His Greatest Treasure (Greatest Love #4)

Chapter 24

24

AVERY

Oliver’s backup arrives while I’m finishing up my statement for the police. The tall, red-headed woman storms toward me and the officer, chin to the sky and hands tucked into the pockets of her navy blue pants. I meet her deep green stare head-on, feeling her out.

The officer speaking to me—Richards, he said his name was—lifts a brow at Rebecca’s sudden appearance and flips his notepad closed. There were only a handful of notes, considering I wasn’t here to witness the hit, but he made sure to write them all down anyway.

“There was no second fire engine called,” he says, eyeing the firefighter.

Right. Second, because the first was here for all of three minutes before disappearing. All their presence did was remind me of Oliver and, in turn, had me feeling all the more guilty for not telling him the truth about what happened.

“No need to make a call. I’m here.” Rebecca stares down the officer for a beat, putting on a show of dominance before turning her attention to me. “Avery, I assume? I’m Rebecca Hart.”

I nod. “Oliver mentioned you. ”

“Oliver Bateman? What’s station 3’s business in this collision?” the officer asks, eyes flicking between Rebecca and me.

The former shrugs a shoulder and turns to face my car as it gets hooked onto the back of a tow truck. The whine of metal makes me flinch.

“Family involvement.”

“Bateman family?” Richards asks.

I flush at the question, nipping at the inside of my cheek. Rebecca answers for me.

“You could say that.”

The officer relaxes. “Everything’s been done by the book. Information swapped for insurance claims, statements taken. Ms. Miller’s car was hit on the driver’s side head-on from there—” He shifts to point at the end of the street across from the shop. “Driver of a Ram-1500 blew through a stop sign and has been issued a ticket accordingly. He’s been taken to the hospital for a suspected concussion and whiplash. Station 8 was here and put out a small engine fire beneath the Ram’s hood. They cleared out fast afterward.”

“And you have no injuries?” Rebecca asks me, doing her own silent inspection.

“No. I was inside when it happened.”

“Okay. So, she’s done here, then?”

The officer tucks his notepad into a pocket of his vest and does another sweep of the scene. “Yeah, you can take her.”

“There’s glass all over the street,” I blurt out. “I need to get it taken care of.”

“The officers will get it cleaned up,” Rebecca says pointedly. Extending an arm to me, she hooks it through mine and starts leading me toward a small blue car parked up the street.

I glance over my shoulder and shout, “Thank you, Officer!”

He salutes me and goes back to the other officer he arrived with earlier. Rebecca snorts and unlocks her car with a fob. I locked the shop up once the officers arrived, and it bothers me that I never got a chance to finish up what I was doing before all this.

“They’ll contact you if they need anything else. I suggest you reach out to the insurance company ASAP. Is the tow taking your car to a shop?”

“There’s no point, but yeah. For now. It’s totalled.”

“Keep it there until you’ve gotten an answer from your insurance. Which shop is it?”

“Uh, some small place on Third Avenue. I wrote the name in my phone.”

“Send it to Oliver, and he’ll make sure it’s kept without charge.”

“Oliver doesn’t know about this, and I still don’t know if I want him to. I’ll talk to the shop myself.”

“No offense, but you’re crazy if you think he won’t find out. If your name was known amongst stations, he’d already have been contacted.”

“Well, it’s not. And he doesn’t.”

She releases a quiet laugh. “Alright, didn’t mean to push.”

“How many people in this city know him, anyway?”

“Enough. He’s been a firefighter for seven years. Jumped the ranks quicker than usual and made friends all over. You’d be surprised how many people we come into contact with on the job. Those cops back there are only two at that specific station that I guarantee he knows on a first-name basis.”

She unhooks her arm and gets in the driver’s side of the car. I get in the other and wait for her to start the engine before answering.

“Do you think Officer Richards will call him?”

“No. I’d bet he assumes he already knows, considering he sent me. So, where am I taking you now? The station?”

I pause, and she’s too focused on me to ignore it.

“Or we could get coffee first? Bateman’s already going to be scrubbing turnouts for sending me on a personal mission today, so might as well make it worth his while,” she offers.

“I’d like that.”

Twenty minutes later, we pull into the station lot. I’ve got a cardboard holder full of four drinks on my lap and another four buckled into the back seat. Apparently, coffee runs involve everyone in the station, and I couldn’t argue with that. They’re one big family here, and I’ve always admired relationships like that.

“If you need a ride anywhere until you get your wheels figured out, just give me a call,” she says while we’re unloading the coffees into our arms.

“Thank you, Becca. I appreciate the help today.”

She smiles softly. “Anytime. You’re a cool chick. I can see why the lieutenant sent me.”

“Why’s that?”

“As if you don’t know,” she teases, a snort following. “You’ve got a leash around his neck. I’d bet he barks when you ask him to.”

The image is more funny than sexy, but where Oliver’s involved, anything can be at least a little sexy. I don’t think he’d ever bark on command, though.

“I’m family.”

“You’re also stubborn as fuck.”

My smile is genuine, easy. While I may not have wanted Rebecca to show up in the first place, I’m happy she did. I think we could be easy friends.

“Not the first time I’ve heard that one,” I reply.

Following behind her to the station doors, I let her step inside first. She sets the coffees on the desk at the front and then takes the ones from me to do the same.

“Just grab yours, and everyone else can come get their own,” she instructs, snagging Nova’s strawberry banana smoothie and her large vanilla drink.

