The Heat Is On (Boston Five Book 1)

by Anderson, Poppy J.

  “Hi, Ryan.” He dropped the lasagnas into his cart and turned to face his youngest brother, who was wearing his police uniform and carrying a bottle of Gatorade. “How are you, Officer?”

  “Better than you, I believe.” His baby brother gave him a meaningful look and pointed at the beers in his cart.

  Even though Ryan was trying to play the adult, wearing the severe face of an officer who had just discovered a dealer’s two-pound stash of heroin, he couldn’t impress Heath. After all, Heath remembered things like that time in sixth grade when Ryan puked up his sandwich while dissecting a frog and he’d had to comfort the little wimp.

  “Don’t firemen know they’re not supposed to drink on active duty?”

  Heath crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the jester. “I seem to recall that you graduated from the police academy barely four months ago, little brother.”

  “Please don’t tell me you intend to drink all that beer on your own,” Ryan pleaded. “You can’t get drunk when you’re on duty, Heath.”

  “Whoa, stop right there,” Heath countered. “What I can do or can’t do is none of your business. But if you must know, my shift is over, and I’m actually off for the next forty-eight hours.”

  “Then you should pay Mom a visit instead of getting wasted. Again.”

  Heath shook his head and sighed heavily. “Would you please leave me alone?”

  “Maybe you haven’t heard yet, but I’m back living at home, to be closer to Mom and help her around the house. We all pitch in to help, actually. You’re the only one who’s never there.”

  “Are you trying to guilt-trip me?” Heath asked morosely.

  “Seriously, Heath. Mom would just like to see you more often.”

  Instead of taking the bait, Heath nodded toward the exit. “How’s life as a patrolman?”

  Ryan rolled his eyes but answered placidly, “So far, it’s fine. How’re things at the station?”

  “Just dandy.”

  Ryan scrutinized him, wrinkling his nose. “Hayden told us you’re sleeping with other women.”

  Even though he’d been a member of this family for twenty-eight years and knew they didn’t beat around the bush, Heath was dumbfounded, struck speechless.

  Did Ryan really have to broach this subject right here in the grocery store aisle, between frozen TV dinners and toilet paper? His fingers gripped the handle of the cart. “What?”

  “We heard it at Sunday dinner …”

  His throat went dry. “Are you telling me Hayden said that over dinner?”

  “Don’t be a douchebag. Hayden confided in Kayleigh when she came home from your little talk in tears. And Kayleigh told Shane and then Kyle, who told me. Other women? Seriously, Heath? Have you lost your mind?”

  Heath pulled himself together as best he could. “It’s none of your goddamned business.”

  “If you can’t keep your pants on, you could at least have the decency not to go bragging and telling her straightaway. Do you have any idea what she’s going through right now?”

  An icy hand grabbed at Heath’s heart. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Hayden. Why did his brothers think he went to great lengths to stay away from her and his family? Of course he didn’t mean to hurt her, just to keep heartache and sorrow away from her as much as possible.

  He had a mind to punch his little brother, but instead he just glared at him. “You can shove your shitty advice where the sun don’t shine, Ryan. Just leave me alone.”

  “Oh, and while we’re at it—”

  “No, we’re not at it!”

  Ryan was persistent. He pushed the shopping cart aside and stepped closer to face Heath. “I’m dead serious. You need to pull yourself together. At the very least, you have to call Mom more often. She doesn’t look well, she barely sleeps, and eats even less.”

  “It’s called grieving.” Frowning, Heath leaned his back against one of the giant freezer doors.

  “And that’s why you should take care of her, instead of getting drunk and chasing skirts.”

  It took all his restraint not to grab his brother by his uniform collar. “You watch your mouth—”

  At that moment, there was a loud crackle from the radio clipped to Ryan’s front pocket, and then an irritated voice came on. “Fitzpatrick, do I have to file a missing person’s report?”

  The shutters went down over Ryan’s face, and he lowered his head, pushing a button on the radio. “I’ll be out immediately.”

