Chapter 31
S hit had gone wrong, and fast. I pushed away the notion that this was a sign I’d been right all along, that Jenna didn’t deserve any of this, and instead focused on getting the fuck out of here.
But it was kinda hard with a scared shitless probie on my hip and a building we shouldn’t have been in the middle of. Unknown hazardous materials and tightly packed units were as dangerous as it got.
Storage units were a fucking nightmare, but this one was the pits. Even over the roar of the fire, I could hear hissing and popping. Gas canisters, paint, and flammable liquids heated fast, and God only knew what the fuck was behind these shutters.
My probie looked wired and scared but so far he’d listened to every instruction I’d hurled his way. I checked my air. We’d be okay for a while, but not if we sucked it down.
I just closed my eyes and for half a second I tried to center myself—conserving oxygen was the most important thing—and then I honed my focus.
“Tate! Look at me,” I yelled.
Tate’s wild eyes searched mine.
“Calm down. Slow your breathing right down.” He jerkily nodded and I grasped his shoulders to help steady him.
“Total shit show, not gonna lie. You stay on my hip. I move, you move. Together. We get out together.”
“H-how.” His head snapped left and then right. I already knew we were cornered.
“We stay sharp. Conserve our air and stick together. That’s the only way we’re getting out. You hear me?”
“I-I-” His eyes pinged to the victim on the floor, but he’d already been gone some time. There was nothing we could do for the man and dying right alongside him wasn’t an option.
As the city became safer, and the dilapidated structures were pulled down or renovated, the more creative and desperate those without a home became. Sleeping in a storage unit was prohibited, but rules were made for those who followed them, and keeping people from occupying these units took more than an email reminder and a visit from a fire inspector every year or so.
“Let your training do all the work,” I told Tate. “Even if this was a breeze. Even if we’d gotten to him a half hour ago. He was already gone.”
“Wha-what about the others?”
As the first responding company—we called it first due—we’d been the primary search unit and split off in search of civilians. I’d taken Tate with me, leaving Rambo, Killian, and Renee headed west.
“All safe. Everyone’s out. And now it’s our turn.”
I’d heard Brooks order an evacuation which had cleared the rest of my crew and the other four companies that had responded just after us, including my cousins, so that was one less thing to worry about.
Although, if our places had been reversed, I sure as hell would be doing everything I could to get back in here to find them.
Tate nodded. “Just . . . just tell me what to do.” At that exact moment, a thunderous boom had us crouching on instinct.
“Fuuuuuuck,” Tate gritted out.
“Okay. We need to go up.” I pointed upward.
“Further in?” Tate screeched.
“Yep. Let’s go. We’re not getting out on this floor.”
Both exits were blocked but the one-way system stairwell leading upward wasn’t.
“Brooks, we’re gonna head up one floor.”
“I don’t like this Madden,” Brooks responded. But he knew I wasn’t taking any chances. The smoke gave away how compromised we were.
Crackles and chatter came over the radio as we stayed low and moved east. I’d merely glimpsed the blueprints Brooks had rolled out on the hood of his car, but it had been enough.
I clung fiercely to thoughts of Jenna and the life we were building as my heart thundered inside my chest.
Tate was right to be freaked, we were heading toward heavy fire, the walls at the far end glowing a deep orange, but it was necessary. Maybe roof access hadn’t been compromised and we’d be able to get to it. Maybe we could get to a window or a fire exit with an evac ladder. Anything was better than staying where we were, cornered.
Storage units were a maze and could be very disorientating. Visibility was worsening and I’d heard nothing of a successful vent, so we needed to hustle. As we made it around what I was hoping was the southeast corner, we were hit by a wall of intense heat.
That meant the fire was spreading and any offensive moves were going nowhere. Whatever the fuck was fueling this fire was nasty shit.
We stayed low, crawling under and around debris, mainly racking that hadn’t held well, but the corridor was becoming hotter and hotter, and it made every move forward harder. My legs felt like I was dragging dead weights and I just wanted to rest.
