"I see," Victor said quietly. "Well, then I guess I'm going to have to pull out the big guns and use what I have to get what I want."

"You can't blackmail me," I said. I knew he could cause a great deal of damage before Leo and I released the information about my ownership of CSC, but I didn't want him to know that. "I know about you and just because you got the top score on the lieutenant exam doesn’t mean you’re competent, Victor. You're a hot-head who is a danger to everyone around you."

"You son of a bitch..." Victor said. "You're going to be sorry you said that, Connor."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said waving him off. "Promises, promises."

Victor turned and stormed out of the locker room without another word. I followed hoping that today was not going to be the day he decided to spill the news about my involvement in CSC, but preparing myself if he did.

Back in the community area, Victor was nowhere to be seen, so I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down to breakfast with the guys. Danny and Mike teased me about my date with Alex as they tried to get more information about it out of me. I didn’t want to reveal too much since I wasn’t sure where this was headed and definitely didn’t want to be humiliated if or when Alex decided it wasn’t working. The guys groaned as I kept my cards close to my chest, but eventually let it go.

Around noon, we were called out on a medical emergency that turned out to be nothing much, so I persuaded Mike to stop by the flower shop near the hospital so I could run in and pick something up.

"Can't you just do what the rest of us do and buy them at the gas station, Connor?" Newsome yelled as I returned to the truck with a dozen pink roses in a large gold box.

"And you wonder why you're still single," I laughed shaking my head. I left the flowers in the engine, knowing we'd probably be stopping by the hospital at some point and helped Mike do an equipment check that took the rest of the afternoon.

"New girl, eh?" Mike asked after I'd tucked the box under the seat.

"Yeah, well, she's nice," I said trying not to let on how much I liked Alex.

"Hey, you know it's okay if you fall for someone else, don't you?" he asked as he pulled out the checklist and began reading from it as I checked the supplies and gear. "No one would think any less of you if you fell for someone. It doesn't take anything away from what you had with Quinn."

I was quiet as he spoke. None of the guys had ever talked to me about the fire or losing Quinn because I'd shut it all down. There was no room for anyone to ask me anything aside from whether I was okay or not, and I hadn't wanted to talk to any of them about it once I'd returned to work.

"It's just...," I began not knowing how to talk about this. It had been ten years that I'd kept the feelings bottled up, and in that time I hadn't met anyone who I'd wanted to open up to. Sure, I'd slept with a handful of women on the nights when getting my physical needs met outweighed the feelings of guilt that would flood over me the next morning, but I hadn't fallen for a single one of them. "She's different."

"I can tell," Mike said as he focused on the list. "And that's okay, Cam. The guys from opposite shift said she’s cool. You should bring her around the station sometime and introduce her to the people you work with. ."

"I don't know..." I said trailing off.

"Does she know about Quinn?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, I think that's why I'm so drawn to her," I said. "It's like she doesn't dwell on the sadness, but she doesn't want to force me to put it all behind me and forget."

"Oh, she's a keeper, man," Mike nodded. "Grab her and hang on with everything you've got."

"Yeah," I murmured. "Yeah."

We finished the equipment-check as the guys were staring dinner, so I jumped in and cut up vegetables for the salad. Victor had returned and was studiously ignoring me from the other side of the room. Danny shot me a questioning look and I simply shrugged and said, "No idea."

#

We didn't go out again for the rest of the night, so the next morning I drove to the hospital before going home. I knew that Alex had worked the night shift because she'd told me that she'd volunteered to help out in exchange for additional internship hours.

"Be a good girl for ten minutes," I said to Tesla who tipped her head and woofed softly as I grabbed the flowers from the backseat. "I'll be right back."

The ER was quiet, but I didn't see Alex anywhere. The charge nurse looked up when I walked in and smiled.

"You looking for a patient?" she asked.

"No, actually, I'm looking for Alex Pierce," I said. "She's a nursing student, an intern?"

"Oh, I know Alex," she smiled as she picked up the phone and called for Alex over the intercom. "Hold on, she's around her somewhere."

I nodded as I stepped out of the way and waited. A few moments later, Alex came striding down the hall carrying a laundry basket full of towels and linen. Her long blond hair was pulled back in a high ponyta

il and she looked much younger than her twenty-four years. She was singing something under her breath as she did a little dance step with the laundry, but when she saw me standing there, she stopped and blushed bright red.

Tags: Claire Adams Billionaire Romance
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