Burning Desire

by Rachel Maldonado

  Burning Desire

  Rachel Maldonado

  Copyright © Rachel Maldonado June 2016.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of Rachel Maldonado, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine, or journal. Please be aware that downloading an e-book from an illegal site is a crime.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to my wonderful parents for their love and support. Mom and Dad, I love you.

  Thank you to my wife, Vanessa, for believing in me and allowing me to follow my dream of writing full time. You are my everything.

  Thank you to R. M. Sullivan and her spouse Debbie for always being there. You're both great friends.

  Dedication

  For my loving wife, Vanessa. You are the light of my life. I love you to the moon and back. Forever.

  Prologue

  “You have to go back in! My neighbor Candi's still in there! I haven't seen her come out yet! Please! She's in the corner apartment!” shouted Ms. Landers in a panic.

  The four story apartment building was blazing with giant flames coming out of the windows of two apartments on the west end, and from the looks of it, it was spreading fast.

  “I'm going back in!” shouted Suzanne Mitchell. She had only been a firefighter for two years, but she had courage in her veins. She didn't hesitate to run back inside the building as many of its residents were being rushed out by the fire department.

  Earlier in the day Suzanne was relaxing on a cot in the firehouse, her mind had been whirring with confusion, doubt, and sadness over her recent break up with her long time girlfriend, Patrice. She had played out the proposal over and over in her mind and the way she had pictured it was the exact opposite of what had happened. Patrice had turned her down flat. Not only that, but had decided that they had grown apart and was no longer in love with Suzanne. In spite of her personal dilemma, she was able to turn off her home life like a light switch to focus on her career. Being a firefighter had always been her childhood dream. She wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and now that she was finally working in her Dad's old firehouse, she knew he was looking down on her from Heaven with pride. She was a Mitchell alright. When she had her mind set to do something, she did it against all odds. She had more heart than any of the other men on the squad.

  “Where you going!?” shouted Lieutenant Maxwell. “Everyone's headed out!”

  “The woman we pulled out says there's someone else in the corner apartment. I'm headed back in there!” In an instant, as quickly as she could say the words, she was gone out of sight. Maxwell turned right around and followed her, heading back inside the fiery smoke-filled stairway and up to the fourth floor.

  Ms. Landers, the sweet old lady that lived alone in apartment 4D was pacing back and forth in between two fire engines while people in their pajamas were huddled together. Some were sobbing, some were coughing, but all were watching the excitement of the firemen rushing around with hoses and tending to some of the residents. “This is all my fault! Oh my goodness! I fell asleep with the stove top on! I know this is all my fault! Where's Candi!?”

  Meanwhile, Mitchell and Maxwell were searching the corner apartment. “Fire Department! Anyone in here? Call out!” shouted Mitchell. Maxwell pushed the door open to the bathroom and bedroom but found no one. The living room was filled with smoke and it was hard to see, but upon closer inspection, Mitchell could see a thin brunette underneath a quilted blanket. “I've got her!” shouted Mitchell. She rushed toward the young lady and carried her in her arms like a groom would carry his bride over a threshold. Mitchell could have sworn that as she ran with the woman in her arms that she had opened her eyes to see who was carrying her, but she couldn't be certain. The room was too thick with smoke, and she was too focused on the task at hand—getting her the hell away from the burning building.

  “Move! Move! Move!” shouted Maxwell. “Let's get out of here!”

  Mitchell was the first out of the door and down the stairs. She could feel her heartbeat racing in her chest. She just hoped that the young woman was still alive.

  With Mitchell having her hands full, Maxwell radioed the other firemen. “We're coming out! Be on stand by! We've got a live one, possible smoke inhalation. We need to work on her fast!”

  “Yes, sir. We're ready,” responded the other voice on the line.

  As Mitchell set foot outside of the Heart's Desire apartment building with the young brunette in her arms, she squinted at the bright sunlight as she was engulfed by the loud commotion of the firemen and gathering crowd bustling around. Not allowing the noise to distract her, she ran straight toward the EMT's and placed the woman on the ground in front of them. Other residents that had received aid were resting in the nearby grass. The EMT's quickly began talking to the young lady and giving her oxygen. She appeared somewhat disoriented but was attempting to open her eyes. As Candi breathed deeply into the mask, she slowly began to realize what had occurred. “Where is he?” she begged, removing her oxygen mask for second.

  “Who ma'am?” asked Sasha, the EMT holding the mask to Candi's face.

  “Where's the firefighter that rescued me?” asked Candi as she removed the mask once more before placing it back on her face.

  “The woman that pulled you out is Mitchell. Suzanne Mitchell. I'm Sasha.”

  Candi tried to smile. It was a woman? she thought. A woman rescued me. She lay her head back and closed her eyes. The next thing she knew her world went dark.

  “We're going to take you to the hospital,” said Sasha. It was the last thing that Candi heard before she passed out.

  Chapter One

  “It's good to see that you're doing better,” said Suzanne as she entered the cold hospital room to introduce herself to the woman she had pulled out of the fire. She was still dressed in her gray and yellow turnout gear.

