Put Out (Kilgore Fire Book 5) Read online

  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

  Dirty Mother

  Rusty Nail

  The Kilgore Fire Series

  Shock Advised

  Flash Point

  Oxygen Deprived

  Controlled Burn

  Put Out

  I Like Big Dragons Series

  I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie

  Dragons Need Love, Too

  Oh, My Dragon (March 2017)

  The Dixie Warden Rejects

  Beard Mode (2-23-17)

  Fear the Beard (3-30-17)

  Son of a Beard (4-27-17)

  Texas Lumberjacks (baseball series)

  Book 1 (5-31-17)

  Text copyright ©2017 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

  This book is dedicated to my dad. The man that was my best friend until he and my mom divorced. The man that I had to work my ass off to have a relationship with. The man that, after having a new child, forgot he had two others.

  I just want you to know that my kids will never have that happen to them. Their daddy loves them so much that they’ll never need you. He’s everything to them, and although it pains me that you’re not there for them, I know that they won’t go one single day without knowing that they are loved by every single person that counts.

  Acknowledgements

  Golden Czermak aka Furiousfotog—I love you. (Not in a weird way) I love your work. You never fail to provide me the most scrumptious eyecandy there is, and I can’t thank you enough for doing that.

  Matthew Hosea—ever since I first saw you, I knew you’d be perfect on one of my novels. I’m so thankful that I could finally find a character that fit you.

  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

  ***

  Chapter 23

  ***

  Chapter 24

  ***

  Chapter 25

  ***

  ***

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  ***

  ***

  What’s next?

  Prologue

  You’re making it difficult to be the parent I always imagined I would be.

  -Angie’s secret thoughts

  Angie

  15 years old

  “Do you see him yet?” I asked my little sister.

  My little sister stretched to the tops of her toes then shook her head. “No.”

  “Mom,” I said. “Do you see him yet?”

  Mom, although I knew she’d rather be anywhere but here, shook her head.

  My parents had divorced only a few short months ago, and not by my mother’s choice.

  With their divorce came a financial strain that left my mom unable to go a day without working, less we lose the roof over our heads. Especially now that my father wasn’t helping pay for it.

  “No.” She looked around.

  I felt for my mom. I really did.

  “You don’t have to stand with us. You can go to the car,” I tried again.

  My mother looked down at me like I’d grown a second head.

  “I’m not leaving you in the same vicinity with that woman,” my mother said. “But nice try.”

  I looked over at ‘that woman’ and cringed.

  ‘That woman’ was my father’s new wife, the woman he cheated on my mother with. The one who had two kids the same age as my sister’s eight, and my fifteen.

  “Why are they even here?” I asked, fisting my sign in my hands. “They don’t even know him all that well. They’ve seen him like twice.”

  And it was true.

  My father was in the military. He was deployed more than he was here, and I had no clue how those girls were ‘so in love with their daddy’ like their sign said since they’d only seen him twice. Once for a birthday party for the girl my age that my father had dragged me to, and once for the marriage of my father and that woman.

  “Oh, there he is!” my sister cried, pointing in the direction of the runway.

  We watched as his plane taxied, and then moved up until the walkway was in place.

  We watched even more as my father started down the long walkway in our direction.

  His eyes, though, weren’t on us.

  They were on his new family.

  Then, as if it were some cruel joke, my sister started running towards my father, not realizing what was going on…not realizing that my father’s eyes weren’t even on her.

  God love my sister, but she was slow. Not slow as in mentally disabled; slow, as in she was slow to catch on. To realize what my mother and I already had.

  Which I guessed we should be thankful for right then.

  Had she been faster, I was sure that he would’ve pushed her down in order to get to the other little girl running toward him.

  I watched in horror as my father swooped down and scooped that little girl up like he should’ve done to Ariel. Pulling the girl in his arms, he swung her in a circle as he lifted her high above his head, practically knocking Ariel down in the process as the little girl’s ridiculously high heeled shoes swung out behind her.

  “Jesus,” my mother cried, running forward.

  My mother swooped Ariel up into her arms, then started running toward me, staring over her shoulder at the man we all used to know.

  “Let’s go,” my mother murmured, tears alr
eady tracking down her cheeks. “I can’t breathe here.”

