Because I Said So: (A Texas Heroes Crossover Novel) (The Hell Yeah! Series)

by Sable Hunter

  “You don’t have to say a word. I understand. Brodie and I go way back. I was a friend of Mary’s.”

  Shane nodded as if that explained everything. “I’d better…” She pointed at Brodie Walton’s back as he took off across the field.

  Jacob tipped his hat. “I’m sure we’ll run into one another again before this is over. If not, I’ll see you next Saturday.”

  “Thanks, Jacob.” She hurried after Brodie. “Wait up!” He was headed right for their cabin. “I thought we had another session.”

  “I lied,” he said flatly.

  “Why?”

  He stepped up on the porch, slinging open the door. The cabins reminded Shane of a church camp she’d once attended. She kept expecting someone to run her underwear up the flagpole.

  “You were making a fool out of yourself. Jacob McCoy is married.”

  What? “Now, wait a minute! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

  Brodie whirled. “You were fawning all over him. It was sickening.”

  “I was not! We’re friends!”

  Brodie stared at her, trying to get himself under control. She was standing there, her big eyes locked on his. Her chest was heaving and there was a beautiful bloom to her cheeks. “Oh, hell!” With that, Brodie admitted defeat and reached for her, pulling her up against him. With predatory intent, he lowered his mouth and captured her lips, kissing her like he was drowning and she was the only lifeline in the world.

  Shane melted. She clung to him, accepting the unexpected gift. His mouth was demanding, his tongue teased and tormented and she answered every foray, relished every taste. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pressed against him, her body so grateful for the attention that she was afraid she might climax from just his kiss.

  Brodie was lost in the moment. His whole body ached for release, starved for the touch of a woman. He drank from her lips, immersing himself in the pure sexual excitement of sharing intimacy with another human being. And he wanted more… Framing her face, he angled his head to deepen the kiss, moving her back until the wall stopped his forward progress.

  Want. Hunger. Need.

  Aching desperation.

  His hips thrust forward, letting her know the extent of his longing.

  Shane rubbed against him. She loved this. Her mouth slid from his to take a needed breath of oxygen. “Oh, Brodie.”

  Brodie’s head snapped back, her voice bringing him to his senses. “Fuck!” What had he done?

  Shane shrank back against the wall, trying to make herself small. Brodie Walton stared at her with unmitigated hate. How did he go from hot to cold so fast? He raised his hand and for a scant moment, she thought he might strike her.

  “You. You stay away from me,” he snarled at her, pointing a long finger in her face.

  Even knowing what the root of his problem was, Shane knew she didn’t deserve to be treated this way. “You kissed me, you big buffoon,” she lashed out, pushing by him, her heart hurting so much she thought it would break.

  Brodie just glared at her, then turned and stomped into the bathroom, slamming the door so hard it rattled on its hinges. Shane wrapped her arms tightly around herself, trying to quell the shivers that were racking her body. She went and sat on the edge of the bed, rocking back and forth. Why did he do that? If he hated her so much, why did he kiss her? Unable to be still, she stood and began wandering around the room. She walked over to the bed he would sleep in, touching the strap of his duffle. He was a good man; she knew he was. If only…

  In a daze, she moved across the room, resting her head on the bathroom door. Her lips were still tingling from Brodie’s sensual assault. Her breathing was hard, her body still trembling. Calm. Calm. She took a deep cleansing breath – and that was when she heard it…

  …Inside the shower, Brodie leaned his face against the tile wall, water cold enough to freeze ice cream flowing down the heated skin of his back. His bit his bottom lip to keep from groaning as he rubbed one out, working his cock furiously – up and down – up and down. Shane Wilder’s lips had tasted like wild honey and he wanted her more than…

  “Fuck, fuck,” he groaned, fisting his dick, squeezing it hard enough to hurt. He wanted. He needed. He lusted – he ached. The welcome tingle built in his balls. “Oh, yea, I want to fuck you so hard. I need to sink inside you,” he moaned gutturally.

