Page 12 of Line of Fire
“Fine,” she whispered, not wanting to wake Sadie. “I’m in love with Aaron, and I haven’t told him yet. I’ve been a little busy with life and having a baby come out of my body and all. I want to tell him how I feel, but I’m also afraid that he’s changed his mind. What if he was just caught up in all the emotions of having the baby and everything?” Sunny looked down at her sleeping daughter, and dammit, she was crying again. She loved how peaceful Sadie looked when she napped. Her peach fuzz hair was blond like Aaron’s, and Sunny hoped that it stayed that color. Sadie also had Aaron’s blue eyes and his dimple on just one side. She was completely in love with her baby girl. What if Aaron looked at their baby and just got caught up in his emotions, telling Sunny that he loved her?
“Listen, Sunny, there is no way to know what Aaron is feeling unless you ask him. You need to have an honest, adult conversation with each other. Unless you want to continue living with the father of your baby, not knowing where you stand with him.” Lorna was always the voice of reason in the group. Sunny knew that she was right, but she was still scared to confrontAaron. She wanted a future with him and Sadie; the question was—did he want the same with her? It was time to stop hiding behind excuses and confront her feelings. She was going to go after what she wanted, and she wanted Aaron Steele.
Sawyer pulled up the footage on his cell phone and showed Aaron the pictures of what looked like a man stabbing his tire in the condo’s parking garage. He looked at the still photos that Sawyer enlarged and was at a loss. He had no idea who the guy was, although he seemed oddly familiar. Maybe someone he saw around town, or someone he knew from his past. Tag told him to try to think of anyone who might have a grudge against him or a score to settle, but Aaron couldn’t think of anyone.
“How about a family member from one of the guys in your old company? Maybe someone is angry that you made it down the mountain and their loved one didn’t.” Tag almost whispered his question. He knew that his friend didn’t want to bring up such bad memories, but he was right. Maybe someone was holding a grudge that he survived the fire while their family member didn’t. It was a long shot, but they were running out of options.
“We also have the footage from the hospital, and I hate to tell you this, but it looks to be the same guy. Whoever this guy is, he is targeting you or Sunny. I think we need to bring her in on this and see if she might know who this guy is.” Sawyer waited for Aaron to get out, letting him take in all the new information. He didn’t want Sunny involved any more than she had to be, but Sawyer was right; Sunny might have a clue as to who this assholewas, and they could catch him before he did something worse than slashing a tire or looking at his daughter.
“Send me the footage. I’ll show it to her tonight and let you know if she recognizes that guy. I don’t want to ruin her day with Piper and Lorna; she has been looking forward to their visit,” Aaron said.
“There is one other thing.” Tag said. He shared a look with Sawyer and then continued. “Sawyer got a partial print, but we haven’t been able to place it yet.”
Sawyer nodded. “It’s going to take a few more days, at least. With a partial print, we sometimes get lucky and sometimes not. It’s a crapshoot, really,” Sawyer said.
Aaron sighed, “I appreciate everything that you are doing for us, guys. Sunny and I have so much going on with Sadie; I just want to get this crap over with. I want to get on with our lives and not keep looking over our shoulders.” Tag clapped Aaron’s back, and he pulled him in for a quick man hug.
“You and Sunny are family, man. We would do anything to keep you both and Sadie safe,” Tag said. Sawyer shook his hand and promised to keep Aaron in the loop. Aaron agreed to show Sunny the pictures from the security footage and get back to him.
“We’ll catch this guy, Aaron. But until we do, you and Sunny need to lie low,” Sawyer whispered the last part as they made their way back into the main living room. He pulled Sunny in for a hug and collected Lorna. Piper and Tag said their goodbyes, and they all left, leaving him alone with Sunny. She looked so uncertain that he couldn’t help himself; he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. He could tell that she had been crying—her hormones were still out of whack, and he loved how soft her lips were from her tears.
“You all right, honey?” he asked. She nodded, and he pulled her in for another long kiss, leaving her breathless when theybroke apart. “You sure, baby?” She looked like she wanted to nod again, and he leaned in for another kiss until Sunny put her hands on his chest, halting his progress.
“I need to talk to you, Aaron, and you should stop trying to distract me with all of this kissing. I’m going to need all my wits about me to get through what I need to say.” Aaron’s stomach dropped and he felt a little nauseous. Sunny sounded like she was about to give him the ax, and he didn’t want to hear her say the words. He flexed his fingers on her hips, wanting to pull her into his body and beg her not to leave him, but he knew that once Sunny made up her mind about something, there was no changing it.
“Don’t say anything that you’ll regret, Sunny. We have a daughter to raise together, and you can’t take back words once they are out.” Sunny looked up at him, seeming unsure of herself. He waited her out, not knowing if she was going to go through with breaking his heart or not. Sunny nodded and looked down at her bare feet, taking a deep breath. “Please don’t break up with me, Sunny. I don’t want to lose you or Sadie,” Aaron whispered. Her gaze shot up to meet his, and she barked out her laugh.
