by Opal Carew
* * *
Rikki walked to the couch carrying the vanilla pudding she’d just made, hot off the stove, and sat in front of the television again in her pajamas. The can of soup she’d heated for dinner two hours ago, followed by the half bag of chips she’d munched, just hadn’t hit the spot.
She set the huge bowl of pudding on her lap and flicked on the next episode of the sitcom that Anna had recommended to her, then started eating the creamy comfort food as she lost herself in the show again.
Anna and Mel had come in while she was having dinner—Anna’s car was in the shop so Mel had been driving her to and from work the last few days—but they both had dinner dates and disappeared out the door again. Tina had probably gone straight out after work.
Why couldn’t she be as free and easy as her roommates? Just enjoy a lighthearted connection with someone. Share some laughs. Casual sex. And no heartbreak.
It was after ten when she heard the front door open and Tina come in. She was talking to someone and the other voice was male. They stepped from the entrance and Tina smiled.
“Hey, you’re not off with a sexy fireman tonight?” Tina asked.
“No, just spending a quiet night at home.”
Tina eyed the bowl on her lap. “Yeah, I can see that.” She turned to her date, who looked vaguely familiar. “Why don’t you go upstairs? I’ll see you there in a few minutes.”
He smiled. “Sure thing.” He glanced at Rikki. “Nice to see you again.”
Once he was gone, Tina sat down beside Rikki and picked up the bag of chips and ate a few while she watched the television.
“Is this season two?” Tina asked.
“No, still season one.”
“Oh, so you haven’t gotten to the part where Cynthia dies.”
Rikki’s eyes widened and she stared at Tina in horror. “Why did you—?”
But Tina broke out in giggles. “You didn’t really think I’d give you a spoiler like that, did you?”
Rikki frowned. “You better not have.”
She grabbed a handful of chips from the bag Tina was holding.
“Where have I seen your date before?” Rikki asked.
“That’s Len. He was the one who was going to ask you to dance at Rango’s but you diverted him my way with your freeze-out.” She popped another chip in her mouth. “Thanks again for that.”
“Anytime.” Rikki ate another spoonful of pudding.
“So I’ve got to ask. Why are you sitting here all alone, pigging out on junk food? Something go wrong between you and your guys? Which one are you with, anyway?”
Rikki sighed. “Your date’s waiting for you. You don’t want to hear about this now.”
Tina settled back into the couch and grabbed a handful of chips from the bag.
“Don’t worry about that. It won’t hurt him to wait a bit.” She grinned. “In fact, it’ll make it all the hotter because of the anticipation.”
“Or he’ll fall asleep,” Rikki teased.
Tina laughed. “Either way, I know I’ll be able to get a rise out of him quick enough. Now tell me what’s going on.”
Rikki explained her issue with having a relationship with a firefighter and how she’d pushed past the superficial level to start a sexual fling with Simon and Carter.
“Wait,” Tina said. “You’re saying you’d never been with a man before at all?”
“That’s right.”
“So your first time—ever—was a threesome?”
Rikki nodded. Tina’s face broke out in a huge smile.
“Well, way to go, baby!” She munched a couple of chips. “But now you’re falling for them, right?” She nudged Rikki with her shoulder. “Don’t even try to deny it. I’ve seen it in your eyes since day one. The way you look at them—and them at you—it’s clear as day.”
“I do have feelings for them, but I don’t know what to do about that. If I go into a long-term relationship with them—whatever that even means with three of us—I’ll still be a mess worrying about them getting hurt.”
Tina shrugged. “People get hurt all the time, no matter what job they do. Someone you love could get hurt in a car accident, a plane crash. He could drown, fall in the shower, trip down the stairs.”
Rikki’s jaw dropped as she stared at Tina. “Well, aren’t you just a lovely ray of sunshine?”
Tina laughed. “Just calling it like it is. And you”—she grinned—“you at least have a spare.”
“Tina, you’re awful.”
“I’m just saying that—”
“I know. I get it. I really do. They asked me to give the relationship a chance, and I said I would.”
“Good for you.”
Rikki sighed. “Then I messed up.”
She told her about Tony coming to town, and how she went up to his room. And kissed him.
“Simon and Carter found out about it and now…” Rikki shrugged.
“So do you feel the same way about this guy that you do for Simon and Carter?”
“It’s different. He’s got all the same attractive characteristics. I mean, clearly there’s something about firefighters—they’re heroic, responsible, protective—that I’m attracted to. Tony has all that without the danger of the job.”
“Well, I guess you just have to ask yourself, do you want to settle for safe or for love?”
* * *
Tina finished watching the last five minutes of the sitcom episode with Rikki, then went upstairs, where she had a man waiting for her.
Unlike Rikki, with just an empty bed to welcome her.
After two more episodes, Rikki finally turned off the TV and headed to her room. As she went up the stairs, she heard a door open and close. By the time she got to the top floor, Tina opened the bathroom door and entered the hallway.
“Good night,” Tina said as she slipped back into her room.
Rikki went into her own room and climbed into bed, then lay staring at the ceiling. She heard voices coming up the stairs a little later. She was pretty sure it was Anna and her date.
