by K. C. Crowne
He was the type who'd always roll up his sleeves and pitch in – no task was beneath him – and I respected the hell out of him for that. As corny as it sounded, I felt privileged to be working underneath him. I did my best to keep my crush under control, but when those brownish green eyes turned down at me, my heart raced and I melted. Without fail, whenever he'd look at me, I'd turn to a pile of goo on the floor. This time was no different.
I'd been so lost in those vibrant, dancing eyes of his, I'd tuned the conversation out for at least the first few minutes. What caught my attention though, was Luke. He was talking about the wildfires now, and there was a strange note in his voice.
“Arson?” Austin said, scratching his dimpled chin. “Interesting. I don't think anyone has considered that yet,” he said. “At least, not that I've heard.”
“Wait, you think the wildfires are arson Luke?” I asked.
He nodded and sighed. “Yes, as I just explained to Austin, the signs are there. We haven't had any storms recently, nothing else that would cause a natural wildfire,” he said. “And while accidents do happen, these are breaking out far too close to one another – and too often. To me, that makes it seem more like a purposeful act, rather than a random accident or natural occurrence.”
“Huh,” I said, leaning back into my chair, and putting my cards down again. This seemed like the perfect reason to forget all about our card game altogether. This was some serious shit.
“My sister works at a horse ranch near Escondido. Just outside of it,” I said. “Think I should reach out to her and warn her?”
“Couldn't hurt,” Luke said. “Just in case there's another one. This is the third this month, and we're not even in fire season anymore.”
Arson. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility, but I didn't like the sound of it. I'd been looking forward to fall and winter, just to get away from the grueling hours of fire season for a while. I was looking forward to the more relaxed pace of our calls being more local.
Most of our job wasn't even fighting fires – much to the chagrin of Owen.
With wildfire season behind us, it was nice to have those breaks where the most important thing we had to do was check the hydrants around the city to make sure they were working properly. Or maybe to do some maintenance on the truck or talk to the students at the local schools about fire safety.
Regular EMT calls were the bulk of our runs, however. Most cities lacked enough ambulances to meet the needs of the residents and often, the fire trucks were the first on the scene. Most of those calls were relatively minor as well – which was always a good thing. As much as I loved my job, I loved it even more when we arrived at the scene of a call to discover the potential heart attack was really a panic attack, or that the patient just needed some sugar water to raise their blood sugar. Those calls were easy and accounted for most of what we did.
It was the other things – the real fires, the heart attacks, the car accidents – that were stressful, and left me with many sleepless nights, fighting images that had been burned into my brain for good. You can only see so many charred and broken bodies before you start to wonder if enough was enough. If you had the stomach to wade through the blood and gore of yet another accident, of staring into the lifeless face of another victim.
Then one day, you save a kid or someone's mother, and see the gratitude in their eyes, and it all becomes worth it again. It renewed your faith in what you were doing.
But arson – hell, I knew that was bad, and the thought of it sent chills down my spine. I'd only been a firefighter for two years, and never had I experienced anything like that. Especially if whoever the arsonist was, was running around causing big fires that had the potential to destroy cities and take lives – like the life of my sister.
My pulse raced and suddenly, it was all I could think about. My baby sister Jacklyn lived out that way. I prayed Luke was wrong, and that this fire was the last one. That we didn't actually have a serial arsonist running around. Luke was very rarely wrong, however. He was good at figuring shit out and seeing the things that the rest of us often missed. Too good sometimes.
“You playing or what, Spencer?” Wes asked again, pulling me back to the here and now.
I pushed my seat back and threw my cards down on the table for all to see, which made Wes grin and shake his head.
“Sorry, I'm not really in the mood to play anymore,” I muttered. “I need to call my sister.”
* * *
“Hey, Jacklyn, give me a call back when you get this, okay? It's kind of important. Miss you,” I said with a sigh.
It had been far too long since I'd talked to my baby sister. I knew it and felt bad about it. I'd always allowed myself to be sidetracked with the job, or with this, or that. Plus, I'd always been closer to Mallory, my older sister. We were closer in age, and both had similar interests. We just had more in common than Jacklyn and I did. With the holidays approaching, I needed to make some time for both of my sisters. We usually spent every Christmas together, and a smile stretched across my face as I thought back to Christmas's past - with Jacklyn in pigtails and My Little Pony PJs, Mallory with her tomboy pixie cut. My two sisters couldn't be more different, but they were both amazing women.
Mallory had been a Marine, then later joined the police force. We both served the public, worked in high-pressure male dominated fields, and it fit us. I stared at the photo of the three of us on my lock screen and smiled.
Jacklyn was the smallest of the three of us. Just over five feet tall with a thin figure, and flowing strawberry blonde hair. Her big, blue eyes were the largest thing on her face, and she just had this innocence about her that made me feel super protective of her.
Mallory, on the other hand, looked fierce – even in the selfie. Her hair was the darkest of the three of us – almost auburn, really – and was cut into a bob that framed her otherwise delicate face. But don't ever let her hear you say that she's delicate. Oh, no. She was a force to be reckoned with and fitter than most men I knew.
