He handed over the folder, but as Trent took it, Ray didn’t release it. They held gazes.
“One of ours is in trouble if your hunch is true.”
“A firefighter?” Trent asked, feeling his gut clench tighter and fear grip him hard.
“Take a look.”
Trent opened up the file and sat down in the chair. It was a list of the only few survivors from the club fire out in North Carolina. There were only five, but one sustained burns where the others had gotten out unscathed. He recognized the first three on the list. A man killed in a car explosion and the couple killed the other night in their home. The same explosive devices were used. Then he saw the last two names. He recognized the one woman immediately.
“Chief Martelli’s daughter?” He looked up at Ray.
“Her boyfriend was one of the twelve firefighters killed. They were together when it all happened. She survived but he didn’t.”
Trent looked at her name, and read the details.
“Oh fuck, Ray. You know the mental instability of an arsonist as well as I do. The Feds may believe he’s connected to international business deals and fires set to destroy companies or business people, but this need to go after survivors is something different. This is what I was looking for, the link to connect these cases.”
“I think you’re right, and I’m wondering if this guy started out doing the fires for money, a hired arsonist and now he’s so obsessed with it that he’s hunting.”
“A serial fucking arsonist. Holy shit,” Trent said and then stood up.
“This woman needs protection. Buddy, the team and me need to identify this asshole pronto. But how do we do this under the radar and protect Martelli’s daughter?”
Ray placed his hands on his desk and whispered. “Our code of honor. We protect our own, at all costs.”
* * * *
Serefina stood by the balcony that overlooked the beach. Their home was gorgeous and isolated from the other houses by large sand dunes, a huge cul-de-sac, and over an acre of property.
She had been nervous when they suggested showing her their home and having a quieter place to talk, but she accepted their invitation feeling comfortable with the three strapping men.
They had talked for a while and they shared memories of their brother Marco, and even showed her a picture of him. They explained how he died, and she couldn’t help but sense Ace’s raw anger at how Marco died, and about the fact that his killer was still out there. She sensed the guilt he felt as she caressed his arm while he stood beside her. Bull was sitting on one of the lounge chairs, and Ice was a few feet away.
“It wasn’t your fault, Ace. Coming from a family of firefighters, I know that there are crazy people out there ready to do harm, to burn, and to destroy without a care for life. They attacked unexpectedly and usually when their targets are vulnerable. You can’t live your life thinking that you could have saved Marco. You can’t take that day back. You went into that fire just as you have gone into others. Your purpose, your mission was to rescue any people trapped, and put out the fire.”
He turned away from her and looked out toward the water. She glanced at Ice and then Bull who seemed on edge.
“He’s out there. The guy responsible for killing Marco. It kills me inside to know that. To think I failed Marco by not catching this guy.”
“What? How can you feel that, Ace? We all tried to help with the investigation. Trent and Buddy have been doing their best to find this guy,” Ice added.
“I do feel that way. I’m the oldest, I’m the one who’s supposed to take care of you guys. Don’t you realize how difficult it is for me to not be on the same shifts as you and Bull all the time? How little sleep I get while worrying about this guy coming back and going after one of you? It haunts me.” He turned from Serefina and his brothers.
“This is what all the ordering around and piss-poor attitude at work with us is about? You’ve been worried so you keep checking and double-checking our equipment or our ways of doing things?” Bull asked him.
“I’m not going to make a mistake again that can cost me losing another brother,” Ace said.
“You can’t go on like this, Ace. It’s not your burden. You need to trust your brothers and their training. They need to live their lives,” Serefina said, and as the words left her lips, she realized that she had been acting similar to Ace. She was denying her right to live her life out of guilt for Matt losing his. She’d closed off her heart and allowed fear and uncertainty to hold her back from her own loves and desires.
“You don’t know how difficult that is, Serefina. You don’t understand,” Ace stated.
“I don’t understand? You think that since I lost Matt in that fire that I haven’t thought why did I live and not him? After that fire I wanted to die, Ace. I actually thought about taking my own life.”
All three men now stood around her, watching her. Ace looked angry but also shocked at her admittance.