As Rikki lay in the darkness, she soon heard soft moans through the wall. Tina and her date starting another round.
Probably the same thing was going on in Anna’s room one floor down, too.
All Rikki could think about was how she wanted to be in bed with Simon and Carter right now. The three of them sharing intimate, loving touches. Pleasing each other. Making each other come.
Then lying in one another’s arms and just sharing the intimacy of the love they shared.
Her heart clenched. Because she did love them. And she was pretty sure they loved her.
She ached inside at her stupid screwup that had caused her two men pain.
She knew she had to convince them that she would embrace this relationship and give it every chance to work. Somehow she would find a way to get past her fear.
* * *
Simon stared at the ceiling from his bed. He should grab some sleep while the place was quiet, but his brain kept swirling around the conversation earlier with Rikki.
His gut clenched at the thought of her kissing another man. The guy making a play for her—he could understand that. But the fact that Rikki had kissed him back. Pain lanced through him. That meant she had feelings for the guy.
That meant they could lose her.
The alarm went off and he pushed back the covers and dodged to his feet. He grabbed his pants and pulled them on and hurried out the door. Carter was ahead of him.
“Did you hear the address?” Carter said as they climbed inside the truck and sat down.
“Five thirty-five Ramsey,” Dodge said.
Simon’s gut clenched. “That’s right beside Rikki’s.”
The truck raced through the streets, sirens and lights blazing. Her place was part of a five-unit row house. Simon’s heart pounded as they sped there, hoping to hell she was okay. He could see the same concern in Carter’s eyes. The other men’s, too. They all thought the world of Rikki.
; And, fuck, Simon couldn’t stop thinking about the way he and Carter had left things with her.
His gut clenched. If she got hurt in this fire, how could he ever forgive himself?
As soon as they got there, they jumped out of the truck and he and Carter started barking orders to their men. The middle unit of the row house was five thirty-five where the fire had clearly started, but just as he’d feared, the fire had spread to the two units on either side of it. The left one was where Rikki lived.
Chief Anderson’s vehicle pulled up and he raced toward Simon. Several of the men, on Carter’s orders, had stormed into the three blazing units to look for anyone trapped inside, most going into the middle unit, since it was in the worst state. Simon was happy to see he sent Dodge and Tanner into the left unit. All their men were good, but he knew that if Rikki were trapped, Dodge’s strength and Tanner attention to detail would go a long way.
As Simon gave the chief an update, one of the men inside radioed that there was someone pinned under some fallen debris in the right unit, so the chief ordered Carter to go in and help.
“I’m going into the leftmost unit, Chief,” Simon said.
“Hurry,” he said as he stared at the burning building, assessing. “From the look of things, we don’t have much time.”
Simon raced toward Rikki’s unit, but when he saw Anna, Rikki’s roommate, at the ambulance being given oxygen, he hurried to her.
“Anna, is everyone out of your place?”
She looked up at him in a daze. She was holding the hand of a man sitting beside her, also with an oxygen mask on.
“I’m Simon. Rikki’s friend.”
She clutched his sleeve. “The smoke detectors went off right away and woke us up, but the place filled with smoke in minutes.” She shook her head. “It happened so fast.”
His heart pounded. “So Rikki and the others got out okay?”
Her eyes filled with anxiety and she pulled the mask down and spoke in short gasps. “I … don’t know. The house was quiet when I got home. I don’t know who was there. I got a text out to Tina as I ran down the stairs, but then the smoke was too thick.” She shook her head, her fingers tightening around her boyfriend’s sleeve. “There were flames in the living room. I dropped my phone and just kept running.”
He squeezed her shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile, then lurched toward the house. His fellow firefighters were bringing people out of the middle unit and leading them to waiting ambulances. He heard someone call out that it was all clear.
Someone tugged at his sleeve as he ran and he spun around, praying to God it was Rikki. But he came face-to-face with Tina.
“Simon?” Tina asked.
“Tina, do you know if Rikki is still in the house?”
“I don’t know, but I think so. I saw her go into bed. Len and I went out for ice cream after that and then I got a text from Anna telling me the place was on fire. I texted Rikki and Mel right away. Mel’s okay, but…” She stared at him with wide eyes. “I haven’t heard anything back from Rikki.”
He glanced up at the window he knew was Rikki’s. Flames were blazing from the room.
As he raced toward the door, pulling on his mask, black smoke started billowing from the units. Fuck, that was bad news. He rushed inside.
It was dark with smoke. He could barely see.
“Couldn’t find anyone in the house, Lieutenant,” Tanner said as he hurried into sight.
Dodge was right behind him.
Simon kept moving to where he knew the stairs were. “I think Rikki’s on the third floor.”
The two men turned to follow, but the chief’s voice sounded on the radio.
“Get the hell out of there, everyone. Now!”
Simon ignored the call and raced up the stairs. The weight of the equipment slowed him down from how fast he could normally take stairs, but he knew he was making record time.
The thought kept spiking through his brain.
He had to save Rikki.
