The way he says it so casually. The way he has no regard for my job and the teaching I’m supposed to be doing…
“I don’t know.”
“This isn’t a request, Brooke,” her father said. His tone shifted. “I’m your boss, and I want you to personally do whatever it takes to make sure Samuel Carver passes your course. Whatever it takes.”
Brooke nodded and her father’s demeanor shifted back to the man she was so used to. He smiled, told her he would see her later at the house, and left her classroom.
Brooke sat down in Sam’s seat, hands to her forehead, and then she ran them through her hair.
Maybe he’s not so different from those other men, after all. Maybe Sam was right the entire time.
The last thing she’d wanted was to be pulled into the middle of this entire thing. She didn’t want to question her morals. She wanted to do what was right. And now she was caught up in the entire thing.
Just like Sam. Maybe I’m not so different from him, after all.
The alarm that blared through the fire station woke him instantly, as it did each and every day. There wasn’t a day that passed without at least one call, more often times more. Many more.
The men had originally been divided into two squads, though things had changed after a series of events. Sam wasn’t stupid. Though the change was attributed to Rawls’s injury, he knew the real force of change behind the division had been when Sharp – Brooke’s father – and Crichton had appeared on the scene.
He hated Crichton. Sharp, he could tolerate, and not just because he was Brooke’s father. Sharp had the look and smell of a man who had been wrangled into something he hadn’t exactly wanted.
Just like me. Just like half of the men in the Forest. Just like Brooke.
But Crichton. He was a man who reveled in power, who loved it, who loved to use it like a weapon. Sam hadn’t known many Shifters over the years, jumping from home to home, but he had known plenty of people, and he’d met plenty like Crichton. Sam had hoped to get away from men like that.
I should have known they would be everywhere.
The alarm was still blaring and the men were getting up at a blinding fast pace. Sam glanced at the clock; it was barely 7 in the morning. Weak light shone through one of the windows high on the wall and it promised another cold, dreary, overcast day.
There were no more set squads. No more teams of men who worked perfectly under pressure. All of the men worked well, together, of course – they were all friends, even if they often butted heads. But the two squad system they had had was something else; it let everyone excel at what they needed. Plus, it usually let them have plenty of time to rest between calls.
Sam watched as McCready, Peterson, Haley, O’Brien – who was fully healed from his accident – and Mooney were putting on their gear.
A few of the other recruits, though who were still left, anyway, mumbled and rolled over, covering their ears with pillows. Sam watched instead.
When will I get the chance to be with these men? Will I even get the chance?
There was commotion at the doorway and Sam watched as Sharp and Crichton appeared in the doorway.
“What do we got, boss?” McCready asked. Sam felt for the man. He’d been ripped from his position and forced to sit back while the Forest was systematically changed, and in some cases, destroyed. But McCready seemed to take it as well as any man could. If he harbored a grudge, Sam couldn’t tell, and he suspected the rest of the men couldn’t, either.
McCready had obviously been expecting Sharp to answer but Crichton said, “Fire on an apartment building. Twenty-fifth floor. Could be spreading fast.” McCready nodded, continuing to change. “Carver, Smith, Forbes, and Bush – get dressed. You’re coming with us.”
Sam felt the realization hit him like a bag of bricks. Dressed? That meant…
He jumped out of bed, faster than the other three men. The others who hadn’t been selected look disappointed. They’d all rolled over to see what was happening between McCready and Crichton.
They were changed and geared up in record time. McCready led the charge out of the room, but Crichton held up a hand. That was when Sam noticed Crichton and Sharp were both geared up.
“We won’t need you this time, McCready,” Crichton said with a smile that bared his teeth. It was a predatory grin. “Peterson, same to you.”
“Absolutely, Sergeant,” McCready said, moving out of the way for the rest of the men. Sam was the final man out the door and he spared McCready a glance. The man just nodded and then Sam was rushing out of the door, following the line of men down the hallway.
