by Rachel Blake
"My family is in there!" the man screamed as he fought against the officers with everything he had. "My family is in there!"
Having enough of the scene playing out before her, Autumn marched up to the man who was now being held by three struggling officers. As soon as she got close enough, she reached out and slapped the screaming man as hard as she could across the face. When he went silent, she started talking. "You are acting like an idiot and keeping these men from being able to help your family. Help us help them and tell us how many people are in the house." When he was slow in answering, Autumn again demanded, "How many people are in the house!"
"Two! Only two. My son was at a friend's house. I just picked him up. He is in the car down the street."
"Then, who is in the house?"
"My wife and our other son! You have to get them! You have to save them!"
Autumn looked at the officers and got a nod of approval before she continued her questions. "Where in the house would they be? The firefighters need to know where to find them."
"My son would be in his bedroom. It's at the back of the house, on the second floor."
As soon as he finished talking, Kevin spoke into his radio. "Confirmed one male child and a female adult in the house. The child should be on the second floor in the bedroom on the north side of the house. I repeat; the kid is in the north portion of the second floor."
"Ten-four. We don't have much time left with the roof, Chief."
"Where is your wife?" Autumn questioned, frantically trying to get the needed information so she could get her colleagues out of the house.
The desperate man covered his face with his hands. "I don't know! Sometimes she waits to go to sleep until I get home. Other nights, she can't help but fall asleep."
Kevin spoke in a no-nonsense tone. "When she goes to sleep before you get home, does she go to bed, or does she fall asleep someplace else?"
"I-I don't know!"
"One more room to search up here," a disembodied voice announced from the radios surrounding Autumn.
"Sir, I need to know where to find your wife, and I need to know now! The house is starting to collapse, so I can only allow my men to remain in the building for a few more minutes. Do you understand? Very soon, I am going to have to pull my guys out of the house whether I find your wife and kid or not, so I suggest you help us find her by telling us where she usually falls asleep when she is waiting for you!"
Something Kevin said must have broken through to the man because the desired information fell from his lips, "The couch in the family room. She usually falls asleep on the sofa in front of the television."
"What side of the house?" Kevin demanded, panic evident in his voice.
"Northeast corner."
"We have the kid!"
"Okay, Boisy, Clark, get out. Horris, Mote, it is possible that the wife is in the back northeast corner of the house."
"Already searched it, Chief. Didn't find anyone."
"Then clear out," Kevin demanded into his mic.
"No! You can't do that! My wife! My wife is in there!" The man started to fight against the cops once again.
"Sir, where did you park your car? Where is your other child?" Autumn asked the desperate man while she followed him as the cops dragged him away from the house.
"Ma'am, you are going to need to step back," an officer advised as he ran up to the group to aid his fellow officers.
Just as Autumn opened her mouth to argue, her elbow was caught in a rough grasp, and she was physically hauled back to the safety of the street. "Hey! Stop! Let go of me, you jackass!" A growl rumbled from under the mask still attached to the fireman's face as he tore it off and she was pinned in place by the deep brown eyes of her extremely unhappy Dom, and there was no question he was fully in his Dom. "Oh, Lee! Thank God, you are all right!" If she were not physically being held in place by the man, she would have hugged him.
"What the hell are you doing? Do you know how dangerous it is to be that close to a fire, let alone that close to a man who has very possibly lost everything tonight?" Leland demanded when he finally pulled her to a stop between a couple of the trucks.
"The cops were struggling to get information from him, so I helped."
The expression on Leland's face could only be described as complete and utter shock. "We will discuss the ridiculousness of your actions in the morning. Right now, I want you out of here. You were to be absent from the scene tonight. Go home, princess."
"I can't. I am on duty now. Even if I wasn't, I can't just leave your sister here with no ride home," Autumn replied with far too much sass for a woman who knew she was already in trouble.
"So, not only did you put yourself in danger, but you put my sister in danger, too?"
