Chapter 23
Julian
“We need to get these flames under control!” I yell at my guys.
The scene is a mess. Early reports are suggesting the explosion was indeed another surge along the gas line caused by the quake.
Like last time, there seem to be a number of affected sites around town, but this one appears to be the worst. We’ve got assistance from other firehouses and a whole host of ambulances treating the wounded.
However, we got a call from dispatch saying a couple of people were trapped in this particular area.
And one of them specifically asked about the One-Thirteen.
I’m trying really hard not to let it show that I’m going out of my mind with anxiety.
However, from what we’ve seen it’s obvious that this was the wedding show.
I texted Romeo to ask if he was okay, but I haven’t heard anything back yet.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the worst. It’s not good either, though.
If I lose him…
No, I can’t think like that. And there are hundreds of other people that need our help as well. I have to keep my head and do my job. That’s what’s going to get me back to my man.
My boyfriend.
“Whoa!” Lochlan cries from where he’s manning the hose.
I’m snatched back to the here and now as the fire we’ve been battling has a sudden flare up.
Maybe another burst of gas from somewhere even though the supply has been cut.
Whatever the case, my guys charge forward, determinedly battling the flames back down again.
But it looks like the blaze is eating its way through the walls, and we still haven’t found the people who were on with dispatch.
“What’s going on, Sachin?” I ask through the radio.
“I don’t know, Julian,” he says, his voice tense. “The line is still open, but I’m no longer getting a response.”
My blood runs cold, and I can’t avoid asking any longer. “Did you get a name?”
“Yes,” he tells me, then hesitates before adding, “Romeo.”
My whole world flips on its axis. I only stay on my feet due to a couple of decades’ worth of hardcore training.
This is my worst nightmare.
“Cap! Julian!”
I blink and realize my lieutenant is in front of me, shaking me by my shoulders. “Uh?”
“I was on the coms, I heard,” he tells me urgently. “Come on. We have to go find him. Del! Yara! With us!” He smacks my arm and narrows his eyes at me. “He needs you.”
Rico’s right. Romeo needs me.
What the hell am I waiting for?
“Through here!” I instruct, taking one of the corridors that should lead us to the stage area now the fire is more under control.
Sachin has been looking at blueprints for us in between talking to the person I now know to be Romeo.
However, things are looking a little different at the moment.
Mercifully, we do seem to be winning the battle with the flames.
I just hope we aren’t too late.
Feeling like a rat in a maze, we forge our way through the rubble. “Redwood Bay Fire Department!” I bellow. “Call out!”
“Over here!” Rico yells, and my heart leaps in my chest. He beckons me toward a smoldering pile of debris. When he hauls a section of drywall back, it’s easy to see the trapped woman wearing a wedding gown.
Even though there’s someone lying on top of her, protecting her with his body.
“Del! Yara!” I holler. “In here, now! Ma’am, sir? Can you hear me?”
“It’s going to be alright,” Rico says as he carefully rolls the man onto his back.
I can already tell from the hair. But when I see Romeo’s unconscious face, all the air rushes from my lungs. I’m helpless to do anything but watch as my paramedics hurry to assess both him and the woman’s condition.
Her movements are weak as she lowers the scrunched up jacket she had pressed to her face, and she blinks slowly at us like she can’t believe we’re really here.
“Help him,” she rasps, faintly pointing to Romeo.
A coughing fit rips through her chest, but she fights to get her voice back.
“He wouldn’t leave me, even when the fire got really bad. ”
“Pulse is weak and he’s not breathing,” Del calls out urgently, reaching for the bag mask.
“I’ve got it,” I bark, finally regaining function in my limbs. I throw myself to the ground, ripping off my helmet and mask before pinching his nose so I can perform mouth-to-mouth. “Come on, baby,” I utter in the few seconds between each rescue breath. “Come on. Come back to me.”
I give another. Then another. I’m vaguely aware that Rico has called for backup so we can free our second patient, and I’m so grateful he’s here to take the reins. Because my entire focus has narrowed down to Romeo’s prone face.
Another breath. Another. Then…
I jerk back as Romeo inhales so hard he arches his back off the floor. His eyes flutter open in panic, but I’m already there, gathering him in my arms as a sob escapes my chest.
“It’s okay, baby. You’re okay. I’m here. I’ve got you.”
