“Whatever. Don’t let my emotional response to this failure make you think I’m going soft. I’m the Blonde Bomber,” she mocked. “I’m able to leap tall bombs in a single bound as I cut men down to size with a single word.”
“You didn’t cut that fireman down today. You actually said, ‘Thank you.’ How come you didn’t give him the standard speech?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because he saved me.”
“He did not. You saved yourself by running fast. He just caught you when you threw yourself into his waiting arms,” Murphy said with a dramatic sigh.
“Don’t start, Murphy. I just never had a bomb go off before. I was thrown for a moment, that was all.”
He winked in response.
Sabrina would eat glass before admitting any feelings for Jake out loud. He’d evoked something powerful inside her when she was in his arms, something she hated to admit she wanted.
Safety. Warmth. Desire. Sex.
God, she missed sex.
Sabrina wanted to take a rare moment to think about her earlier out-of-character actions with Jake, but she didn’t have a chance.
Captain Hennessey barreled out of his office. “We just got a call. They found another bomb downtown. This time, the building is a hotel, and it‘s full of people! Get your gear and go!”
Chapter Two
“You’re stupid to get involved with her,” said a petulant voice from Jake’s left as he stepped down from his fire truck. They’d just pulled up to the noisy evacuation scene at the Old Town Hotel. The fading light of the near dusk evening didn’t calm him.
Jake took a wary stance and turned to the mocking face of Ted Echols.
Ted belonged to another fire station, the one that lost regularly to Jake’s in Heathton’s annual firefighter’s strength competition for charity. Ted’s face looked the same as it did every year when his team lost. Sulky.
Also, Jake knew from Matt that Sabrina had recently cut Ted’s ego to shreds. Jake cursed the firefighter’s deeply ingrained and well-established grapevine. They already had him linked to Sabrina in record time. He’d expected to enjoy at least twenty-four hours of secrecy to contemplate his impending actions.
Guess not.
“Gee, thanks for the advice, Ted, but I think I’ll just live my own life the way I see fit. So, please don’t take offense when I tell you to piss off.” Jake turned his back. He opened a door at the end of the truck as Ted followed him.
“Hey, I’m just warning you, man. She’s a ball-breaker. She’ll hand you your nads in a bag and never look back.”
“Like she did to yours?” Jake rose to the bait and immediately regretted his impulsive mouth. ‘Cause them was fightin’ words,’ as his Grandpa Kelley used to say. Jake didn’t want to fight with Ted. He turned around in time to see Ted with his arm up, about to poke a finger into him. Jake stiffened.
“Cut it out, Ted,” Matt said, saving him the trouble. “You’re here for a reason, and this isn’t it. Go back to your own truck.”
Ted took a step back. Matt was, after all, six-foot-five and inspired one’s attention in most circumstances.
Jake was focused on the imminent situation in front of him when the hair on the back of his neck came to attention. Sabrina was here. He sensed her arrival before he actually laid eyes on her. He turned to see her approaching. God, she looked fantastic.
She wasn’t running this time, but she had a purposeful, don’t-even-try-to-slow-me-down stride.
Stunning. She was absolutely stunning.
Jake noticed her partner, Murphy, trailing behind her a few paces, trying to keep up.
Is the building clear yet?” she asked no one in particular as she joined the group of three men.
Jake saw Ted sneer as Matt shrugged with a smile. Jake wondered if he had a goofy look on his own face. He felt a sudden urge to close the short distance between them and kiss her, to taste those beautiful lips. Finally, he found his voice.
“Don’t know. We just got here.”
Chief Dave Cochran, the fire chief from Jake’s station, entered the growing circle and said, “Bomb squad. Good. Looks like an ugly one in there.”
“Where’s the device?” Sabrina looked ready for action. She clutched a black tool bag in one gloved hand. She was dressed in black save for the white shirt she wore beneath her protective jacket. Jake eyed her up and down, remembering the feel of her delectable body under him. Settle down, boy!
“It’s in a ground floor bathroom,” the chief responded.