“I closed off everyone that I loved and I closed off my heart because it was easier not to feel than to risk feeling pain from losing another loved one. We can’t go on like this because of some shadow in the darkness attempting to take our lives, too, and making us miserable. You have two other brothers who are right here in front of you alive and well. Don’t push them away while you’re trying so hard to protect them.”
Ace reached out and snagged her around the waist. She was pressed up against him as she tilted her head back to look up into his very intense blue eyes.
“I love my brothers. We’re closer than most in so many ways. But since Marco’s death, something was missing. Some common link that could ease our minds of the past, and help us to continue to build a future together. Marco knew what it was, and I think now, we see it, too.” He looked at Ice and Bull who stood next to them.
“Stay with us tonight, Serefina,” he whispered.
She knew she looked shocked. She felt her eyes widen and her jaw nearly drop at their request. And she knew it was all three of their requests by the way they stared at her, and reached out to touch her.
Bull traced a finger along her jaw, while Ice stepped in behind her, placed his hands on her hips, and kissed her bare shoulder.
She hesitated only a second as her mind began to tell her all the reasons why this was a huge mistake, and that she hardly knew them, yet felt as if she knew them better than they knew themselves. It was a powerful gut reaction and positive instinct as she whispered, “Okay.”
* * * *
Ace leaned forward and kissed her. He wanted to rejoice and let her know how happy her one word made him but instead he decided to show her, as he deepened the kiss and began to explore what would soon be his and his brothers’ woman.
He cupped her head under her hair and devoured her moans. He wanted more. He wanted all of her as he maneuvered his hand over her ribs and then up against her large breasts. Massaging the firm mound, he pulled her tighter against him until she pulled from his mouth to breathe.
“Let us take care of you, of everything,” Ice told her. Ace drew her lips in for a kiss again as he maneuvered one of her thighs up and against his thigh. He trailed his palm along her skin to her hip, and felt the thin, string-like fabric.
He pulled from her mouth, both of them breathing rapidly.
“You’re so sexy, baby. Are you even wearing panties?” he teased.
“What? She’s not wearing any panties?” Bull asked. Serefina lowered her eyes. Bull placed his fingers under her chin. “Are you?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not certain. I think further exploration is needed,” Ace said and then slowly began to lower to his knees. Bull cupped her cheeks and Serefina gasped as Ace lifted her dress.
She grabbed for his head and then gasped as she grabbed for her top just as Ice unzipped the back. Ace smiled as he lifted her foot up and placed it on the wide lip by the balcony floor. It caused her thighs to part and her black-lace-covered pussy to show.
“Just what I thought. Barely there,” Ace said. Ice reached under her arm from behind her to cup her breast under the fabric of the dress. She leaned back and moaned, giving Bull the opportunity to release her other breast so he could take a taste of her, too. Ace pushed the black lace aside and pressed a thumb to her hot little cunt.
“Oh God, this is crazy. I can’t believe how crazy this is,” she said. He worried that she would pull away, but then he released a sigh of relief when he felt her fingers run through his hair and her body press firmer against his thumb.
Gently he pressed a finger over her pussy lips, spreading her cream in a circular motion. Serefina moaned and gripped his head.
Ace leaned forward and licked where his finger aroused her. Back and forth and over her labia he flicked his tongue as she moaned and thrust her pussy. He took that moment to push a digit gently up into her and she gasped then pulled back, stepping away from him, pulling her dress to her chest and gasping for air.
His brothers were breathing heavy, too, and he wondered what went wrong.
“I…I don’t know if I can. I mean, I felt so…Oh God, I’m making a mess of this.” She turned around and headed inside with the three of them following behind.
* * * *
“Serefina.” Ice called her name and she stopped walking. They were going to think she was immature and foolish. But she never felt so aroused, so out of control of her body. She was completely enjoying herself and feeling wild and needy with all three of them touching her, and then she felt that uncertainty, that guilty feeling she had just admitted to letting go of. She was so clueless about sex. As she imagined being with the three of them, she panicked. Pure and simple.