I wasn’t going to tell him that, so I said something else, “Thank you for being here to protect me this year.” My heart skipped a beat. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s done for me.”
“Oh, baby.” He sat up, curling over me, and his mouth dropped to mine.
But there were no words that could be said.
He was going.
I was staying.
It was what it was.
We had the morning still.
Then his mouth was moving over mine, and before long, we’d shifted. I was straddling him, and his hands were on my hips.
The sun was spreading through the room, inch by inch, but I wasn’t seeing it.
I was just feeling, and in a way, I felt like I was feeling for the first time.
TWELVE
Christopher
MY PHONE RANG.
We’d both been waiting.
It was almost noon, so my uncle gave us half of another day. I wondered if that was part of his gift to me for handling the problem last night.
Taking my phone outside, I answered, “Hey.”
“I have good and bad news. Which do you want?”
I sighed.
“The bad first.”
Max chuckled low over the phone. “Pack up. I want your ass on your bike in thirty minutes. I’ll send you the coordinates where to go.”
I gripped my phone tight, hating this, hating everything about this.
“Okay.” I was forcing air out through my nose, trying to keep my teeth from grinding. “And the good news?”
“Got a guy in the admissions office. Turns out, we need a college boy for our club. Guess where you’re going to school?”
Wait.
“What?” I started to turn around.
Kess was sitting at the table, her knee pulled up. She was hugging her leg, and her head was cocked to the side. She was trying to figure out a puzzle in a magazine I had lying around. Jesus, she was stunning. A breeze was going through the room, and I was noticing every detail about how it was lifting some of her hair strands, making them wave in the air.
Goddamn romantic crap here.
My heartbeat was drumming thick in my ear.
There’s no way I’d heard him right.
He laughed, though. “You heard me. You’re coming here for three months, and then returning for your girl. Heckler told us where she’s going to college. I need a future college degree guy in the club.”
I swallowed. “What degree?”
“We’ll get into that later. Go and break the news to your girl, and then get down here. Heckler’s got something to say to you.”
I was sure he did.
My uncle said thirty minutes, but he was going to have to wait.
I went and told Kess the news, and I didn’t leave on my bike until later in the day.
Much, much later.
THE END
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SET FIRE TO THE SKY
* * *
A.L. JACKSON
ONE
Derrick
ONE MORE STEP would mean certain death.
But I didn’t hesitate. It was part of my job. What I’d been trained to do.
Most of all, I guessed, it was who I was.
My protective gear might have protected my flesh from the flames, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel like I was getting burned alive.
The world a thousand degrees.
But I was working on gut and desperation and hope. Holding the limp body in my arms and praying we’d gotten to her in time.
“Right. To the right,” the crackle in my ear instructed. “And make it fast, because the whole goddamn place is about to go up.”
Billows of black smoke eclipsed the light, my only sight coming from the flashlight of my partner leading the way out in front of me.
We worked our way back to the hole we’d cut in the side of the house, since the far wall was engulfed in flames. I knew we were only a few seconds from everything being consumed.
The fire howled, no sound but the roar that dulled my senses. Every step disorienting.
Adrenaline sloshed and spun and raced through my veins.
I had to get her out. I had to get her out.
A crash to my left sent a bolt of panic surging through my veins.
Part of the ceiling gave and crashed to the ground. Sparks flickered and leapt into the space. Air from my mask wheezing into my lungs, I increased my pace and angled to the side.
Undeterred.
There was too much at stake.
I had to get her out. I had to get her out.
Jordan was at the opening, his arm outstretched. “Hurry. You’re there, man. You’re there. Just a couple more feet.”
I shifted to the side so I could squeeze through, and this feeling came over me unlike anything I’d experienced before.
The raw need to make this right.
We broke through the hole and out into the night. Red and blue lights flashed against the blackened sky. I dropped to my knees as the other firefighters rushed us, taking the woman from my arms and rushing her to the paramedics waiting twenty feet away.
I felt stripped.
Bare.
I was grabbed by both arms and hauled away from the house that was quickly going up.
Incinerated. Consumed.
On my knees, I tried to get it together. To focus. But my mind was spinning.
It was too close. Too close. God.
My mask was ripped off, and I gasped for air.
“Hey, man, can you hear me?”
I could barely nod. “Yes. I hear you.”
“Are you injured?”
“No. I’m fine. I’m fine.”
The last thing I was concerned about right then was my well-being. The only thing that mattered was the woman. The woman who was surrounded by paramedics. Four of them bustled around her where she was laid out on the ground. They worked frantically. A stretcher was brought over, and she was lifted and placed on it.
I was on my feet. Moving that way. Drawn. I felt desperate to see her. To make sure she was really going to be okay.