They’d just reached the bay, running to the engine, when Brooke walked in. She always got there early. Sam smiled at her but she looked past him, instead looking at her father. For the briefest of moments, Sam felt her dismissal, but then the excitement from going out on an actual call took back over and he started to pile in the truck as Sharp said, “These men are going to be a little bit late to class, Miss Slater.”
Crichton climbed into the driver’s seat; Sharp took the passenger seat. And then they were roaring out of the fire station, the sirens wailing. Sam could feel his heart thumping in his chest.
This is it. This is finally it. I didn’t think I would ever get the chance.
The day was cold but mercifully no snow, sleet, or ice was falling and they made good time to the apartment building, flying through intersections and moving around cars. It was exhilarating. It was so much more than the other time he’d been allowed to ride along – that had been a learning exercise. This would be the real deal.
Sam smelled the smoke long before he saw the fire. Leaning out one of the windows, he saw that smoking was growing thick just up ahead.
“We’re close,” Crichton said – though every man in the engine already knew that. They came to a stop and everything moved by in a blur. Sam opened the door, almost before they came to a complete stop, and the men piled out after him. Police officers had the area roped off. Their cars were flashing their lights. People were crowding up against the yellow police tape. Some were crying. Others held kids, watching in awe. More and more people seemed to be showing up to watch.
Sharp was bellowing orders. Sam had to respect the man. Even after being out of the game for so long, he knew exactly what he was doing.
Sam glanced above. The fire was raging. Smoke billowed out of windows. There was a sound like an explosion, then he felt the rain of shattered glass on him.
“Back these people up!” Crichton roared, his golden eyes blazing underneath his mask. “Let’s get ready to get in there!”
Sharp was talking with the police chief, finding out just how many people were still left in the building. Sam looked up again at the fire as they began to file out, Mooney behind to man the water cannons and prepare for when the others eventually came back out. He did a quick count. The fire may have started on the 25th floor, but it had spread upwards at least another three.
Please don’t let there be any more people up there. Please.
Sharp led the way into the building, followed closely by Crichton, Smith, Forbes, Bush, Sam, Haley, and O’Brien, who stayed by the front doors and waited while the others went in the lobby. The fire sprinklers had kicked on and were still running, filling the entire room in a torrential downpour. Water splashed underneath Sam’s boots as they ran through the lobby, past the front desk, the elevators, and to the back staircase.
“Almost everyone is accounted for!” Sharp yelled, yelling back to the men as they entered the stairwell. “Except for an older man in room 2512 and a family of three in 2610! We’re getting them out of here!”
Sam did a quick calculation in his head. The man was probably somewhere in the blaze, as were the family.
We’ll get them out. We have to.
Sam’s legs burned as they went up the stairs, each floor filling up more and more with smoke. Sam could hardly see, let alone breathe, when Sharp stopped outside of floor 25.
> “Forbes, Bush, you’re with me. Smith, Carver, Haley, you’re with Crichton – get up there and find that family!” Sharp commanded. He disappeared into the hallway, followed by the other men.
Crichton led the way up to the next floor and stood outside the door.
“Let’s move!” he yelled – but he didn’t go in first like Sharp had. There was the briefest moment of hesitation and Haley muttered something under his breath and pushed open the door to the 26th floor. The second the door cracked open there was an explosion of flame that pressed against the men. Everyone yelled, but Haley pushed forward through it. Smith hesitated, so Sam pushed his way past him and into the burning hallway.
Everything was flame and smoke. The sprinklers had done nothing to quench the inferno. Haley was pushing through the heat, looking at each door as he passed. He finally paused. Sam came close to him and saw that they were at room 2610. Haley nodded at Sam, and though Sam couldn’t completely see his face, Sam could tell there was a kind of grudging respect there. Sam nodded back and spared one last look at the hallway behind him – and neither Smith nor Crichton was anywhere to be seen.
