Hot & Cold: An Ignited Romance Read online

  Hot and Cold

  an ignited romance novel

  Mikey Lee

  Amy Briggs

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Amy Briggs

  Also by Mikey Lee

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  About Amy Briggs

  About Mikey Lee

  For our readers, without you these characters may never have met. You planted the seed from which our motivation grew, and inspired us to collaborate.

  Copyright © 2017 Amy Briggs and Mikey Lee

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without the expressed permission of the author.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Cover Design by Pink Ink Designs

  Editing by L. Woods, LLC

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Acknowledgments

  We would first and foremost like to thank everyone that encouraged this collaboration. From the moment we met at our first signing together, we knew we’d be writing together; it was just meant to be. Heather Roberts has been instrumental in helping us put this project together and deserves huge thanks.

  Cassy Roop designed a beautiful cover for us in a matter of moments, capturing the look and feel we imagined out of the gate. Jess Epps, Sharon Abreau and Grandma Roberts were the three musketeers of beta readers, and their comments kept us going every day.

  We’d both like to thank our families and friends for the constant support and encouragement. Amy would like to personally thank her brother Jesse and sister-in-law, Maye, for pushing her to pursue her dreams and to take chances. Mikey would like to thank Heather for putting up with him at the desk next to her every day. If it weren’t for her, he’d be a mess, so he says ‘Thanks for marrying me’.

  Lastly, we can’t thank the readers and the bloggers enough. Your advocacy of our collaboration was heard, and we truly enjoyed writing this book together. The laughing and video chatting would make a hilarious book all it’s own. Thank you for reading, thank you for following along on our hysterical journey together.

  Also by Amy Briggs

  The Brotherhood of District 23 - Standalones

  Fired Up

  Fully Involved

  Controlled Burn

  The Brotherhood of District 23 Box Set

  The Brotherhood of District 23 Coloring Book

  Other Novels

  Hot and Cold

  Also by Mikey Lee

  Sin Series - Standalones

  Detecting Lust

  Detecting Envy

  Satirical Short Stories - Standalones

  That’s What Zee Said, part 1

  That’s What Zee Said, part 2

  That’s What Zee Said, part 3

  That’s What Zee Said Collection

  Other Novels

  Hot and Cold

  Prologue

  Through the darkness of the basement, a silhouette was at work, hovering over a bench and working on what appeared to be the barrel of a gun. A gun unlike any other, with a rectangular, unusual shape to it. The only light was that from a single naked lightbulb over the plywood workbench. The warmth of the room created a thick fog as the silhouette of the man’s left hand opened the freezer door under the workbench. Inside, a tray of crimson cylinders in what appeared to be a rubber mold was pulled out and set next to the gun-like machinery.

  Meticulously, with gloved hands, the dark figure removed the cylinders from their rubber casings, setting each of them gently on a metal tray. After measuring each cylinder’s thickness and length with miniscule calipers, he inserted one of them directly into the barrel of the gun-like object.

  Pointing the barrel at the far wall adjacent to the bench, he gently squeezed the trigger, causing an almost inaudible huffing sound as the projectile left the barrel and hit what appeared to be a large, clear block of ballistics gel across the room. As he walked to the point of impact, he took with him a ruler and a pencil. Measuring the distance the projectile traveled and making note of it, the man returned to the workbench and repeated this process over and over.

  1

  The flames from the two story dwelling had overtaken the entire first floor, causing the windows along the wrap around porch to completely blow out. The flashing lights from the emergency vehicles could be seen for blocks, creating an almost disco like effect through the neighborhood. As the firefighters worked to contain the flames, the Chief was yelling orders at the crews around him.

  “We need a search crew upstairs now!” Brian Cavanuagh, the District 23 Chief called out over the Operations channel.

  “Received. We’ll take the B team upstairs,” a voice was heard over the radio.

  “I need an update on the takedown on the first floor!” Brian said.

  A broken voice over the radio responded, “We-- g-- body!”.

  “Repeat your status,” Brian called out, fearing he knew what was said the first time.

  “We’ve got a body inside, coming out now!”

  “Fuck,” Brian muttered to himself. Waving over medics, Brian quickly sent them to the front yard to await the firefighters carrying the body out.

  The medics rushed to meet the firefighters who had set the crumpled, unburned body on the ground for medical assessment. After a few moments of assessing vital signs, with a shake of his head, the medic motioned to Brian that the victim couldn’t be saved; they pronounced him dead almost immediately. A gaping hole in the victim’s chest grabbed Brian’s attention, indicating the entire scene was nefarious, and back-up from arson investigation and homicide was needed right away.