The rumble of his voice made her shiver a bit, but she wasn't going to back down now. "Your sister is doing her job as well. Her boss called her in, and you know she would have driven herself had I refused to drive."
Leland wiped his soot-covered face with his gloved hand as he sighed. A kiss was roughly placed on her forehead before he walked back to talk to Kevin. She had won round one.
Autumn didn't move from where he left her. The truth was she needed a little time to catch her breath. She knew going up to the disturbed man would get her into trouble, but she just couldn't help it. She saw a man whom she knew would soon regret his choice to withhold the needed information, and she could not stand forcing him to live with that guilt for the rest of his life if she could get him to help.
She watched as her fellow paramedics loaded the young boy into the rig and took off, sirens whirling.
"I thought you were supposed to have the night off?"
Autumn turned to her partner, who was scribbling on the clipboard she clutched in her hands. "When did you get here?"
Gwen tore her eyes from the clipboard and gestured to the second rig parked on the other side of the street. As she opened her mouth to talk, an awful noise came from the house.
The front wall of the brick building creaked and groaned as it started to fall. Autumn opened her mouth to warn Kevin and Leland, who were standing in front of it, but she was too late. She had no choice but to watch everything happen in slow motion.
She saw it on Kevin's face as soon as the decision was made. Instead of running when he saw the wall of bricks coming at him, Kevin sprinted the three steps it took him to get to Leland and shoved him with everything he had.
A high-pitched scream pierced the dark night, pulling Autumn from her frozen stupor. She spared a single glance at the screaming woman, Sierra, who was being held back by a determined Zander. He didn't seem to notice that the thrashing woman was pounding on his chest with everything she had. He simply wrapped her in his arms and rocked her as he pressed his soot-covered face into her hair.
The screaming continued as Autumn took off running toward the smoldering pile of rubble and the flames beyond it. With every step she took, she felt like she took four steps back as her vision tunneled. Nearly everyone who wasn't manning a hose or controlling the crowd rushed to the pile of ruins where Kevin was last seen. Firefighters and cops alike were running right past the unconscious Lee and digging through the crumbled brick to find the chief.
When she finally reached the debris, she went directly to Leland's side. He lay on the edge of the pile, the lower half of his body pinned under a slab of bricks and his head bleeding from the impact of his fall.
Her training kicked in, and as hard as it was to ignore the tightness in her chest, she started barking orders to a couple of the firefighters. "You three, I need this slab lifted off his legs. I need to assess the damage. You two! I need the cot out of the rig, and while you are over there, see if you can get my associates to move their asses!"
"That is the second time tonight you have sworn, princess," Leland croaked as he tried to lift his head.
"Don't move!" The demand was swift, and she immediately had one of the firefighters hold his head in place. "I need to get you into
a collar and—"
Leland's laugh and resulting grunt of pain when his body jostled interrupted Autumn's babbling. "That's funny. I always thought I would be the one putting a collar on you."
"How can you be laughing and carrying on like this? This isn't funny, Lee!" She could do nothing to keep the tears from pooling in her eyes as she fitted the c-collar around his neck. "You were just hit by a smoking pile of bricks, and you think now is an appropriate time to laugh?"
"Who is in charge?" he demanded as he was rolled to his side and someone shoved the backboard under him. When they rolled him back to his back, his eyes locked with Autumn's. "I asked you a question, and I expect to be answered, sub."
A blush spread across Autumn's face as the combination of adrenaline and fear had her heart threatening to pound out of her chest. "This is not the time nor the place for this. You are hurt. We need to get you to a hospital." When his arrogant brow didn't descend from its elevated position, she relented, "You are, usually, but you are my patient now, so for right now, I am in charge."
A few of the men chuckled as they loaded him into the rig. Leland just smiled as he spoke. "I won't be your patient for long, princess. You will soon be back over my knee." Autumn climbed into the ambulance and attached the necessary monitors. Gwen climbed in and ordered one of the firemen to get ready to drive as she applied a tourniquet and started an IV. "The tears staining your cheeks are contradicting your smile, princess."