We were all fairly petite women, but both Mal and I worked out and it showed. We had to be in peak physical shape for our careers. Jacklyn remained in shape as well – she worked with horses all day and needed to be able to hold her own. Unlike us though, she didn't need to carry people out of burning buildings or fight off criminals who underestimated you because you were a woman.
The photo on my phone's lock screen was fairly recent. It had been taken at Jacklyn's horse farm this past summer. All of us had cocktails in our hands, and we were all smiling wide. My hair was longer now, but was still the same shade of red. I mostly wore it pulled back in a ponytail or bun, out of the way, because of work. In the photo though, it was more feminine, falling in soft waves down to my shoulders.
Yes, we desperately needed to get together for Christmas. It had been far too long since I'd seen my sisters.
I'd escaped to the bunk room, where we'd usually sleep during our longer shifts, or nap during breaks. I was alone at first, and it was nice to just stretch out and relax. The door opened though, and Austin came walking in, catching sight of me curled up on one of the beds.
He smiled. “Your sister doing okay?”
“I got her voicemail,” I said, sighing. “And I know she doesn't check voicemail, so I guess I should text her to call me.”
“Probably busy with the horses,” Austin said.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I chuckled.
Jacklyn was always the “horse girl”. You know the type. Growing up, she always had photos of horses plastered around her room and talked about them incessantly. Daddy couldn't afford to buy her a horse when were young – we were just a working-class family in San Diego. Besides, we had nowhere to really keep one anyway.
Our dad's sister though – our aunt Eleanor – had a ranch outside the city, and Jacklyn spent every summer there. It was probably another reason I was closer to Mallory than my baby sister. We didn't see Jacklyn too much during school breaks. She was always off with E
leanor, riding horses and doing whatever horse people do. Eleanor had some money issues though and lost the ranch, which broke Jacklyn's heart.
So, it came as no surprise to any of us, that she went to work at another ranch – and that she was good at it too. Training horses was her calling, and she did well at it. It was something that made her happy. Yet, just like it had been back in the old days, it didn't leave her a whole lot of time for her family.
I tossed my phone down on the bed beside me and focused on the man in front of me. We shared a smile as he crossed the room.
“Mind if I sit down?”
“Go right ahead, boss,” I teased, patting the foot of the bed. “Is there something you wanted to talk about?”
“Nothing in particular,” he said.
“I'm not in trouble, you mean?”
He laughed, a deep, hearty sound that rumbled from his chest. “God, no. Sarah, you impress the hell out of me every single day,” he said. “And today was no different.”
Hearing such kind words of praise from my boss filled me with joy. I appreciated being recognized for a job well done. If I was being honest though, the feeling inside of me wasn't just because he was my boss, and he was giving me kudos on my job performance. The truth of the matter was that I loved when Austin praised me or showed me any kind of attention. But, there was always a little more to it than just that. I knew it was wrong – he was my superior. No matter how hard I tried to squash it though, those feelings wouldn't disappear entirely.
“Thank you. That means a lot,” I said. “You have no idea.”
“I think I have some idea,” he said with a wink.
I had no idea what he meant by that, and while I wasn't typically the type of girl to blush easily, he always managed to bring it out of me. My cheeks burned as I turned my attention to my fingernails which were caked with dirt even after showering. I grimaced at seeing the grime beneath my nails. Not very ladylike at all. Not that I’d ever really cared about being ladylike.
Still, I needed a good, thorough scrubbing – something I'd get after my shift was over. Being the only girl in the house meant when I showered, I showered alone. None of the guys could join me. They had to wait until I was done. So I usually hurried myself along, not wanting to make anybody wait. We all wanted to shower after a long, dirty call, and it sucked I wasn't one of the guys – meaning we'd all just hop in together and it wouldn't be a thing, and nobody would be left waiting.
“What are your plans for the holiday, Sarah?” he asked.
“Holiday?” I cocked my head to the side, trying to think about what day it was – and then it hit me. “Ha, you mean I might actually get a Christmas off for a change?”
He chuckled. “Life isn't all work, you know. Maybe you should visit your sister.”
“Which one? The one who seems to want nothing to do with me, or the other who's currently too busy with her own little harem?”
That crack made Austin pause. It did most people. He looked at me, an inscrutable expression on his face.
“What was that?” he asked me.
“Yeah, Mallory is dating like four guys at once,” I said with a sly smile. “All of them are okay with it, I guess.”
“That's – well, that's something, I guess,” Austin chuckled, rubbing his chin as he seemed to ponder the concept. “So they're like poly, or something? I'm not exactly sure what they call it.”
“I guess? I don't really know,” I said, shrugging.
Truthfully, I knew more than I was letting on. It was just weird to talk about with my boss, especially since I had a crush on him. The concept of a poly-type relationship wasn't all that weird to me overall, and Mallory seemed happy, so I was happy for her. They made it work somehow. It just meant less time for me, and I guess that left me feeling a bit lonely. Other than that though, I was happy that she seemed content.
“Hey, as long as they're all in agreement , I see no harm in it,” Austin said, as he shot me a sideways glance. “Not like we get much time to date in our line of work.”
