“I lost my brother.” She paused. “Today, that house—it...it looked like mine. The flames, the smoke.” Her hands shook, so she fisted them in her lap. “I was standing in front of that fire again. And I could see him, being brought out...” Tears prickled her eyes. She broke off. She would not cry. Not here. This was not how a firefighter behaved. She cleared her throat and sat straight up. “It won’t happen again.”
“Damn straight it won’t happen again. I’m recommending you check in with Psych.”
Riya moved to the edge of her seat and leaned forward, dread filling her.No, no, no!“That’s not necessary. I’ve got it under control. Besides, I passed the psych eval already.”
He pierced her with those dark eyes again. “Check in with Psych weekly and you can keep your shifts.”
What if the guys found out? “Isn’t there another form of punishment?”
“This is not punishment.” He shook his head. “This is ensuring that my team is fit to do the job.”
She leaned in farther. “Captain, I’ll look weak in front of the guys. They’ll never respect me.”
“They respect people who can do the job.” Captain Davis paused. “Can you do the job, Desai?”
“Yes, sir. I can.” She stabbed her finger into his desk to accentuate her point. “I was made to do this job.”
He grinned at her, but it was a short-lived thing. “Glad to hear it. You can continue to do it if you report to Psych.”
She opened her mouth to say more, but he raised his hand. “Dismissed, rookie. And if I was you, I’d leave while I was ahead.”
Riya was screwed. The guys were going to find out she was going back to Psych, and they’d never think she was fit for the job. It was beyond mortifying.
She stood and turned, prepared to be assaulted by taunting blue eyes and an I-told-you-so smirk. Instead, her lieutenant looked at her with soft eyes and a closed mouth. She would have preferred the taunt and the smirk.
“I guess you were right, after all,” she threw at him as she opened the door.
He caught the door and covered her hand with his, forcing her to look at him. “I was never trying to be right.” He focused his gaze on her. “Go home, Desai. There’s only a few minutes left on your shift anyway. Get some rest. We’ll start fresh tomorrow.”
He made sense, and she was suddenly weary from it all. She left the captain’s office and marched out of the bays and straight to her bike. She couldn’t face the guys right now. She just couldn’t. Once they found out she had been ordered to Psych, they’d never look at her the same way.
She pulled into her driveway, barely remembering how she got there. The motion-sensor driveway lights flickered on, revealing a figure leaning against the brick between the two garages.
“Tough night?” Dhillon’s voice was gravelly with sleep, and her reaction to it was as it always was: a thrill leading to her insides melting.
His hands were shoved into the pockets of his shorts, and he wore a fitted T-shirt. He pushed off the brick with his shoulder, his champal slapping the bottoms of his feet softly as he approached her. Didn’t he have any loose-fitting T-shirts?
His grin slow and lopsided, he looked at her from beneath sleep-tousled hair. She had the feeling that if she stepped closer to him, he’d still be warm from his bed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He didn’t look sorry. He looked pleased with himself.
“What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” She tried to sound accusatory to cover up whatever feelings she was having. “Is that a pink shirt?” Because that was what was important at midnight.
He looked down at his T-shirt as if he had no idea what he was wearing. “I think the important question is why your lieutenant is calling my sister in the middle of the night about you.” He yawned. “But to answer you, Hetal bought it for me, but this color has some kind of fancy name.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and shrugged. “Salmon? Tea rose? Coral?” It suited him. Just another thing to love about Dhillon: he could wear pink.
He shook his head like he couldn’t be bothered. “What happened, Riya-D?”
Tears burned behind her eyes, and she stared at him, determined not to answer. Dhillon waited as if he had nowhere else he’d rather be. As if he hadn’t been awakened in the middle of the night.
“I freaked out today.” She sniffled. “Like, I froze and couldn’t do my job.”
He nodded, still looking at her.
“There was a fire. A townhome fire.”
His eyes hardened, and he frowned.
“I was on the hose with Evans, and I froze. There were flames in the windows, Dhillon-V, and the smoke—like that night—and all I could think about was Samir. All I could see were flames in those windows.” Tears flowed down her face, and she didn’t even try to stop them. “It was like I was back there again. Like it was happening right now. Evans was yelling at me, and it took a minute before I even recognized him. I was...was...” She was loath to say the word, but it was true. “Weak.”