  Waving over the Deputy Chief, Seth Jackson, who everyone called Jax, grabbed his cellphone from his pocket. “I need you to take Command, I need to call this into dispatch. It looks like we’ve got an arson and a murder on our hands.”

  “You got it, Chief,” Jax replied calmly, but thinking how crazy that sounded. Sure, they had a lot of fires, but never before had Brian felt it necessary to call in reinforcements from other divisions so quickly.

  Brian climbed into the cab of his truck, the only quiet spot on scene to make the call.

  “Dispatch, what is your emergency?”

  “This is District 23 Fire Chief Brian Cavanaugh, we are currently operating at the fire on Tangiers Avenue; we need someone from Homicide out here.” Brian ran his hands through his hair, knowing this was going to be a media nightmare on top of the fact that fire still wasn’t completely out.

  “Yes sir, we’ll send someone out right away, please stand
by. I’ll have the officer contact you right away.”

  Already having a relationship with Scott Walker, the arson investigator for the district, Brian hung up and made another phone call.

  “This is Walker - oh hey Chief, how are ya?” Scott Walker, an old colleague of the Chief’s answered right away.

  “Hey Scotty, we got a situation down here on Tangiers. I’m calling in a favor,” Brian replied.

  “What’s going on? I’m sure I’ll get sent there in the morning after you do your thing,” Scott replied, confused why Brian would call in the middle of the fire.

  “Yea, I need you to come down here now. This whole scene is fucked up. We just pulled a body out, I’ve already called homicide, but the way this fire took over the first floor in record time, I want you down here asap.” The concern in Brian’s voice struck Scott as unusual; Brian was an extremely level headed Chief, rarely concerned on a scene.

  Getting dressed and still talking, Scott replied, “All right, I can be down there in a few minutes, I’ll see you shortly.”

  “Thanks man, I appreciate it.”

  Scott thought back to his time as a driver for District 23, he had fond memories working with the crew there. They would always be his family, and he’d drop everything to help them, this situation was no different. He finished getting dressed and half jogged to his car. He wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

  Brian leaned back in the driver’s seat, sighing heavily when his phone rang, startling him.

  “This is Cavanaugh,” he answered.

  “Chief, this is Dispatch. I’m going to patch you through to Detective Moore from Homicide,” a female voice replied.

  “Thank you.”

  “This is Detective Moore, Chief you there?”

  “Clayton! Thank God. I was hoping they’d send you bro, we have a major situation down here. Are you on your way?” Brian was relieved that dispatch had assigned Detective Moore, they had met previously a few times, and Moore had a solid reputation for closing cases. It didn’t hurt he was always a friend to the fire department.

  “Yea man, I’m about ten minutes or so out, you’re running command, right?”

  “I passed command off to the DC so we could chat,” Brian replied.

  “Ok, I’ll find you. I’m driving my POV tonight. See you in a few,” Moore replied.

  “Thanks man.”

  Brian hung up the phone, and hopped out of the truck to get an update from Jax on the scene. He could see that the flames were dying down finally, and it appeared that the medics had moved the body from the front yard, most likely to the nearby rig.

  “I’ve got homicide and arson both on their way over. I want you to keep command so that I can handle that,” Brian indicated to Jax.

  “Whatever you need, Chief,” Jax replied, never taking his eyes off the scene.

  As Jax gave Brian the status of the fire, and provided additional direction to firefighters, Scott walked up. He’d parked up the block, away from the scene to stay out of the way. His six foot four frame could be seen walking up in the distance.

  “Hey guys,” he said. He had quickly put on a district polo shirt identifying him as emergency personnel before leaving home, however since it was a late night run, he’d stuck to jeans and boots instead of his usual uniform. The sleeve stretched tightly around his muscular arms as he reached out to shake Brian’s hand.

  “Scotty! Happy to see ya, wish the circumstances were better,” Brian replied, concern evident in his voice.

  “Yea, tell me about it. We’ll have to grab beers soon. Jax, good to see you,” he gave a nod to Jax, who was busy providing orders to other people, but nodded in return. “So, what have we got here, it must be something special for you to call me out personally.”

  Leading Scott around to the front of the Chief’s vehicle away from the crowd, Brian explained, “We pulled a body out. It was definitely homicide, there was a hole in the guy’s chest; he didn’t make it. Obviously the fire on top of that makes the fire scene a crime scene. Fact of the matter is that I trust you, you’re one of us, and I want to make sure you specifically are working with homicide on this case. I’ve already called them in, and my buddy Clayton Moore is on his way, he’s a homicide detective. Now look,” Brian paused for a moment deciding how to say what was on his mind. “He can be a handful from time to time, but he’s fucking good as his job. A dead body and a fire is just bad news all around, so I wanted you both here before the scene turned into any more of a fucking mess.”

