Blaze (The Firefighters of Darling Bay Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

tweaked it again—it had been hurting something fierce ever since last night. 
    “What’s wrong with you?” demanded Lexie. 
    “Nothin’. Where are those Red Vines you had last tour?” 
    “I ate ’em. Is that your neck thing acting up again?” 
    “No.” 
    “Liar.” Lexie stabbed the pen in his direction. “That’s the injury you got last year in that garage fire.” 
    “No way.” Tox had never gone after worker’s comp—way too much paperwork, and he had been scared of the time they might make him take off. Lexie was one of the few people in the department he’d told about it. 
    “You’re so bad at lying. Your eyes go all squinty and creepy.” 
    “Creepy?” He’d take a lot from her, but not that. “My eyes don’t get creepy.” 
    “Like you’re outside my window peeping in.” 
    “Dream on, woman. I’m not into redheads.” 
    “Seriously, how many times do I have to lecture you about this?” 
    “I can give you a good answer for that. None.” 
    She held her right hand up, palm out. “I took an oath.” 
    “Oh, please.” 
    “Serve and protect. I serve the citizens and protect you guys.” 
    He scoffed, “You give us heartburn with your addiction to red chili pepper, that’s what you give us.” 
    “My friend’s an acupuncturist. You have to go see her.” 
    Instead of rolling his eyes, as he would have any other day of the year, Tox felt the skin prickle on the back of his neck. He tried to play it cool, like he had no idea what acupuncture even was. “Nah.” 
    “Hey! That’s where the air conditioner fire was yesterday. At Grace’s clinic? That was One’s zone, right?” She tapped a few keys and peered at one of the five screens in front of her. “Yeah. I knew it. You went there yesterday. Was my friend Grace Rowe there?” 
    He shrugged and looked up at the ceiling.
    “Squinty! Creepy!” 
    “Yeah, I met her. The quack, right?” 
    “It’s not quackery. I swear to you. You know how I know?” 
    Tox sighed. “How?”
    “My friend’s cat.” 
    “Oh, come on.” 
    “Mr. Sniffles. He got hit by a car, and his ass got broken so that he peed all over the house.” 
    “That sounds amazing.” 
    Lexie hit a button on the side of her chair. It sunk down so she could sit back and stick her legs out straight. “Yeah, it was great. The house smelled like a litter box, only a little worse. They had to manually make him pee, squeezing him like a lemon twice a day. I didn’t even know you could do that to a cat.” 
    “No freaking way. I have to deal with enough catheters in my line of work.” 
    “Yeah. So, my friend’s wife wanted Mr. Sniffles put down. I have to say, I can see the argument there. I didn’t know what kind of a life it was for Mr. Sniffles to drag himself around the house like that. He didn’t even look comfortable. But James was desperate to save his cat. Went everywhere, talked to everyone. Someone suggested acupuncture at some place up in Eureka. It was a day off for me, and there’s a sushi place we like there, so I went along for the ride, thinking I’d get a good laugh and some great baked scallop nigiri.” 
    “Everything about this conversation is gross.” 
    “I didn’t believe in it at all. The acupuncturist, though, he kind of just looked like anyone else in Eureka. Jeans, carefully groomed facial hair. More hipster than hippie, you know? And Mr. Sniffles is freaking because it smells like a vet’s office, and he’s been in about a million of them. James puts the cat on the table and holds him down. He’s getting scratched, and Mr. Sniffles is fighting, and the doctor doesn’t even trip. He just sticks a couple of these little needles into the cat. And then the craziest thing happened.” 
    Tox couldn’t help asking, “What?” 
    “Mr. Sniffles started to purr.” 
    “Huh.” 
    “No, dude, that’s big. He started to purr and then he conked out, fast asleep like the doctor had drugged him or