Doris O'Connor (7 page)

Alex ignored her completely, talking into his
phone instead.

“
Alex Giovanni here, area nine,
what’s up? … Right.… Yes, two pumps.… Right away, sir.… We have
three retained.… Yes, I’ll get on it now, sir.… I hope so,
too.”

Kitty had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her
stomach when Alex hung up, took a deep breath and, smiling briefly
at her, spoke to the room.

“
I’m sorry, I’ll have to go. There
has been a major incident. All pumps are being called
in.”

“
But you can’t, Alex.” Stella’s
hand shook as she took hold of her son’s arm. “You’re supposed to
be off. This has been planned for weeks.”

“
It’s my job, Mamma. I have to go,
and you know that.”

“
That’s exactly why you need to
give it up!”

“
Mamma, for God’s sake, not now!”
Alex groaned before turning to Kitty. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to dash,
but I’m sure Francesca will be able to give you a lift
back.”

“
Yes, of course I can, Alex. Don’t
you worry. We’ll look after her.” Francesca’s smile didn’t quite
reach her eyes, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. Alex gave her a
quick hug, dropped a kiss on Kitty’s lips, and with a few long
strides he was gone.

Kitty looked round the worried faces of Alex’s
relatives, talking amongst themselves in rapid Italian, and felt
very much the outsider. A tug on her hand made her look down into
Nico’s smiling face.

“
Need a pipi. Where Zio Alex?
Mamma!” And he scrambled across to Francesca, who took off at a run
towards the toilets. Kitty smiled at the sight. Toilet training was
such
fun.

“
I’m glad you find Alex rushing off
to get himself killed so funny!” Stella glared at her.

“
I wasn’t. I mean—” Kitty took a
step back from Stella’s hostile expression.

“
If it wasn’t for you! He needs to
leave the service. It’s too dangerous. Irene would make him see
sense, but no, he has to turn up with you.”

Irene, the late arrival Alex had seemed so
tense around earlier, put one arm around Stella and murmured
soothingly to her in Italian, before smiling at Kitty.

“
Do forgive Mamma Stella. She just
gets so worried; we all do, whenever he gets called out to these
things. But then you know all about that, don’t you? How can you
stand it, knowing he risks his life every time he sets out to go to
work?”

Oh shoot, how am I supposed to respond to
that?
Kitty hadn’t given much thought to the finer details of
Alex’s work.
Yeah, right
. More like pushed it firmly to the
back of her mind. He always was so capable and assured. Surely he
would keep himself safe. Several pairs of eyes looked at Kitty,
waiting for her answer. Irene had a small smile on her face, and
Kitty noted the way Stella leaned on her. What was the deal between
those two? Even Nonna Giovanni looked at Kitty intently.

“
Of course I worry.” Kitty mentally
crossed her fingers. “But it’s Alex’s job, one he loves as far as I
can tell. I can see how it must be difficult for you all, but Alex
needs his family’s support, not grief over his chosen profession.”
She smiled tentatively at Alex’s mum. “Clearly you love him very
much, but it’s his life at the end of the day.”

“
Ah, well said.” Nonna Giovanni
smiled at her. “I knew when I first saw you that you would be good
for him. Unlike some people, who couldn’t take the heat and should
know better than to try again.”

She threw a meaningful glance towards Irene
and Stella, before saying something else to her daughter, who
responded in a flurry of rapid Italian. Before Kitty could take
another breath the whole lot of them were rabbitting
away.

Kitty smiled grimly to herself.
Italians.
She understood now why Alex had been so insistent
that she come with him tonight, and she was glad she had. At least
she had spared him a grilling before he had had to go out on the
shout. A flicker of unease trickled down her spine at the thought
of him out there somewhere, tackling goodness knows what. She
resolutely pushed it away.
He isn’t yours to worry over,
remember.

Francesca appeared just then, with a
half-dressed Nico. The toilet training wasn’t going
well.

“
I’m going to have to get him home.
He’s used every last one of his sets of clothes. Hope you don’t
mind, Kitty?”

“
No, of course not. In fact, it’ll
be good to get away, all things considered.”

“
Yes, well, you’ll get used to
them. Wouldn’t be a Giovanni party without some sort of argument
and drama. No wonder Alex up and left all those years ago.
Sometimes I wish I could do the same!”

****

Kitty watched television with mixed feelings.
She had switched the telly on after her phone call to Emy to make
sure all was well with Noah. Images of a raging inferno were on the
screen in front of her. A warehouse complex containing fireworks,
other explosives, and flammable liquid had gone up in flames. The
numerous fire engines called to the incident were struggling to
contain the fire. The news reporter at the scene was stressing how
volatile the situation was. The flammable liquids were fuelling the
intense fire, and a swarm of fire fighters in full breathing
apparatus could be seen in the back ground struggling to stay on
top of the situation. As the camera was rolling one side of the
building collapsed, and Kitty watched in helpless fascination as
the fire spread to the neighboring houses.

This was going to be a very long night for the
London Fire Brigade. She sent a silent prayer up to keep Alex safe,
worry for him making her bite her lip.

****

It was some time later that Kitty woke up with
a start. Her neck hurt where she had fallen asleep at an awkward
angle on the settee.

The headline she read on the flickering screen
made her heart stop, before it resumed beating
erratically.

Fire under control with great loss to the
brigade. One fire fighter dead, several injured.
Before she
could even think to examine her instant reaction, she grabbed her
car keys and ran out of the door. She had to make sure Alex was
okay.