The closer I got, the more frantically my heart pounded. Each step sent me into some kind of frenzy that I didn’t quite understand. They started to wheel her toward the ambulance. I got up to the side of them, my gaze taking her in where she was strapped to the board, oxygen covering her mouth and nose, her face blackened with soot and ash.
But her eyes were open.
A striking green.
Wild and full of fear and brimming with something else that twisted through me like a drug.
Shock and hope.
Alive and real.
Relief slammed me.
Overpowering.
Our gazes tangled, the woman staring up at me as they wheeled her for the ambulance. The connection riding through the air made me stumble back a step, and my guts twisted in this feeling that this was where I’d been purposed to be.
What the fuck?
But I guessed that’s what happened when you were in a life and death situation. All senses were heightened. Her life in my hands, like her spirit had known it.
It was terrifying and gratifying. Horrifying and beautiful.
With a lump in my throat, I watched as they wheeled her the rest of the way to the ambulance, its lights flashing through the night as the team continued to work on the fire that ravaged the house.
They loaded her a
nd shut the doors.
Breaking the connection.
I slumped back, my head spinning, not sure what to make of this feeling that tugged at the middle of me.
The siren blipped as the ambulance started down the quaint neighborhood street. Onlookers had gathered, some with nothing but more than morbid interest and others who had shed tears of genuine concern.
I scrubbed a palm over my face like it could break up the intensity. This wired sensation that buzzed through my blood and hammered my heart.
I felt something nudge at my legs, and I looked down to find a tiny puppy whining and doing circles at my feet. She was grey and white. Probably some kind of pit mix. Blue eyes turned to stare up at me.
I gulped, knelt down, and petted her head. She snuggled closer.
“Hey, sweet girl. Who do you belong to?”
Except I already knew, didn’t I? I had no idea how she’d gotten out.
Escaped.
I looked around. No one was there to claim her or take care of her.
I scooped her up and pressed her soft fur to my nose, the tiny thing sooty and smelling like smoke.
She gave me a tiny bark and licked my face.
My chest tightened.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ll get you back to your momma.”
As I watched the ambulance disappear into the night, the buzz in my blood grew louder.
And I knew I was far too eager to see her again.
TWO
Derrick
“SHH…IT’S OKAY, sweet girl. Just a couple more minutes.” Gigi whimpered, pawing at me and nuzzling her nose into my arm. I sat in my truck outside the hospital. Nerves rattled through me like the coming of an earthquake.
She was being released today. Three days later. I’d been assured she would make a full recovery.
Yeah. I’d kept tabs on her. Mostly for Gigi.
“Right, girl?” I said aloud as I scratched behind her ears.
She whined. Clearly calling bullshit.
“Okay. Fine.”
I had to admit a little bit of that was for me, but I’d been unable to slough the nagging need to check up on her and make sure she was fine. I felt responsible for someone in a way I hadn’t in a long, long time.
I’d passed along my number and told her to text me whenever she was ready to take care of her dog. She’d texted back and asked me to meet her here.
My chest tightened when I saw an orderly pushing a woman through the double doors in a wheelchair. Brown hair in the messiest knot I’d ever seen, and she was obviously wearing clothes that weren’t hers, because the sweatshirt swallowed her whole.
But her face—I would recognize it anywhere, even if it was no longer covered in ash.
That feeling I’d been fighting for the last three days intensified.
Something so confusing I couldn’t process what it meant.
Intense relief at knowing she was fine. That we’d gotten to her in time.
All mixed up with it were these sparks of excitement. Something that propelled me forward. Made me itch. Like I was standing on the cusp of change.
Didn’t help things that she was fucking stunning.
Gorgeous.
I took her in from across the lot.
I’d been fighting the images my mind had been conjuring for days, and then she had to turn around and be even more beautiful than my fucked-up brain had hoped to imagine.
Just looking at her, my dick stirred.
Fuck.
Guilt chased off that feeling. The lust currently twisting my guts into a thousand knots was the last damned thing I should be feeling.
Thoughts crossing a boundary that was off-limits. I did my duty and it ended there.
She slowly stood from the wheelchair, saying something to the orderly before he left her there. Shifting, she warily scanned the parking lot, hugging her arms over her middle and looking anxious as fuck.
Shaking myself out of the stupor, I curled Gigi in my arm and slipped out. I started that direction.
Like instinct, she looked my way. Green eyes collided with mine. Swore to God, she heaved for a breath, and that lust was making a rebound.
Coming on stronger.
Every muscle in my body going tight.
Gigi went nuts in my hold, and there was nothing I could do but set her on the sidewalk, keeping a tight grip on her leash as she pulled and struggled to run for her, barking like mad.