“Julian?” he croaks, pawing at my back.
“I’m here,” I repeat. “You’re okay.”
I lean back so I can look into his eyes and see for myself that he’s really all right. He’s stained with soot and has a slight rattle when he breathes from the smoke inhalation. But otherwise, he doesn’t have any obvious injuries.
“Are you hurt?” I ask him.
He takes a second to process what I’ve said, then shakes his head. My relief is palpable. He does try and twist to reach for the woman’s hand. “Help Alice,” he begs with what little voice he has. “She’s trapped. I couldn’t…couldn’t…”
“Shh, it’s okay,” I say, pulling him back against my chest and moving us out of the way. “Look, the cavalry is here.”
We both turn to see the rest of my guys rushing onto the scene. The fire might be out, but the structure is still extremely unstable and could come down on us at any second, so time is of the essence.
“Okay, Alice,” Rico says with a smile, holding the frightened woman’s hand. “Let’s get you out of here, hm?”
“I’d like that, thank you,” she says with a weak laugh that turns into another cough.
Sawyer and Anton are already setting up the air wedges to inflate and get the weight off Alice’s lower body. Del is happy with her condition, so I’m really hopeful her injuries won’t be too severe when we manage to pull her free.
“Oh,” she says, her voice sad and soft as Yara begins cutting away some of her voluminous wedding dress. I can only assume that she was one the models in Romeo’s show. “It was so pretty.”
“Sorry, sweetie,” Yara says sympathetically.
Alice winces as the weight begins to shift, and shakes her head. “It was just for the show, it wasn’t mine.”
“You’ll have your own someday,” Romeo pipes up from where he’s cradled in my lap.
Alice twists her head and manages to look at him. “You really think so?”
“I know so,” Romeo rasps with conviction.
Even on the brink of death, he’s still making sure to take care of others before himself. As admirable as that is, though, he’s in need of a considerable amount of TLC.
So it’s a good thing he’s got me now, isn’t it?
“Come on, daredevil,” I say, pulling us both to our feet. “That’s enough heroics for one day. You need oxygen, stat. Then we’ll get you to San Clemente General and get you checked over.”
“Okay, Daddy,” he agrees faintly. I’m not sure he’s even sure what he just said.
But my whole team were certainly paying attention.
“We all heard that this time, right?” Lili demands.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Romeo,” Teddy says brightly over her. “Cap has told us a lot about you. I hope you’re feeling better soon.”
“Get him to triage,” Del tells me gently, resting a steady hand on my shoulder. “We’ve got everything under control here.”
“Go take care of your man, Cap,” Sawyer cries gleefully.
Romeo looks blearily at me. “Your man?” he asks, sweet and hopeful.
“My man,” I confirm. Then recklessness seizes me, and I throw caution to the wind. “My boyfriend.”
Despite his condition, Romeo still manages to pull out a dazzling smile. “Boyfriend,” he repeats with a nod. “Sounds correct.”
I couldn’t agree more.
“Watch your step,” I say a few days later, escorting Romeo through my front door.
But he just tuts, looking around the head of the enormous teddy bear I bought him from the hospital gift shop. He might have teased me mercilessly for making such a crazy purchase, but from the way he’s currently hugging it to his chest, I’d wager that he secretly loves it.
Not as much as I secretly love him, though.
“I’m fine, Julian,” he says with no small amount of sass, although his voice is still a little hoarse. “I let you wheel me out to the car, but you need to stop fussing. The doctors said I’m going to make a full recovery.”
I close the door behind us and lean in to kiss him. “I know, but you scared me with your antics. So you have to let me fuss a bit to make up for it.”
He rolls his eyes, but he’s also grinning shyly, making me think he’s slowly coming around to the idea that I’m going to be showering him with attention for the foreseeable future.
He’s not the only one who’s on their way to a full recovery.
Some of his coworkers and the rest of the models were critical for a minute, but everyone’s on the mend now.
Both his boss, Hedi, and the model, Alice, are also expected to make a full recovery.
That’s in no small part thanks to Romeo’s quick thinking, and I’m once again filled with pride at how brave he was.
Even if he did terrify the ever-loving crap out of me.
But I learned a long time ago that fear is something I work best alongside, and this particular scare inspired some things in me over the past couple of days while Romeo’s been recovering at San Clemente General.
