Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mac
P acing the perimeter of the building to the opposite corner, I called for a headcount check and status update from my teams inside. Flames lit the interior of the second story. This side needed more attention.
The radio crackled. “1253 to command,” Nate’s voice called over the radio, a hollow, static-filled crackle. “Staircase is fully engulfed.”
“10-4, staircase is out of commission. Command to Aerial Two, see if you can get inside that second-story window.”
The fire shifted and rolled, licking out of windows, growing hotter and hotter. We were losing it. Looked like Cal would be leading a crew on his last shift. “B-team, take the south entrance.”
A loud crack sounded from across the court square, and radio traffic went nuts.
Cal, the lead firefighter, jerked and fell to the ground.
“What the fuck?” I barked .
Crack. Crack.
The other crew dropped low to the ground as screams rose above the cacophony of the scene and the chilling retort of rifle fire.
“Active shooter, take cover!”
I wrapped my arms around Olivia and slammed her against the engine, covering her body with my own, before glancing over my shoulder in the direction of where she’d left our daughter. Too much distance separated us from her, the length of a city block.
Policemen barreled in behind us, providing cover. Guns drawn, radios squawking.
“It had to come from the roof of the Alamo!”
“I’ve got visual on a subject.”
More shots rang out, pinging the side of the engine. We ducked behind the safety of the firetruck as the bullets struck true.
“He took out the pump panel,” I yelled.
“Jesus Christ, he’s cut off water supply to the crew inside the building.” Her words were barely audible in the din around us.
Out on the lawn, one of the firemen dragged Cal’s prone body to safety. Olivia gripped my hand, squeezed her eyes shut, and prayed, “Please let him be okay, and please let Rosie be hiding . ”
“She’s smart. She’ll be okay,” I growled in her ear.
A staticky voice came across the radio of the officer next to me. “Lost visual.”
Olivia shuddered, hand gripping mine. “I left her by the engine on the other side of the court square.” Fear laced her words—fear that sliced into me and went straight to my bones. “I’ve got to get over there, Mac.” Wide, terror-filled eyes met mine.
“No fucking way. You can’t run across that yard. You know how to control the panic, Liv. Breathe and think. Where was she?”
“At the back of the engine.”
“Okay, can you see her?”
Olivia peered around the end of the engine, and her shoulders relaxed. “She’s talking to someone. I can’t tell who it is, but it’s one of our guys.”
“Okay, let’s get our head back in the game. We’ve got to get these crews out of the building.”
From behind us, someone called out, “Chief.”
Olivia looked over her shoulder and cursed. “The mayor is waving me over.”
I looked over to find the mayor, halfway hidden behind a glass door, motioning at Olivia. “Go. I got this. Stay low and get inside the building.”
I clicked my mic to call for a report and got nothing. “Dammit. Fucking cheap-ass battery.”
I pitched the useless radio and sprinted behind the barricade of an emergency vehicle to the pump engineer manning Aerial One. Over the truck radio, I could hear the interior crews calling for direction. “Four personnel are inside, hunkered down without water,” I barked at the engineer. “I want all the water you can get dousing this bitch.” Taking a chance that there might be a spare radio, I ducked into the cab, and score , one last fully charged unit.
No further shots had been fired, so with any luck, the shooter had run off. That, or he was waiting for us to get complacent and would then start taking us out again.
I scanned the scene.
PD was on high alert, trying to keep people from sneaking out of hiding. The aerials were dousing water on the structure .
Halfway down the sidewalk, out in the open, not under any cover at all, Olivia was arguing with Mayor Smith. His round face, mottled with anger, shook as he yelled right into her face.
That motherfucker.
I strode across the street, ready to hand him his ass. I knew damn good and well she could take care of herself. But no one was going to yell at my woman while I stood by and let her take it.
“Chief! Chief Hawkins!” I raised my voice until it boomed over the chaotic din.
She turned, looking pissed as all hell.
“You’re needed.”
I couldn’t go up and accost the man, even if the thought of planting my fist in his face was a heady thing. Instead, I gave her an out.
She spun, leaving him with some parting shot over her shoulder, and stalked toward me.
“Thanks. I was two shakes away from getting myself fired.”
“No problem.” We made it back to the original command point and stood taking in the scene. Olivia scanned the area with an experienced eye. “You know I trust you, Mac. But they’ve got maybe five minutes before we need to pull them out. That shooter is long gone, and this thing is getting out of control. I don’t give a damn how old this building is, it’s not important enough to lose one of our men or women over it. Pull them out.”
“10-4, Chief. Understood.”
“I’m going to see if I can find Rosie, and I’ll report from the other side of the square,” she said, taking off before I could get a word in edgewise.
I keyed up my mic. “NFD 1222, all personnel. ”
Another loud flash and boom sounded from inside the structure. It was then that the guys in the building started calling out in panic. The second story was caving in.
Another crackle of urgent radio traffic.
I sprinted to the west side of the building in time to see Thoren and Nate hauling Mo out of the building, backlit by a wall of fire. Thoren and Nate had been partners. Where in the hell was Mo’s partner? My heart rate kicked into overdrive, and my vision tunneled to what was happening before me.
“NFD 1222, all personnel. Retreat and report,” I commanded, yelling into the mic to be heard.
I ran forward to help Nate and Thoren get Mo to the ambulance. Dread pooled in my belly, but I had to know. “Where’s Burgess?”
“He’s with Three’s crew.”
Relief flooded hot and fierce through my system.
The remaining crews from the other stations all reported in. Burgess was being brought over by the two who had helped him out of the building.
They were all banged up but alive.
I looked behind the two men supporting Burgess, expecting to see Olivia and Rosie somewhere in the distance. But now that we’d moved to exterior defensive, there was no way to see beyond the massive amounts of water being dumped on the building.
The hair on the back of my neck stood. Something was off. I didn’t buy that the shooter had been taken out or run off.
But I knew what Olivia would want me to do. She’d want me to stay put and help her injured people. So I fought the urge to go search for her, for them.