Oxygen Deprived (Kilgore Fire Book 3)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Text copyright ©2016 Lani Lynn Vale

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  To my lovely children who have done nothing but scream, cry, complain and fight. I love you without conditions. Without you, I would have never started writing. I love you more than you’ll ever know.

  Acknowledgements

  FuriousFotog: Thank you so much for taking these photos for me. They’re beautiful, and you have such incredible talent it’s unreal.

  Gary Taylor- One day I’ll meet you! And when that day comes- I’ll tell you in person just like I’m writing you now, that you are a very beautiful person inside and out. Thank you so much for posing for this photo. You make a wonderful Drew!

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale:

  The Freebirds

  Boomtown

  Highway Don’t Care

  Another One Bites the Dust

  Last Day of My Life

  Texas Tornado

  I Don’t Dance

  The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC

  Lights To My Siren

  Halligan To My Axe

  Kevlar To My Vest

  Keys To My Cuffs

  Life To My Flight

  Charge To My Line

  Counter To My Intelligence

  Right To My Wrong

  Code 11- KPD SWAT

  Center Mass

  Double Tap

  Bang Switch

  Execution Style

  Charlie Foxtrot

  Kill Shot

  Coup De Grace

  The Uncertain Saints

  Whiskey Neat

  Jack & Coke

  Vodka On The Rocks

  Bad Apple (9-2-16)

  Dirty Mother (11-3-16)

  The Kilgore Fire Series

  Shock Advised

  Flash Point

  Oxygen Deprived

  Controlled Burn (10-5-16)

  I Like Big Dragons Series

  I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie

  Dragons Need Love, Too

  Oh, My Dragon

  No take-backs.

  That was the motto that Drew lived by in all things, including his love life.

  He’s a player, pure and simple.

  He’s learned the hard way that women aren’t all hearts and flowers. Sometimes their sexy bodies and beautiful faces are just a pretty shield to hide the crazy, and he’s so freakin’ over crazy.

  Been there, done that. He has the divorce papers to prove it.

  Karma hits like a bitch.

  Aspen needs a break. A long one that doesn’t include anything with a Y chromosome. Not even one as tempting as her new neighbor who just moved in across the street. Men are trouble with a capital freakin’ T, and she has the ankle monitor to prove it.

  The last man she gave her heart to was a police officer. A man whose life was dedicated to protection, and he was supposed to protect her heart—not break it.

  She decides right then and there that she’s done with being the better person.

  Everything happens for a reason.

  A rash decision—undoubtedly regrettable, undeniably unforgettable. In the heat of the moment, Aspen’s actions with a tire iron and her ex-boyfriend’s brand new SUV land him in the ER getting stitches and have her seeing the inside of a jail cell for the first time.

  It’s just her luck that the whole town is there to witness the result of her poor decision, including her police officer brother and the neighbor that already made it more than clear she was more trouble than she was worth.

  House arrest never looked so good.

  Hide your crazy.

  Drew enjoyed the show, though. For the first time in a year, he’s thinking about his life, and how it would be a lot more enjoyable with a woman like Aspen at his side.

  Maybe crazy isn’t so bad after all.

  Prologue

  Twenty years earlier

  Beavers Bend. Broken Bow, Oklahoma

  I watched him play football for nearly an hour with my brother, completely and totally enraptured by him.

  “Mom!” I hissed at my mother. “Do you see that teenage boy over there?”

  My mother turned from the magazine that was in her hands, to me.

  “Yes, baby,” she said. “What about him?”

  Everyone had seen him. I’m not sure why I was bothering pointing the man—teenager—out to her.

  “I’m going to marry him,” I informed her.

  She blinked.

  “What?” She whispered in shock. “Why do you say that?”

  I looked back over at the teenager, that wasn’t so much of a teenager but more of a young man on his way to adulthood, and back to her.

  “We just are. I’ve decided.”

  She laughed.

  “You’ve decided, huh?” She teased.

  I nodded.

  “And how are you going to accomplish that?” She wondered.

  “She’s going to demand it of him, Mother,” Downy, my brother who wasn’t very happy about being on vacation with us, drawled.

  Downy and the teenager were probably similar in age, although that’s where the similarities ended.

  Downy had red hair, where the teenager had blonde.

  Downy’s ugly eyes had nothing on the teenager’s gray eyes that looked like they were ringed with green.

  I couldn’t tell for certain, though, which was why I moved closer.

  And found myself next to a couple that was excited about something.

  “He’s getting married,” the woman was saying to the man. “To Constance. Isn’t that something?”