I take my almost black coffee and reach for the second on instinct. “Lead the way, Hart.”

“ Funny . It’s Becca to you. ”

“Hart, that you?” a deep voice shouts from the top of the stairs we’re climbing.

“Yep. Found a straggler too.”

At the top of the stairs, I whirl around in search of Nova, finding her not even a heartbeat later. My throat and mouth dry at the sight of her and Oliver at the table.

She’s scooted her chair as close to his as possible but keeps the cards in her hands hidden from him. He has an arm resting along the back of her chair, his long fingers tapping a silent beat on the edge of it. Her favourite brand of juice box is in front of them, two matching boxes crumpled in the middle like they both squished them once they were empty.

“Juice boxes and donuts? You went all out on babysitting duty, Lieutenant,” Becca says.

The duo turns at the same time, but it’s Nova who stands first and runs toward me, her dimpled grin shooting straight for my heart. “Mom! Mom!”

“Hey, baby,” I murmur, raising my hands so I don’t spill coffee on her.

“I missed you,” she says into my chest.

“I missed you right back.”

The coffees are taken from my hands. Oliver watches me with a soft expression, but his eyes are lined with worry. Our coffee cups are in front of his chest, gripped in hands that I’ve begun to dream about holding me.

“Hey, princess.”

My pulse quickens. “Thank you for watching her.”

“She was great.”

It’s relieving to hear that. I’ve raised her to be a good girl, but you never know how a child will behave in front of someone else.

Nova steps out of my arms and waves at a man at the table with deep brown skin and long black hair swept out of his face. He waves back and tips his head at me.

“Thank you for playing cards with me, Patty,” Nova says .

He points at her and waggles his finger. “Next time, there won’t be any cheating on your side, fox.”

“Don’t start,” Oliver scolds him.

Rubbing Nova’s back, I ask, “Were you cheating at cards again?”

“Again!” Patel shouts. “I knew it.”

“Mom!” Nova glares at me. “Tattletale.”

Oliver’s laugh is loud, and I swear I can almost feel the vibration from it in my chest. The warm, happy sound stops me in my tracks, and I find myself stuck staring at him, following the circle of black around the warm brown in his eyes.

The sound trickles off when he notices me staring, and I go hot, embarrassed at being caught.

“Do you have time to talk before you go?” he asks.

I clear my throat. “Yeah, sure.”

“How about you show me how you cheat at cards while they talk for a minute, hmm?” Becca asks Nova, offering her the smoothie.

“Sure.”

I leave the two of them there and follow Oliver to a room a few steps away from the kitchen. He swings the door open and holds it for me to enter first. It’s a gym. A big one fit with several types of equipment I’d have no idea how to use.

The door clicks behind me, sealing us in together. Alone.

A wall of floor-to-ceiling mirrors is across the room, and I stare at the reflection of the two of us. Me, with my muscles tense and lip trapped between my teeth, and Oliver, with his stance open and height towering. He’s not looking at the mirror but at me instead.

Arousal makes my knees tremble, tension shrinking the room until I’m sure that our reflections are lying and he’s breathing down my neck instead of a handful of feet away.

“Thank you again for watching Nova today. I’m sorry for calling while you were at work. I won’t make a habit of it. I just didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone else yet. ”

I might as well have not spoken. The words disappear into thin air.

Oliver moves quickly. I watch in the mirror, waiting for the moment the heat from his body caresses mine. I close my eyes and let my muscles go loose. There’s a soothing voice in my head that tells me I’m safe here. With him.

“What happened today?”

I can’t lie. “My car was hit outside the shop.”

Hot, strong hands close around my arms as he spins me, and I open my eyes, latching onto the ones waiting. Panic rips across his face before his hands drift down my arms and over my shoulders.

“Why didn’t you tell me that? I’d have been there in an instant. Fuck, are you okay? Hurt? Were you checked out?”

I shake my head once. “I wasn’t in the car.”

I’m tucked into his chest, and I don’t fight his hold. It relaxes me further, my legs melting into jelly.

“If anything like that happens again, I’m the one who comes to you. I make sure you’re taken care of. You can drive my SUV home and use it for as long as you need to.”

“I can get a rental, Oliver. I can take care of myself well enough. I’ve been doing it for a long time,” I whisper.

He exhales and threads his fingers through the hair at the base of my skull, using the grip to pull me closer. When he starts to massage my scalp, I wind my arms around his waist, breath steadying.

“I know you can. But I’m not going to stop asking you to let me help until you finally let me. You don’t have to let go of control, just let me in. Let me take some of it from your shoulders. At least let me ask my mom to drive you home tonight, and once I’m done with this shift, my SUV is yours to use.”

The idea of continuing to fight him on all of this isn’t appealing anymore. “Okay.”

“Okay?” he asks, his surprise evident.

“I’ll start letting you help take care of me and my problems, including using your car to get around, but under one condition. ”

“Anything.”

I drift my hands up his back, exploring the feel of his strong lines of muscle beneath my fingers for the first time. My next exhale is shaky, liquid fire sizzling between my legs.

He moves his mouth to my ear, hot breath coating my skin. One hand still buried in my hair, he lowers the other to my hip, subtly shifting me closer.

“Whatever you want, Avery. Ask me for anything. Everything.”

Tipping my head back, I slide my eyes up the strong column of his throat, wide jaw, and parted pink lips.

“Kiss me, Oliver.”