Light My Fire

by Misha Carver

  When they offered me the Fire Chief position in Karawa, I almost turned it down. I liked the station and the team in the small town where I was. We were all in it together, and to move on to another team in a big city didn’t make sense.

  It would be like starting over with a new family. That’s what it was like, being a firefighter. Your teammates were your family. You lived together, and you had each other’s backs. You knew everything about each other.

  Had my ex-wife not been making my life miserable, I probably would have stayed. But her harassing phone calls and visits were making life impossible.

  I knew I’d never be able to move on unless I relocated. With regret, I accepted the position in Karawa and said goodbye to my old team.

  Everybody at the new station seemed accepting of me as their new Chief, except one. Alexandria O’Neil. She’d been the acting chief since the old chief had been forced out of his position due to incompetence.

  She’d applied for the new position too, but they’d offered it to me instead. I wasn’t surprised that she was upset, just surprised that she showed it.

  Very early on it became clear that she would challenge me at every angle. I just wanted to get to know everybody before the group workout, but she didn’t want any of that.

  As far as she was concerned, her way was the only way. She’d have to learn that there was a new dog in town and his name was Chief Friedman.

  When I called her into my office, she was quite the firecracker. Her plain appearance in her uniform with her hair tucked up made her seem quiet, almost demure. But as soon as she opened her mouth, I knew I had a real problem on my hands.

  A station with two chiefs spells trouble. You wind up with teammates not knowing who to follow, and then lives are put in unnecessary danger.

  I knew I’d have to get her in line quickly. She needed to learn her place before she got out of control.

  All of a sudden she was talking about how I’d ruined her life and it was like talking to my ex-wife all over again. I thought she’d gone nuts, and was ready to relieve her of her duties on a short-term leave. Then she reminded me who she was.

  Lexi O’Neil, the girl next door. She and I had lived next door to each other the entire time we were growing up. I thought she was so cute with her long dark hair and her perfect pale skin. She never went through awkward teenage years. She just got more beautiful as time went on.

  She never paid any attention to me, though. It was as if I didn’t exist, so I came up with ways to get her attention whether she liked it or not. Apparently, she didn’t.

  I’d had such a huge crush on her back then, and now she worked for me. She was one of my men, one of my teammates, and we’d have to find a way to make it work.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ~Alexandria~

  When I left the station I wished I hadn’t walked to work. Usually I drove, but I was so full of energy that morning, I thought walking would give me an extra burst. Had I gotten the promotion, the walk home would have been perfect. Instead, I felt like I was taking the walk of shame.

  The whole way there all I could think of was losing the job to a man and how I’d never be able to enroll my daughter into that school. I didn’t even want to go home. Facing my drunken husband and telling him the news wasn’t something I was looking forward to.

  The flowers on the Johnstons’ lawn that had looked so beautiful only hours earlier no longer held the same glory. The scent didn’t even delight me as it had earlier. I only felt the sickness in my stomach, the tightness that came from losing out on the biggest opportunity that had come my way in a long time.

  “There she is. There’s my beautiful wife,” Mike slurred when I walked into the house. He wrapped his arm around my neck as he held his bottle of whiskey in his other hand as he kissed my cheek. His breath smacked me in the face, and when he tried to kiss my lips I tilted my face, forcing him to kiss my cheek again.

  “Where’s Emily?” I asked, worried.

  “She’s in the other room watching television,” he said. “How’s the new fire chief?”

  “Why don’t you ask him?” I asked as I walked into the kitchen to grab something to eat.

  After searching through the fridge and the nearly bare cupboards, I decided on leftover chicken from the night before. Mike and Emily would have eaten hours earlier, so I didn’t need to worry about making dinner for them. I threw my plate into the microwave when Mike came staggering into the room.

  “I did ask you, silly. How’s the new fire chief?” he asked as he struggled to hold himself up with the table.

  “I’m not the fire chief, Mike. They gave the job to someone else, okay?”