“Tell me about it,” I mumbled. “I can't remember the last time I was out on a date.”
“Maybe –” Austin stopped before he could finish his sentence.
My ears perked up when he cut himself off. I wanted to know what he was about to say, but before I could ask, the alarms in the house went off. A moment later, Luke popped his head into the bunkroom.
“We've got a call. House fire on Hartford and Milton,” Luke said.
Both Austin and I were up and out of the bed before he finished his sentence. Mission Bay. The homes were close together, there were lots of people, and it had the potential for things to get out of hand pretty quickly. It was not too far from the University of San Diego, and it was almost always crowded. House fires in places like that could be tricky.
In that moment though, nothing else mattered. We'd figure it all out once we got there. That's just what we did. We needed to get to the house, and any and all thoughts about Jacklyn returning my calls, or Mallory being too busy for me would have to wait. Any feelings I had for Austin, well, they had to be pushed aside too, because I was all about the job as we climbed aboard the fire truck and Luke hit the sirens. I couldn't afford to have any other distractions in my head, so I learned to compartmentalize really well early on.
My heart raced. Two fires in one day. My body still ached from the last one, and I'd been tired before that. However, as we raced through the streets of San Diego, adrenaline pumped its way through my veins. I was ready to go, ready to do my job. I glanced over at Owen who was still pouting, not looking at any of us, and prayed that he would be ready too. He was lucky Austin hadn't fired him on the spot.
He was still new, so he was being given the benefit of the doubt but wouldn't be assigned to anything that could put others at risk until he proved himself. I still wasn't sure I trusted him while out at the scene of a fire, but Austin had him come along anyway. I guess to prove that he could follow orders.
“You good?” I asked Owen.
“Yeah,” he said.
“You sure? If you need to sit this one out, I'm sure –”
“I said I'm good,” he said, pinching his brows closer together as he glared at me. “Stay out of it, Sarah. This is between Austin and me.”
“Fine,” I said. “But remember, it's not just your life on the line out there. You need to keep your head in the game and your shit straight. You got it?”
Owen didn't answer. He went back to staring outside at the city flashing by us. Scowling. When he first joined our team, we’d gotten along great. In fact, I was one of few people that gave the new kid the benefit of the doubt from the start. Sure, he came from money and no one understood why he would give up his wealthy lifestyle in order to work such a grueling job. But as a woman, I faced those same types of questions and doubts. That meant I could relate to him in ways the others couldn't.
Wasn't there something else, some other job that wasn't so taxing I'd rather be doing? The answer was always no. Firefighting wasn’t just a job to me, it was my calling. It was the thing that motivated me to get out of bed on holidays, to work twenty-four-hour shifts, to miss family dinners. I loved it. Period.
I knew it was in Owen's heart too, but his reasons were a little less clear. He rarely opened up to any of us about his family life, or why he wanted to be a firefighter. I often wondered, but it wasn't my place to ask. I figured if he wanted to tell me, he would. He just wasn't the open book type, so I kept my mouth shut, and for the most part, tried my best to help the kid out. Besides him, I was one of the newest team members, and knew what it was like to have to prove yourself in the eyes of the veterans.
Except I knew how to take orders. Owen quite obviously didn't.
Part of me wanted to help the guy, to figure out what was holding him back. Help him figure out how to acclimate and adjust better. Teach him how to be a part of the team, rather than the guy standing on the outside of it. His clenched jaw and narrowed eyes told
me he didn't want my help though. He apparently thought he had it all figured out and didn't need anyone else’s input.
So I turned my attention to Luke and Wes, as they went through the details of the fire.
“It's a vacation home. No one is currently staying there, thankfully,” Luke said. “It's empty until Christmas Eve..”
“What is it with all these empty buildings catching fire today?” Wes said. “Do you think this is arson too?”
“Perhaps,” Luke said. “It's definitely something we should look into. Not sure if they're connected to the wildfires in any way, or not, but we can't rule anything out at this point. Just be careful, look for any signs of tampering. The last one looked to like an electrical fire, but it could have been set up to look that way. It's easy to do that in older buildings. This is a newer home, built within the last two decades or so, which means the wiring should be fairly up to code, and any tampering should be easy to spot.”
He rattled off more facts as we got closer to the fire. The smoke was thick in the air. I could smell it and could see it all the way down the street. When it finally came into view, my heart stopped.
“Jesus, that's a big one,” I said.
“Most of the houses have been evacuated already but be on the lookout for anyone still inside. Use your TICs to look for people trapped.”
Hopefully we wouldn't need to use them. Hopefully we'd gotten there in time, before the fire spread too far, or got out of control. I wasn't a very religious person, but even I was praying a bit, as we pulled onto Hartford street and saw the flames rising higher and higher into the sky.
2
Austin
Wes walked ahead of us, already geared up and ready to go. As he always was. Wes was always all business when it came to work. Same with Luke. It was something I appreciated about the pair of them – and Sarah too. She surprised me a lot, to be honest. I didn't think she was going to cut it at first, but she has really opened my eyes, and impressed the hell out of me.