  Candi smiled. “Thank you. You must be Suzanne Mitchell.”

  Suzanne grinned. “Pretty good guess. What gave me away?”

  “I'm gonna have to say the fact that you're still wearing your uniform.”

  “What? This old thing? This is just something I had laying around,” responded Suzanne playfully. “I just got off shift, so I thought I'd stop by to make sure you were okay.”

  “That was nice of you. Do you check on everyone you rescue?”

  Suzanne grinned then shook her head. “Not exactly. You're actually the first person I've ever pulled out of a burning building like that.”

  “Seriously? I thought you cowboy types did that kind of stuff every day.”

  Suzanne furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Cowboy types?”

  “Sure. You know, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood types that live the life of a hero rescuing damsels in distress and all that.”

  Suzanne chuckled. “I wouldn't say I'm a cowboy type. I don't like westerns, and I'm hardly a hero. I'm just doing my job, and it varies from day to day. Some days we respond to people burning garbage in their yard, other days it's someone trapped inside a car that was crushed during a car wreck, and occasionally it's someone that does something crazy like super glue themselves to something and not know how to get unstuck.”

  Candi laughed. “That's a new one. I've never known anyone to do that before. But then again, I've never met a firefighter before.”

  “Well, there you have it. We've officially met. I'm Suzanne.” She motioned towards herself with both hands then motioned to Candi. “And you're?”

  “I'm sorry. I gu
ess I never gave you my name. I'm Candace Beacon. Everyone calls me Candi. Nice to meet you.” Candi held out her hand to shake Suzanne's.

  Suzanne shook her hand, noting Candi's soft, delicate skin. “It's nice to officially meet your acquaintance, Miss Beacon. It is Miss, isn't it?” she asked, looking toward Candi's left hand for a wedding ring.

  “Yes, it is. Call me Candi. And it was just me and my cat Toonces. I don't even know if she made it out of the building.”

  “You never know. Cats are survivors. They say that cats have nine lives for a reason, right?” Suzanne grinned hoping the comment would make Candi smile, but she didn't seem so sure that Toonces was okay.

  “I will feel better once I get out of here.”

  Suzanne glanced toward the clock on the wall and noted that it was nearly seven o'clock in the evening. “Were you admitted? What's going on?”

  “I was treated for smoke inhalation and given oxygen, but the doctor wanted to check my lungs for damage so that was another long wait. I started to wonder if they'd forgotten about me. They finally showed up after lunch time ready to take me in for a CT scan and X-rays. The doctor on call in the ER sent my results to a specialist.”

  Suzanne pulled up a chair beside Candi's bed and made herself comfortable, finally able to sit down to relax after a long four day stint. “Has the specialist been in to see you with the results?”

  “Yes, just before five the doctor came in to talk to me and said I was just fine and that I could go home, but I've been waiting on discharge papers ever since. It's been over an hour. Is that unusual?”

  Suzanne shook her head. “Not at all. From the looks of it, it seems pretty busy today. It must be a full moon.”

  Candi was perplexed by Suzanne's comment. “What? What does that mean?”

  Suzanne crossed her legs. “It's something my father would always say. My Dad was a firefighter, too, and every time he had a busy day at work he'd say, 'All the crazies are out tonight. It must be a full moon.'”

  “Oh, I gotcha. I see what you're saying.” Candi shifted in her hospital bed and pulled the bed sheet over herself making sure that her legs were not exposed. “I wish we had met under different circumstances, this is so embarrassing.”

  “You don't have to be embarrassed. It's just me. In my line of work, I've seen just about everything.”

  Candi snickered. “Well, you haven't seen my bare ass before today. I'm pretty sure of that, and I'd like to keep it covered.”

  Suzanne laughed uncomfortably as her face blushed. “I can't believe you just said that.”

  “Well, it's true. Who invented hospital gowns anyway? They are not very flattering whatsoever. The patterns on these things are hideous and the way they fit is humiliating. They are all over sized and do nothing for my body. Plus, they are completely open in the back. I mean really, why couldn't they just make them look like one big giant house dress, and possibly put some cute patterns on them with daisies, hearts, or stars. What is this thing anyway?” She looked down at her gown and stared at the pattern. “A fleur-de-lis? Ugh.”

  Suzanne began to laugh. “I think you've been in here way too long. I can go check on your paperwork for you.” She stood to exit the room when a nurse walked in with Candi's discharge papers.

  “You're free to go home, young lady. We're real sorry for the delay. We were swamped today with an unusual amount of people and our computer systems have been haywire. But here you go.” The portly nurse with curly red hair and glasses left the paperwork on the rolling tray table and exited in a hurry.

  Suzanne smiled. “I guess things are starting to look up, huh? You're getting out of here.”

  Candi's eyes filled with tears. “Yeah, getting my discharge papers is the best thing that's happened to me all day.” The tears began to stream down her face as she sobbed.

  “I'm sorry. I can take you home if you need a ride.”

  Candi spoke through her tears and made an attempt to wipe her face with her hands. “That'd be great. Thanks.”

  “I'll get out of your way so you can change clothes.” Suzanne pulled the hospital privacy curtain closed, then waited outside of the room. Candi emerged a couple of minutes later fully dressed.