“Break up with you? Aaron, is that what you think I was going to do?” He nodded, and she wrapped her arms around his waist. “No, you crazy fool. I’m in love with you.” Sunny smiled up at him, and his whole world seemed right. The woman that he loved, loved him back. He picked her up and swung her around, making her squeal.
“You’ve made me the happiest man on earth, baby. I love you too.” He pulled her up for a kiss as Sadie started to cry from her crib. They both sighed and walked back to her nursery, hand in hand. He finally had everything that he wanted—a family, and no one was going to take that away from him.
CHAPTER TEN
Another week passed, and Sunny felt like she was going stir-crazy in the condo. Sadie was such a good baby—she was even on a schedule. Sunny was starting to feel like she needed to go out for some fresh air, although she was feeling a bit timid about taking the baby out in the middle of January. It was cold, but their daughter was going to have to get used to the Colorado winters.
“I want to go to the bakery today. I can take Sadie with me, and you should go into the station for a while. We need to start getting back into our routines again. Sitting here, waiting for some crazy man to make his next move is driving us both insane.” Aaron stood, letting his chair scrape along the wood floor, and she braced for an argument.
“I agree, baby. We both could use a change of scenery.” Sunny squinted, feeling as though Aaron was up to something. He would never agree to something that could potentially put her or Sadie in danger, so why did he concede so quickly?
“Wait—you agree with me?” she squeaked. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that.” Sunny cleared their breakfast dishes. She and Sadie were up since her 4 am feeding, and she was itchingto get back into the bakery. She at least needed to do some inventory, or poor Justice wouldn’t have anything to bake with. She talked to her new employee a few times a day, and it seemed that Justice had it all together. She also had Lorna and Piper dropping in to check on things, and they reported that Justice was doing a fabulous job running the bakery. Sunny was starting to feel useless, and that was unacceptable. She planned to return to work, at least taking the early morning shift, while Sadie was still waking up to be fed. She needed to stay busy, and that bakery was too important to her to just let someone else, no matter how capable, take over for her.
“I need to run up to Tag’s and talk to Sawyer about a few things. He still doesn’t have any hits back on those partial prints.” Aaron grabbed Sadie from her baby swing, and she started to fuss. “How about I get our princess ready for her first outing, and you take a shower and get dressed? I’ll drop the two of you off at the bakery and run to Tag’s and then go into the station for an hour or so. There are a few new guys that I need to meet, and the captain wants to talk to me about leading up training for fighting forest fires.”
Sunny smiled up at him and nodded. “Sounds good. I can be ready in fifteen minutes.” Aaron swatted her ass with his free hand, and she yelped in surprise. By the time they left the house an hour later, she felt like they had packed to go on vacation. How could one tiny person need so much stuff? Aaron crammed most of the stuff in the cab of his truck, and she secured Sadie’s car seat in the back seat. Leaving the house with a newborn was a major undertaking. She was pretty sure that she was going to be at least thirty minutes late everywhere she went from now on.
“Please tell me that we are going to get better at all of this,” she sighed. “I’m exhausted from just getting into the truck. We haven’t even left our parking space yet, and I’m about ready tocall it a day and go back in for a nap.” Aaron laughed at her, giving her a quick kiss.
“It will get easier, I hope.” He cringed and buckled his seat belt. “Maybe we can do some practice drills—you know, improve our time,” Aaron offered.
“Always the fireman, Mr. Steele.” She giggled.
Aaron dropped Sunny and the baby off at the bakery and missed them as soon as he left. They just spent the better part of three weeks together, and he felt at a loss without them near. He knew it was for the best. They would be safe with the new security system he had Sawyer install at the bakery. He also didn’t want Sunny to listen in on the conversation that he needed to have with Sawyer and Tag. The night before, he received a text from an unknown number. He was just going to delete it, but he glanced at the first line and the hair on his arms stood on end. He was pretty sure he knew who was trying to get to him and Sunny, but he also knew that it was impossible. Travis Reid was dead, but if that was the case, the text on his phone was from a dead man. He thought back to that day when so many of his friends lost their lives. Travis was his captain and the man who gave the order to advance, even when the fire did a tailspin and turned back on them. He didn’t want to go back down that mountain with his tail between his legs and tell everyone that he failed. Instead, he got everyone, but Aaron and two others killed.
The only problem was that nothing matched up. The man that Sawyer showed him in the pictures on the security footage wasn’t Travis Reid. He was hoping that the new message would help shed some light on that partial print that the sheriff’s officepulled off his truck. Sawyer met Aaron in front of the police station, which was just next door to the fire station. The two units often worked together, so Aaron knew most of the guys in the office. They all congratulated him on the baby, and Sawyer took him back to his office.
“So, what’s up, Aaron?” Sawyer pulled out a chair for him, and he sat.
“I got a text last night and I think I know who our mystery guy is.” Aaron winced at the next part he was about to tell Sawyer, but his friend needed to know everything. “I’m pretty sure that we are looking for a dead man.” Sawyer almost choked on the sip of coffee he was taking. He set his mug down with a thunk.