  “Don’t forget my candy bar,” the aggrieved voice of his partner sounded from the tiny speaker.

  Ryan didn’t answer that, but it was obvious he was irritated as well. Once his finger had left the button on the radio, he looked back at Heath. In a more placatory voice, he said, “Heath … I’m not stupid. I know what you’re going through.”

  “Oh? You think you do?”

  Ryan nodded, his face drawn and tense. He shifted the bottle of Gatorade from one hand to the other. “We’re all sad and messed up over Dad, and we’re also worried about you. Couldn’t you at least come by to put Mom’s mind just a little bit at ease? She’s really deeply concerned about you.”

  “Fine.” Heath swallowed and added hoarsely, “I’ll come by tomorrow. Okay?”

  “And about Hayden—”

  “I don’t want to talk about Hayden,” Heath cut him off. “You’re all going to have to accept that we are no longer a couple. It’s really none of your business.”

  His brother looked as if he was going to argue that point, but then his radio crackled again. “Patrol car 302? We just got a report in for a burglary …”

  Outside the store, a horn sounded impatiently.

  Ryan threw his bottle into Heath’s cart. “I gotta go. Do me and your liver a favor, and drink the colorful stuff instead of the beer.”

  Heath gave a sigh for an answer. “Take care of yourself, Officer.”

  “You, too, Lieutenant.”

  Chapter 3

  Hayden would never understand why fourth graders weren’t able to write at least somewhat legibly. She didn’t remember giving a lesson on hieroglyphics, but one look at Justin Miller’s handwriting made her wonder whether this boy’s essay on his favorite book was penned in some mysterious, ancient language. Or perhaps an alien language. She wouldn’t be surprised, given the way he acted both in class and at recess. It was plausible he’d been abducted by aliens, who’d performed weird experiments on him.

  She felt slightly guilty about the direction her musings had taken. The fact that he behaved like the worst urchin of them all was really not the boy’s fault, given his parents. She had only met his father twice, which was definitely twice too often. The man was surely an alcoholic, and she could easily imagine him getting violent with the child. With a shudder, she remembered his angry outburst when she had politely advised him that his son could barely spell basic vocabulary words and might need extra tutoring. Two days ago, she’d called child protective services after the raging man had smashed a chair and slammed her classroom door closed, leaving behind only the whiskey fumes from his breath. She hoped they would check on the family. A teacher was not supposed to play favorites, but she had to admit that it was hard to like Justin Miller or be patient with him. The days when he was absent happened to be her quietest and most productive school days. The minute he walked through the door in the morning, he was insolent, up to no good, immune to any admonition, and kept disturbing her lessons. He didn’t do his homework, or any extra work she might assign, and his parents could never be reached by phone, so she had to conclude that his actions didn’t have consequences. How, then, would he ever learn? Hayden loved her job, and her students were close to her heart, but when confronted with cases like Justin’s, she found herself wishing for an office job that didn’t involve getting smeared with ink by a fidgety kid or screamed at by a grouchy parent.

  She wrinkled her nose and stared in exasperation at the paper in front of her.

  I hate boks and don’t reed. Bo
ks are dumb. I don’t wanna reed. I wanna watch tv and like to watch horor moovies wiz a lod of blod …

  She would need a whole bottle of red wine to correct this essay, Hayden thought in frustration, sipping her iced tea instead and looking out over her garden. In the distance, she could hear a lawnmower and the excited barking of a happy dog. The day could not have been any nicer. The sun was out, barely a cloud was in the sky, and the soothing peace and quiet of her well-tended garden surrounded her. But the stack of essays on her wrought-iron deck table kept working her last nerve.

  If there were any more papers like Justin’s waiting for her in that pile, it would take forever to correct and grade them. It was only Wednesday, but she was already worried she would have to spend her whole weekend grading and decline Kayleigh’s invitation to go out for a beer Saturday night.

  When there was a soft knock on her front door, she set her glass on the table and padded barefoot in the back door, through the house, and to the front door. Shane and another man were standing on her front porch.