  The man shrugged. “She’s not the best, but I guess she could be worse.”

  The woman snorted. “Don’t let him hear you say that. They’ve been dating for four years now. And he knows everything, don’t you know?”

  The man sighed.

  “She’s cried every night this week because he’s been gone to the fire academy. How do you think she’s going to fare when he’s gone once every three days?” The man continued.

  The woman had nothing to say to that, and I sat down in the chair right by them, hoping it wasn’t obvious what I was doing. I crossed my legs and started swinging my foot.

  Then in a rush of moving limbs, the teenager took the seat, in between his parents and me.

  He had his shirt off, and his skin was bronzed from the summer sun.

  “Your mother tells me yo
u’re getting married,” the man said to his son.

  “Yep,” he confirmed.

  “Why?”

  The teenager paused. “Because I love her, Dad.”

  My heart thumped painfully, and I couldn’t help but look over at the three of them.

  I must have made a small noise because the father’s eyes went to me, then back to his son.

  “But why do you love her?” He asked.

  The teenager paused.

  “Because, I just do.”

  “You should really have a better answer than that,” I blurted out, immediately clamping my hands over my mouth.

  All three of them looked over to me.

  “What?” The teenager asked shortly.

  I dropped my hands and smiled weakly, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid for offering my two cents when it wasn’t asked for.

  My mother was always getting on to me about that, too.

  “Uhh,” I said.

  “Go on, child. Tell him what you meant,” the father urged.

  I bit my lip.

  “It’s just…if you really love her, you should know why you love her. You should be able to say more than ‘because I just do.’ You should love her because she makes you feel happy. Because she makes you sleep well at night. Because she makes you laugh. Because when you see her, your heart starts to race. Things like that,” I informed him. “’I just do’ isn’t a good enough reason. “

  He blinked, surprised at how well I’d answered him.

  And the father smiled.

  “What she said.”

  “Well,” the teenager growled. “You can’t take a ten-year-old’s opinion for shit, Dad. They don’t know anything.”

  My mouth dropped open in affront.

  “That wasn’t called for,” I blurted.

  My brother showed up at my side, pulling me away from the three of them.

  “She’s sorry,” Downy apologized to them. “She doesn’t realize how nosy she really is.”

  I snatched my hand away from my brother.

  “Get off me, you infidel,” I ordered crossly.

  Downy laughed in my face, then dropped me back off to my mother before returning to the field.

  It didn’t take long for the teenager to join Downy, and soon they had a full on football game again with a couple of other kids.

  And I watched, and wondered, if maybe I was wrong about the teenager.

  Maybe my instincts were off.

  Then I decided that no, my instincts weren’t off. His probably were, though

  He would be mine.

  It might take a while, but he would.

  No ifs, ands or buts about it.

  Chapter 1

  Men and women are different. If a man is scorned, he’ll show up at night. If a woman is scorned, she’ll show up at your job and smash your shit in front of everyone.

  -Proven Fact

  Aspen

  I stood at my front window, eyes narrowed as I watched man after man move heavy boxes out of the back of a moving truck into the house directly across the street from mine.

  Every single one of the men that were helping were all drop dead gorgeous…and I knew them all.

  It was kind of hard not to when the fire station was right next door to the police station.

  If I didn’t know them directly, I knew their faces—and that wasn’t a good thing, either.

  They would know all about my shame.

  Would know that…

  “I can’t believe you’re under house arrest,” my best friend muttered.

  I grimaced at her.

  “At least my job lets me work from home,” I mumbled darkly.

  Somehow, in the light of day, this wasn’t anywhere near as okay as I thought it’d be.

  In fact, once I ran out of milk around two in the afternoon, nothing was funny. Not at all.

  “This suuuucks!” I whined loudly. “Why did this happen to me?”

  There was silence for a few long moments, then my best friend’s laughter.

  “Probably because you were caught beating the crap out of your ex boyfriend’s truck and then his woman,” Naomi giggled, laughter filling her voice.

  I turned my glare on her.

  “Shut your face,” I growled through clenched teeth. “Or I swear, by all that’s holy, I’ll shove that coke can up your ass.”

  Naomi could no longer contain her laughter, and she fell to the floor with the hilarity of it all.

  Me, on the other hand, yeah, I didn’t find it nearly as funny as she did.

  Naomi continued to laugh until tears rolled down her cheeks, but I stared at her for long moments, letting my dissatisfaction show.

  “I’m sorry,” she gasped, trying to catch her breath. “But you’d laugh at me, too, if our roles were reversed.”

  I sighed.