But I knew that only meant we were running out of time.
I turned and motioned to Tate that I wanted to check his air. He lifted the gauge, but it couldn’t be right. I blinked some of the sweat out of my eyes and tried again. Low bar . Shit.
I checked mine. Double shit.
A few more feet though, and I knew we’d be at a metal stairwell.
It took longer than anticipated, but eventually, I felt what I knew were the first few ten-inch-wide steps of the galvanized stairway.
“Tate. Up!” I motioned and he began to pull himself up a stair at a time. We could hardly fucking move.
I heaved forward, wrapping my arm around him.
“Focus, probie. We got this.”
But when we arrived at the top, the door wouldn’t budge.
This was it. Our low-air alarms were about to go off any second. And I knew I had to warn him.
“Listen. Your alarm is about to go off. Don’t fuckin’ panic. I’m getting us out of here,” I promised.
I put my weight against the door. Nothing. Tate tried a few times and it didn’t budge. We went at it together. Still nothing. I tried over and over as Tate slid to the floor.
Fuck!
“Brooks.”
“Here, Madden.”
“We’re at stairwell four on the three side. Fire door’s jammed. And?—”
My alarm sounded. We had minutes left.
“There’s issues with the fa?ade,” Brooks barked back. “They removed the stucco from the exterior wall for a fucking addition and threw up a masonry brick wall. I’m holding the stop work order in my hand. They’ve fucking sealed it shut.”
And I thought it couldn’t get any worse than being cornered. This was trapped.
“There’s no going back. We’re just sitting ducks up here. No line. No air.”
“Fuck, Madden. You stop right the fuck there.”
“Me?”
“No, not you. Fuck—” My radio squawked but Brooks wasn’t saying anything. I heard chatter but nothing aimed at me for what felt like an eternity. In reality, it was probably only a few seconds.
I dipped down to check on Tate. His eyes were still open. Good, he wasn’t unconscious.
“We’re working on breaking through but, PULL BACK. PULL BACK.”
I dove for Tate, and as the world gave way from beneath us and as the dust and debris hailed down over us, all I could think of was Jenna. How I’d wasted all this time. How we’d only ever have these few weeks. I should’ve given her more. I should have loved her the way she deserved from the minute I realized that’s what I felt.
Instead, she was getting a handful of weeks and a lifetime of regret.
I felt the strands of her chestnut brown hair sift through my fingers. I felt her lips on mine. Heard her telling me she loved me over and over again.
I looked up, ready to own my decisions when the deafening noise of cascading concrete, steel, and brick ceased, and the dust cloud rose.
That’s when I saw it. Daylight.
I ripped the mask off my face and gulped down blessed fresh air. My lungs were about to collapse in on themselves and my legs could no longer keep me upright, but I had gotten myself out of there and I was alive. Or so I thought.
“Hey, Lieutenant, are we dead?”
I squinted up at the clear blue sky and then turned to look at Tate.
“Maybe,” I wheezed in between ragged breaths.
“Who knew heaven was the corner of Nine West?”
I smiled because, no, my version of heaven was on a different corner.
“You’re not dead, but you do need to get up here and let me do my checks. Don’t make me come down there.”
I knew that voice. Viv was an EMT based out of my cousin’s firehouse and currently standing over me. She brought me back down to Earth with a thud.
My cousins. Who were at this fire. Whose voices I heard over the radio after I sent out a “Mayday” right before the collapse.
“Are Theo and Troy . . . Are they safe?” I felt my eyes bulge out of their sockets as they roved over the organized chaos that surrounded us. Viv stepped into my line of sight and nodded.
“Calm down and see for yourself.”
She pointed through a gap in the trucks, and I saw them both running over to where I was now, leaning on one arm.
“Fuckin’ hell, dude. You scared the shit out of us,” Troy muttered.
Theo’s knees hit the pavement as he cuffed me around the neck and placed his sweaty forehead against mine.
“That was some fucked up shit,” Theo said in a hushed voice. “But I was comin’ in.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded.
