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  RULE BENDER

  Chicago First Responders

  Book 4

  BJ HARVEY

  Rule Bender

  Copyright © 2022 by BJ Harvey

  Ebook ISBN: 978-0-6487638-7-1

  Print ISBN: 978-0-6455196-8-6

  Edited by Creating Ink

  Cover Designed by BJ Harvey

  Photo sourced from Shutterstock

  * * *

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the above author of this book.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Luca

  2. London

  3. Luca

  4. London

  5. Luca

  6. London

  7. Luca

  8. London

  9. Luca

  10. London

  11. Luca

  12. London

  13. Luca

  14. London

  15. Luca

  16. London

  17. London

  18. Luca

  19. London

  20. Luca

  21. London

  22. Luca

  23. London

  24. Luca

  25. London

  26. Luca

  Epilogue

  Other Books By BJ Harvey

  About BJ Harvey

  Prologue

  SIX MONTHS AGO

  London

  * * *

  I am going to do it. I am going to kiss my best friend.

  For years I’ve imagined what it would be like to touch my lips to his, to lick my tongue into his mouth, and to hear him groan—no, not just hear it . . . feel it.

  At first, I was happy to be in the friend zone. I’d expected it.

  Seventeen-year-old me crushed on Luca Rossi the day I first met him. Twenty-five year old me had that crush reignited one night two years ago at a charity ball when I was left alone with him after two lieutenants had a very public fight and Dad went to do damage control.

  But where I saw a sexy, charismatic, funny, and flirty man who made me feel like I was the only woman in the room, Luca just saw the Cap’s youngest daughter.

  It was the start of something. It’s just that that something was friendship, and friendship only.

  But after two years of being friends and of being—for all intents and purposes—a girlfriend without any of the sexy benefits I’ve fantasized about, I know I need to do something to make my feelings known. Because Luca Rossi may be sharp as a tack on the job and a loyal son, brother, and my best friend, but when it comes to reading the room—aka seeing that I am head over heels in love with him—he is a bit . . . clueless.

  So I’ve decided tonight is the night when I’m going to throw caution to the wind and throw myself at him. I’m praying to all the gods I can remember that he’ll catch me, and if I am really lucky, he’ll be blinded by a flash of realization that he is in fact in love with me too.

  Luca pulls his car up to the curb outside my house, turning his head my way as I undo my seatbelt. “It was a good night,” he says, shooting me that devilishly handsome grin of his.

  “Wings, beer, and pool. Can’t go wrong,” I reply.

  He places a hand on his chest and sighs. “A woman after my own heart.”

  God, if only he realized how true that was.

  “You know me. I aim to please.” If only . . .

  His eyes soften and his smile widens. “Yeah. Who’d have thought a woman ten years younger than me would want to put up with me as her best friend.”

  I roll my eyes and bump his elbow with mine. “Well, someone’s got to do it,” I reply, making him chuckle, and I beam at the sound. Look at me. I’m like a goddamn people-pleasing puppy now . . .

  “Well, I better get going. Can’t have the Cap giving me shit for turning up late to shift in the morning.”

  I beckon him in with a crooked finger, leaning closer. “The Cap’s a bit of a pushover when it comes to his daughter. Just tell him you were acting as bodyguard against all those unruly randy men at the bar, and he’ll name a truck in your honor.”

  Luca snorts and shakes his head. “Doubt that, Lonnie. But I’ll keep it in mind.”

  My chest tightens. It’s now or never. This is it—the moment I’ve been waiting for all damn night . . . OK, maybe longer than a night.

  I reach over and rest my hand on his leg. Luca’s gaze drops down before slowly lifting to meet mine again. His brows furrow but I don’t move back. Then again, neither does he. Taking this as a good sign I close the distance between us and touch my lips to his. My whole body stills at the contact while my heart is beating a stampede against my ribs. It’s as if time stands still and the world stops spinning on its axis. The whole of the universe is waiting with bated breath to see what the great Luca Rossi will do when kissed by his best friend.

  When his hand gently slides up my arm to curl around my bicep, I feel emboldened and push out the tip of my tongue to touch the seam of his lips, silently begging . . . hoping . . . praying . . . for him to open up and take control. To kiss me back and profess that he, too, has been pining after me like I have him.

  Except that doesn’t happen.

  Much to my mortification, Luca slowly pulls back at the same time as he gently pushes me away, putting distance between us. Conflict and confusion are written all over his beautiful, flawless face.

  “London,” he breathes, and that one word tells me everything I need to know.

  I shut down and go into self-preservation mode, which for me means plastering a smile on my face, brushing it off as nothing.

  “Hey. A girl’s gotta shoot her shot once? I thought for sure you knew how I felt about you,” I say with a shrug, jerking away from him and reaching down to grab my purse by my feet.

  “London . . .” Luca’s soft, smooth voice is not helping me hold back the whirling emotions threatening to bubble over.