“Why do you say it’s ugly?” Murphy asked. He was carrying his own black tool bag.
Jake guessed this time Murphy wasn’t letting Sabrina go in alone. He wished he were going in there with her.
“It looks to be strategically located to collapse the better part of the front half of this building, if it goes off,” Chief Cochran said. Jake knew first-hand the chief wasn’t often wrong. He’d answered with over twenty-five years of experience.
“Is the building cleared?” Sabrina asked the chief.
“To the best of our knowledge.”
“That was a yes or no question.” She pierced the chief with a glare.
“It’s an old hotel. Lots of rooms. We’re checking the people milling around with the room roster. Some are still unaccounted for. We’ll let you know when it’s clear.” Chief Cochran studied her intently. Jake wondered briefly at his interest.
“Let’s do it,” Sabrina said, looking over at her partner. “We’ll be in contact with you, Chief.” She was all business, although Jake had noticed her steal a couple of glances in his direction.
Darkness invaded the day as Jake watched Sabrina head for the building. His heart swelled up in his chest. She was one beautiful woman, not to mention the gutsy attitude she radiated. He appreciated strong women. They seemed, in his limited experience, to possess the strength to understand men driven by high-risk professions…like his.
“Ball-breaker or not…she sure has a nice ass,” came Ted’s salacious voice, who was about to find out what pavement tasted like. Matt put a hand on Jake’s shoulder and shook his head. Jake nodded and took a mental deep breath.
Ted was a moron. Jake knew Sabrina had been very intolerant of Ted’s repeated advances.
Jake smiled. “I’ll make sure and mention your feelings the next time I see her, Ted,” he replied.
* * * *
Sabrina marched into the Old Town Hotel trying to focus on the bomb and not a certain fireman who made her heart go pitty-pat. Jake had given her a curious look as she’d stepped up. She’d known he was present before she located him. She felt him as she emerged from the bomb truck. How odd. Her skin prickled in anticipation as she’d gotten closer to him.
Sabrina had put on her business face and asked a well-rehearsed question. She didn’t want anyone to know the impact Jake had on her. He’d only responded with six words, and those words wrapped around her like a security blanket. She loved the sound of Jake’s voice, but it was time to get to work.
Murphy followed as she entered the women’s bathroom on the first floor. The device was on the floor against the opposite wall to the right of the mirrors and dated countertops. There were four sinks. Two of them had water leaking out of the taps, making for an annoying drip noise. Murphy approached the device very slowly. Sabrina always thought it seemed more respectful that way.
Rule number one: always respect the bomb.
“That’s a big bomb,” Murphy said in a low voice. The device was square, two foot by two foot in size, and made out of several layers of C-4. The bricks were stacked neatly, and there was a silver case opened on top of the explosives.
“Can you see a timer or a digital read out?” Sabrina stood motionless as she studied the bomb from the doorway. She did this to get a feel of what the bomber wanted her to see when she first saw the device. Her first thought had been the same as Murphy’s, ‘Now, that’s a big assed bomb.’
“Not quite yet.” Murphy was halfway to the device as he moved in measur
ed steps across the tiled floor of the bathroom.
Sabrina studied the initial look of the bomb.
Murphy had reached the device and was studying something in the silver case. He looked up at her. “We got forty-one plus minutes, according to the timer, and we’re going to need them, too.”
Murphy opened his bag as Sabrina approached the device. She was reminded of the other bomb earlier in the day, not the configuration of the bomb, but the blatant way the device was displayed. The silver case screamed at her, ‘I am a big-assed bomb,’ as though someone were speaking to her directly.
Others she worked with thought she could read the minds of the bombs she defused. It wasn’t true. She just tried to read the mind of the person who constructed it, figuring out what they wanted to say by the type of bomb they left behind. What was the motivation? Why were they doing this?
The bomb earlier today had been disturbing to her. Not only because it had gone off, but also because her initial take on the first bomb had been, ‘Is this a joke?’ That had been a huge miscalculation on her part.