  “No, it’s not okay,” he slurred as he slammed his bottle down on the table. “You risk your life every day. It’s not worth it for the measly paycheck you bring home. What would happen to Emily if you died? It’s not worth it anymore, Alex.”

  “What’s not worth it anymore is supporting your drunken ass. Ever since Emily was born, I haven’t seen you without a bottle in your hand. How about you put that thing away, get a job, and start helping me support this family?”

  “Don’t be mean, Alex. You know I love you. I just don’t want you to fight fires anymore.”

  “I’m not being mean, you need to stop drinking. You’re disgusting. And if I give up my job, how will we survive?”

  “We’ll find a way, baby, we always find a way.”

  Yeah, I thought to myself. I always find a way while you float away on your river of booze.

  “I’m not leaving my job, Mike. We can’t survive without it.”

  “Why would you want to stay there when they don’t appreciate you?”

  “Because it’s my job, because they’re my colleagues. Mike, we need the income.”

  “We’ll get by, baby. I promise,” he said as he tried to pull me onto his knee. The thought of his hands pawing through my hair and his whiskey-tainted breath on my neck sickened me.

  “We won’t get by, and I won’t leave my job,” I said as I released myself from his grip.

  “Don’t you care about Emily?” he asked, suddenly looking vulnerable.

  “Of course I do, you know that.”

  “Then why do you want to leave her without a mother?” he asked.

  “I don’t, and I won’t.”

  “You do. You work long hours. If there’s a fire, you’re gone even longer. Someday you’re going to die in one. Think about it, Alex. Every time you go to work, she’s without a mother for the day, and if the worst happens, she could be without one forever.”

  I hated it when the drunken asshole was right. As much as I loved saving lives, I loved my daughter more. Now that he’d laid it out on the table, even if he didn’t realize how much sense he’d just made in his inebriated condition, I was going to have to consider it.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ~Chance~

  “Hey O’Neil,” Billings said when Alex walked into the station. “Did you hear about Friedman’s new idea?”

  “Let me grab a coffee first,” she said as she walked over and started pouring herself a cup.

  “Good morning, Lexi,” I said as I walked over to get some more sugar for my own coffee.

  “Yeah,” she grunted back before putting the carafe back in the coffee maker. “Don’t ever call me that.”

  “You okay?” I asked her as I looked at her red swollen eyes. “You don’t look like you got a lot of sleep last night.”

  “I’m fine,” she answered. “Don’t worry about me.”

  We both grabbed our coffees and walked over to the table to join the others. As I sat down beside her, she gave me a dirty look, but I sat there anyway. Who was she to tell me where I could and couldn’t sit?

  “So what’s Friedman’s brilliant idea?” she asked before she took a sip of her coffee.

  “I was thinking...”

  “I asked them, not you,” she said as she glared at me.

  “I just thought since it was m
y idea...”

  “You thought wrong,” she said.

  “Friedman here wants to boost morale, so he’s throwing a fireman’s ball at the end of the month,” Billings replied.

  “Oh, isn’t that special?” she said as she rolled her eyes. “We can all get dressed up just in time to hear the bell and rush to a fire. That’s so impractical.”

  “O’Neil, one hundred pushups now,” I said as I stood up and towered over her.

  “You’re kidding, right?” she asked as she set down her coffee and looked up at me.

  “Do you see me laughing?” I asked.

  “You can’t do that,” she said.

  “I’m your chief, and I’m sick and tired of you undermining me. Now get down there and get to it.”

  I took great pleasure watching that little witch get down on the ground. If nothing else, she was going to learn who the alpha dog was around here, and it sure as hell wasn’t her.

  I hoped to break her. I prayed she’d give up after fifty. But no, she just kept on going until she hit one hundred.

  “Is that all, sir?” she asked in a sarcastic tone when she was finished.

