“Fuck you very much. This better be an emergency. I mean a real goddamn emergency. Like, Townsend Manor on fire type of emergency!” he snarled.
It was five-thirty in the morning. After working the night shift, I’d just gotten back to the station from our latest call and decided to call my brother. He hated early mornings and I loved calling him as early as I could just to piss him off.
“First of all, watch your goddamned voice when you’re speaking to me. I’m still your older brother and I have no problem kicking your ass all over Townsend Manor or any place else.”
“Fuck you, Carter,” he mumbled around a yawn.
I chuckled. “Get your lazy ass up.” I’d never understand how my brother was so successful in the real estate market but hated getting up early.
“What do you want?”
“Glad you asked. I need the name to your top interior designer.”
“It’s about damn time you decided to decorate your place. It’s only been two years,” Joshua grumbled through the phone.
“Mind your goddamn business about my house. I just need a fucking name. Matter of fact, give her my number. I need to set up an appointment.”
“Who says she’s available for you right now?”
“Make her available.”
“My, my, aren’t we insistent?” He paused. “Two years with no talk of decorating a fucking five thousand square foot home and all of a sudden you call at five fucking thirty in the morning, demanding I make my top designer available?” He stopped again. “What’s her name? No, wait … is this over the chick I had to practically pry you off of Tyler over? And the one you stormed Townsend Industries ready to take Aaron’s head off over?”
I sighed, eyes narrowed. “Glad to see my family knows how to keep things private.”
“Oh, we know. It’s just a little difficult to keep each other out of the loop when you’re storming around threatening anyone who even gets near her. She’s your third rail, bro. What’s her name?”
“Michelle.”
“Michelle. Pretty name.”
“Joshua,” I said his name menacingly upon hearing the smirk in his comment. “Do yourself a favor and don’t even mention her name in that fucking tone again.”
“Aaand, now I’m the final brother you’ve threatened over her. Lastly, it’s Father. I bet you even threatened the guys at the station for fucking with her.” He was laughing like this shit was a joke.
“Can’t even call this asswipe for a damn referral,” I grumbled to no one in particular. “Give the interior designer my contact information and tell her to get in touch with me ASAP, asshole!” I grunted before hanging up on my now laughing brother.
“Hey!” I called to Corey who’d just walked past my cot. “What’re you up to?”
His dark eyebrows raised, creasing his cinnamon-colored forehead. “It’s damn near six in the morning and we’ve been on ten calls over the last seven hours. I’m getting some fucking sleep.”
“Wanna run drills?”
“You’ve got to be fucking playing with me?” He looked at me as if I had two heads. But after speaking with Joshua I had extra tension I needed to burn. Michelle had indeed become my third rail, even with my family. And now, I included Diego on that list as well. They both were off limits to anyone.
“Fine. How about we spar?” The station housed a gym in addition to the outside area where we ran drills. The gym had a boxing ring where we often boxed or sparred with one another. Just about all of the guys had undergone some sort of self-defense training. Either from past military experience like myself or from on their own, having fancied themselves tough guys. We all did.
“Sure,” Corey reluctantly agreed. He was one of my favorite sparring partners because he was the quickest. The guy was naturally light on his feet, which not only made him good in the ring but one of the best firefighters you’d want to have at your back while walking into a fire or a rescue.
****
Michelle
“Natoi, how many RSVPs have we received for the Williams & Brodsky event?” I questioned my assistant as I stood at the entranceway of my office door.
“Um, so far we’ve got two hundred and thirty-three.”
“Okay, we’re expecting at least a hundred and fifty more. Can you start making calls to those who haven’t sent in their RSVPs to just make sure they received their invites. Kind of nudge them to send it back. You know what to do,” I told her. We’d done this process dozens of times before. I waited for her to write my request down before turning to go back to my desk. The Williams & Brodsky dinner was just over three weeks away and I was looking forward to wrapping it up as soon as possible. I hated Gabriel being the point of contact for this event and the power that it made me feel he had over me. And he had no problem holding it over me either. Anytime I denied even a minute request of his he threatened to go to Nancy. I wanted this event done and hopefully I wouldn’t have to hear too much out of Gabriel for a while. But I knew eventually he’d show up out of the blue again just to make my life as miserable as possible.