"Leland, I am giving you some meds for the pain. They are going to make you tired."
"A few tears never hurt anyone." Leland smiled when she used his own words against him.
Autumn watched as the drugs took effect, and Leland let his eyes droop closed. She reached forward and grabbed his hand before she closed her own eyes and allowed the tears to flow freely. "I love you, Sir."
Chapter 16
The flags that lined the roads were brought to life by the breeze, their movement the only sound in the quiet cemetery. With tears in her eyes, Autumn looked at the line of firefighters in their navy-blue jackets standing on the other side of the casket. They stood perfectly still, prepared to make the final salute to their fallen brother. Mason was the exception; he stood at the end of the line holding a small hammer, poised above a bronze bell.
Olivia pulled her hand from Autumn's grasp as Jensen knelt in front of her with the folded flag in his arms. "Liv, we are all here to support you in any way we can. All you have to do is call." He paused for a second. "Who am I kidding? You will be so sick of us showing up at your door, but that is what we do for family. Kevin was an amazing man and brother. He will be missed for a long time."
With tears running down her face, Olivia took the flag and clutched it to her chest before she brokenly replied, "Thank you. Even knowing the outcome, the st-stupid man would probably do it all over again, wouldn't he?"
"We all would have done the same thing to save one of our brothers." With a kiss to her forehead, Jensen stood and joined the rest of the firefighters.
Olivia turned and buried her face in Autumn's shoulder just as the bronze bell was rung, signaling the end of Kevin's call to duty. With each tone of the bell, Olivia jumped in her seat, and her cries got louder.
At the sound of the final bell, Autumn sat straight up in bed. Her eyes snapped open when Lee wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her to his chest, the sweat on her face making his coarse chest hair itchy against her cheek.
"It was just a nightmare, baby," he whispered as he crushed her further into his torso, temporarily stealing her breath away.
"But it isn't just a dream." Sobs broke her words into many syllables. "I feel so horrible! I thank God every day that it wasn't you, but then I remember Kevin died and how much Liv lost because he chose to save you instead of himself."
"There is no reason for you to feel guilty. No one chose for him. He, alone, made that choice. He did what any one of us would have done." He gathered a fistful of Autumn's hair and gently pulled her face away from his chest so he could gaze into her eyes.
Autumn scowled at him. He had been telling her that for six weeks now, and the fact that any of the other men would have done the same did little to make her feel any better. No matter what he said to ease her guilt, the rock still sat heavily in the bottom of her stomach, right next to the horrible feeling that he didn't want her any longer. "Of course, there is a reason for me to feel guilty! I'm thanking God for killing another man! I am thanking God for sparing the man I love, who I thought loved me in return, while another woman has lost her whole world!"
"Thought?"
The confused expression on the clueless man's face only served to piss her off. "Yes, thought! You have been avoiding your sub for weeks! At first, I thought that maybe you were just waiting until you could put weight on your leg, but the doctor put you in a walking cast weeks ago!"
"Autumn, we have been having sex every couple of nights for the past few weeks."
"I know, Sir, I was there, but you haven't done anything else!" Autumn saw the light click on in his head. "Are you getting it now, Dom Dom?"
When she rolled her eyes at him, Leland twisted her dark hair tightly around his fist. The quick, sharp pain forced a gasp from her lips as his left brow rose toward his hairline. "Are you allowed to roll your eyes at me, sub?"
Her built-up hurt and anger prevented her from heeding his warning. "Oh, so you remember that I am the sub to your Dom now, huh?"
"I have never forgotten that you are mine, but it seems you have forgotten who you belong and answer to."