* * *
Carter raced out of the unit two over from Rikki’s. The chief had ordered them out. They’d gotten the woman free just in time and he helped carry her out on a stretcher.
But the whole time his mind was on Rikki. Was she out?
He glanced at the building. The bright flames towered into the night sky, smoke billowing up into the darkness. Bits of flaming debris were falling from the building.
The blaze was still out of control.
He knew Simon would move heaven and earth to find her and get her to safety, just as he would.
He helped get the woman inside the ambulance, then glanced around at the turmoil around him. He spotted Tina and headed toward her. She stood with the man he’d seen her dancing with the night they’d first met Rikki.
He raced over to her. “Tina! Where’s Rikki?”
“I don’t know.” She looked close to tears. “We think she’s still inside. Simon went in after her and he hasn’t come out yet.”
“What?”
He stared up at the building. It was bad. Many of the windows had shattered as the frames began to buckle. The chief had already called everyone out, which meant not only Rikki was in danger, but also Simon.
“Davies, get the hell out of there!” the chief bellowed into the radio.
“I’m sure Rikki’s up here, Chief,” Simon’s voice sounded in the radio, “but I can’t find her.”
A loud groan sounded in Carter’s earpiece, then what he was sure was falling debris. The radio went dead.
“Oh, my God.” Tina covered her mouth as she stared at the roof.
Chapter Seventeen
Carter followed her gaze to see part of the roof had collapsed. His heart pounded. God, had he just lost both Rikki and Simon? He turned to Chief Anderson. “Chief, we’ve got to go in and get him.”
“No way. I’m not chancing anyone else’s life. That building is about to come down.”
“Tina!” a familiar voice called out.
He turned toward the sound, a prickle running up his spine.
He sucked in a breath as he saw Rikki, being held back by one of the police officers trying to keep bystanders away from the scene.
“Rikki!” He raced toward her.
When the police officer saw Carter in his gear approaching, he let her through.
“Carter!” She threw herself into his arms.
He hugged her tight, relief flooding through him that she was alive.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you,” she panted. “I saw Tina and I was so glad she’s okay.”
She pulled back. “Are the others okay? Did everyone get out?”
“Fuck, Rikki. We thought you were inside.” He grabbed her hand and dragged her along with him.
“Chief, Lieutenant Davies is in there looking for Rikki and she’s right here.”
Rikki’s hand tightened around his. “Simon’s in there?”
She stared up at the burning building, the sagging structure a sure sign of the imminent structural collapse.
“Oh, my God,” Rikki said, her hands covering her mouth.
“Davies,” Chief said into the radio, “if you can hear me, Rikki is safe and sound out here.” Then his voice boomed. “So get your ass out of there!”
Carter couldn’t stand it any longer. He dragged Rikki with him to Tina and pressed her to her friend, then raced toward the building.
* * *
Rikki clung to Tina’s hand, staring at the blazing building in front of them. The acrid smell of smoke filled her lungs. Flames swelled outward and up from the top floors, like a torrential flood of bright orange water gushing into the sky. It was terrifying.
And Simon was in there.
“Oh, God, this is a nightmare.”
Tina squeezed her hand. “Rikki, I’m sure everything’s going to be okay.”
“How can it be okay? Simon’s in there right now, probably hurt, or dead. And now Carter is…” But a sob closed up her throat, killing the words.
“Damn it, what the hell are you doing, Fenn?” the chief called out.
“Just let me check the main floor, Chief,” Carter answered.
“I said no. That’s an order!”
Carter hesitated at the door, peering back at the chief.
Thank God he didn’t barrel inside. Rikki desperately wanted Simon to be okay, but she didn’t want Carter in harm’s way, too.
“Wait, Chief. I can hear his personal alarm. He’s down, but he’s close.”
“Fuck!” the chief exclaimed. “You’ve got thirty seconds.”
“I’m going in, too, Chief.” Dodge stared at his commanding officer, waiting for the okay.
The chief nodded.
Rikki watched the two of them pull on their oxygen masks as they raced inside. Her heart pounded in her chest, counting off the seconds these brave men were inside that horrific deathtrap.
Time stood still, torturing her with all the possibilities.
Tina slid her arm around her waist.
“He’ll be okay. I just know he’ll be okay,” Tina said like a mantra.
The black smoke thickened and the building creaked. Rikki held her breath.
Then …
“Look!”
Tina pointed toward the door, and through the haze, Rikki could see movement. Shapes coming out of the building.
Two men.
“Oh, God, no.” Her heart crumpled.
But then she realized there was a third man between them. The two were supporting him, his head leaning forward.
As they stepped out of the worst of the smoke, she could see it was Simon being propped up between Carter and Dodge. He was limping.
Someone raced up with a wheeled stretcher and helped him onto it, then rushed him to a nearby ambulance. She raced after it, but Carter headed her off.
“You’ve got to give it a minute,” Carter said.
“What’s wrong? Is he okay?”
“His oxygen tank ran out and he took in a lot of smoke.”
For the first time, she realized Carter didn’t have his mask. He must have given it to Simon when he found him inside.
“He got hit by some falling debris, so he has some cuts and bruises, but he should be okay.”