  …On the other side of the door, Shane was glued to the spot, listening as the man she’d been kissing minutes earlier jacked-off. Shame swamped her. He’d rejected her, then hid in the shower to masturbate. All of the barbs and jibes her husband had tortured her with came rushing back. Tears slid down her face. His voice sounded so sexy, and just moments ago she’d been on the receiving end of all that incredible sexual energy. She heard him grunting, moaning. She could imagine what he looked like, working his cock. And then she heard it…

  He came!

  Red flashed through her mind and heart.

  BAM! BAM!

  “Damn you, Brodie Walton!” she screamed. “You’d rather jerk off than be with me. I ought to come in there and brain you with the commode lid!”

  She was so furious, she hurt all over.

  Wham!

  The door jerked open and she found herself face to chest, then she looked up – face to face with a very pissed-off, wet man.

  “This is how you get your jollies? Listening at the door?” He stalked by her, a towel wrapped around his waist. “You’re pathetic!”

  Pain fueled Shane’s rage and she blindly reached for his duffle, swung it and hit him on the ass. “I might not be desirable, but I’m not pathetic! You are! You wear your grief like a hair shirt, you wallow in your misery. You need to get over yourself, Brodie Walton! You aren’t the only one who has ever lost someone. What would Mary think about how you’re acting? Would she be proud of you?”

  Brodie wheeled around and got right in Shane’s face. His face was a mask of savage ferocity. “Don’t ever speak Mary’s name around me! You are nothing to me! Nothing!”

  Part of Shane wanted to flinch, but she didn’t. She stood her ground. “I never claimed to be anything to you. I’m just the unlucky one that you take your shit out on.” She leaned forward until they were almost nose to nose. “Don’t ever touch me again.”

  Brodie stepped back and held up his hands. “Done. Not touching you will be a pleasure.”

  Shane grabbed her purse and ran for the door. If she didn’t get out of his presence, she thought she might faint from sheer indignation. How dare he? Somehow she managed to get down the steps and across the road, walking as fast as she could toward the nearby woods. Shane desperately needed a little alone time to collect herself – and to cry. As soon as she was far enough out of earshot for anyone to hear, she broke down and cried like she hadn’t since her mother died. What had she ever done to deserve his treatment? First Rodney and now Brodie. Did she have ‘kick me’ tattooed on her forehead? Finding a big pine, she leaned against it, then dropped to the ground, burying her face in her arms.

  …After three hours, Brodie began to worry if Shane were going to come back or not. He half expected someone to knock on his door and arrest him for improper behavior to a team member. Truth was, Brodie was ashamed. He could mentally work through the logic that what he’d done had made absolutely no sense. None of it had been her fault. She’d just responded to his advances, reacted to his passion. The problem was him, he was so eaten up with anguish and heartache that he couldn’t act civilized around her. He didn’t act like this around anyone else – just her.

  Sitting on the edge of his bed, he held his head in his hands. Should he go look for her? He rose and went to the door, opened it and looked out. The keys to the truck were in his pocket, so he knew she hadn’t taken the vehicle and left. It was possible she’d gotten a ride, possibly from McCoy or maybe she called a cab. “Hell!” Guilt of a different kind gnawed at his gut.

  Opening the screen, he stepped out, intent on walking around to see if he could see her. After
about an hour of looking every place he could think of, Brodie threw up his hands and returned to the cabin. He had to get some sleep, she’d come back if she wanted to.

  But when he turned in, he left the door unlocked and the front light on.

  …A couple hours before dawn, Shane slipped into the cabin and into her bed. She was thankful their session tomorrow was class-oriented.

  Before Brodie awoke, Shane was up and out of the cabin. If she had her way, she wouldn’t have to interact with him at all.

  * * *

  By the end of the next morning, Shane had successfully managed to avoid her supervisor. They’d sat in a couple of lectures together, but nothing they’d done required them to interact. She was grateful for small blessings. At lunch, she ate with Jacob. He regaled her with stories of all the family members and entertained her with photos of the ever growing McCoy clan.

