#4--The Quiet Day--O’Connells

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  “You need to make sure there’s no one in here,” Suzanne said. “You need to do a sweep of the store, section it off, send in teams and get the hoses in here to put this out. You should have done that already, Toby.” She felt for a moment as if he were a probie she was having to give directions to.

  He shook his head as if dismissing her. “You’re not in charge here, Suzanne. I am. Now, let’s go so I can fix this before it gets screwed up any more.”

  She was stunned at the amateurish move. He actually seemed to be blaming his fuck-up on everyone else. He pulled on the door, which seemed stuck. As Suzanne put her mask back, he was still having trouble with it.

  “Shit…it’s stuck,” he said. He was pulling at the handle, his foot braced against the frame.

  Harold stepped past her. He seemed to be putting it together, and she was positive he had already picked up on the fact that Toby had made a few bad calls.

  “What the hell did you do to the door?” Harold snapped, now beside him. Both were trying to open it.

  Suzanne reached for her radio and turned from the two of them. “This is O’Connell. We’re trapped in an office at the left back of the store, not far from where Sweeney was last extinguishing a flare-up in clothing. The lieutenant is with me and Deputy Waters. I need you to send in someone to open it—”

  She heard the boom. It felt as if something had exploded. The room shook, and she fell against the desk and glanced over to Harold, who was staring at the door. She already knew what had happened. Propane had exploded, and what should’ve been just a simple call, sweeping and finding people and dragging the hoses in to contain the fire, had turned into something completely dire.

  All she could think as she reached for the ax was that there was no way in hell she was getting trapped in a burning building with both Harold and Toby all because of Toby’s dumbass call.

  “Move out of the way!” she said as she lifted the ax, but Harold grabbed the handle before she could take another step.

  “Give me that ax,” Toby said.

  Suzanne just stared at the steel door, quickly catching on that smoke wasn’t billowing in. She lowered the ax and shook her head.

  “Nope,” Harold said, then turned to Suzanne, though he had to know she wasn’t the one in charge. “Right now, we’re staying put until a hose is on that door. Your crews need to get back here and get us the hell out of the store. Whatever is on the other side right now, we need someone out there to assess it.”

  “We’re sitting ducks in here,” Toby started, and this time Harold turned to him, giving him everything.

  “You’re right, we are, but this room is sealed off from the rest of the store. Somehow, we’re locked in here. With that explosion, who knows what’ll happen when the door is opened? If it’s all the same to you, get your people in here with a hose so they can clear the way, open the door, and get us out of here. If there’s one thing I know about fires, it’s that this explosion has turned something manageable into a shitstorm. You’re in charge, but from where I’m sitting, you’re screwing up, big time.”

  For a second, she wanted to back up Toby—but, though she didn’t want to admit it, Harold was absolutely right.

  Chapter Six

  Toby was pulling on the door again, and Harold was arguing with him. Between the two of them, this situation was ludicrous, so she took a step back and then another to really look at the room, leaving them to their male back and forth.

  What made this really bad was seeing the reality of all the calls Toby was making. She’d never wanted to admit that Marcus could be right about Toby in any way. Had he always done this? It was hard to say, considering, since he’d been promoted over her, the only scenes he’d had to supervise were a backyard burn, an abandoned shed that had gone up in flames, and one housefire, where all he’d done was decide who would go in to put the fire out in the bedroom where it had started, who got to save the cat, and who got to go in and get the kids’ shoes, because they were standing barefoot outside in the middle of the night. Good calls, but ones anyone could’ve made.

  This situation was evidently one he wasn’t able to navigate with the ease he should have.

  “O’Connell, we’re making our way back to you,” said Kyle, another of the full-time firefighters, who she was confident actually knew what the hell he was doing. “We have all hands on deck, though. Sporting department is engulfed. From what we can tell, they had a fresh shipment of disposable propane bottles and gas. They ignited, popping off like fireworks. We just learned of a paint supply, and then there’s the ammo…”

  She shut her eyes. This was just the worst of the worst cases, and here she was, stuck in the back, locked down, instead of helping. She knew her colleagues were now part of the rescue team.

  “Okay, got it. Thanks for the update. Listen, in case I didn’t say it, this room seems to be sealed off from the rest of the place, but if I’m hearing right and those bullets start going off…”

  “Stay put,” Kyle said. “Let us get this out, and then we’ll get you. We’ve called in hazmat and another crew, because this is accelerating faster than expected. You have how much oxygen?”

  Her tank still had about thirty minutes, but Harold had none. As he coughed, she could see smoke was now coming through the weakened door, and she knew they needed to hurry.

  “You know what? Copy that, but smoke is now coming through the door. My tank has about thirty minutes, and Deputy Waters has no air tank, so whatever you’re doing, you need to do it fast. Toby, how’s your air holding up?” she said, knowing that Kyle would at least have every hose pointed their way to get them out.

  He stopped and looked at his gauge. “Twenty-eight minutes.”

  “Harold, get away from the door,” Suzanne said. “Here, put my mask on.”

  He put the cloth to his face again and strode over to her, shaking his head as she went to take hers off. “No, you need it,” he said.

  Toby kicked the door. She could sense his frustration and the fact that he likely also wanted to kick his own ass. He’d made a lot of calls that could end badly for all of them.

  “Let’s see if we can block that smoke coming in,” Suzanne said, gesturing around them. “This is a storage room. See if there’s something we can use, blankets, anything.”