  I wanted to tell her what else she could do while she was down there, but I bit my tongue. To keep the respect of my men, I had to stay professional.

  “Get up,” I said as I held my hand out to help her.

  “So for this ball, are we supposed to bring dates or something?” Anderson asked.

  “Bring ‘em if you got ‘em,” I answered as I took a sip of my coffee.

  “What about you, Friedman, you bringing a hot date?” Billings asked.

  “Don’t know yet,” I said.

  “You mean a guy like you doesn’t have a trophy woman to hang on his every word?” Alex asked coldly.

  “No, I don’t,” I answered. “My wife and I split a few years ago. I’ve dated a little bit since, but one thing I’ve learned is that you can’t trust women. Any sign of crazy and I’m out of there. You never get a second chance with Chance.”

  “Is that your new mantra?” Alex asked sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

  “Do you want to give me another hundred?” I asked her.

  She drank down her last sip of coffee and got up to make another cup. Her hands were shaking and I knew something was wrong. I was just about to go question her about it again when the fire bell started going off.

  “Let’s go,” I yelled as the station went from a group of people sitting around and chatting to people running in all directions, grabbing their gear, and hopping on the trucks.

  The minute we pulled up in front of that old abandoned warehouse I knew things didn’t look good. The fire had been burning for quite some time before the call came in. It was so far out of control that it would take my men a while to simmer it down.

  “What do we do?” Anderson asked.

  “Spray it from out here until it’s safe to go in. It’s flashing and I’m worried about backdrafts,” I said while I contemplated the best approach.

  I watched as they tried to get the fire under control from the outside for hours. Nothing was happening, and our only chance at controlling it was by getting inside the building. I sent Anderson and Billings in.

  “Stay low,” I told them. “If you stand up, the heat will get you.”

  “Got it, chief,” Anderson said as they headed toward the building.

  The others continued to work on the outside. We were fighting an uphill battle and it kept looking worse by the minute. Even with Billings and Anderson on the inside, I wasn’t sure if we could put the damn thing out.

  “Chance, the fire’s spreading,” Alex said when she walked over to me. “You need more men on the inside.”

  “We’re doing okay,” I said, trying to reassure her.

  The fire continued to rage as smoke and flames rolled from the building until the roof finally began to collapse.

  “O’Neil,” I yelled. “Go in and get Anderson and Billings out of there, but stay low. If you can’t see them, get the hell out.”

  She nodded and started running toward the warehouse with her hose in hand. I expected her to tear into the building given her personality, but instead she just stood there, staring as she got closer. I watched her standing there motionless for a second before I grabbed my gear and went running in to save my men.

  When the three of us came back out she was still standing there with an expressionless look on her face. I grabbed her and pushed her down to the ground as the building exploded and balls of flames hit the ground all around us.

  When it was safe again, we ran back to the trucks to continue trying to put out the fire. I kept an eye on Alex as she sprayed and worked alongside everyone else. When we finally managed to put the fire out, we headed back to the firehouse to celebrate.

  I made sure Alex rode with me so I could talk to her. She was hesitant to get in the truck, but I didn’t care. What happened back there could never happen again, not on my watch.

  After we pulled out of the warehouse parking lot, I turned to her. “What the hell happened back there?” I yelled.

  “We put out a fire,” she said, as if she didn’t understand the question.

  “No, when I sent you in after Billings and Anderson. What the hell happened? You just stood there.”

  “I don’t know,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “I was running towards the building ready to go in and rescue them, when all I could think about was my little girl. I saw the flames and the smoke, and the heat hit me so hard as I got closer. I guess I just hesitated.”

  “Your hesitation could have killed your teammates. Remember that every time you look at Billings and Anderson from now on. If I hadn’t been ready to run, they’d be dead right now. Taking a second to daydream can cost lives.”

  “I’m sorry,” she cried. “I don’t know what came over me tonight.”

  “Just don’t let it happen again,” I said firmly as we pulled into the station.