She again rolled her eyes. The resulting growl that echoed from Leland's chest did nothing to break through her sarcasm. "Could have fooled me. You have all but thrown our rules and the resulting consequences out the window. Hell, if I would have talked to you like this before the fire, you would have been slapping my ass before I had finished speaking." Autumn scoffed. "Now, I have rolled my eyes at you two times and called you a dumb Dom, and still you have done nothing! I am blatantly disrespecting you, but here I sit. Sit being the operative word. I cannot handle not knowing what to expect!"
Leland released her hair and forced her to look in to his eyes by putting his hands on either side of her face. "Autumn, I believed I was giving you the time you needed to deal with the loss of a dear friend. I had no idea I was letting you down. Why didn't you tell me what you needed? That I was slacking?"
She tried to turn away, but he held her captive. The little show of tender dominance instantly had tears welling in her eyes. "It's hard to ask for help. Every time I talked myself into requesting what I knew I needed, I would see your cast, and I would have more guilt for needing you when you were already struggling with your own healing. It quickly became a vicious cycle."
Leland sat up in bed and pulled her to straddle his hips. "Autumn, I'm so sorry I didn't see what you needed from me before now. I should have, and for that, I am sorry, but you know we have to communicate with each other. I cannot read your mind, no matter how much easier it would make things. Yes, I know I usually am the 'spank first and ask questions later' kind of guy, but this was more than just a simple eye roll or rude remark. I have never had to help my girl overcome the guilt of having her man alive and well while her friend had to lay her husband in the ground." He peeked at the clock as he continued. "I have to be at my appointment with my physical therapist in an hour and a half, so I cannot help you with the guilt until this afternoon."
Autumn's pout only lasted for a second before she found her position significantly changed. The minimal amount of effort it took on his part to get her ass in the air and poised for his hand spoke volumes to the both of them in regards to how much she needed this. Even with her need for discipline, the protests still fell from her lips. "You just said you couldn't help with the guilt until after your doctor appointment."
"I can't help you with the guilt until this afternoon," Leland repeated as he rubbed her panty-covered butt. When Autumn tried to get up, he pushed her back do
wn with a firm hand on her shoulder blades and continued. "You made it clear I have been slacking when it comes to my Domly duties, and for that, I am also sorry."
"We have had a lot going on these past couple of months. I accept your apology." She attempted to rise again. When she felt his fingers slide into her panties, she pled over her shoulder, "Sir?"
Without stopping the slow descent of her underwear, he answered the question written all over her face. "I said I couldn't help you with your guilt until this afternoon, and I will, as soon as I get home from the doctor. However, I am remedying my lapse in correcting my sub right now."
"But I didn't—"
Leland looked from her ass to her face. His brown eyes were alive with sparks, just daring her to argue. "I suggest you think before you talk, princess. I may have botched my duties as your Dom these past few weeks, but that ends this morning. Now, we deal with the blatant disrespect of the past few minutes, which you so helpfully brought to my attention. This afternoon, I'll help you with your misplaced guilt." Autumn groaned even as the relief of knowing he still cared relaxed her body. Leland didn't speak again until her panties had completed their descent and were just below her knees. "Why are you over my lap, pet?"
The no-nonsense baritone of his voice sent a shiver down through her body. "Because I pushed, taunted, and bratted you in order to get a reaction out of you, and now you are going to make sure I don't do it again."
"I want specifics." With a feather soft touch, he ran his fingertips over her bottom, causing goose bumps to form.
"I rolled my eyes at you twice, and I called you Dom Dom, Sir."
"Which means what, sub?"
"Dumb Dom, Sir."
"Did you think I would not know what that meant?"
"I don't know, Sir."
"Well, I assure you, pet, I am no Dom Dom." As soon as he spoke, his hand left her bottom, and Autumn felt his body shift toward his side of the bed.
Autumn gulped, knowing that he was reaching for the drawer of the nightstand and what implements it held. The cool wood settled on her bottom, and the prayer fell from her lips. "Please, not the brush."