  Candi sniffed the air a few times. “I think I smell like a barbecue gone bad,” stated Candi as they walked down the corridor and toward the elevators.

  Suzanne sniffed the air. “No, hon. It's me. It's my turnout gear.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry.” Candi depressed the down button and both women waited for the elevator. “I'm scared to see what's left of my apartment. Ms. Landers came to see me to check on me, and she said she wasn't allowed anywhere near her apartment. She lost everything.”

  “Ms. Landers? Was that the sweet old woman that kept asking about you?”

  “Yes. She's my neighbor. She doesn't have any family. I befriended her when I first moved in two years ago, and I try to have dinner with her three nights a week just to keep her company.”

  The elevator dinged and the doors opened. “That's sweet of you,” remarked Suzanne. “After you.” She motioned with her hand allowing Candi to enter the elevator before her.

  “Thanks. I don't feel like I'm going out of my way to be kind. I really like her. She's a nice person. I spend time with her because I want to. It's the human thing to do.”

  When the doors opened to the underground parking garage, Suzanne darted toward her truck. “Wait there by the door! I'll come around and pick you up!”

  Candi grinned. “Okay, but I can walk, you know.”

  Candi's comment fell on deaf ears since Suzanne was more than half way to her black Chevrolet Silverado. She hopped into the truck and pulled the vehicle near the elevator doors.

  “Your chariot awaits!” shouted Suzanne as she jumped out and ran around to the passenger side door to open it for Candi.

  Candi laughed. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

  “Don't be silly. I rescued you. I'm supposed to be nice. You're indebted to me forever now, so maybe you should practice being nice to me, too.” Suzanne shut the door gently and winked at Candi through the closed window before running back to the driver's side and entering the truck.

  As she drove away, Candi sat quietly for a moment, then began to giggle. “Indebted to you forever?”

  Suzanne nodded and chuckled. “Yes, ma'am. And that means cooking, doing dishes, going grocery shopping, washing my delicates, and ironing my tighty whities.”

  “Oh, you have tighty whities and delicates. Now maybe I will do your laundry just to see what you've got in your wardrobe. And who irons their tighty whities?”

  Suzanne grinned. “No one. But since you'll be doing my laundry, I guess you will be from now on. Pressed and steamed, please, no starch.”

  Candi shook her head and laughed. She was glad to have a friend so far from home. She was usually so preoccupied with her own life that she rarely made time for anyone else with the exception of Ms. Landers who reminded her so much of her grandmother.

  When the two women drove up to the apartment complex, they took the elevator to the fourth floor. Most of the residents had returned to their homes, but Ms. Landers apartment was sealed off as well as Candi's apartment and the two others beside theirs. “Is it safe to enter?” asked Candi worried.

  “It was mostly smoke and water damage in yours. I can go in with you if you like.”

  Candi inserted her key in the door and turned the knob. As she entered, she could still smell the smoke that had filled the apartment and saturated the air. The dark stains of smoke and soot were visible on the walls and furniture, and everything was soaked in water from the firemen having to hose down Ms. Landers' and Candi's apartments to contain the fire. Candi began to sob. “All of my canvases are ruined. All of my hard work. Look, I worked on this 16 x 20 canvas of Love Gone Awry for weeks. I was finally going to be able to sell some of my art, and this one guy I know was going to let me show some of my art during an art gala.”

  Suzanne watched
helplessly as Candi wept. She understood her loss. She had seen the horrible things that fire did to people. It destroyed homes, happy lives, and often tore families apart with financial strain and hardship. “I'm sorry,” was all she could bring herself to say.

  Candi walked into the bedroom and was relieved to find some clothes in her dresser drawers that were salvageable. She grabbed some plastic bags and tossed in some water damaged clothes and toiletries. “I hope this place has some type of insurance. The apartment office is closed, too, so I'm not even sure where I'm supposed to go.”

  “Do you have any friends or family? I can take you there.”

  “No, not here. My family lives in California. I moved here a a couple of year's ago to live with my online girlfriend. She was an art student also. But you know how that goes. We got along much better online than we did in person and, as it turns out, she fell in love with her aerobics instructor. I'm sure they're out there somewhere jazzercising their way into some type of record book or something. I admit to doing yoga once in a while, but I'm not entirely obsessed with working out the way Lynn was.”

  Suzanne stood expressionless and said nothing.

  “What's a matter? Are you completely shocked that I'm gay? Because I hate it when people say, 'You're way too pretty to be gay.'”

  Suzanne shook her head. “No, not at all. To each his own. I'm shocked that your ex is into aerobics and jazzercising. Who jazzercises these days? Isn't Zumba the new rage?”

  Candi nodded. “Oh, right. Zumba is the new jazzercise just like orange is the new black.”

  Suzanne laughed and found that she couldn't stop laughing. “You're funny, you know that? And I like that show, by the way.”

  “Who doesn't? It's a great show.”

  Suzanne changed the subject back to the apartment and Candi's need to find a place to stay. “Do you mind if I ask where you're going to sleep tonight?”