Page 247 of Her Reluctant Hero
“Is that what you want?” She forced the words past the lump in her throat.
“Jesus, are you jealous?” His voice rose on his incredulity.
She choked back the lump. “Of a woman who can’t walk away from her job long enough to get her husband out of jail? No.”
“Hitting a little close to home?” he asked quietly, with an insight she hadn’t expected, not when his own emotions had to be too close to the surface for his comfort. He was thinking of Dan, of what she’d told him. His tone and perceptiveness had her relaxing marginally.
“Maybe.” She didn’t have to push so hard, not yet. Again, she steered the conversation. “Jen thinks he’s been set up. He has no clear motive. Jen has more of a motive than he does.”
He whipped around in surprise. “What’s hers?”
“She got to be IC, didn’t she? Clearly her job’s important to her.” Or Jen would be the one going to town.
He was silent a moment, his jaw working angrily. “Jen has a lot of faults, God knows, but setting up her husband to take a fall isn’t one.”
In his opinion, anyway. Gabe did value loyalty. Why he thought the woman who hadn’t shown him any would show it for another man, Peyton didn’t know. “I don’t believe she did it. I’m reasoning out loud, trying to figure why they think Doug might have done it, aside from the physical evidence. Jen has a stronger motive.”
“As do I. Everyone knows my feelings about Doug.”
If she said the thought hadn’t crossed her mind, she’d be lying. Guilt washed through her for even considering it. She may have only known Gabe three days, but she understood him, the kind of man he was. If someone accused him, she would stand in his corner, and not just because of the great sex. “If we’re going to go that direction, say that he’s being set up, then being accused is something you have to be prepared for.”
He shot her a sidelong glance. “Do you think I did it, Peyton?”
“Of course not.” The words came like a reflex, but they weren’t a lie.
He must have realized this too, because his posture relaxed. “Why not? You’re ready to believe Doug did it.”
“Because you have honor. Look, I liked Doug when we were on the mountain. He was a real affable guy. But I don’t know him well enough to make the call. And I don’t know firefighting well enough to know why someone would start a fire and blame it on someone else.”
“A firefighter wouldn’t do this. Trust me.”
*****
Half a million dollars to let Doug out of jail. Gabe couldn’t fathom that kind of money.
Doug had looked like hell. His bridge was missing, and someone else had broken his nose this time. Gabe could understand—Doug was being held with people whose homes and livelihoods were threatened by the fire.
A lot of reporters milled in front of the white-bricked Grecian-style courthouse in Bounty, including microwave towers from all the major news stations across the country. If Gabe had been thinking clearly, he and Peyton would have changed out of their Nomex gear before showing up. The yellow and green uniform acted as a magnet for the reporters, who mobbed them, shouting questions he didn’t have answers to.
Questions he’d asked himself since he’d heard.
Only a matter of days ago, Gabe would have been happy to let Doug rot. Now it was public sentiment driving him to get Doug out of jail, not any softening toward the man. He was still a son of a bitch. But not a son of a bitch who deserved to be in jail.
Jesus, this was a nightmare, like learning about Doug and Jen all over again. A betrayal to the soul. At first, when Jen had told him she loved Doug, he’d denied it to himself, needing to believe Doug would never risk their friendship. They’d been through too much to split over a woman.
And now to find the same man accused of arson—it was almost worse, somehow. Everything he knew about the man was at odds with the idea he was a firebug. The man loved his job. Grudgingly, Gabe could see him being swayed by a woman, but not by the lure of the dragon.
Peyton stood nearby, on the phone with Jen, one palm pressed over her free ear. He didn’t understand why she had trouble hearing—he could hear Jen just fine, freaking out over the bail.
“Half a million?”
“If we get a bondsman, we only have to pay ten percent.”
Why was Peyton saying “we”? She was trying to calm Jen down, but there was a limit to his willingness to get involved. Hell, he didn’t have any money, and as career firefighters, Jen and Doug probably didn’t either. And ten percent of five hundred thousand dollars was still fifty thou.
“Doesn’t matter. I don’t have it!”
Definitely freaking out.