  Taking in the severity of the situation, Scott replied, “Understood chief. As soon as the fire is completely under control, I can go in and start looking for point of origin, stuff like that. You know the drill. I’ll work with this detective and hopefully sharing evidence we’ll be able to wrap the case more quickly than not.”

  “Thanks Scotty. It is great to see you. We miss you on the trucks, but I hear you’re doing big things downtown.” Brian used to be Scott’s boss, and they had a great working relationship. Scott simply had other plans for himself that included moving into investigations, which is what he’d done in the last year. The guys always tried to get together for beers but between twenty-four hour shifts, wives and girlfriends, it had been difficult the last few months and they hadn’t been in touch a whole lot.

  Just as Brian glanced around the scene again, the sound of a siren whipping on and off grabbed his attention. A black Crown Vic was making it’s way through the crowd, not really following the path of least resistance.

  Scott knew it had to be Detective Moore; cops rarely cared where they parked, as long as it was convenient for them, he thought. Fucking dicks.

  As Detective Moore unfolded himself from his vehicle, parked directly next to Brian’s, he gave a nod to the chief.

  “Way to park like a douche, Detective,” Brian rolled his eyes and chuckled.

  “Always a pleasure Cavanaugh, I hear you have a dead guy,” he smirked.

  “Did I catch you in the middle of a hot date? Who’s your lady friend?” Brian teased, straining his neck to get a look toward Clayton’s car.

  “Ah, fuck you very much, that’s my sister, Dani. She’s riding with me for a while. Long story,” Clayton replied briskly.

  Scott couldn’t help but to immediately notice how pretty Dani was. She had long auburn hair, and crystal blue eyes he could see from where he was standing. Finding himself staring at her, Brian and Clayton snapped him out of his spell.

  “Scott Walker, meet Clayton Moore, homicide detective. Clayton, Scott here used to ride with us over at 23, but now he’s a hot shot arson investigator.”

  “I wouldn’t say hot shot exactly, but thanks Chief. So, why don’t you fill us in on exactly what’s up here so we can get started,” Scott replied as they shook hands.

  “All right, here’s the long and short of it. Fire started on the first floor, origin unknown,” he turned to Scott. “Victim found in the D corner of the house, facing the back yard. When the victim was pulled out, the paramedics pronounced him dead on the scene; there’s an apparent gaping hole in his chest, so it wasn’t the fucking fire that killed him. Obviously, that’s your job to figure out,” he nodded in Moore’s direction.

  “Ok, so I’m gonna need to talk to the guys that found and dragged the body out, I need to know where it was, and all that shit,” Moore said.

  “Yea, I’ll get them over here in a minute,” Brian replied.

  “As soon as the fire is declared under control, I’ll go in and start collecting my evidence as well,” Scott said. “You know how this works on my end.”

  “Ok, well ‘go team’. Let’s try and keep this fucking quiet; the PR on a dead body in a fire, regardless of how it happened makes the fire department look shitty on the news, so let’s prevent that wherever possible,” Brian stated. “There’s already people all over the crowd on their fucking cell phones taking videos and shit.” The technology age was great for a lot of reasons, but when it came to investigating, or doing you
r job for that matter, a scene could end up on the internet in no time, and the public would be deciding who was guilty before a speck of evidence had been collected.

  “You got it, Chief,” Scott said. “I’m gonna go get some things I need from my vehicle, I parked up the block. I’ll be back in a minute,” Scott walked off, but not before taking another glance over in Dani’s direction who didn’t even notice with her face in her phone.

  Scott walked off, leaving Clayton and Brian to watch the remaining firefighters come out of the building, which appeared to no longer be on fire. “So when can I get in there?” Clayton asked Brian.

  “If the hot spots are out, you can go in with Scott in a couple minutes; I need confirmation that the structure is safe for you to go in and poke around. I’ll go check with Jax and see where we’re at,” Brian left Clayton standing there.

  Getting a head start on what he needed, Clayton went back to the car to get his camera and some gloves, as well as some evidence bags he was hoping to need.

  “Dani, this is gonna be a while, there was a murder here, and an arson, so I suggest you get comfortable,” he said to his sister.

  “Do whatever you need to do, I’ll be fine as long as I can stay right here,” she said quietly while looking up from her phone.

  “Are you going to be ok if I leave you here for a while? You can go over to Command and sit with the Deputy Chief if you want,” Clayton suggested.

  “No, I’d rather stay right here thanks,” she replied, not wanting to socialize with strangers. With everything that had happened in her life recently, the last thing she wanted to do was meet a bunch of men and try to be nice to them. She’d prefer to sit in the car and play Angry Birds on her phone or read while listening to the 80’s station on Clayton’s satellite radio.