“I have to go," he whispered.
“I know you do," she said. “I know." But now her hand had replaced the woman’s on his sleeve, gripping convulsively, and Landon didn’t think he could pull himself away if he tried. If she didn’t release him, he might stay by her side forever . . . and the woman’s daughter—
They both looked toward the building in the same instant as a high-pitched scream slashed through the air.
In an upper window, a little girl stood silhouetted against a column of smoke. Even from a distance, Landon could see the hysterical tears tracking down her face. Her screaming coalesced into a single word: "Mommy!"
His radio was already in his hand. “I need backup!" he shouted. The hand holding his radio dropped as he turned to find any available fireman in the panicked crowd. “I need backup!" he screamed again.
“Landon!" Alex‘s hands clenched on his sleeve. Her icy blue eyes narrowed in focused determination. “I know what we need. I know how to get her down. Get a space blanket."
Landon stared at her. It took only a split second more, but it felt like an eternity as he calibrated what she was saying. Then he yanked her to him in an embrace, pulled her in tight against his chest, his hand locked in the tangle of her hair. When he sucked in a breath, they breathed together as one.
“Go." Alex released him. And he went.
Chapter 16
Alex
Watching the little figure standing in the window of the burning building was like looking through the gates of Hell. Alex had never thought she would be confronted with a sight so horrific—and she would definitely never have thought she would be fighting herself with every breath not to run inside.
The plan had to work. It had to.
Come on, Landon. She was standing so close to the blaze that she could feel beads of sweat on her brow. But he was closer to the building, the fragile protection of the space blanket reflecting the worst of the heat for a few precious seconds as he shouted encouragement and urgent command to the girl above him. Come on!
"Miss, I'm going to need you to take a step back." Alex hadn't realized until one of the other firefighters approached her that she had shouted her urgings out loud, that she actually had taken a step toward the fire. A gauntleted hand settled on her shoulder, and beneath its weight, for a moment, she could almost imagine it was Landon's hand trying to coax her to safety. But how could she stand to put any more distance between them when he might call out to her at any moment?
Landon might shout her name. The building might begin to collapse on top of the little girl as the insatiable appetite of the fire consumed it alive—
The girl jumped. She hurtled through the air toward the earth, and Alex felt as if her heart stopped beating, completely arrested by the moment. It was as if the world had stopped turning, as if every living thing held its breath in unison to watch the girl plummet.
Then, suddenly, Landon's arms were full, filled with the small body, the force of impact knocking him halfway to the ground, and the world snapped into focus. Her heart resumed pounding with a breathtaking, almost painful throb, and Alex shouldered free of the hand restraining her. She ran to Landon's side as he pushed himself upright and was simultaneously wheeling to run to her. They met halfway across the lawn, when his legs seemed to collapse beneath him. Alex threw herself down to help cradle the girl's limp body.
"Medics!" Alex shouted over her shoulder as she checked for a pulse. Nothing.
Landon threw off the shining thermal blanket, and Alex shoved the girl's shirt up and began to administer CPR.
"She went limp when I caught her. Smoke inhalation," Landon said as he yanked his mask up. He was stroking the girl's sweat-soaked hair out of her face.
The little girl's lips were parted, her eyes rolled back in her head. Alex redoubled her efforts, thrusting down on the child's chest harder until another pair of hands entered her field of vision. She moved aside and let one paramedic take over her rhythm while another slapped a mask over the young face and began to administer oxygen.
The seconds crawled by agonizingly as she watched. She tried to silence the clock in her head that counted down steadily, cruelly, toward an outcome that . . .
The girl gasped suddenly, and her eyes flew open.
Relief flooded Alex, and she nearly pulled the poor little girl into a bear hug. A squeeze around her midsection was the last thing this particular patient needed.
"Mommy? Where's my mommy?" The little girl's eyes rolled around in rising panic as she reached up to try to push the mask away. The paramedics glanced at each other, clearly unprepared with an answer that would put the girl's mind at ease.
"Mommy's safe at the hospital, waiting for you, sweetheart." Alex moved back in as the nurse in her took over. "Let’s keep the mask on, honey. It’ll help you breathe better. Would you like to take a ride in an ambulance to see your Mommy?"
The girl nodded and allowed the mask to settle over her mouth and nose once more. Alex turned her head and saw the paramedics already had a gurney ready. She smiled at the girl and said in her professionally cheerful voice, "These people are going to take you to see your mommy. And they're going to make you feel better, all right?"
"Can you come, too?"
Alex smiled and squeezed the little girl's hand. "Of course. I’ll be there to meet you. Okay?"
"Okay."
Alex helped them load the girl onto the gurney and watched them wheel her away. Then she turned—to find Landon standing behind her. His firefighter’s mask was pulled back, and his face was half-blackened by ash, but his eyes shone with intense, naked emotion that was all too easy to read.
The same feelings overwhelmed her in that moment. Alex threw her arms around him, and he gripped her with a ferocity she had always known he was capable of yet had never experienced before. Every muscle in his frame seemed to tremble with the fear of letting her go.