  She was right, I would.

  I wouldn’t be able to help myself.

  However, I was the one in this situation, not her, so it was hard to say what I would and wouldn’t do under different circumstances.

  I crossed my feet out in front of me and stared at the blank wall where my TV used to be.

  Danny had taken it while I was in jail, along with my Xbox, the controllers, my Dish satellite receiver and all of my kitchen appliances that were small enough to fit into his mom’s SUV.

  How did I know this?

  Because my neighbors told me.

  They’d spent hours telling me how they watched him take everything.

  “Why does your cat have a note attached to her neck?” Naomi asked, her eyes caught by the sight of the white paper that stood out starkly against my cat’s black fur.

  “He’s a whore,” I said simply.

  “Why?” she asked, crawling on her hands and knees toward the cat.

  She stopped, read the note, and then snorted out a laugh.

  “She’s a muffin stealing whore?” Naomi asked.

  I nodded.

  “I was bored,” I said. “I even took his picture and submitted it to Ellen for that pet shaming contest she’s got going on.”

  “Ellen? The Ellen DeGeneres Show?” Naomi asked. “I don’t think Ellen does that.”

  “Well, she should,” I muttered. “Speaking of Ellen, she’s on!”

  I was now on day two of my five-month house arrest, and I was fairly sure by day seven, it was very likely I’d be bouncing off the walls.

  Naomi and I watched about five minutes of it before she stood, stretching her arms up high over her head.

  “I’m going to Wal-Mart. Do you want me to get you anything?” She wondered. “I’ll drop it off tomorrow on the way to pick the kids up from school.”

  I shot up off the couch and ran to my office, picking up a piece of white computer paper and folding it in half.

  Once I was sure the marker wouldn’t bleed through, I picked up the only writing utensil I could ever seem to find, a Sharpie, and quickly wrote down a list.

  Once I had that done, I walked back to the kitchen where I pulled out seven twenties and walked back towards where Naomi was still standing, watching the show in front of her.

  “Here,” I said. “This is my list.”

  “Aspen,” Naomi started. “This only has a TV on it.”

  I nodded.

  “Yep,” I agreed.

  “But, I thought the chief of police ordered Danny to give all your stuff back,” Naomi sounded confused. “That doesn’t make sense to get you a TV.”

  I gave her a look. “Does your brother ever do what he’s supposed to do?” I asked. “I doubt he ever follows orders unless The Chief makes him do it, and even then he’d actually have to come over to ask me whether he gave it back. It’s not like Danny’s going to offer up that information.”

  Naomi grimaced.

  “My brother’s a dumbass,” she muttered under her breath. “I’ll get your TV back for you, but I’m not spending this mon
ey on it. I’ll buy you groceries instead.”

  “Hmm,” I said. “Just make sure you get me some cheese squares.”

  “Aspen,” Naomi hesitated. “You can’t eat like that when you have no way to workout. You’re gonna get fat.”

  “I’ve got it all planned out,” I evaded. “I can go all the way to the end of my yard on the back side, and all the way to the sidewalk in the front. It’s exactly five thousand two hundred and eighty feet if I make the loop around seven and a half times.”

  She looked at me.

  “How’d you figure that out?” She tilted her head.

  I shrugged.

  “I got bored this afternoon, and my uncle left that roll thing that measures out distance,” I pointed to the measuring tape that was on the table next to the door.

  She snorted.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll bring you some food back tomorrow. And if my brother doesn’t drop the TV off, I’ll make sure to bring you one.”

  I threw my hands around my best friend.

  “You know I don’t blame you, right?” I confirmed.

  She sighed.

  “Yes,” she nodded. “But I’m the one who set you up with him in the first place. I thought he’d changed his ways. Had I known he was just going to go back to his cheating and whoring around, I would’ve never given him the permission to date you.”

  I gave her a look.

  “Since when has my boyfr—err…your brother done anything that he was supposed to do?” I raised a brow. “You could’ve told him all day long to stay away from me, but he would’ve inevitably done exactly what he wanted to do in the end.”

  “Well,” she headed to the door. “It doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”

  I stared at the back of her head. “Naomi,” I muttered. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Stupid?” She said sweetly. “Never.”

  ***

  A banging at my door woke me up.

  I startled, sitting up and dislodging the cat from my feet, effectively pissing him off and justifying the attack he launched on my feet not two seconds later.

  “Motherfucking cock-sucker!” I growled, yanking my feet away.

  The cat looked up at me with his adorable, mutinous eyes.

  “Go fuck yourself, Urchin,” I growled.