Pure excitement.
Tessa’s face split with joy.
Yeah.
Tessa.
And I was ambling that way, trying to play it cool and act like I wasn’t wanting to touch her everywhere. Ensure she was whole. That she’d actually made it. Unease rumbled at the thought—the idea of what would have happened if we hadn’t gotten to her when we did. How quickly this story could have ended up with a different ending.
When we were a couple feet away, she knelt, and I let go of the leash. Gigi ran the rest of the way and jumped into Tessa’s arms.
Tessa hugged her and kissed her. “Oh, my sweet girl. I missed you. I’m so thankful you’re fine. Oh.”
Gigi licked her face, and I was rubbing at that spot in the middle of my chest. Trying not to feel awkward because I was just standing there, staring at their reunion and finding far too much joy in it.
But that’s why I did this job. It was what I could offer. Serving people. Willing to sacrifice. To pay it all if it meant someone else would be saved.
She finally stood with her dog in her arms. Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, and her head listed to the side as those eyes swept over me.
“Thank you so much,” she said, her words barely a breath. Filled with so much emotion I didn’t know how to process them all. “I didn’t know if I would ever see her again.”
I shook my head. “There is nothing to thank me for.”
Those eyes widened. “Are you kidding? You…you saved my life and then you took in my dog. I don’t even know how to start to repay you.”
“It’s my job.”
She blanched, like me saying it hurt her feelings.
Well, shit.
I roughed a hand through my hair, and my mouth pulled up at one side. “I mean, except for the dog thing. I have to admit that was a first.”
The smallest smile graced her mouth, and she was looking at me like I was the single thing that had been missing in her life. “I hope she wasn’t any trouble.”
“None at all. Have to admit, I’ve gotten kinda used to having her around. Think I’ll miss her.”
Tessa squeezed her dog. “She’s pretty great.”
“Yeah.”
Uneasiness billowed around us. I was just…stalling. Didn’t know how to walk away.
“So, how are you feeling?” I asked. It gave me a good excuse to let my gaze wander. Her tiny frame was eclipsed by the heavy clothes she wore, but I remembered exactly the way she’d felt in my arms. A memory I couldn’t seem to scrape from my consciousness.
She laughed, a brittle sound, sincerity rolling out on her words. “I was lucky, really lucky, thanks to you. A minute or two longer, and I don’t think I’d be here.”
A lump grew thick in my throat. “Do you have burns?”
She was back to chewing at her lip, the girl all kinds of wary and unsure. I guessed that’s what a trauma could do to you.
“Very minor. Nothing that really even needed treatment.”
“That’s good. And your lungs?”
“Clear. I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”
Okay, so this was getting awkward. Because I just kept asking her personal shit that was none of my business, and I really needed to get the hell out of there before I said something I couldn’t take back.
“What do you do now?”
You know, like that.
Because I’d learned she lived alone, and my friend working her floor said no one had come in to visit her the entire time she’d been there. It’d taken all my willpower not to come here sooner,
show up with goddamn flowers and balloons and a teddy bear.
Sadness billowed through her features. “I start again.”
Nodding, I took a step back. “Well, then I guess I’d better let you go. But please, call me if you need anything. Anything at all. You have my number.”
“Thank you.”
Could tell by the way she said it that there was no chance of that happening.
I eased forward and gave Gigi a scratch. “Bye, girl.”
Yeah. I was going to miss her.
Forcing myself to move, I gave Tessa a curt smile, strode to my truck, and jumped in the driver’s seat. I was unable to stop myself from watching her as she finally started to walk down the sidewalk. Except she didn’t get far. She just went and sat down on a bench, her dog on her lap, the girl mindlessly petting her for close to an hour.
Yeah. I knew how long she’d been sitting there because I hadn’t been able to drive away. I felt compelled.
Hooked.
Watching her through the tiniest break in the cars in front of me.
The girl was just…lost.
Could feel it from across the space.
I started my truck, backed out, and tried to convince myself to drive away.
I got to the T that led out of the parking lot.
To the right—my house.
To the left—her.
I squeezed the steering wheel and tried to talk some sense into myself.
“Shit,” I muttered before I turned left and came to a stop at the curb in front of her.
No sense found except for the one telling me I had to help this girl.
She jolted when she realized it was me. Green eyes widened in shock as I jumped out of the driver’s side and rounded the front. “What are you doing, Tessa? Where are you going?”
She blinked, and I realized she was fighting tears.
Had to resist the urge to rush her so I could wipe them away.
She laughed out an uneasy sound. “A hotel, I guess. I don’t know.”
Fuck.
Her house was destroyed. That was the second I realized this girl had nothing. No one was here to pick her up. No one had visited.
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