Hot and Dangerous, page 1
part #1 of Fraternity Brothers Series Series
Hot and Dangerous
The Fraternity Brothers Series — Book One
Emerson Rose
Contents
Important!
Description
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
Epilogue
Connect With Us!
About the Author
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Description
He needs a roommate, she needs a place to live.
Correction.
She needs a place to hide …
When charming firefighter Hunter meets a beautiful woman at the DMV, he wastes no time making her acquaintance. When she mentions she’s new in town and looking for a fresh start, he does not hesitate in offering to rent the extra bedroom in his house. After all, he’s never been able to resist a damsel-in-distress and helping those in need is what he does best.
What begins as an innocent, well intentioned arrangement, blossoms into a passionate entanglement neither one of them saw coming.
It all feels right. His tight-knit group of friends think the world of her. And he can’t imagine going the rest of his life without Edie by his side.
But when her past comes to call and their love is on the line, Hunter’s save-the-world complex faces the ultimate test. Is love enough to save them both?
1
Hunter
“Hunter, you’re fired.”
I look up from my bunk that I’ve just made with military precision after my last twenty-four-hour shift for the week. “Uh, sir?”
Chief Sullivan stands tall and irritated on the threshold of the room with his hands behind his back. “You have failed to show proof of a Class A license, so I have to fire you. I’ve been telling you for weeks to get this done by today. Time’s up.”
Shit. I was planning on taking care of that three days ago, but I was busy hiding the fact that I’m going to the academy to become a full-time firefighter from my family. “I was going to take care of that today, sir.”
His brows shoot up, and his expression is doubtful. “You have until five o’clock tonight. Have fun at the DMV on a Saturday, son. I don’t envy you.”
I don’t envy me either. “Thank you, sir. I’ll make sure you have it before five.”
“You do that, or you really will be fired.”
I’m a volunteer firefighter. Technically, he can’t fire me, but hopefully, that will soon change—being a full-time firefighter, not being fired.
He turns to leave and pauses on his way out. “Everything all right with your family?” he asks.
No, everything is not all right with my family. They’re pissed they spent thousands of dollars sending me to Westview University for four years only to watch me throw it all away to play hero, as they say. Chief knows my family is less than thrilled about my career choice, and he’s always been supportive.
“They still feel the same way. Nothing’s going to make them budge, though. I’m not going to worry about it.”
He grunts in agreement and leaves me alone. There’s not much else to say.
I hadn’t planned on spending the day at the DMV. I was going to take a run on the beach, work out, and place an ad for a roommate. Dad refuses to help with the rent now that I’m not going on to law school as planned.
As he planned, not me. I never wanted to go to college in the first place. I’ve wanted to be a firefighter since I was ten years old when I rescued a kitten from a burning garage five houses down from ours on Grand Avenue.
I saw smoke coming from the Grady’s garage and heard Cleo’s meows. Like an idiot, I went inside and crawled around on my hands and knees to find her. Mrs. Grady was a nice lady, and I knew how much she loved that cat. I couldn’t let it die.
When I emerged from the garage, Cleo under my arm coughing and sputtering, gasping for air, I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Even after spending the night in the hospital for smoke inhalation, I wouldn’t shut up about being a firefighter.
My dad finally put his foot down a year later and told me under no circumstances was a Forrest man going to work a blue-collar job. I didn’t know what that meant other than I wasn’t allowed to talk about being a fireman anymore. Dad said I was going to be a lawyer like the rest of the family. Being a lawyer looked boring dressing in a suit, carrying a briefcase, working behind a desk on the computer, and spending time in stuffy old courthouses. No, that isn’t what I wanted to do—never was, never will be.
I step outside into the sunlight and shield my eyes. Another perfect day in California. Too bad I have to spend it inside waiting for a special license that says I can keep driving the huge rigs I’ve been driving for almost four years already. What a waste of time.
2
Edie
I snap my eyes open with a jolt and blink away the crappy dream. Long, misshapen black fingers wrapped around my bedroom door pushing it open slowly, the sound of someone slurping and chewing in the background, the hum of someone breathing down my neck behind me.