  I clench my eyes shut and take a deep breath before straightening and looking back at him. “It was worth a try, right?”

  “It’s just—”

  I shake my head. “It’s OK, Luc. I get it. You’re not interested in me in that way. It’s OK. I’m OK. I . . .” have to get out of here before I lose it.

  “Lonnie, we’ve got a good thing going between us. You’re one of my best friends, and the only woman in my life I’m not related to who I care about. I don’t want to lose what we have, and with your dad and family, and the firehouse, it’s just—”

  “It’s OK, Luc. Honestly. Let’s just put this down to a dumb moment on my part and move on.” Well, hopefully you can, ’cause I’m not sure I ever will.

  He nods, but the sympathy written all over his face almost does me in.

  “Catch up soon, yeah?” I say, opening the door and stepping out, not trusting myself to hold it together for another minute. “London, look at me, beautiful. Please.”

  Standing in the open car door, I brace myself and bend down to meet his gentle gaze.

  “Are you going to be OK? I don’t want to leave if you’re not.”

  That’s when I lie to Lu
ca Rossi for the first time in my life, knowing that it’ll be the way things have to be between us. “I’m good, Luc. Drive safe.”

  “Breakfast after my shift?” he asks, and there’s no missing the hope in his voice.

  “Always, Luc. Good night,” I say before I shoot him a barely convincing smile and close the door. I wave before I turn my back and do the slow walk of shame to my front door.

  Lying in bed a while later, unable to sleep as I run the most embarrassing moment of my recent life over and over in my head, I decide that I’m glad I did it. I took a shot and failed. And at least Luc, being the good guy that he is, was gentle in his rejection. I can’t be sad about that at least.

  But I’ll get past it eventually. I have to. Because if I can’t have Luc in the way I want to have him, I can still have him as my best friend, my wingman, my platonic boyfriend…

  Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt like a bitch though.

  1

  Luca

  “Luca, Cap wants to see you in his office before you leave,” my brother—and the engine lieutenant—Marco announces as we step out of the truck after a long night of back-to-back callouts. So many fires in one shift means I’ll still be smelling smoke while on my forty-eight hours of R and R. Being a firefighter for almost half my life means I’m used to it by now—but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

  “Damn, what did you do, Luc?” Scotty, a fellow firefighter, smacks his hand on my shoulder as he walks past. “Can’t be good if you’re being summoned to the boss’s office.”

  “Maybe he’s commending me for being the best damn firefighter at 101. Ever think of that?” I counter.

  “Hey guys, look at that flock of pigs flying past the station.” Marco points out the open garage doors with a laugh that spreads around the crew.

  “Nice to know I’m appreciated around here,” I mutter with a shake of my head.

  Our friend Rhodes wraps his arm around my neck and pulls me toward the door leading inside. “Oh cheer up, buttercup. You know we love you.”

  “Not as much as the Captain’s daughter, mind you,” Scotty unwisely jests, causing me to whirl around and point my hand in his face.

  “That, right there, makes you uncool, dude. London and I are friends,” I reply. “Newsflash, Jones. It is actually possible to be friends with a woman and not be sleeping with her.”

  Scotty holds his hands in the air in surrender. “OK, OK. I was just messing with you, Luc. Jeez.”

  “You think the Captain would like to hear his crew talking about his daughter like that? She’s my friend. Just a friend. Nothing more. I wouldn’t do Cap wrong like that.”

  “Hey, Luc. He’s kidding. Aren’t you, Scotty?” Rhodes adds, pinning the man with a stare. “’Cause the last thing you want is to be on cleaning duty for a week or two until he pulls his head out of his ass, right, Jones?”

  Damn, Rhodes has the whole menacing father figure role down to a fine art. Then again, with a seventeen-year-old son and an eleven-year-old stepson living under his roof, he’s had a lot of practice perfecting it.

  Scotty huffs out a grumbled breath and stomps off into the station, muttering under his breath about being the butt of all jokes.

  “So, any idea what it's about then?” I ask Marco as we walk through the doors side by side.

  “Beats me. But it can't be a bad thing. It's at the end of our shift. Unless he's asking you to stay on for a double, I think you're golden.”

  I snort and plaster a shit-eating grin on my face. “Of course I'm golden. I'm the best Rossi at 101.”

  Marco chuckles. “That's a big call, brother. Don’t let Skye hear you say that.” Skye is our youngest sister and a paramedic at the station, along with her husband, Cohen.

  “Technically, she’s a Cook now, therefore my statement stands,” I say with a smirk, earning a shoulder bump from my brother.

  “You won’t be so cocky when I tell her you said that.”

  “I’m not worried about our bratty sister. Anyway, I better go see what Cap wants before hauling ass to breakfast.”

  A curious smile quirks my oldest brother's lips. “Don’t let him give you the intentions talk.”

