ‘em next weekend.”

  One-by-one they got up to leave and I accepted hugs as they did. When most of them were gone, I stepped off to the side to talk to Clarissa and Kendra. It was about ten minutes before the two of them left, heading to meet Stacey and Hudson, and I turned to find that only a couple of people were milling about.

  Disappointment hit me again when I realized that Evan wasn’t one of them. I swallowed it back, picked up my equipment bag, and started towards the parking lot. The sun was going down but it wasn’t dark yet, just a bit cooler.

  I threw the bag into the back of my car and slid in behind the steering wheel. I stuck the key into the ignition and turned it with a sigh. When nothing happened, I frowned and tried again. A few clicks of the engine told me everything I needed to know.

  My battery was dead. Awesome.

  I’d just pulled out my phone to call my dad when someone knocked on my window, causing me to jump slightly. I turned and immediately locked eyes with Evan.

  My heartrate picked up slightly and I told myself it was because he’d startled me and not for any other reason.

  Yeah, right.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Evan

  I walked Dom and his family back to their car and hugged all three girls tight before thumping my best friend on the back. Dominic was buckling Jade in when Becca offered me a knowing grin.

  “You like her.”

  “You’re nosy. You know that right?”

  She let out a snort of laughter. “Not a denial, Evan.”

  “Go home, Becs.” I flicked her nose and ducked down to wink at the kids. “Love you, girls.”

  They both returned the sentiment and I turned to head back to the field. I hadn’t told Victoria that I’d be back since she had been in conversation but I had no intention of leaving without saying goodbye. I’d come to count on our few minutes when I walked her to her car after practices and games.

  I caught sight of her already at her car, though, and rushed over there to catch her before she pulled out. When I got close, I heard the engine making a clicking noise as it tried to turn over. Victoria dropped her head back in frustration and I smiled. Jumping a dead battery was something I could help with.

  She was looking at her phone when I rapped my knuckles against her window and she jumped before glaring at me. When I stepped back, she pushed the door open.

  “You scared the shit out of me.”

  “Sorry.” I cleared my throat and gestured towards her car. “Battery dead?”

  She nodded and rubbed the back of her neck tiredly. “Any chance you have jumper cables?”

  “I do. Pop the hood so I can see what side your battery is on and then I’ll move my car.”

  Victoria did as I said and I walked around the front of the SUV so I could lift the cover. Once I had it propped up, I searched out her battery. I found it easily but also saw that it wasn’t going to be as simple as connecting the cables. I turned my head and met her eyes.

  “One of your terminal cables is eroded all the way through. Your car isn’t going anywhere until that’s replaced.”

  She groaned and ran a frustrated hand through her hair, causing more of it to escape the ponytail. “Awesome. I’ll have to call roadside assistance and see if they can tow it to a garage.”

  “On a Saturday night?” I raised my brows. “You’re not going to find an open garage. Let me give you a ride home and you can call around tomorrow. Maybe find someone who can come here and replace the cables.”

  “Oh. I bet that’s something Owens can do.” She typed a quick text into her phone and looked up at me. “He’s apparently a good car guy. Has to be since his wife is good at magically destroying them.”

  We stood in an awkward silence while she waited for a reply and after about five minutes, I shook my head.

  “Even if he can do it, getting the parts tonight wouldn’t be easy. Let me take you home.”

  The two of us stared at one another and I could tell she wanted to decline my offer more than anything. She mashed her lips together and looked back to her phone, as if she was willing it to chime, but nothing came.

  She blew out a long breath and nodded once, turning to lock up her car. I closed her hood and led her over to my truck once she was ready. I really wanted to be a gentleman and get her door, but something told me she wouldn’t appreciate that.

  Neither of us spoke as we climbed into our respective seats. I directed the truck out to the street and asked for her address. She gave it to me and shifted nervously, obviously uncomfortable.

  “I like your family. Becca was really nice.”

  I glanced over at her for a moment before refocusing on the road. “She said the same thing about you.”

  We fell into silence and I struggled to find something to say to break it. Although we’d conversed quite a bit over the past few weeks, it had never been in a setting with just the two of us. Grace had always been in the vicinity to make it less intimate.

  There was something about Victoria Jones that made me want to change her perception of me. Normally, I didn’t care what people thought about me but her opinion mattered. I needed her to know I wasn’t the same asshole that my brother was.

  I liked her.

  As it turned out, it was Victoria who ended our suffocating silence.

  “You said I don’t know the whole story. What did you mean?”

  I cleared my throat and tightened the grip I had on the wheel. “I know you think I was helping my brother back then but I wasn’t. I just made it look like I was.”

  “Why?” Her voice was soft, almost hesitant, and I let out a long sigh.