I’ve had it more times than I can remember, but this time has left me more unsettled than usual. I jump again when someone taps me on the shoulder. “Honey, we’re here,” May says. She’s a woman in her sixties whom I’ve been sitting next to on the bus since Colorado. I know more about May than I do members of my own family. She talks a lot.
“Thanks, sorry I fell asleep.”
“Don’t apologize, dear, you were tired, you needed the sleep.”
“Yeah, it’s been a long trip. Is Carol meeting you here at the bus station?” Carol is her older sister. May is visiting for the summer.
“Yes, she’s picking me up. She’s always late, though.”
“I’ll wait with you.” Nobody is picking me up. I don’t know a soul in California. I’ve got nothing but time.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I’m sure you’ve got things to do and people to see.” She smiles, and the tiny wrinkles around her eyes become more pronounced. Don’t get me wrong, she looks amazing for a woman in her sixties. She looks like she’s lived a happy life, smiled a lot, laughed a lot. I can only hope for laugh lines like the ones she has someday.
“Actually, I don’t have any plans.”
“Who’s picking you up?”
“Nobody, I’m on my own.” She steps out into the aisle and looks back at me with concern etched in her eyes.
“You came all the way out here, and nobody is coming to get you?”
“I don’t know anyone here.”
“But, you have a place to stay, right?”
“Nope. That’s okay, though, everything will work out.”
“You’re coming to my sister’s house with us then. It’s settled. You can’t be here in this big city with no plan and no friends.”
“No, I’ll be fine, I promise.” I feel like I’m talking to my mother. No, I take that back, my mother wouldn’t give a shit who I was staying with or if I had a place to stay. I feel like I’m talking to a mother, but not my mother.
“You’re serious? What are you going to do?” She takes my hand and pulls me down the aisle and out into the bright West Coast sunshine. Good question. I hadn’t thought this far in advance. I knew I had to get as far away from Kansas as pos
“I’m going to get a California driver’s license and find a place to live.”
“Just like that?”
“Yep.”
She shakes her head and sighs. “Well, at least take down my phone number in case you get into a pinch.”
That’s a good idea. “Okay, thanks.” I take her phone number and call her, so she has mine as we stand outside the bus.
“And I want you to call or text me later on and let me know you’re all right.”
“You do?”
“Well, yes, of course. You’re what, twenty years old, alone in a new state with no place to live. I feel irresponsible enough letting you out of my sight right now, so at least let me know in a few hours if everything is okay.”
I don’t know why she feels like she’s responsible for me, but I don’t mind checking in with her later. It’s kind of nice. “I will, and you can call me if I forget.” I smile, and she looks worried.
“I have a daughter, she’s older than you, and do you know what happens when she forgets to check in with her mother?”
“What?”
“I call her in the middle of the night and wake her up to chat.”
That would be fine with me. I’m a night owl, but I don’t want her to know her threat is worthless in my nocturnal world. “Okay, I’ll call, cross my heart.” I make an ‘x’ over my chest, and she gives me an awkward hug made awkward because I’m not used to being hugged and especially by strangers.
“Goodbye, Edie. Good luck with your new adventure,” she says.
“Bye, May. Thanks for keeping me company. Have fun with your sister.”
She turns to walk toward the bus station, and I sling my duffle bag over my shoulder and walk to the nearest sidewalk and google the nearest DMV. When I have the address, I order an Uber and sit down on a bench in front of the station and wait.
It’s hot, hotter than I’d expected California to be. I thought it was always temperate here— sunny and seventy—but today is unseasonably warm at a whopping eighty-eight degrees. I need a shower more than life. I’ve been riding in a bus for two days using wet wipes on only the most important areas, and I haven’t brushed my teeth yet today. I fish out a mint and pop it into my mouth and brush my hair back into a ponytail. When I check my mirror, I cringe. My usual wavy, mahogany hair is a greasy dark brown and stick straight, the bags under my eyes make me look like a drug addict, and I’m in desperate need of some sun. This is going to be the ugliest driver’s license photo ever, but I don’t care, nobody will see it anyway. I don’t go out to clubs, and I always drive carefully. Those are the only two times anyone ever shows their license to a stranger, so I’m good.