“You good?” he asked, standing back to his full height and stepping back. I nodded again.
It was all the reassurance he needed. Shit like this always shook us up. He walked away, his hands clasped behind his head a sure sign of the stress he was just drowning in.
“I’m gonna go with him.” I squinted up at Troy and nodded for the third time. We fist-bumped and he took off after Theo.
“Ah, man, I can’t wait to get home to Laney later,” Tate said on a long exhale, pulling my gaze from my cousins’ retreating forms.
“Yeah?” I asked, hefting myself to my feet. Every single muscle in my body ached. I wasn’t ready for the adrenaline to wear off, that was damn sure.
I winced when Viv pounced, shining her penlight in my eyes, burning my retinas clear off.
“I’m fine,” I told her, even though I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.
“Yeah, yeah, tough guy. Let me just check your vitals anyway. Even in your turnout gear, I can tell this is dislocated, maybe even broken.” She motioned to my left shoulder.
Fuck, I hoped it wasn’t.
“Let’s take a look after I’m done with the gash on your forehead.”
She wiped at my face, and I grunted as the antiseptic burned the cut from where some metal had scraped me.
“You are so lucky with this. It’s missed your eye by a quarter inch. This will close with butterfly stitches. You want them now or wait till the hospital?”
“I’m not going to the hospital. Do it all here.”
Viv rolled her eyes. “I’ll butterfly you here, but we need to get you more thoroughly checked over.”
She helped me take my coat off, my shoulder burning hotter than the fire I’d just survived. My captain grimaced as he took in my left side once she’d cut through the collar of my shirt.
I looked down. The top half of my left pec and shoulder were already turning a deep purple.
“Dislocation. You’re coming with me?—”
“No, honestly it’s just from the door.” Tate and I had to force our way through some fallen debris and then a crushed external door.
“Scott. I can’t reset it. You need an ortho.”
I looked at Brooks with pleading eyes.
“No fucking chance.” He shook his head.
“I’ll do it,” Rambo said, stepping forward with a glint in his eyes.
Viv moved in front of me. “Step back, you big behemoth.”
Rambo and I rolled our eyes, but I let Viv do her work, all the while Tate chattered on next to me. He talked nothing of the experience we just shared.
Nothing about how for a minute there we had absolutely zero hope of getting out of that building. The irony of the collapse actually freeing us wasn’t lost on me, but all he kept saying was how he couldn’t wait to get home to his Laney.
My brow furrowed. “Who is Laney?”
“Oh, she’s my best girl.”
Me and Rambo glanced at each other, and Rambo canted his head.
Tate nodded. “Yeah. I’m gonna take her for a nice long walk and a pup cup. You gotta cherish all the little moments, y’know?”
Laney was a fucking dog.
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. I laughed so hard tears sprang from my eyes and a vicious pain radiated through my shoulder.
“I wanna meet this mutt. Anyone that can make a person fight their way outta that hellfire, I owe a special treat. You did so fucking good, probie.”
His eyes lit up. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Go get checked out at the hospital with Viv and I’ll meet you there.” I looked at Rambo. “I need to make a pitstop.”
“Wait here,” I ordered once Rambo had pulled the rig to a stop safely opposite Cupcake. I grabbed for my radio and opened the door with my good arm.
We’d been taken out of service, and someone would be coming over shortly to cover me, seeing as my left shoulder was shot to shit.
I’d be out of action for a while. It sucked but I could worry about that later. First I needed to see my girl, only then would I make my way to the hospital.
“I won’t be long.”
“Can you bring us back a?—”
I didn’t hear the rest of the request as the door slammed shut. I was too amped up to care. This crew of mine ate more donuts and Danishes than was normal, so a treat missed wasn’t going to hurt any of them.
My boots crunched as I walked, and my tunic billowed as I weaved through the gaps in the traffic.
The bell jingling above the door to my favorite place in the world had my heart rate settling a tiny bit. The front was empty, and I knew she’d be closing up any second. I flipped the sign on the door and threw the lock shut.
