AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He shakes his head and grabs my shoulder for balance when the gesture causes him to sway to the side. So I put my extinguisher down on the road and hold him up.
“No one inside,” he breathes. “I saw it just as it went up. No one was in it.”
I grab the radio on my jacket and hit the button to broadcast on the open channel. “No victims inside the truck,” I report to my crew. “No victims wandering or injured.”
Grabbing my extinguisher again, and dragging Jase as I back away, I sit his ass on the curb and shove his head between his legs when he looks like he might spew.
“What the hell is going on?”
“I caught a lungful of smoke,” he heaves. “Scared the shit out of me when it went up. I was close, and wanted to make sure no one was inside.”
Two paramedics, Mitch and Luc, race our way with a stretcher and a medbag on top.
“Report,” Mitch demands. “What’s happening?”
“Smoke inhalation.” I lower into a crouch and rest my elbows on my knees. “No visible burns. No other injuries. And no one else was in or around the truck when it caught fire.”
“It didn’t just catch fire.” Jase clutches to the mask Luc slaps over his mouth and gulps down clean air. “It exploded, man. Like,click, click, boom!”
My eyes narrow as I twist my head and watch my crew dump water on top of the blaze. Then slowly, I bring my gaze back around. “Didn’t you leave the party last night because of a fire?”
His face turns sheet-white beneath the soot and smoke. “My sister’s kitchen. She swore she’d stopped cooking an hour before. She wasn’t even using her kitchen when it went up.”
Suspicion settles deep in my stomach as I reach for my radio again.
“We’re gonna need the cops down here, Lieutenant. Potential arson investigation. Our vic’s been targeted twice in under twenty-four hours.”
Releasing the button, I glare into Jase’s eyes and narrow mine. Then as an afterthought, I press the button again. “Or the vic is the arsonist. Haven’t decided yet.”
* * *
I wander the hall of our small-town hospital, waiting as Jase sits in a room with cops, Nix, and a couple of doctors who are unwilling to let the smoke inhalation slide. The police ask him questions. Determine his whereabouts not only last night and this morning, but in the weeks leading up to this.
They want to know who he’s pissed off.
Why someone would target him.
They wanna know who he’s dating, and when he reveals he was with Hannah last night, I don’t miss the look Nix gives me, since… well… it could appear as though maybeI’mthe asshole who would like to make him suffer.
“Axel!” Hannah bursts through the hospital doors so I turn on a skid and press a hand to my heart.
She’s so pretty. So perfect. And though she’s only ever known me as a firefighter, I still catch the flicker in her eyes as she looks me up and down.
These turnouts represent everything I said when I disrespected and broke up with her.
I blamed my career, and then I blamed her.
The fact I’m back in them undoubtedly makes her heart ache the way it did seven months ago.
“Hey.” I dangle my helmet in one hand and meet her halfway along the hall. I don’t hug her. I don’t touch. But I look down into her eyes and give her a gentle smile. “Everything’s fine. Your boyfriend is fine. He just swallowed a little smoke.”
“Not my boyfriend.” But she tearfully laughs. “He’s a good guy, Axel. Whoever’s trying to hurt him is a jerk.”
“He’ll be happy to see you.” I extend my finger forward to stroke her wrist. “Did you get my texts this morning? I wasn’t trying to sneak out or anything.”
“I got them.” She doesn’t smack my hand away, which is a relief. But she doesn’t deepen our touch, either. She looks me up and down and stops on my name, sewn above the breast pocket of my jacket. “You’re officially back?”
“Signed a contract this morning,” I murmur. “Promised I’m sticking. Nix gave me a lecture on safety and loyalty, and then we got called out to this. But, Sully,” I step in her way when she wants to look past me to Jase’s room. “Is he in trouble? Did you pick a dude who has enemies?”