A black Jeep Cherokee pulls up to the curb in front of me, my Uber. Thank God. I need air conditioning. I stand and remove my light jacket tying it around my waist but keeping my arms close to my sides in case I smell.
I open the door, and the driver asks, “Hey, DMV girl?”
“Uh, yeah, can I put my bag in back?”
“Sure, just toss it in.” He points at the back seat, and I open the door, throw in my bag, and climb up front with him wondering how much an Uber driver earns. Not that it matters, I don’t have a car, and I’m not much for chit-chat with strangers unless they are sixty-year-old ladies named May.
“So, you get off a bus and head straight to the DMV for a license, huh? Way to be efficient.” His head bobs ever so slightly like one of those bobbleheads when he speaks. He talks slow and drawn out like a surfer. In fact, I think he is a surfer. His hair is longer than mine, blond from the sun, and he’s wearing board shorts, a threadbare t-shirt with words I can’t make out, and flip-flops.
“Yeah, efficient, that’s me.” I laugh nervously because I’m not efficient at all, more like spontaneous and flighty lately.
“Cool, well, if you need a place to crash, I live on the beach, and you can hang anytime.” He points at a business card holder glued to his dash. “Take one, my number is on it. I give surfing lessons, too, if you’re interested. And hey, if you get a car, I can hook you up at Uber. It’s a pretty sweet gig, work when you want and all that.” He glances over at me with a giant goofy grin, and I give him a small, shy smile in return.
For a moment, I was wondering if he’s hitting on me, but I put the idea away as soon as I see that smile. It’s relaxed and brotherly and genuine. I consider myself lucky to have found two genuinely kind and generous people on my journey so far. I hope that luck holds out.
“Thanks.”
“Ever been to SoCal before?”
“No, I’ve never been anywhere.”
“No way, this is your first time out and about?” he says. I imagine myself taking a walk around the neighborhood when he says ‘out and about,’ and not driving to the edge of the country to start over.
“Yeah, guess so.”
“Where ya coming from?”
“Kansas,” I say, but I think hell.
“Cool, cool. I could never be a land-locked dude, gotta have the big pond, ya know?”
I don’t, but I nod my head in agreement. I’ve never even seen the ocean much less needed it like this guy does. “So, wait… like you’ve never seen the ocean then, have you?” He looks at me like he just discovered a unicorn.
“Nope, it’s third on my list of things to do.”
“Dudette, it should be the first.” His tone is serious, a total contradiction to his surfer slang.
I point my thumbs at myself and smile. “Efficient, remember?”
“Yeah, right. Well, you can toss that to-do list after you get your license if you stay with me. I got a girl, so I’m not trying to hook up or anything, but dude, I never got to intro anybody to the ocean before, you gotta let me.”
“I’ll probably be waiting in line all day. I’m sure you have other things to do.”
“Nah, take the card, and I’ll come get you, no charge.” He points at the cards again, and I slip one into my purse. He bobs his head a little harder now and murmurs, “Cool.”
I’m beginning to feel like California wasn’t such a reckless and wild decision to make after all. So far, I’ve been here for two hours and had as many offers to stay with new friends.
When we arrive at my destination, I’m surprised to find the parking lot only half full. Back home, the Department of Transportation was packed on a Saturday morning, but it’s still early. “Looks like you won’t have to wait too long after all,” I say to… I don’t even remember my driver’s name. It was on the app when I requested a ride, but I wasn’t paying attention.
I slide the card out of the side pocket of my purse and glance down at the name. Bodhi Drake’s School of Surfing. He couldn’t possibly have a cooler surfer name if he tried.
“They open in like, fifteen minutes, people will start lining up quickly. Call me when you’re done if you want. I’ll be around.”
I open the door and retrieve my duffle from the back. “Thanks, Bodhi, I appreciate it.” He bobs his head and salutes me.
“Later, Kansas girl.”
I close the door and watch his Jeep disappear blending in with a million other cars. Looking around the parking lot, I notice a lot of people pulling in all of a sudden and feel a jolt of panic. I’d better get inside and secure my spot in line before all these people get out of their cars. I don’t want to spend my first day in the Golden State staring at the back of somebody’s head waiting for my number to be announced.