"I understand now." Her eyes were dry, but she all but sobbed the words into his chest. She pressed herself to him, worrying all the while that he wouldn't hear her, but she couldn't bring herself to pull away. "You have to protect others. You have to save them. I can't ask you to stop, any more than I can ask you to stop breathing. And I don't want to."
She raised her head and caught Landon's lips with her own. He tasted like fire, but she was the one burning in his arms. He tightened his embrace around her as the inferno roared behind them. When she finally pulled back, she saw that his face was twisted in misery.
"I have to go. Some of my guys are still in there."
Alex nodded. "I know." She cupped his soot-stained jaw in her hands. "Find me afterward."
"I will."
They held each other a moment longer, until Landon shoved himself away from her and turned without a backward glance. Alex thought her heart would break, but she knew his abruptness had nothing to do with her . . . it was the only way he could make himself leave her.
He pulled his mask back down over his face and moved purposefully into the burning building.
She watched him disappear into the cloud of smoke that streamed from the open front door. "I love you." Her own words struck her like a blow between the eyes, and she repeated them again in a smoke-choked whisper: "I love you."
The life Landon had chosen for himself was a dangerous one. There might be a fire he walked into one day and never returned from—hell, that fire might be today. But Alex understood now that she had been wrong. She wasn't guarding her heart by holding herself back from loving him. She was starving it slowly, excruciatingly, by not admitting to herself that it was already too late. She had been falling for Landon since the first moment he’d opened his eyes and called her 'angel'.
Loving a man who risked his life to save others wasn't folly. It was inevitable. It was as dangerous as running headlong into an inferno, but it was something she would never again stop herself from doing.
She understood—now—it was worth it.
Chapter 17
Lando
n
A cheer went up as the last ember was doused.
Landon wiped the stinging sweat from his eyes. For the moment, he was too exhausted to join in . . . but as he glanced around him and saw the beaming, blackened faces of his fellow volunteers, he couldn't help feeling a surge of victory.
With a hoarse "Well done, Brenner," Hank clapped him on the shoulder as they headed back toward the truck. The next shift had already arrived and was passing out fresh water bottles pulled from a cooler. Landon took one with a thankful nod and collapsed, his back against the side of the truck.
"Right back at you, Chief."
"We can celebrate today, but this son of a bitch isn't over yet." Hank now addressed all of the squad members gathered around the cooler. "We managed to eradicate the blaze that broke out in town, that's all. There's still a monster fire raging on the outskirts. Don't forget, that's where our men and women are headed to, today—and never stop to consider our job concluded until it's out, once and for all."
The soot-stained faces around him nodded gravely. Landon noted that the elated smiles all seemed to be suppressed now, if they hadn't died completely in the wake of their chief's sobering words.
"But until that time . . ." A darkened face that he belatedly recognized as Chase’s came forward. "You wouldn't blame us for heading down to the Well to share a round, right, Chief?"
Every face turned toward Hank. The chief's eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms in stern consideration. Landon didn't hold out much hope for Chase's request.
"Fuck, no," Hank replied eventually. A chorus of groans followed as he held up his hand for silence. "Fuck no, I wouldn't blame you. Hell, I'll join you."
Another raucous cheer went up, and this time, Landon added his voice. He even channeled some of Chase's irreverence for authority and beat the man himself in the general race to dump the rest of his water bottle over Hank's head. Soon, Hank was shaking himself off like the freshly-baptized coach of a winning sports team. Now he was grinning from ear to ear. It was an expression Landon had rarely seen cross their chief's face.
As he sketched a salute at the chief and started to turn away, he couldn't help but wonder how much Cedar Springs was changing all of them.
"Landon? You in?" Chase jogged up beside him, his gear already half-slung over his shoulder.
Landon accepted another clap to his back—he was sure there would be more where that came from after word of this day's rescue had spread—but shook his head. "Nah. Not me. I've got somewhere else to be tonight."
Chase, for once in his life, didn't provide a clever sexual innuendo—although Landon was certain he must have had them in surplus supply.
He imagined the other man, in that moment, must have felt a lot like an overfull foam tank about to burst, but Chase surprised him by simply dropping a nod and a knowing look in response. The other firefighter retracted the hand he’d clapped onto Landon's shoulder and gave a thumbs-up. "When you're done, you know where to find us," he said.
"Appreciate it."
He rode with them back to the station and cleaned up hastily (with Chase being generous enough to offer him first crack at one of the showerheads). As soon as he was dressed in his civilian clothes, he shoved his way out the door. He didn't bother checking in at Alex's house first; he had heard her give her word to the girl that the nurse would meet her at the hospital, and he knew she would make good on her promise.
"She's in the administrator's office," Gabriella said before he even had time to stop at the front desk and ask the question.
Landon drummed his fingers, then scratched his head sheepishly. He hadn't meant to make his impatience so evident. "I don't want to interrupt," he said.
"I think you had better." The level way Gabriella stared at him over her glasses communicated more than the words did.
Sudden anger flared in him. Landon didn't understand its source—but he had a feeling he was about to.
"Thanks," he said. "Don't mind if I do." He rapped a knuckle on her desk and headed down the hall.