  “Because they were out for blood and the only way to protect you was from the inside.”

  “Take a left up here,” she instructed me and once I’d done so, she spoke again. “Why would you protect me? You didn’t even know me.”

  “It didn’t matter. You didn’t deserve that bullshit. Any of it. I was willing to do whatever I had to so that my family didn’t hurt you any more than they already had. I played my role well and funneled information back to the prosecutor so that nothing could corrupt the case.”

  Victoria didn’t reply. The only time she spoke again was to direct me until my truck was parked in front of a beautiful two-story house.

  When she didn’t immediately speak or move to get out, I wasn’t sure what to do. I turned to look at her and saw that she was staring back at me, her green eyes assessing me carefully. The confused look on her beautiful face would have looked comical if we had been talking about anything else.

  “So you risked your relationship with your family? Maybe even your job?”

  I laughed but there wasn’t any humor in that, either. “Yeah, I did. I saw how destroyed you were, Victoria. That
first time I saw you in that station, you looked like a shell of a person. The thing is, I’d seen you before. It was about ten months before everything happened, at one of the picnics for LVFR. I watched you the entire time and you were so full of life. When I saw what my brother had done to you with that video, it crushed me. I couldn’t help him hurt you anymore.”

  “God,” she whispered, glancing to her house quickly before looking back at me. She swallowed once and ran a hand down her face in a nervous gesture that was so unlike her.

  “Just… Come inside? My head is spinning and I have some really good whiskey.” A small laugh slipped past her lips. “Probably not the best remedy for scattered thoughts but…”

  I turned off my engine and nodded once. “A drink sounds pretty damn good, honestly.”

  We pushed out of the cab at the same time and I followed her up the pathway to the front door. As soon as she had it unlocked, we stepped through and I closed it behind us.

  The living room was clean and it felt homier than I’d been expecting. For some reason, I imagined her living space to be cold and impersonal but it was the complete opposite.

  A large, chocolate brown couch was in the living room, facing a large TV that was mounted to the wall. The décor was simple but gave me a feeling of home.

  A few pictures lined the walls, usually of the same three people- Victoria, Vincent, and an older man. In the photos, they were all smiling widely. A woman, presumably their mother because she looked just like Victoria, was in a few older ones and I couldn’t help but think that they looked like the picture-perfect family.

  I also couldn’t help noticing that she stopped appearing in photos when the kids were about ten. I was staring at one of them all smiling at Disneyland when Victoria spoke behind me.

  “Mom died when we were nine. She was hit by a drunk driver when she was out for a run one night. She died instantly.”

  “I’m sorry, Tor.” She just offered me a smile before turning around. She dropped her keys and phone onto a small table near the couch and gestured me towards the next room.

  We entered a large kitchen that had mahogany cupboards and granite countertops that probably cost a mint. One counter separated the kitchen and the dining room and barstools were set up facing the kitchen space. She nodded towards them before heading to a cupboard.

  “Have a seat.”

  I did as she said and watched her pull two tumblers down before doing the same to a bottle of whiskey. She poured about two fingers into each one before recapping the bottle. Somehow managing to juggle both tumblers and the bottle, she came around until she was sitting on a barstool next to me.

  She sipped her whiskey silently so I followed suit. After a few moments, she examined her half-empty glass carefully and spoke.

  “I hated you for a really long time. I hated you almost as much as I hated Tristan.”

  Those simple words caused an ache in my chest and I took a long gulp of the whiskey. “I deserve your hatred.”

  “You don’t, though.” She turned her face towards me and a small smile graced her lips. The fact that Victoria Jones was willingly smiling at me felt I had received a rare gift. “I had this image of you in my mind, of the person you were. I figured you were an arrogant prick who thought he was God’s gift to the world.”

  I took another gulp of my whiskey and Victoria promptly refilled my empty glass. “I was. The better I got at my job, the bigger my head got. When I left the police academy, I had so many job offers. It wasn’t until a few years later that I realized that they were only offered to me because of my stepfather and I started to deflate. I didn’t want to be like them, Victoria. I originally went into law enforcement because I wanted to be someone who made a positive change in the world. And suddenly, I’m using my badge to help slime-balls and politicians and forgetting who the fuck I was.”

  “Did your stepfather ever find out that you were working against him?”

  “He did.” I nodded and gave her a small smile. “I was demoted back to a patrol officer just two months after Tristan’s trial was over thanks to Lewis. I had to work my way back up to detective but I did it the right way the second time, without any outside influence.”

  “So Tristan is your half-brother?” She poured herself some more whiskey and swiveled completely on her stool so we were facing each other. I knocked back my second drink and set the glass down more forcefully than necessary.