****

Alex was bone weary and so tired he could
hardly sit up straight. He looked round his
dishevelled
group of men, seeing his own
horror mirrored in their eyes. They had finally managed to contain
the fire after six hours of back-breaking work, but at what cost?
He shut his eyes reliving the moment when the entire building had
collapsed, trapping several of his colleagues under it. His team
had worked frantically to get them out alive. Four had, but Lewis
Graham, the youngest member of his team, hadn’t.

He knew that Lewis’s parents would have been
informed by now. He would have to go and see them tomorrow to pay
his respects. Alex hated this part of his job with a vengeance.
Thankfully, it was rare they lost a man or woman, but hell, it was
agony when they did.

As the fire engine slowly rounded the corner
towards their station, he noticed the small group of relatives
waiting for them, and he smiled underneath the grime on his face.
Sure enough, his men, all of them married with kids, perked up
visibly at the sight. Nothing like a face you loved at the end of a
terrifying shout. Not that he had ever had that luxury. Even when
he had been engaged to Irene, she had never showed up like this.
Instead he had had to endure a grilling whenever he came home. It
had always been all about her fears, her needs, and how selfish he
was for doing the job he loved.

“
Right, guys, go home, and I’ll see
you in the morning.”

He watched as one by one they jumped off the
two engines and found their loved ones. Mac, his second-in-command,
was the last one to leave.

“
You ok, boss?”

“
No, Mac, but I will be; we’re the
lucky ones, after all.”

The burly Scot nodded grimly before slapping
Alex on the back. “Got someone waiting for you out there,
boss?”

Alex shook his head. “I’m not that lucky,
Mac.”

He watched, his heart heavy, as Mac jumped
down and was enveloped in a bear hug by his wife. No, he wasn’t
that lucky.

****

Kitty watched the fire fighters piling out of
the two engines one by one, their faces grim, shoulders hunched,
clothes and hands filthy, the smell of smoke coming off them in
sickening waves. It was hard to tell them apart, their faces so
covered in soot that they all looked the same. It was a quite
reunion with the handful of wives that had turned up to see their
husbands home. Kitty had been relieved she was not the only one
standing outside the fire station. They all stood there quietly,
waiting for the engines to come back. Kitty knew by now that the
fire fighter who had died was the young one with an easy smile who
had fooled around with the kids at school. Her heart constricted
painfully, thinking about his family. And what must Alex feel like?
He had lost one of his men today. How did you deal with
that?

Where was he? His second-in-command had just
climbed out of the last engine to arrive. Was Alex still in there?
She took a tentative step towards it when she spotted him. He was
stepping down, his head low, the slump of those big shoulders
calling out to her. Every movement of his normally graceful body
spoke of bone-wearing tiredness. She made herself take another step
and another, until she was close enough to reach out to
him.

****

“
Alex, are you ok?”

He really was tired. He could have sworn he
heard Kitty’s voice then, but that was just wishful thinking on his
part. He was shaking his head at his stupidity when he felt a
feminine hand on his arm.
What the hell?

“
Alex, I am so sorry. I came here
as soon as I heard the news.”

Alex just stared at the vision in front of
him. She’d come. Someone actually cared enough to come and meet
him. Her eyes were full of concern and shimmering with tears as she
stepped towards him, and with a groan he pulled her against
himself. He buried his face in the soft mass of her hair. He filled
his lungs with her unique scent, as the whole horror of the last
six hours came crashing down on him like a ton weight.

She had come for him.

Chapter Eight

Kitty sat, forgotten coffee cup in one hand,
staring at the vision that was a just-showered Alex. He had a towel
tied precariously low on his hips, and Kitty swallowed, her eyes
following the trail of his chest hair down towards that knot, which
really didn’t look that secure. Alex’s tired chuckle brought her
eyes up to his face, her cheeks flaming at having been caught
staring.

“
See anything you like?”

Do I ever!
But now was not the time to
voice that opinion. Alex, though now clean, looked exhausted. His
blue eyes were bloodshot with dark circles underneath, his step
weary as he walked towards her. Some spectacular bruises were
forming on his left shoulder, spreading down over his chest, and
she noticed how stiffly he was holding that side of his
body.

“
You got hurt!” She made him sit
down, running tender fingers over those ugly bruises, before he
took her hand in his, his expression grim.

“
It’s nothing, Kitty leave it
be.”

“
But you’re already stiffening up.
At least take some arnica; it’ll help with the bruising. I’ve got
some in here somewhere.” She rummaged around in her oversized hand
bag, cursing under her breath.
I can never find anything in
there, damn it. Painkillers, yes he will need those too, tampon,
urm no, last weeks’ car park ticket, Noah’s little Thomas engine –
ah, that’s where it went – finally the arnica.

She shook a couple of pills onto her hand and
passed them to Alex, who watched her with a small smile on his
face.

“
Here, take these. They’ll help,
and then we need to get you into bed.”

“
As much as I appreciate the offer,
I wouldn’t be much fun right now.”

Kitty’s cheeks flamed at the mere thought.
“You know darn well that’s not what I meant! You need sleep, and
I’m going to make sure you get it, just as soon as you take these.”
She once again held out the small pills. “I’m not taking no for an
answer.”

Alex took the pills as instructed, his face
unreadable as he said, “You’re always this bossy?”

“
You bet I am, especially when
dealing with stubborn males. Now come on to bed with you. You look
exhausted, and you need some sleep.”

She helped him up, her heart aching at the
small groan that he couldn’t help but make, all too aware of his
half naked body next to hers. His skin was lightly tanned all over
and so soft that she wondered briefly whether he used some sort of
a product on it before dismissing the idea. He didn’t seem the
type.
And for goodness sakes what’s wrong with me?
The man
had had a god-awful night, lost one of his men, gotten hurt in the
process, and here she was lusting after his body like some sort of
raving nymphomaniac. Maybe she should have taken Emy up on that Ann
Summers party.