“I’ll be fine. It’s mostly just a long stretch of interstate.” She wrapped her arms around me and let her head rest on my chest.
“You’ll call if you need anything?” Brody took Wendy’s hand and hugged her as soon as I let go of our embrace.
“Yes, but I promise—everything will be okay. I should be the one that is worried about the two of you.” She pulled back from Brody’s arms. “I’m just going to see my father—you’re going to save lives.”
“It’s a Saturday, so the most exciting thing we’ll see is an accident on the interstate, more than likely.” I shrugged and shook my head. “Hopefully, we won’t even have one of those this weekend.”
“Take care of yourself and we’ll be waiting when you get back.” Brody smiled and squeezed her hand.
“I will.” She smiled and nodded.
The hug was nice, but I wanted a taste of her pouty lips before she left, so I pulled her back into my arms for a kiss. It lasted a little longer than I expected, but I definitely wasn’t going to complain. As soon as the seal between our lips finally broke, Brody took over, kissing her with the same ferocity. She was gasping when their kiss ended, and I saw the hunger in her eyes. If we had just a few more minutes, the three of us would have ended up back in the bedroom for one more trip to paradise before she left. I reluctantly let go of her and watched as she walked to her car. She was so fucking gorgeous—those curves made me want to blow off work and convince her to give us the minutes we craved.
“I guess we should head to work.” I looked over at Brody.
“Yeah.” He nodded and sighed. “Otherwise I’m just going to find out if I can outrun her car.”
“While that would be hilarious to watch, I’d probably be there with you.” I chuckled under my breath.
Later that day
Canyon City was about as quiet as I expected for a Saturday morning. The police got a few calls, but nothing that required the fire department. When I first started at the fire department, I hated the long shifts without any action. I was fresh out of the fire academy with a little too much recklessness in my soul. After a few years, I learned to enjoy the solace of a quiet day at work. There were times when the calls we got didn’t end well, and I definitely wasn’t as prepared to see that sort of thing as I thought I was. I wanted to help people, not watch families suffer.
Brody and I spent most of the morning talking with the other firefighters and catching up on current events from some of the guys we didn’t see often. We usually spent our time working with the same group, and it had been a few months since I had seen most of the guys that worked the other shifts. Around noon, the siren went off and all of us snapped to attention.
“I guess they didn’t even wait until it got dark to have an accident out there.” Brody sighed and started to stand.
“Guys, this isn’t a car accident.” The chief came walking into the main part of the station with a worried look on his face. “There’s a really bad fire in Houston and we’ve been asked to send help.”
“Oh shit.” My eyes got wide. “It must be bad if they’re reaching out to us.”
“Yes. Brody, you drive. Micah, you’re in the passenger seat.” The chief started naming other guys after us, but I was already grabbing my gear.
Today definitely isn’t going to be as quiet as I hoped.
We rarely got calls to respond to emergencies that weren’t in our jurisdiction, so if Houston Fire Department was asking for help, it was a big deal. Anytime we had a major emergency in Canyon City, we normally called them, so we were definitely going to return the favor. Once we were in the truck, we got some more details from dispatch. A warehouse fire started the previous night, and it spread quick. It had already taken out a couple of the surrounding buildings and started spreading into a nearby residential area. We weren’t the only department that had been called to assist. Every fire department that had a spare rig in the surrounding area was responding as well. The main thing they needed help with was evacuating the residents while they worked to get the fire under control.
Things were chaotic as soon as we got to Houston. The fire was much worse than they described, and it was clear that they needed help. They needed a lot more than we could offer, but within an hour of our arrival, other fire trucks started showing up. It looked like an army of red trucks responding to their call. The guys on our truck set up the equipment while Brody and I headed to an apartment complex. It wasn’t on fire—yet. The police came with us and brought a bus to help with the evacuation. We were mainly just a set of hands trained to handle a medical emergency if the need arose. Every first responder in Houston was busy with the rescue efforts, tending to the people that were already evacuated and hurt, or trying to stop the fire from spreading. I would have been happier in the middle of the action, but we went where we were needed most at the moment.
“This is a nightmare.” Brody shook his head angrily as we walked. “Why didn’t they call for help before it got out of control?”
“I have no idea.” I sighed and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler next to the bus. “It’s spreading like a wildfire. We haven’t had much rain lately—I’m sure that isn’t helping.”
“No.” Brody guzzled some water. “Okay, let’s head across the street.”
“Yep.” I tossed my bottle into a trash can near the curb.
“Brody? Micah?” One of the police officers walked up to us in a hurry.
“Yes sir.” I put my hands on my hips and nodded.
“They’re asking for all of the firefighters to return to their trucks. We’ve got some more police officers headed this way to help with evacuations.” He motioned towards his car. “One of my men will take you.”
“That’s not a good sign.” I gave Brody a worried look.
“No, it’s spreading to an apartment building and there are still people inside.” The officer shook his head angrily. “Why don’t people listen when we give an evacuation order?”
We got in the patrol car and my jaw fell open when I saw how bad the fire had gotten in the short time we had been away handling evacuations. There didn’t seem to be enough water in Houston to stifle the blaze, even with others helping. Brody and I put on the rest of our gear and headed towards the apartment building. Other teams were already helping, but the fire was spreading fast. There was a hole in the side of the building on the bottom floor, and I had to assume one of the gas lines had blown. That definitely didn’t help, because it made the rescue mission even more dangerous for us. We followed the firefighters that were ahead of us, and split off from them when we got to a hall that hadn’t been evacuated yet.