“Cowards!” Haley yelled. Then he crashed through the door. Sam was right behind him. The blaze was searing. Even with his mask, Sam could feel the smoke burning his eyes.
This is insanity. This is dangerous. But that’s what makes me a member of the Forest.
And he knew he was.
They searched the entire apartment and found no one.
“They’re not here!” Haley yelled.
“Where are they?” Sam yelled. He felt panic gripping him. There was a family here – somewhere. If they didn’t find them…
The thought almost made Sam physically sick to his stomach.
They kept looking, to no avail.
“We gotta go!” Haley yelled. “If they’re here, there’s nothing we can do for them!”
“We can’t!” Sam yelled. “We just can’t abandon them!”
Haley ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “There’s no use dying here! They probably weren’t even in the building when it went up! It happens!”
“But…” Sam said. He didn’t want to give up. But looking around the room, he knew they didn’t have a choice. He didn’t want to die. His thoughts flashed to Brooke and what she would think if he died on his first job.
There was suddenly a shape in the doorway and Sam recognized Smith there, waving them forward.
“Finally decided to show up?” Haley roared, slamming him into the far wall in the hallway and moving past him back the way they had come.
Sam moved past the other man as well, shooting him a glare that he knew he couldn’t see. Smith didn’t say anything. Sam kept moving, sticking close to Haley, Smith behind him.
And then there was a roaring sound, louder than anything Sam had ever heard before. Everything seemed to shake and there was a scream behind him. Sam turned around, finding that only feet behind him the ceiling had collapsed downward, crushing everything beneath it.
The scream had been Smith. Even as Sam watched, the hallway gave away, dropping another floor in a roar of fire, burning wood, sparks, and somewhere in there – Smith.
He yelled but felt Haley’s big arms wrap around him, pulling him backwards. Sam struggled, trying to get to Smith, but he couldn’t fight against Haley. Out in the stairwell, Sam was pulled backwards, down to the next floor where they found Crichton and Sharp standing there.
“I’ve sent the rest of the men and the old man down already!” Sharp yelled. “Wait, where’s Smith?”
“Whole hallway collapsed!” Haley yelled. “He might have fallen down to this floor!”
“Leave him!” Crichton yelled. “If we don’t get out of here soon, this whole damn building is coming down!”
“Coward!” Haley yelled, coming at Crichton. Sharp and Sam intervened, trying to hold him back.
“I don’t want to die in here like that family!” Crichton yelled.
“The hell with you, then!” Haley yelled, going towards the door, sparing a glance at the other men. Sam immediately pushed past Sharp and Crichton, going into the hallway.
He was relieved when he found Sharp coming in immediately behind him. Sam’s respect for the man grew immensely – though if they didn’t make it out alive, it wouldn’t matter.
The two floors had collapsed onto the 25th floor.
“It’s not going to hold up much longer!” Sharp roared over the inferno. “We have to find him, quick!”
Haley led the charge, followed by Sam and the other two men. Flaming timbers covered the hallway. Visibility was nonexistent. Haley moved the first piece of wood out of the way, trying to clear the hallway and find Smith.
It wasn’t looking good.
After a few minutes, Haley collapsed backwards, holding his hands up. They were charred, almost blackened. Sam knew that he couldn’t do anymore, so he pushed him out of the way and dove into the inferno. He felt Sharp’s hand on his shoulder, trying to hold him back, but he wasn’t going to leave someone else behind – no matter how badly Smith had treated him.
Sam could feel the heat, could feel his hands blistering, but he wouldn’t give up. Somewhere in there was Smith – if he was even alive.
And then there was a hand, reaching out – somehow still moving, and Sam grabbed it and pulled. It wasn’t easy but then there was Smith and Sam was pulling him outwards of some wreckage. His suit had been badly charred and when Sam pulled him to his feet, the man could barely walk. Sam found that he had trouble walking himself – he was so exhausted he could barely stand.