  Automatically, she zipped up her powder-blue cardigan and opened the screen door. “Hi, Shane. What’s up?”

  He shrugged, leaned forward, and kissed her on the cheek before stepping inside. “We were in the area, so I thought we’d drop by and check the leaky faucet you mentioned Sunday.”

  She could easily guess the real reason for his visit. Shane often ‘dropped by’ when he was on duty, hoping to find food in her fridge.

  She rolled her eyes and gave a theatrical sigh, and then she studied the second man, who held out his hand with a friendly smile.

  “This is my new partner,” Shane added, stretching his arms behind him.

  The blond-haired man took her hand. “Alec Alexander.”

  Blinking, Hayden shook his hand and, before she could stop herself, repeated, “Alec Alexander?”

  “My parents have a weird sense of humor, I guess.” He stepped in after Shane and closed the screen door behind him.

  Hayden turned back to Shane, who was pointing expectantly toward the kitchen, and raised her hands in resignation. “There should be some leftover casserole and apple pie in the fridge. Just help yourselves.”

  “Awesome.” A triumphant smile on his face, Shane nodded at his partner. “I told you we’d find something to eat here.”

  Feeling less than thrilled at the intrusion, she followed the two tall men into her kitchen. “Is the pay really that low that Boston Police detectives have to keep raiding my fridge?”

  Shane grinned and shrugged off his jacket, revealing the gun in his shoulder holster and the badge at his belt. Hayden couldn’t get used to seeing a weapon displayed so openly, even though now both Ryan and Shane were part of the police force. As a firefighter, Heath had always come home smelling of smoke and wearing sooty clothes, but at least he didn’t have guns lying around the house.

  “Alec and I didn’t really feel like having the usual hot dogs.”

  “And apart from that, as a cop, you can never eat your lunch in peace anywhere,” Shane’s new partner explained with a wink. “All the donut shop guys, the deli people, they always ask us to help them with issues like graffiti or petty theft.”

  “True.” Shane was already stuffing his face with pie. “They don’t get that we’re the wrong guys for that. We’re the homicide squad, for Christ’s sake.”

  Hayden was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. “I’m sure the hot dog guy couldn’t care less what squad you’re on. I bet he gives you hot dogs for free anyway, doesn’t he?”

  Shane rolled his eyes. “That would be called bribery, Hayden.”

  She snorted. “I don’t think internal affairs is interested in the wieners you didn’t pay for, Shane.” She grabbed a bottle of water and sat down at her kitchen table as the guys microwaved and then began devouring what was left of her casserole.

  “A bribe is still a bribe, no matter how small.”

  His partner was leaning against the fridge, studying her over the rim of his water glass. “Are you on the force, too?”

  “Hayden’s a schoolteacher,“ Shane answered for her. His offhanded tone riled her for some reason.

  She made a face. “You can get off your high horse now. I don’t get issued a gun to help me maintain peace and quiet.”

  “And you can’t arrest anyone either,” the blond joked good-naturedly.

  “Right.” Hayden smiled briefly at him before throwing Shane an expectant glance. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten the dripping faucet.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Shane nodded, his mouth still full. “In a minute.”

  His new partner cleared his throat, eliciting her attention again. “Are you part of the famous Fitzpatrick family then?”

  “The famous Fitzpatrick family?” She raised her eyebrows. “That sounds like a Broadway musical. What do you mean?”

  With a shrug, he placed his glass on the counter next to him. “I’ve only been in Boston a short while, but that name seems to be on everyone’s lips. Two fire chiefs, several detectives and police officers …”

  “My family suffers from Mother Teresa syndrome,” Shane chimed in carelessly, which made Hayden shake her head. While it might be true that the Fitzpatricks were quick to help anyone, they had picked their professions for different reasons, such as their love of adventure and their penchant for heroism. For Heath, it had been clear from an early age that he wanted to be a firefighter, just like his dad, and his granddad before him. And Shane’s role model was his other grandfather, who had been a patrolman all his life. Nobody was surprised when he and then Ryan had become policemen, instead of joining the fire department. Kyle was the only brother who was more like his sister, interested in medicine, and he was studying to be a paramedic.