By the time she’d gotten to the third bomb at the earlier site, her read from the bomb maker was, ‘You know this is hopeless. I’ve already made you fail,’ which was crazy. No one was after her personally…right?
Sabrina dismissed her errant thoughts and moved slowly over to Murphy and the device.
“What do you want to do, Sabrina?”
“Let’s separate the housing from the case and get a look at the guts of this thing.”
“What’s your impression?” Murphy knew how she operated. He knew she studied the way the bomb was displayed first.
“First impression—it sure is a big-assed bomb. Second—things aren’t necessarily as they seem. I have a bad feeling about this one, Murphy. Makes me think of the one earlier.”
“It’s a totally different M.O. than the one before. No three-in-one special this time.”
“Yeah, but that bothers me, too. When was the last time we had two separate bomb threats in this city on the same day?”
“Never.” He removed the screws so he could lift the plate off the top of the bomb.
“Exactly.”
Murphy pushed back the metal panel to expose the wiring below. “Let’s hope your women’s intuition is off due to lust.”
Sabrina gave him a withering look in response and started working to defuse the bomb. The only talk between them was shortened sentences and coded bomb speak as they clipped wires and worked to reroute the power supply. Once they rendered the bomb safe for transport, it could be loaded into the containment truck to force the explosion if needed.
The display read just over twenty-two minutes when Sabrina sensed movement near the door. She felt a prickle on the back of her neck. She felt him. She glanced at the bathroom entrance.
Jake stood there, as expected, watching her as she worked, an unreadable expression on his face. When their eyes connected, it was as though an electrical charge went through the air and sped down her body. She wondered if she were still grounded and was surprised she didn’t fall back on her butt.
“Building’s clear. Every room was checked,” Jake said. He watched her. His gaze was riveting, hungry. So carnal. Her heart banged inside her chest.
“We should have this locked up in ten minutes or so,” Murphy said since she was speechless. He’d probably noticed she was barely breathing as she stared at Jake.
Sabrina couldn’t have spoken if she’d had a gun to her head. Her whole body seemed to pulsate when Jake was within a ten-foot perimeter. He had the number to the vibrating beeper of her life force, and he speed-dialed it every time he came close to her. Her mouth was dry, yet it tingled. Her whole body tingled, in fact.
Sabrina had a flashback to earlier in the day, her lips brushing the taut skin of his neck, repeatedly. He’d whispered into her ear at the first bombsite that he would like to discuss those kisses when he called on her later. It was blackmail. It was the only reason she’d agreed to let him call her. Okay, it was one reason. The other involved those sweaty daydreams she kept having. She devoured the sight of her gorgeous fireman. Whew, why is it so hot in here?
“I could wait and give you an escort,” Jake offered. His voice made her insides quiver on top of the layer of tingling already going on.
Sabrina cleared her throat and found her voice. “No, we’re fine here. You should evacuate.” She didn’t want him in danger. If she failed again, she didn’t want him hurt.
“Well, then, I’ll wait for you at the perimeter…like before.” He gave her a warm smile before stepping out of the doorway. Murphy chuckled and looked down at the bomb.
Sabrina avoided his eyes. “So help me God, you better keep your thoughts to yourself.”
“I wish I had someone waiting for me at the perimeter.”
“Is that your definition of keeping your thoughts to yourself? Trust me, Murphy, utter another word, and you’ll pay.”
“Yeah, I know, but it’s worth it. You deserve someone who makes you happy, Sabrina. I’m just glad to see you interested.”
“You’re wrong about my interest in…anyone.”
“Jake’s a good guy, Sabrina. I checked him out on the sly earlier. He comes from a good, Irish, firefighting family. You have my permission to see him.”
Sabrina sighed and was about to swear at her partner for butting in where he wasn’t welcome, but it occurred to her he’d never interfered before. He had always respected her judgment in keeping men at arms length. Until today.
Sabrina knew that on some well-meaning, brother-like level, Murphy worried about her lack of interest in dating and her cold attitude towards men in general.