  “Wow, that’s a lot of new little McCoy’s running around.” She handed him back his phone. “Bess is as proud as punch of all of you.”

  Jacob didn’t mention Brodie and for that she was grateful.

  Her luck played out that afternoon. She and Brodie were required to act as a team in the search and rescue drill, requiring the firefighters to maneuver through a smoke-filled building to rescue victims using self-contained breathing apparatuses. The live-burn exercise was required since they were affiliated with a fire department. Shane knew what to expect, she’d spoken to several others who’d completed the program successfully. These drills were carefully supervised, yet gave the participants valuable experience in dealing with a dangerous environment.

  Brodie and Shane barely spoke when their names were called and they were assigned a time and given their equipment. He didn’t apologize for his behavior and she didn’t ask for an apology. They didn’t act as if nothing ever happened, they acted as if they weren’t aware the other one was alive.

  When their time came, they suited up and entered the building. The interior was set up like a two-story home, every supposed personal possession and detail of the layout disappeared beneath an acrid shroud of smoke. They couldn’t see the contents or the furniture. They couldn’t even make out the entrances and exits to the room. They were blind to everything except their own presence. The only connection they had to each other was the radio speakers in their helmets, but when you aren’t speaking to one another – those are fairly useless.

  Smoke from the live-burn filled the entire structure. They entered by ladder and their assignment was to search for a mannequin and a doll, the faux victims of the fire. Being forced to navigate the building in absolute blackout conditions was difficult. The smoke was so thick Shane couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. She’d been instructed to proceed with caution, since there were holes in the floor and clutter scattered around. Realism was emphasized in this exercise.

  “Wilder.”

  Brodie’s voice coming through her headset startled her. “Yes?” she answered.

  “Stand still. I need to find you; we need to stay together.”

  “Yes, sir.” Shane knew the protocol, but she honestly hadn’t expected him to follow it. They hadn’t been given a thermal imaging camera, so they would need to stay in physical contact with one another and use the tools they’d been given to extend their reach to check out the rooms. She obeyed and soon he found her, his gloved hand reaching out to touch her shoulder. “All right, let’s go.”

  Slowly, they made their way through the house, using a grid-like formation. As with a real fire, time was of the essence. The tanks on their SCBA’s only held so much air.

  When Shane moved, she used every sense available to her in order to search for the victims. This was her first time to train in this manner, the only exposure she’d had before this was a video and lectures with charts and graphs. Even though this wasn’t a real rescue, the smoke and the fire were real enough. They weren’t carrying a hose, their function wasn’t to put out the fire, it was to rescue the people inside. To their left, Shane could hear the firefighters who’d been assigned to quell the blaze moving about.

  Through the headset, she heard Brodie cough. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer and she was about to ask again, when her foot bumped something. Going to her knees she was relieved to find the doll. “I found the baby, Mr. Walton.”

  Another cough met her ears. When she straightened, he bumped into her. She could hear him continuing to cough and gasp for air. All she could assume was that his SCBA was malfunctioning. In the dense smoke, she kept reaching for him, touching him only long enough to realize he was moving toward the outer wall, searching for an exit. “Brodie, I’m right behind you. If you’ll let me get ahead, I think I can find the way out.”

  They’d entered by a ladder, but she knew there were stairs…dead ahead.

  Blind to his surroundings and unable to breathe, Brodie charged forward. “Wait!” she yelled, but he didn’t answer. A sudden crash forced her heart into her throat. “Brodie!”

  Trying to keep her head, Shane moved forward finding a splintered railing. He’d gone over! Dropping the doll, she felt her way to the landing and began making her way to the first floor. The smoke was thinner here and she could make out her surroundings. “Oh, no,” she said, when she saw his large form on the floor. “God, please don’t be hurt.” She rushed to him, trying to figure out if he was breathing. When she reached him, it was to discover he was choking. Without hesitation, she quickly removed his SCBA and replaced it with her own. Then, she held her breath as she stood and grasped him by the shoulders, endeavoring to pull him toward the exit.