  “What?” I ask with a frown.

  “Nothing. It's just funny that for someone so anti-relationship, you seem to be oblivious to the fact you're kind of in one.”

  I stop dead mid-step down the corridor, my brows so narrowed I’m surprised my face doesn’t implode. “What are you talking about?”

  “You and London. Best friends my ass.”

  “We are.”

  “And I’m a monkey’s uncle.”

  I gasp in mock surprise. “Don’t you talk about our nephew like that. I think it’ll be me talking to Skye about what you just called her son.”

  Marco rolls his eyes. “Nice deflection but I’m not buying it. Tell me this then, little brother. When was the last time you went out on a date?”

  “I’m not interested in dating at the moment,” I shoot back.

  He crosses his arms over his chest and quirks a brow. “OK. So why haven’t you dated anyone since London moved back to Chicago?”

  “Because I’ve been busy, and again, refer to my first answer.”

  “Riiight . . .”

  Now I’m getting annoyed. “Look, I'm not anti-relationship. I just don't see the appeal right now—not with our job, the schedule, all of it. I can't give one hundred percent to someone if I'm married to my work.”

  “Bullshit,” he coughs, not hiding it. “I call bullshit because I work the same hours as you and have the same shitty schedule, and I’m three months away from marrying my own showstopper.” We walk through the kitchen, giving chin lifts and waves to the oncoming crew before making our way into the corridor leading to the locker rooms.

  “It’s not like that with London. We’re friends. She gets me and I get her. It’s good and there’s no pressure, no drama, no feels.” Because I won’t let there be. I won’t do that to myself, her, or the Captain.

  “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Luc,” he says, grabbing my shoulder and giving it a hearty shake. “Just be aware that although you won’t admit what the rest of us can see as clear as day, London has had a crush on you for years, and that kind of history doesn’t just vanish because you turned her down.”

  My heart stops in my chest, and I nearly trip over myself as my feet stop moving of their own volition. I jerk my eyes to his. “How the hell do you—” I groan and shake my head. “Fucking Gio. I swear our brother is more of a gossip queen than our Mom and sisters combined,” I say with a growl.

  “It’s not exactly hard to see, Luc. I think you’re the only one with their head in the sand.”

  “There’s nothing to see. We’re friends, best friends, and I’m not about to do anything or have Lonnie do anything to mess that up. What we have is good—better than anything I’ve had with a woman before. And that’s because we’re not fucking. There’s no pressure—no expectations. We can just be. And yeah, I know she caught feelings, but we’re past that now. She told me she understood and agreed with my reasons why we’re better off as friends.”

  “Age gap, different stages of your life, work, Cap, and the no exes, wives, or daughters rule? Does that about cover it?”

  I nod, my chest easing a bit at the look of understanding in my brother’s eyes. “The last thing I’d ever do—ever want to do—is hurt her, Marco.”

  “Hey. You know I’m just looking out for you. And if you can’t trust your big brother to level with you, then who can you trust?”

  “I hear you. I’m just tired, and after getting shit from the guys and you about London, I guess I’m sick of my friendship with her being questioned all the time.”

  “OK, Luc. I get it. I’m heading out now anyway. I have a warm bed and an even warmer body to go home to, and she’s a hell of a lot better-looking than you,” he says with a laugh.

  “Say hi to Renee for me. And tell her there’s still one single Rossi br
other waiting for her to change her mind about you.”

  He smirks and shakes his head. “Fuck off and go see Cap.”

  “Run tomorrow morning?” I ask just as we reach the doorway leading to the locker room.

  “Yep. Gio, Rhodes, and Jake are coming too.”

  “Sounds good. See you then.” I walk toward the admin offices at the end of the firehouse when Marco stops me.

  “Oh, and message from my lovely wife-to-be—keep Friday free because she’s booked us in for our suit fitting.”

  I turn around, still moving backward. “Ah, yes. Finally, it’s my time to outshine the groom. It’s called being the best man for a reason you know . . .”

  Marco chuckles and flips me off. “If you’re the best man on the day, then we’re all fucked, little brother.” Then, with a smirk and a mock salute, he disappears from sight.

  A few moments later, I knock on the Cap’s open door. He glances up and ushers me in, leaning back in his chair.

  He looks as tired as I feel, but after a busy twenty-four-hour shift, we’re all ready to call it a day and head home..

  I walk in and take a seat opposite him, happy to get off my feet. “Marco said you wanted to see me?”

  “I won’t keep you long, but there’s something I wanted to talk to you about—this firehouse and your future plans”

  I still, every muscle in my body tensing because the one thing I’ve never focused on is that. The future. It’s always seemed too big, too much to think about, so I don’t. I live every day to the fullest and take life as it comes—I always have. So having my boss, my mentor, and one of the most trusted men in my life tell me he wants to talk about it has me on edge and ready to bolt at the first opportunity.