He couldn't help noticing the other nurses watching him as he passed. He kept his stride purposeful and squared his shoulders—out of some last-minute instinct—before he shoved down hard on the administrator's door handle and passed through the doorway.
"Knock, knock," he announced himself. "Sorry to interrupt. You in here, Alex?"
"Landon!" Alex spun on her heel to face him.
Landon was horrified to discover tears glittering in her eyes. Her face was pale, and she looked more upset than he could ever remember seeing her.
The man sitting behind the heavy wooden desk quickly spun in his chair and appeared to be adjusting himself. Landon's eyes zeroed in on the other man's movements.
"Looks like I'm not sorry to interrupt," he amended, gaze shifting from Alex to her boss and back again. "Someone mind telling me what the hell is going on in here?"
"Absolutely nothing that concerns you, Mister . . .?" Despite aiming for a remonstrative tone, the administrator spoke breathlessly and missed the mark by a mile. Clearly, he was flustered at being intruded upon so suddenly.
Landon ignored the tone and came further into the office, leaving the door wide open behind him. "Alex? Did this asshole do something to upset you?"
"Excuse me?" the man behind the desk roared. "Just who the hell do you think you are, again?"
Alex stood motionless, staring at Landon helplessly. He could see her voice locked behind her eyes, see the scream welling up behind her frozen expression.
He reached out and took her hand in his.
"He exposed himself to me." Her expression didn't change, but her voice was matter-of-fact.
Landon squeezed her fingers hard enough to crack her knucklebones. The anger that surged through him now wasn't just a flash, it was a full-blown windswept blaze about to destroy everything in its path—starting with that all-too-flammable expensive wooden desk and the nervously sweating cretin behind it. Seeing her wince, he quickly loosened his grip, though his anger did not recede with the gesture.
"How long has this been going on?" Landon kept his own voice tightly controlled, trying to match Alex's calm. If he didn't force himself to engage at the same level, he was bound to do something stupid and make the situation worse in the long run.
They were going to settle this. Now. Whatever rescue Alex needed, whatever respite, he was it. And by the look in her incredulously swimming blue eyes, he thought she knew it. "How long?" he repeated. He left no room for any doubt that he thought this might be the first time her boss had made a pass at her.
"Too long," Alex responded. "I've been . . .” She took a deep breath. “I've been documenting the harassment for a while now."
The administrator sat bolt upright in his chair. "What?" he cried. It was the exact tone of voice Landon had hoped to hear from the other man, and it hadn't even required him coming around the desk to strangle him with his own hands. "This—this is absurd!"
"I don't think so," Landon said. "And something tells me I'm not the only one who's been witness to this.” He leveled a stern gaze at the so-called man before him. “We're going to leave now to file an official report. Ready, Alex?"
"Ready." Her grip was steely in his own. "Goodbye, Scott. If there's anything work-related you need to say to me in the coming days, you can relay it through Gabriella. I won't be responding to any of your messages!"
"Lex! Get back in here!" the sweating man shouted after them. Then: "You have no proof! No proof!"
The declaration rebounded off the walls of the office and followed them out into the hallway. Alex turned suddenly, surprising Landon, and slammed the door shut with enough ferocity to unhinge one side of the blinds hanging in the small, square window.
"And do not ever call me 'Lex'!" she hollered back through the closed door.
Pride swelled in Landon as he looked at her. She had gone from weepy-eyed, unwilling recipient to a battle-ax in a span of moments. He wanted nothing more than to sweep her up in h
is arms.
Apparently, Alex had the same thought. She didn't let go of his hand, but clenched hers down over it, clearly signaling him to follow. He allowed himself to be dragged down the hallway after her.
He was surprised when they arrived at his old room. "Alex, what—"
Before he could get the question out, Alex unlocked the door and shoved him inside. He heard a distinct 'click' behind them as she re-latched the door and yanked the curtains down. "Alex—"
"Get on the bed," she ordered.
Landon was all too happy to comply. He shifted up onto the bed, watching as she unbuttoned the front of her blouse and let the garment slip down her milk-white shoulders. It fell to the floor like the shed petals of a flower, but he was given no more time to consider it as she climbed on top of him. He fell back against the recently-refreshed pillow, his hands finding her hips as she mounted him.
"Alex . . ." He didn't know what he was trying to say, but he was glad when he didn't find the words. If there was ever a time to shut up, his instincts told him it was now. He helped to hold her steady as she yanked her undershirt off and undid the back of her bra with quick, dexterous fingers.
"We have to be quiet," she warned. Her word of caution wasn’t needed, considering where they were, and Landon was almost suspicious that she had said it out loud to remind herself of the fact.
"If you're sure about this," was his final offer, and she silenced any further negotiation with an abrupt kiss.
Her lips were softer and more generous than the square lump of feathers beneath his head, but her kiss was urgent. Landon groaned into her mouth and cupped the back of her head, forcing more of that intoxicating pressure. Alex moved herself up and down the length of him, grinding against his growing erection and driving him insane with the friction. Why hadn't he thought to take his pants off before he’d let her talk him into this compromising position?
Californian Wildfire Fighters: The Complete Series Page 21