  As heavy and big as he was, moving him even a few inches took everything she had within her. She didn’t have to go far, thank God, before help arrived. Their movements in the house had been monitored, so two men came and took Brodie from her, rushing both of them out into the fresh air.

  Two medics came to check them over. Shane insisted she was fine, but the EMT put her on oxygen and checked her vitals. Knowing the routine, she relented, keeping an eye on Brodie who still lay on the ground.

  …With a hard cough and a big gasp for air, Brodie sat up. “Hell, what happened.”

  “Lie back down, Mr. Walton.”

  He did as he was told, his eyes taking in his surroundings. “Where’s Wilder?”

  “Your partner is over there, she’s fine.” The man slipped an oxygen mask over Brodie’s head, then proceeded to take his vitals. “And so are you, thanks to her.”

  Brodie raised his eyes questioningly to the tech. “Your SCBA failed. She gave you hers, then attempted to pull you to safety. Almost made it, too. We only had to bring you a few feet. As big as you are, she must’ve had a huge adrenaline rush.”

  Great. Brodie shut his eyes. The damn woman had saved his life.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Since returning from their training session, Brodie and Shane had formed an uneasy truce. They tiptoed around one another, she was still reeling from his harsh rejection and him not knowing what to do about her coming through for him when he needed her the most.

  In his office, Brodie stared at the calendar. Tomorrow was the red letter date, the one day out of the year he dreaded the most, the anniversary of Mary’s death. He picked up the cross around his neck, fingering the cold metal. The religious emblem didn’t give him much comfort. Grief, his constant companion, didn’t seem as sharp as normal though. Perhaps because the debilitating emotion had been surpassed by another equally hurtful feeling – guilt. Since he’d succumbed to temptation and kissed Shane Wilder, remorse had eaten at his gut like a cancer. Guilt for besmirching Mary’s memory and guilt for hurting an innocent woman.

  Shane Wilder.

  All he had to do was lift his eyes and watch her through the glass window of his office. He’d put her to work stocking the second ambulance. Logan had reported the new hires had done a good job, answering two calls, and saving a heart attack victim on the side of the road. As much as he tried to keep
his mind on his own work, scheduling the new men, filling out reports on their training…he groaned at the memory of his time with Shane. His chief gave him a hard time when he’d heard about the spill he’d taken and that Shane had been the one to pull him to safety.

  She stepped from the back of the vehicle and bent over to pick up some packaging from the floor. He raised up, getting a good view of her delectable ass. “Damn.” As soon as the normal male thought registered, remorse slammed into his chest. He couldn’t do this. He just couldn’t. Turning his rolling chair around, he stared at the wall.

  …Outside his door, Shane stood, her arms full of garbage. She strode to the small dumpster, her eyes on Brodie’s back. His head was bowed, he looked as if the life was being crushed from him. She tried not to care, she tried to hold onto the hurt he’d inflicted upon her. Last night she’d held her pillow over her head and relived the cutting words he’d thrown at her. To her consternation, his barbed comments weren’t the only thing she remembered…

  If she’d replayed that incredible kiss over one time in her head, she’d replayed it a thousand times.

  Stepping up to the dumpster, she threw the garbage inside, dusting off her hands. Shane had no more than turned around before the radio went off and the alarm sounded.

  “Let’s roll!” Brodie called as he came out the door.

  Shane struck a trot and met him at the ambulance, opening her door and climbing in. He pressed the button. “Repeat that, Rose.”

  “One-twelve Longmire. We have an injured woman. Critical. Her unborn baby has been cut from her body with a knife.”

  Shane’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, my Lord.” She held onto the window as Brodie started the ambulance, pulled out onto the road, and raced away. “What about the baby?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to be ready for anything.”

  When they arrived at the address, both of them jumped out, grabbing their gear. They could hear a woman screaming, “Help! Help me!” as they bounded up the steps.