“So, I did something,” I say slightly nervously, slipping my hand against his. He places the bear down and raises his eyebrows at me.
“Should I be worried?”
I shrug and begin leading him up the stairs toward my bedroom. “If you’re not comfortable with it, I can put it all back. But I wanted to welcome you home and make you as comfortable as possible. So…”
As he pointed out, he’s perfectly capable of walking. Therefore, I step back and let him go into my bedroom first.
Or should I say our bedroom.
His jaw drops as he slowly turns around and takes in my work. I always thought my room here was a little plain, but I never found anything I really wanted to decorate it with.
Now I have Romeo.
“It’s all my stuff?” he says in confusion, taking in the art and knickknacks on display. He doesn’t even realize yet that I’ve rearranged my closets for him. By which I mean I’ve given him most of the space, because he has about five times as many clothes as I do.
“Like I said. If it’s too much too fast, I can put it all back into the annex.” I come up behind him so I can wrap my arms around his waist and rest my chin on his shoulder. “But after everything you’ve been though, I thought it might be nice if you came home and could just relax.”
“Julian,” he says, his voice trembling. “Have you moved me in with you?”
“If that’s what you want?” I reply hopefully.
He spins in my arms and buries his tearful face into the crook of my neck. “Oh my god, yes,” he whimpers, clinging to my sweater. “Can I really stay with you?”
“You’re mine now, remember?” I tease him gently. “This is your home. You belong here. With me.”
He doesn’t say anything for a minute, but he nods against my neck. So I simply hold him and we rock gently back and forth.
After a while, he stirs. “My apartment building fell down, didn’t it?” he asks with a sigh.
“Um, yeah,” I admit. “The second quake took it out. I’m really sorry.”
He shrugs against me. “I removed everything that mattered. Hopefully everyone else did, too.”
“Hopefully,” I agree. “But that’s not why I brought your stuff over from the annex, though,” I assure him. “I wanted you here with me.”
“I know,” he says.
We spend a little longer in the embrace, and I feel a deep and complete sense of peace. Everything and everyone is now where they should be.
Then Romeo speaks again, lighting up the quiet like a rainbow in the sky. “I love you.”
I still, looking at his beautiful face until he meets my gaze. I can’t quite believe he had the courage to say it first, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to leave him hanging.
“I love you, too,” I tell him, meaning it with my whole heart. “My precious black diamond.”
“Am I really yours?”
There’s still a tiny bit of disbelief and hesitation in his voice. Time to do something about that, I reckon.
“Completely,” I promise him. “Will you come to bed? Let Daddy take care of his baby boy?”
His eyes go impossibly wide. But having had some time to mull it over, I think I kind of like this silly little thing of ours.
Tentatively, he brushes his lips against mine. “I knew I’d eventually wear you down,” he says with a smirk.
I snort before crashing my mouth against his. “Brat,” I mumble, crowding him back toward the bed.
“Hey,” he protests, a devilish gleam in his eyes. “I just got out of the hospital. You have to be gentle with me.”
The backs of his legs hit the side of the bed. I run my hands up his arms and kiss under his earlobe the way I know he loves. “I’ll be as gentle as you want, baby.”
He hums before yanking his T-shirt off and discarding it on the floor. “Okay, Daddy. Maybe not that gentle.”
I think knowing how close I came to losing him in that fire has ignited something in me these past few days.
As promised, I will be careful with him while he’s still healing.
But our clothes are gone in seconds, and I waste no time in lubing up my fingers to stretch him out while I’m stealing all the kisses I can.
He lays back, my pillow princess, with a grin on his face as he leisurely caresses my back.
There will be time for our usual foreplay later. Right now, I just need to be inside him, and I know that’s what he’s craving, too. So when I sink in shortly after, connecting us in mind, body, and soul, we both sigh deeply, not needing to say a word to be understood.
Not in a million years would I have expected the glittering whirlwind that is Romeo Quincy to blow into my world the way he did. But life would be so boring if it was predictable, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“Mine,” I growl as we gently pulse together.
“Mine,” he agrees, happy tears shimmering in his eyes.
Forever, I think to myself. But that’s a secret I’m willing to keep for a little while longer. Not too long, though, I hope. Because life is for living, and I want to share it all with Romeo Quincy by my side.