  “Yeah. He’s three years younger than me and the golden child. After Tristan came, I didn’t exist to either of my parents.”

  “Not even your dad?”

  I reached out for the bottle and refilled my tumbler while shaking my head. “Nope. I was an inconvenience to them both. They passed me back and forth each week for eight years before my father moved away with his new wife and my two half-sisters, leaving me with Mom, Lewis, and Tristan. Their big mansion was stuffy and I felt like an outsider. The Morris family was my saving grace. Keith worked as a corrections officer at the prison and he’s the reason Dominic and I both went into law enforcement.”

  “Do you like being a detective?”

  “I do,” I answered honestly. “I like helping people. That’s what makes it worth it. I didn’t go into the profession to corrupt the system more than it is. I went into it to make a positive difference in the world.”

  I paused and examined the liquid in my glass before looking at the woman next to me. “I’m sorry you were treated so badly at work after it all went down.”

  Victoria cringed and sucked back the rest of her drink. “Me too, but that wasn’t even the worst part.”

  “I’m afraid to ask.” I swiveled so I was facing her but we were too close and our knees knocked together. I adjusted my position until my legs were framing hers, cradling her knees. “What was the worst part, Victoria?”

  “The worst part was that I started to believe that I deserved it. I believed your stepfather’s claims. I started to wonder what I should have done differently. Should I have worn different clothes to make me less feminine? Should I have kept my mouth closed more often and not tried so hard to do my job? Did I laugh or joke or wink or give anyone the impression that I was easy? That I was open for business?”

  “Victoria…”

  She shook her head. “When I finally went back to work, some of the guys treated me like a fragile little girl. The others? Like a piece of meat. I lasted two weeks before I quit the station and moved to New Hope with my father and it was almost another year before I had the courage to apply with the NHFD.

  “I walked into the station that first day a different person. Before, I was fun, happy, and damn good at her job. But then I was surly, closed off, and determined not to stand out. The ice thawed a bit over the years but never completely melted even once I trusted my guys. I applied for the lieutenant position a couple of years ago, but the video resurfaced the day after I took my exam and I withdrew my application. I don’t want the guys I work with now to ever see that.”

  I ran a hand through my hair and felt that ache in my chest intensify. “I’m so sorry.”

  “But it’s not your burden to carry, Coleman.” She reached out and covered my hand with her own. I felt her warmth and it spread through my whole body. When I glanced down, I saw the faint scars on her hand that were left over from when she saved Grace. Seeing those made the burn in my chest intensify.

  “I let Tristan make me feel that way. I let the assholes at work make me feel that way. I wallowed in my self-pity when I should have been using it to make me stronger. I shut everyone out and that was my worst mistake. I’ve finally started living again over the past two years thanks to people like Vincent, Lennox, Owens, Christos, and their wives and it feels so good. And you…” She paused and shook her head. “You’re not the asshole I made you out to be. It would almost be easier if you were.”

  “Why?” I swallowed, taking a chance by reaching my free hand out and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ea
r. I let my fingertips drag along the smooth skin of her cheek as I pulled back and her breathing hitched slightly. “Why, Victoria?”

  “Because fighting my attraction to you would be so much easier,” she whispered, flexing her fingers so they were digging into the top of my hand. “Why can’t you just be an asshole, Coleman?”

  I didn’t have a chance to answer because she leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. Every coherent thought in my mind fled and was replaced with one thing- Victoria.

  How she looked when she closed her eyes and settled into our kiss.

  How she felt when I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her off of the stool so she was flush with my chest.

  How she smelled like something clean and citrusy.

  How she tasted when I urged her lips open and touched my tongue to hers.

  How she sounded when I nipped at her lip, causing her to groan.

  She tunneled both of her hands into my hair and kissed me with so much urgency that I thought she would combust. I held her so tight that I could have been hurting her but she didn’t protest so I didn’t loosen my grip. I kissed down her jaw until my lips were at her neck and it was my turn to groan.

  Even her fucking skin tasted good.

  Victoria’s nails raked down the back of my neck and she slid them around to grab fistfuls of my shirt. I sucked on the hollow of her throat and forced myself to pull back. Her bright green eyes were hazy with lust and we were both breathing heavily. I shook my head slightly. I could feel the slight burn of the alcohol in my bloodstream so I knew she had to be feeling it, too.

  “The whiskey.”

  The low, throaty chuckle she released somehow caused even more of my blood to head south. She smiled and ran her tongue across her bottom lip, as if she was trying to taste me.

  “Two or three glasses of whiskey isn’t impairing my judgement, Coleman. Maybe it’s giving me the courage to be bold but I know what I’m doing and I want to do this. Do you?”