Murphy was a big believer in families, and the more kids the better. He had four adorable children and a wife who was insanely in love with him. It was a dream Sabrina could never share, so she hid behind her cold-iron, hard-bitch façade. Up until today, Murphy had never pressed her or commented on her choices.
She smiled at his vocal approval of Jake.
Maybe she’d give Jake a chance to be different from her ex-fiancé Harry. Perhaps she would lower the façade and take a risk. Jake was the first man in forever to have such a strong impact on her. He also had a profound effect on her physically. She hadn’t been able to get the repeated fantasy of their naked, writhing bodies out of her mind all day.
“Well, we’d better hurry up and finish this,” she said lightly. “I guess I have a hot date at the perimeter in less than twenty minutes.”
They worked together quietly until they had the bomb ready for disposal. The timer stopped at thirteen minutes and seven seconds when Sabrina pulled the final fuse. With a collective sigh of relief, they both packed up their tools.
Sabrina radioed Chief Cochran to inform him the bomb was secure. Once they got outside, they would notify the disposal unit to come, collect, and place it in the containment truck.
A full-mooned, summer night had fallen. Sabrina exited the hotel at a more leisurely pace than earlier in the day. Her confidence, which had taken an earlier beating, was again restored.
Normally, she had the symptoms of a heart-attack victim while she worked. The squeezing pain radiating through her chest, nausea and sweating accompanied her each time she defused a bomb. Today had been no different, with the exception of the additional heart-pounding, electrical moment when Jake had visited on his way out of the building. She was surprised she hadn’t gone code blue at the rate her heart beat against her chest as they spoke.
Sabrina and Murphy approached Chief Cochran. He was just inside the barrier talking on a cell phone. He motioned them over while he nodded and conversed in an official sounding tone.
Sabrina looked around as they waited to report. She didn’t see Captain Hennessey yet. She’d expected him to come out to the site to watch over her shoulder. Instead, she saw Jake about fifteen feet away packing up his fire truck readying to leave. He conversed with the very tall firefighter she’d seen him with when sh
e arrived on scene.
The other firefighter was attractive, but he didn’t have the same effect on her. She glanced at Jake and had to catch her breath. She took a moment to watch him on the sly as the chief was finishing up his call.
Jake was well over six feet tall. He had wavy, short blond hair and was muscularly built without being steroidal-looking. His full, sensuous lips topped a strong square chin sporting a sexy cleft she wanted to lick. His green eyes had mesmerized her from the first look. He exuded confidence in waves. Damn, he was fine-looking.
Jake hadn’t made a single remark about her breakdown at the earlier bombsite. He’d earned her eternal gratitude for it, too. As she watched, Jake’s face lit up with laughter as if sharing a joke, and her heart did a mini flip. It did a major flip-flop when he looked up, saw her watching him, and gave her a personal smile along with a wink.
A ripple of sexual awareness ran unchecked through her body from head to toe with his forceful regard. Maybe she was just lonely. Maybe she should let him into her life and see what he would do. Whew. A ripple ran down her again, harder this time at the mere thought of what he would do to her body. She already knew what he felt like covering her completely clothed in heavy flame resistant fire gear. Picturing the same position without clothing, their warm naked bodies pressed together in passionate embrace, made her vibrate with desire and a familiar ache, an ache that throbbed between her legs and sent wet heat through her core.
Would he take his time with her? Would he stroke her repeatedly until she cried out in release? Would she even let him take his time, or would she just impale herself on him and ride him until she was satisfied? Sabrina licked her bottom lip and took a deep breath, her eyes glued to Jake’s sexy mouth—yet another fascinating part of him she wanted to explore.
The fire chief asked a question, which Sabrina completely missed while she smacked her lips and drooled over Jake. Murphy started talking as he nudged her once, forcing her attention back on the current conversation. She hadn’t noticed the chief stop talking on the phone.
Jeez, pay attention.
Blonde Bomb Tech Page 3