  I looked down at the sign that said, ‘Welcome home, Daddy. I missed you’ and hurried to catch up to her, my feet dragging slightly.

  With one last look to be sure—no, he still wasn’t looking at us—I walked away, shoving the poster into the trash as I went.

  “Hey!” I heard called from behind me right before I’d reached the airport exit.

  I turned and saw a boy about my age running after me.

  “Yeah?” I asked, swiping at the tears that I hadn’t realized were running down my face.

  “I like your hair.”

  I blinked, surprised.

  “Thank you.”

  He grinned and walked off, but not before looking at me once more over his shoulder.

  I waved and he waved back.

  Then I got into the car with my mother and my sobbing little sister, and never looked back.

  ***

  7 years later

  “Push, honey,” my mother whispered. “Push hard.”

  I pushed hard, but the fact that the room was fucking full of people I didn’t want there was making it hard to concentrate.

  “I think it might be the time to consider a C-section.” The doctor’s kind eyes looked at me.

  “Why do I have to be here?” Jade asked. “This is ridiculous.”

  Jade was my step-sister who also happened to be in a relationship with Troy, the father of the baby I was in the process of delivering.

  I looked over at my brother, who was standing at my head and not looking at anything but my face, and pleaded with him.

  “Please get her out of here.”

  His grin went lethal.

  “I can do that.”

  Without another word, he went to work, getting not just her, but a very pissed off Troy, to leave.

  That’s when I passed out.

  I woke up confused.

  My mind was a hazy, cloudy reminder that something wasn’t right.

  “Honey,” a woman’s angry voice said. “If you make me hold that kid, I will drop it on the floor.”

  “Bitch,” the man mumbled. “She’s cute. Almost as cute as her sister, Haley.”

  My eyes snapped open when what I was supposed to be remembering finally moved to the forefront of my mind.

  My baby!

  That man was holding my baby. First.

  My baby!

  “Give her to me,” I demanded, staring at the man that I hated with my whole entire being.

  Troy walked across the room and placed her in my arms, being sure to touch me inappropriately as he did.

  What had I ever seen in him?

  Granted, he was a good-looking guy, but nothing to fight with another woman over. Not someone I would ever want to have children with—though it was a little too late for that at this point.

  Troy had been my first grown up relationship. He’d been my first love. My first everything.

  But I hadn’t been his first. Hell, I hadn’t even been his only.

  Jade was the other woman. The woman who Troy had chosen over me.

  Jade was also my step-sister. Haley was their daughter together.

  Troy had known that I didn’t get along with Jade. What I hadn’t known was that he was fucking her at the same time he was fucking me. Which had been the deciding factor in why I’d stopped chasing after him.

  At first I’d fancied myself in love with him; but, over time, as I’d calmed down from what had been done to me, I’d come to realize that I wasn’t in love with him, but in love with the idea of him.

  Troy was a football coach at the local high school. He was charismatic, funny, and an all-around pleasant guy…on the outside.

  On the inside, he was an asshole.

  “She’s a cute kid,” he said. “I can’t wait for her to meet her sister.”

  The woman behind him gagged, and I reluctantly let my eyes drift her way.

  The woman—Jade—was not my biggest fan. Hell, but I wasn’t hers either. Although, I guess, I had more right to that than she did.

  She’d won the man and I’d lost him.

  Not that I was too upset about that. In fact, if I had to be honest, I was ecstatic that Troy had chosen her.

  Had I known about her beforehand, I wouldn’t have gotten into the position where a baby would have even been possible. But I didn’t know and I did get into that position, along with several others. So here I am with a baby daddy I loathe, but a precious baby girl who is burrowing her way into my heart, one soft, sweet baby’s breath at a time.

  “Get out.”

  “No,” Troy refused.

  “If you don’t get out, I’m going to call the nurse.”

  “How are you going to do that?” he asked, ripping the call light from my fingers and baring his teeth at me.

  I narrowed my eyes.

  “I don’t have to call him,” I smiled. “He’s already here.”

  At first, I wasn’t too excited about having a male nurse.

  Now, though, I was one hundred percent satisfied with my service.

  Even more so after he took one look at my face, and kicked both of them out and refused to let them back in.

