Page 18 of Irresistibly Wicked

“I thought you were brought in by the Eastham station,” Tank said. As a former volunteer firefighter, he knew many local first responders. “They’re all guys.”

“I was, but when I was at Cumby’s, I heard a woman singing and thought I recognized her voice, and—”

“You saw her at Cumby’s, not the firehouse?” Maverick asked.

“No. I mean, at first, but we didn’t talk. Then I went to her house—”

“So you stalked her?” Gunner asked, petting Belleau.

“No. I showed up for a job Preacher sent me on, and she lived there. That’s when I told her I recognized her voice, and she said she pulled me out of the car.”

“You said you went to the firehouse,” Tank said. “How’d you know where she worked?”

What the hell was up with all the questions? “She told me she was an EMT, and I asked around.”

“He totally stalked her,” Gunner said, and the guys all cracked up.

“That’s our Zander,” Maverick said.

“Fuck you all,” Zander fumed. “I did not stalk her.”

“They’re just giving you shit, Zan,” Zeke said with a laugh. “I told them about Shauna before you got here.”

Zander glowered at the others, gritting out, “Y’all are dicks,” but he couldn’t help laughing.

“What’d you bring her?” Tank asked.

“Creamer,” he said as Belleau nudged him for more attention. He reached down and petted him.

“Dude, you went to the firehouse and creamed on her?” Gunner smirked, and the guys cracked up.

“No, you ass. I brought her coffee creamer.”

“That some kind of new kink?” Tank asked.

“Shut the hell up,” Zander said. “She saved my life, and I wanted to do something nice for her. Don’t make it weird. And get this. Remember a few years ago when I drove that young girl who’d had too much to drink home from the Fourth of July beach bash, and I went back to check on her the next day, but she’d already moved on?” Their families had been hosting the Fourth of July beach bash for as long as Zander could remember.

“Yeah?” Zeke said.

“That was her.”

“Seriously?” Tank asked.

“Crazy, right?” Zander said. “She was too out of it back then to recognize me now, and I didn’t recognize her, either. She looks totally different, but she felt like she knew me, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew her. Check this out.” He pulled out the necklace and showed them the charm. “I found this in my cut at the hospital. I had no idea how it got in my pocket, but I felt like it was important, so I kept it. It turns out she put it there after the accident. It was her good-luck charm. She bought it the morning after I drove her home that Fourth of July. She said I changed her life that night, and she’s had it on her key chain all this time to remind her to stop drinking.” He told them what he’d said to her back then. “She put it in my cut because she thought I needed luck more than she did.”

“That’s some kind of fate right there. Chloe would say there’s a reason you were put back in each other’s paths,” Maverick said about his wife as the clubhouse door opened, and their cousin Baz peered out. Like Gunner, Baz was fair-haired, but with collar-length hair, Baz looked more like a surfer than a veterinarian.

“What’re you all up to?” Baz asked.

Gunner clapped a hand on Zander’s shoulder and said, “Zan was just telling us about his star-crossed connection with the woman who pulled him out of the burning car.”

Baz pushed the door open all the way and said, “Tell me about it on the way in.” Then he called to the other men standing out front. “Preacher’s about ready to start the meeting.”

Zander relayed the story to Baz while they headed inside, blending into the sea of Dark Knights. Nearly every seat in the clubhouse was taken. Zander was greeted by several other members as he and the guys made their way to a table across the room, where Blaine was sitting.

“Hey, Blaine. How’s it going?” Zander asked as he sat down.

“It’d be better if I could lock Lettie in the basement until she’s thirty,” Blaine said, thumbing out a text. Colette “Lettie” Wilder was his fiancée Reese’s sixteen-year-old sister, who lived with them.