  She got out and started heading toward her car. I knew I had really given her the gears, but I didn’t think she’d be that upset.

  “Aren’t you coming in to celebrate?” I asked.

  “You guys have fun,” she said. “I don’t really feel like celebrating. I’d rather just go home.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ~Alexandria~

  Why did I hesitate? I thought to myself. I put people’s lives in danger and made myself look like an idiot. Maybe I didn’t deserve the chief position. Maybe that’s why they gave it to someone else, to Chance.

  That man was going to drive me crazy. Him and his idiotic ideas—a ball, for God’s sake, like we had time to go to a ball. And then making me do all of those pushups. That was just him showing off for the guys. What an ass.

  I walked in the front door to my house to find Mike passed out on the couch with a bottle of vodka in his hand. Nothing surprising, I thought as I went to check on Emily.

  She was sound asleep in her bed with her favorite teddy bear gripped tightly in her hands. She’d loved him since getting him for Christmas when she was three. He was a little tattered with age, but she didn’t care.

  I went back out to the kitchen and looked at the clock. Nine thirty. I should have stayed at the station to celebrate. I grabbed a salad out of the fridge and picked up the phone.

  “Allison, I hope it’s not too late to call, but I needed to hear a friendly voice.”

  “Of course not. What’s going on?”

  “Everything. I feel like my life is falling apart. Mike’s drinking too much. Things at the station aren’t the best. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

  “Do you want to come over for a glass of wine?”

  “I’m bushed. We just spent the last few hours putting out a warehouse fire. Are you free for lunch tomorrow?”

  “It’s a date.”

  Allison was one of those friends you could count on. We’d known each other since high school, and even if we didn’t talk for weeks, if either of us
needed someone to lean on we knew we’d be there for each other.

  Back in the old days, we’d been inseparable. Always sleeping over at each other’s houses. She had a sleepover once and we woke her mother up. She came into the room and called us all a bunch of horses’ asses. I remember we all laughed so hard.

  We had so much fun together calling taxis to bring us junk food in the middle of the night while we gossiped about boys and love. She was the kind of best friend everyone needed, and I was glad she was mine.

  I ate my salad and headed off to bed quietly. I didn’t want to wake Mike and risk that he’d be able to make his way to the bedroom. The only thing worse than smelling his alcohol-laden breath when I was awake was smelling it the entire time I was sleeping.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ~Alexandria~

  “Good morning, Alex,” Chance said when I walked into the station. “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Good,” I answered. “In fact, I feel great. How about you?”

  “I’m okay,” he said as he stared at me. “You look like you slept better last night,” he said.

  “I did. Thanks for noticing,” I said as I went to get a cup of coffee.

  “That was some fire yesterday, huh?” Billings asked as he put his cup down.

  “About that,” I said, “I’m really...”

  “Listen, O’Neil, it could have happened to any of us. Don’t sweat it,” he said.

  I put my head down. I couldn’t help but feel bad for what had happened, but he was right. It could have happened to anybody. I grabbed my cup and headed over to the table.

  Chance, of course, followed me and sat down beside me. His thigh brushed against mine. At first I cringed and thought about pulling mine away, but then a heat rose within me.

  No way. I can’t be attracted to him. No freaking way.

  I sat up there thinking of all the reasons why I hated Chance and why I couldn’t fall for him, when I heard a familiar voice downstairs.

  “Alex, Alex, come here. I need to talk to you,” the voice yelled through slurred words.

  “What the hell is that?” Anderson asked.

  “That would be my husband,” I answered as I started to get up from the table.

  “Do you want me to come with you?” Chance asked as he grabbed my arm.

  “No, I’ll be fine,” I said as I walked downstairs to deal with Mike.

  For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why he’d come to my work to humiliate me. It was obvious from his voice that he was drunk already. As if I hadn’t already humiliated myself enough, now he had to bring his drunken ass down to make it worse.