Kate exited the kitchen, her eyes widening as I strode through the café.
“Woah.” Her eyes danced over me. “I’ll just . . .” She scanned past me. “Take these leftovers out for the guys.”
“You do that.” But then I cursed. “Watch the ro?—”
“Road.” She gave me a mock salute. “Yes, Dad.”
I barreled through the two-way doors and stuttered in my step.
The sun was beating down in diagonal rays through the high windows, lighting Jenna in a way that had my heart stuttering, too.
She spun, taking me in from head to toe and I forged forward.
Six steps and I was wrapping both arms around her. Shoulder be damned.
“Scott, are you okay?” She reached for my face, tilting my head so she could look at the gash slicing through my eyebrow.
I nodded and inhaled.
Vanilla. Sugar. Home.
She looked up at me, questions written all over her face, but I captured her lips with my own without answering. She opened up and let me take what I needed. I kissed her hard and deep, angling my head, my hand making its way to the back of her neck.
I ripped my mouth from hers and dragged in air.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I picked her up with my good arm under her ass and walked her the few paces it would take to be out of sight, and then I shifted around so she was sitting on the edge of a work counter she barely used.
“I don’t say it enough. I love you more than I ever thought possible. You got me out, Jenna. You brought me home.”
“Scott, you say it all the time. Are you okay?”
“I just . . . need you to know. There isn’t a bone in my body that doesn’t love or want or need you.”
“And there isn’t a doubt in my mind. Not anymore.”
I took her again in a hungry kiss but this time she matched me stroke for stroke. I lifted up her apron and fumbled with the button on her jean shorts.
She covered my hands with hers and forced me to look up.
“Scott?”
“The door’s locked,” I assured her and trailed kisses from her ear down to her jaw.
She bit her lip but reached for the heavy metal clasp on my turnout pants.
“Up,” I demanded, and she lifted her ass so I could slide the denim down just enough.
Within two seconds she was fisting my cock.
“I need . . .” I didn’t know what I needed. All I knew was that I was lucky to be alive. Lucky to be able to do this with Jenna. I needed our connection. Our closeness. Her goodness.
“Take it.” She just knew it was something only she could give.
That was enough. I went to slide my fingers inside but stopped.
I was such an asshole. I’d left smudgy fingerprints all over her beautiful perfect thighs. I should have showered. And I needed to stop making a habit of visiting her before taking one. She deserved more than literal filth and dirt.
“I don’t wanna . . .” My hands flexed on her thighs, and she looked down.
She shook her head. “I’m already so wet from your kisses.”
Fuck, she was perfect.
I lifted her knees so her back hit the wall, spread her legs, and inched inside her.
I threw my head back and groaned, stilling for a second as she fluttered and adjusted around me.
She dug her hands into my shoulder and I hissed. Viv was right. She was very, very right.
I’d go to the emergency room . . . in a few minutes.
“Oh, I’m?—”
I shook my head and started to rock into her. In and out, in and out, until sweat beaded at my temple.
“You look like you’re gonna pass out,” she chided but then moaned when I tilted her hips.
I snapped my hips and drove her back into the wall. Over and over, I couldn’t stop. I pounded into Jenna so hard that the steel bench started to rattle.
It was fast and dirty and so fucking hot my legs started to shake.
My fingers dug into her hips as I unleashed, our pelvises smashing together. I looked down, the sight so filthy, so hurried and reckless that my climax started to build. This was all going to be over in a few seconds.
“Can you . . .”
“Close,” she whispered, and I tilted her slightly.
If only I’d have known how good this could have been all along instead of running scared. Instead of hiding.
Jesus. “This pussy, Jenna, you were made for me.”
She gasped and I kissed her, swallowing her cries as I emptied everything I had inside of her.
After a few seconds I pulled out, tidied us both up as best I could, and gave her one more lingering kiss. All I’d ever need was her. All I’d never need was to have Jenna to come home to.
And then, then I went to the hospital.