But there was Sharp and Haley, who was himself charred, and the four of them were moving downstairs as fast as they could.
Crichton was nowhere to be seen. Sam could feel his legs screaming in protest. Even going downstairs was painful. He felt as if his whole body had taken a beating. Looking at Smith and Haley, though, he felt that maybe he had got off lucky.
I couldn’t save that family.
The realization hit him like a ton of bricks.
I failed. My first real job – and I completely and utterly failed.
They were stumbling down the staircase as fast as they could. Above them, there was a massive rumbling.
“It’s coming down!” Haley yelled.
“Move!” Sharp yelled, trying to push his men down even faster, but Smith was moving slowly and Sam felt he wasn’t moving as fast as he could, and even Haley was moving slowly and Sam knew they weren’t going to make it. The entire building shook and there was a sound Sam couldn’t even put into words but he knew what it was: the building had finally given up.
It was coming down.
But they were at the bottom of the stairwell. The lobby was there, and beyond it through the smoke he could see O’Brien waving to them.
We made it.
And then the sound increased. There was yelling, and he felt arms grip him and yank him backwards.
Then the entire building collapsed.
The men weren’t late – they missed the class altogether. Brooke had just dismissed the rest of the men, wondering what kind of impact that missing class would have on Sam. Would her father let it be written off? Would he let Sam slide on missing class this one time?
She packed up her books and waited a few more minutes, hoping that Sam would appear in the doorway, ready to learn.
I don’t want to teach him.
That wasn’t true. She did want to teach him. She wanted to have one on one sessions with him. But she knew it wasn’t a good idea. He was smart enough to do this on his own.
She left the class and went down the hallway to find one of the men, Ortega, running down the hallway. She smiled at him – he was a good man, one of her favorites to see in the station, but he blew past her without a word.
That’s odd.
She came to the end of the hallway, trying to figure out a reason that she could hang around the fire department and wait for Sam, when she saw a commoti
on up ahead in the bay.
It was McCready, talking to Ortega and a few of the others.
“– Know who it was?” McCready asked.
“The Chief, a couple of the recruits. Couldn’t hear Mooney over the yelling. I heard him say O’Brien, Carver, maybe Haley…”
Brooke felt her heart stop.
“We have to get down there,” Buckner was saying. “Those are good men. If that building collapsed on them, we have to get them out.”
The Chief. Carver. Building collapse. Oh, my God. Dad… Sam…
“We’ll take my vehicle. Ortega, I need you to stay here with Dixon, Graham, and Norris.”
“But –”
“If there’s another call that goes out, we need at least you four to stay here. I won’t have anyone else die because of bad management. That’s an order.”
“You got it, Sarge.”
“Thanks, Ortega,” McCready said. He turned to Buckner and said, “Get Peterson and get back here as fast as you can. We’ll take my truck.”
Buckner nodded and ran off. Ortega followed, leaving McCready alone, crossing to a beat up pickup truck.
“Sergeant?” Brooke asked, running up to him. She knew he wasn’t Sergeant anymore – but it didn’t matter. “What happened?”
“There’s been an accident at the apartment building. Whole damn thing came down.”
“And the men? Are they…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“We don’t know. You should go home. Get some rest.”
“I can’t. There’s no way I can. I have to go with you.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t have to do anything.”
“He’s my father, McCready. Sharp,” Brooke explained, pleading. She opened her mouth to say something about Sam but thought better of it.
McCready looked annoyed for a second but said, “That explains some things. Climb in. But know that we’re going to be driving very fast.”
Peterson showed up and they climbed into McCready’s truck, Brooke sitting in the middle. She gripped the dash as best she could as McCready drove out into the street, cutting off a car and roaring away. Next to him, Peterson looked concerned – though she knew it was about the men and not McCready’s driving.
Bear Heat: BBW Fireman Bear Shifter Romance (Firefighter Bears Book 1) Page 12