  “It was the court order that allowed him to be there for the birth,” Jason, my nurse protector, said. “It says nothing about him being here afterward.”

  ***

  7 months later

  “Oh, my God,” I moaned to myself. “He’s back.”

  Dammit! Why did he have to be so good-looking?

  “What was that?” July asked from her perusal of her paint samples.

  July flipped houses with her husband. Her hunky firefighter husband who had a lot of hunky firefighter friends.

  One certain hunky firefighter had been demanding my attention for a long freakin’ time now. Months, I’d been fighting off his advances. Months, I’d had to remind myself how freakin’ hard it was to deal with men like him.

  The hunky firefighter even had a sexy name: Bowe.

  God, was he beautiful.

  Rock hard muscles stuffed into a tight navy blue Kilgore Fire Department t-shirt had me drooling.

  Almost.

  It wouldn’t do to let July know that I was attracted to him.

  She’d then try to set me up, and a man was the last thing I needed on my plate at that moment in time. Though even without knowledge of my infatuation, she tried constantly to set Bowe and I up.

  Pairing that with his constant prodding for me to date him, and I was nearly lost.

  I’d been managing to avoid taking the plunge for a long time now, but one day I’d likely give in and hope that he was gentle with me.

  “Nothing,” I muttered. “I need to go.”

  July grinned. “Thank you for your help today.”

  I waved back. “No problem.”

  The moment I made it out the door, I slipped to the side yard in hopes of avoiding Bowe.

  I’d nearly made it, too, but my pants caught on the fence I was trying to skulk behind, and I groaned when I heard the rip.

  “You okay?” an amused male voice asked from in front of me.

  He could see over the fence.

  Of course he could.

  It was only a five-foot fence. Why hadn’t I realized that?

  “Fine, thanks,” I waved.

  He moved forward until his arms rested on top of the fence, and his eyes went down to my pants.

  “You don’t look okay,” he observed.

  I gritted my teeth.

  “Well, your eyes are obviously not working,” I snapped, ripping my pants free from the nail which happened to be sticking out of the fence.

  His eyes watched as I covered my exposed ass back up with the newly added flap.

  “Okay.” He held his hands up. “Sorry that I asked.”

  I wasn’t.

  I liked that he asked. That he cared enough to stop what he was doing to come and check on me.

  I liked having his eyes on me, whi
ch was the root of the problem.

  I sucked at making relationship choices, as evidenced by my asshole ex. Bowe seemed like a nice guy now, but who’s to say that he would always be that nice?

  That’s right, I had no guarantee that one day he wouldn’t try to kill me like my last ex had.

  Then where the hell would I be?

  That’s right, in a hell of a lot of trouble.

  “See you around,” I muttered, escaping as quickly as my feet would take me.

  Bowe’s eyes followed me as I went.

  “Yeah,” he grunted. “See you later.”

  Chapter 1

  I just ate a Snickers and I’m still a bitch. WTF- Snickers! False advertisement is a crime!

  -Secret thoughts of Bowe

  Bowe

  “Shit, Bowe,” Sierra smiled at me. “I have to go, my friend finally decided to study. She’s habitually late. I’m sorry I teased you.”

  I grinned at Sierra.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I understand. Call or Skype me later.”

  Sierra’s beautiful face filled the screen. “I can do that.”

  She closed her screen down; instead of doing the same, I took the phone from my nightstand and texted PD, telling him that we were going to have to postpone our lunch about thirty minutes. Seemed I had a pesky hard on to deal with, and I didn’t think I could go to lunch with it throbbing in my pants.

  Sierra and I had been dating online for about a month now.

  Surprisingly, I’d met her at the supermarket while on a food run with the Kilgore Fire Department, and we’d exchanged emails and phone numbers while standing in line.

  Originally, I’d stopped there because I’d seen a certain brunette at the same grocery store.

  Trying to make her jealous, I’d allowed Sierra to make the move instead of avoiding any advances like I normally would have.

  When I got no reaction out of Angie, I knew that I needed to move on.

  And I’d tried.

  With Sierra.

  She was nice enough, but she wasn’t Angie.

  Unluckily for the both of us, Sierra lived out of state, and we started to get to know each other online and through emails rather than the traditional face-to-face way.