  “So are you a Fitzpatrick as well?” Alec prodded.

  Hayden threw Shane an uncertain glance, but, as usual, his face remained blank. She shrugged and said, “No, I’m not.”

  “So how do you know the clan?”

  She folded her hands in her lap. “My dad used to work with Joe Fitzpatrick,” she said airily. “I grew up with Shane and his siblings.”

  “Any lasting side effects?” Alec asked playfully, winking at her with his light brown eyes.

  Hayden suddenly realized he was flirting with her. She had to force herself not to look at Shane again, for permission or censure, she didn’t know. She didn’t even know how to flirt. She’d never had the need to learn the art, after all, and she didn’t know if she wanted to. Her thoughts were still filled with Heath, and part of her wasn’t willing to accept that he’d broken up with her. Flirting with Shane’s partner was out of the question, as long as she was still unhappily in love with another man.

  “Well.” She shook her head nervously. “They’re really very pleasant, mostly. Shane could work on his table manners, but apart from that, they’re not hard to get along with.”

  Shane didn’t comment on that, but he cleared his throat and changed the subject. “Kayleigh told me there was a problem with the dad of one of your kids. Do I have to pay this guy a visit?”

  Wonderful, Hayden thought, feeling irritated. Though it was nice of Shane to be concerned, sometimes his authoritarian manner annoyed the heck out of her. “Kayleigh exaggerates and should get a hobby.”

  “You know you need to tell me if anyone threatens you, right?”

  “Yes, Dad,” she replied, rolling her eyes like a teenager.

  Alec chimed in, trying to voice his offer in a more charming manner. “Of course you can also call me if you have to deal with unpleasant people again.”

  “That is—”

  “Hayden’s engaged to my brother.” Shane interrupted her reply in a tone that raised the hairs on the back of her neck.

  She turned to him with a frown. “Shane!”

  “Oh.” Alec immediately dropped all playfulness. “I didn’t know that.”

  She didn’t understand why Shane was suddenly behaving like a mongrel, marking each
and every tree he passed. For three months now, he hadn’t spoken a single word to his brother. Two days ago, he’d suggested he punch him for her, and called him an asshole. But now that another man was showing the tiniest bit of interest in her, he got all ruffled and felt the need to harshly point out she was taken? She wasn’t taken! And she had never liked the male tendency to behave like angry birds, fluffing up their plumage, especially when it concerned her.

  “We are no longer engaged,” she stated smoothly, sounding all but vicious.

  Shane’s face darkened into a major frown that almost made her flinch. “To me, you still are.”

  Hayden had a mind to slap him, but she managed to merely answer his frown with one of her own. “Well, it’s none of your business.”

  “Okay.” Alec shoveled the last of his piece of pie into his mouth and nodded at her. “I’m going to wait outside. It was nice meeting you, Hayden.”

  As soon as he left the house, she burst. “What is wrong with you? Heath broke up with me!”

  “And you want to go out with other men?”

  She silently counted to five to get a grip on her anger before answering. “Shane, you’re not my brother-in-law. Heath broke up with me, so you have no reason to act like that!”

  His dark head nodded toward her hand. “You’re still wearing his ring.”

  Her hands balled into fists. “That doesn’t give you the right to treat me like your brother’s possession. Have you forgotten that you’re the one refusing to even speak to him?”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that you two are a couple.”

  She shook her head. “That isn’t the case anymore—”

  “Heath would go apeshit if he saw you with another man,” he prophesied darkly.

  “Fine!” she gasped, her throat going tight. “So let him! He’s been sleeping with other women, so what do I care what he thinks about me going out with other men?”

  “You can’t do that,” Shane decided, like a strict parent.

  “I’ve really had it with you bossy Fitzpatrick men!” Angrily, she pulled the ring from her finger. “Take that!” She flung it at his chest. “If you’re so close to your brother, you can give him that back!”