Firefighter's Virgin

“You want me to go with you?”

I considered this. Maybe it would be better if there was two of us. But maybe not. I knew what Martin really needed to do was bitch at someone, get it out of his system, and hopefully move on.

“It’s all right,” I said. “I’ll deal with it.”

When I got there, though, Martin wasn’t interested in hearing any apologies. He wanted to lay into someone about it, and that’s exactly what I had to let him do. “This was a disaster,” Martin said. “A complete disaster on every level. I work with you, Ian, because you’re a professional in every way—discretion being at the top of that list. You know as well as I do that there are half a dozen other companies we could have gone with, but we decided to go with you. But after all this, I’m starting to wonder if that was the right choice.”

“We’ve always done right by you,” I said.

“Not today you haven’t! There’s no way that information should have gotten out like that,” Martin said.

“I can assure you, it wasn’t on our end,” I said.

But he was shaking his head. “So what are you saying? Are you trying to blame us? Are you trying to say this was somehow our fault?”

Yes and no. There was no way any of our guys would have leaked that information about Martin’s goddamn cruise—unless they wanted to be out of a job. Martin was right—discretion was supremely important, and though we did have a lot of guys working for us, only the ones who I could trust completely had specific knowledge of events like these.

Martin was pissed, though, there was no doubt about it, though he was doing his best to keep it in check. His face was turning red, and I could see a vein in his forehead that I’d never noticed before. Probably because we’d never had an incident like this.

“You got an answer for me?”

I gritted my teeth and tried not to have a childhood flashback; that was what Pete was always saying after he’d used me as a punching bag: You think anyone’s ever gonna have any respect for a pussy like you? What? You got an answer for me? I can’t hear you!

“My answer is that I don’t know exactly how this happened. You have my full apologies, though I am one hundred percent certain that it was not from our end.”

“Then who? If I’m one hundred percent certain it wasn’t on my end, and you’re saying the same, one of us is wrong and it damn sure isn’t me!”

I’d never seen him so enraged. I let him bitch at me for a little bit longer, and then I left, only after agreeing to at least look into the possibilities that the leak was on our end. I stepped outside, glad to be out of there, but in serious need of a drink.

And wouldn’t you know, the first person I see upon entering the fucking hole-in-the-wall sports bar I chose to go to: Billy McAllister.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Daisy

Ian was pretty vague about whatever it was that Dan had called him about, but after he had gotten off the phone, he hurried me out of Pete’s room and drove me back to the office so I could get my car.

I didn’t feel like going home right away though, so I drove down to Failte. Someone was having a birthday, and the whole back area of the bar had been sectioned off. The birthday girl was someone I didn’t recognize, though she looked like she was probably around my age, except there seemed to be something different about her expression. I didn’t notice this right away, but as I sat at the bar with my drink, I’d sneak looks over, and when someone brought in a store-bought cake, stuck haphazardly with candles, and got everyone around the bar to sing a rousing rendition of “happy birthday,” I realized what it was: She looked fresh. She looked excited about the prospect of her life, all that was yet to come, like she was just assuming that it would only be good things. Or mostly good things. Really, she probably didn’t look much different than I myself had felt a few years ago when I’d graduated college, certain that my real life was just now about to start.

Yet all that had really happened was a whole bunch of confusion and not really knowing if I was doing the right thing. I felt less sure about myself and what I was doing than I could ever remember, yet somehow I was supposed to just keep on going, believing that at some point, things might change.

At least things were good with Ian, though. I had that much, and I was grateful for that.

I headed home after that one drink; I didn’t feel like having more, and things were getting a little rowdy, as the whole bar had basically been invited to join the girl’s birthday party. I had to park a block over from where I normally parked when I got home, and as I was walking to my apartment, I happened to glance over and see that there was someone sitting in a black SUV parked a few buildings away from my place. He looked over right as I was going by and I realized that he looked familiar. Where had I seen him before?

I went over to the passenger side window and he put it down the rest of the way.

“Hey,” I said, recognizing him, though I couldn’t remember his name. He was one of the guys that worked for Ian that I’d seen come through the office with Dan once when I’d first started working there.

“Hello there, Daisy,” he said.

“Are you looking for Ian? He had to go meet up with Dan; he got a call from him when we were over visiting his step-father.”

The guy shook his head. “Nope, not waiting for Ian. Just on the lookout for you. Been out here for a little while; haven’t seen any suspicious activity or anything. I think you’re good. But don’t worry, we’ll be here all night. Kevin’s parked a little further down, on the other side of the street. ”

“All night? That doesn’t seem necessary.”