  Harold was already rummaging through the storage, the shelves, pulling things down. She didn’t give Toby a passing glance as she followed, seeing boxes filled with what looked like patio cushions wrapped in plastic, and a box of shirts. Great, more stock that would be damaged.

  “Here, give that here,” Toby called out. When she threw it his way, he ripped open the plastic and stuffed the cushions around the door where smoke was coming in. She started rolling some of the shirts and handed them to him. The smoke was still there, but it wasn’t coming in like it had been.

  Toby rested his hand on the door, lifted up his mask, and walked over to where she and Harold were. Harold was leaning against the shelves, and she wasn’t sure what to make of the way he was watching her and Toby. Did he have something to say?

  “So let me get this straight,” he said, then gestured to Toby. “You work for him?”

  She knew he wasn’t pulling any punches. It sounded accusatory.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Toby said. “I’m the lieutenant here, and Suzanne is one of my firefighters. Who exactly are you, Deputy? You shouldn’t have been in here. Why the hell were you trying to get in here, anyway? You heard a TV?” He made a rude noise, giving attitude right back to him. “You’re not a firefighter, and because of you, we’re now trapped.”

  Suzanne couldn’t believe him. She turned, really looking at Toby. Like, what the hell? This was the second time tonight he’d done that, blaming others.

  He groaned and sighed, then lifted his hand. Maybe it was the expression on her face that had him dialing it back and saying, “Sorry, that was uncalled for.”

  “We’re not getting into a finger-pointing contest here,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter who did what and who’s to blame. Harold thought he heard someone in here. You’d have done the same, and so would I. There’s no way any of us could’ve known it wasn’t a real person in here, so knock it off. The only thing that matters is getting out. So you and you, just knock it off. If we really want to settle things, Toby, you should’ve had everyone in here, making sure this place was searched for shoppers, getting the hoses dragged in and everything put out. Since we’re at it, how about telling me what that was about, worrying about keeping damage as minor as possible? Sounds to me like you were more interested in protecting this property than saving lives. It was a bad call, Toby, and you know it.”

  She always knew when Toby had been pushed too far. There was just something about him, a point where he stopped listening.

  “It sounds like you’re questioning my authority, Suzanne,” he said. “You sure this isn’t because of tonight and you being pissed at me?”

  She could feel Harold watching and knew he was taking in all of this and more. He wasn’t stupid, but she had to remind herself he was dishonest.

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Toby,” she said. “You think I can’t separate our personal lives from the firehall? I can. Our relationship outside of here has nothing to do with me calling you out on your bad decisions. You’re in way over your head, Toby, and us being in here is all on you. I trained you and taught you better than this. You need to assess the situation and protect lives first. You should be out there, leading, yet you’re in here. You’re not up to this task, and you’re choking.”

  She knew she was crossing a line, but at this point, he was really screwing up big time. Any good leader knew when to ask for help and admit wrongdoing, but then, come to think of it, she couldn’t remember a time when Toby had ever accepted he was fallible.

  “Well, maybe I’m here to watch your ass, Suzanne! You ever think of that? Look, you know I care…” He stopped and made a rude noise.

  She could feel Harold giving everything to them.

  “So you two are, what, dating, married, together…?” Harold gestured between them.

  She stayed silent at first, considering that question was a source of contention between them. “We’re nothing,” she said, looking right at Toby. “Right? As you said, let’s not put a label on it or get too serious.”

  For a second, she thought he’d snarl. “Look, this isn’t the time for this discussion,” he said, then walked over to the door and kicked it again.

  She wanted to call out to him that kicking doors wasn’t going to solve anything, but she didn’t.

  Harold was looking at her in a way that was really uncomfortable. “Is he always like this?” he said.

  She gave everything to him. “He’s doing his best, Harold. It doesn’t help, having everyone coming at him.”

  “Is that what you think this is?”

  She leaned against the shelves, wondering how long it would take to get them out of there. This was becoming personal and uncomfortable, and neither of the men had any place in this situation. “I don’t know, Harold. What is this? I haven’t seen you in years, and then here you are. Why did you take the job working for my brother?” She wasn’t sure what to make of his expression, the way he was looking at her.

  “Why would you care who I work for? It’s not as if we’re together, Suzanne. If I recall, you broke up with me, but I’m sensing it bothers you, and I guess I don’t understand why.”

  How could he not get it?

  “There’s history between the two of you?” Toby said. She hadn’t even realized he was standing there, listening.

  “Well, it seems I’m trapped in a storage room with two men I’ve slept with. Yes, Toby, Harold and I were involved once. We dated as seniors in high school. He was my high school sweetheart, my first love—and then he broke my heart.”

  Harold narrowed his eyes, furrowed his brow. She could see something, confusion, disbelief, and she made herself look away and give everything to Toby. He said nothing, but she didn’t miss how curious he seemed. If the situation weren’t so dire, she thought this moment could’ve been comical. Maybe she’d look back on it in a few decades and be able to laugh.

  “Well, I guess I’m at a loss,” Harold said. “You say I broke your heart, but that’s not how I remember it.”

  She couldn’t believe he could be that arrogant. “Wow, amazing. You sleep with my best friend and you don’t think I would be hurt? You’re a piece of work, Harold.”

  For a second, from the expression on his face, it seemed he didn’t remember what he’d done.

  “Slept with your best friend?” he said. His voice was deep, and his eyes simmered with passion, a kind of anger she didn’t remember. He took a step closer to her. “That’s absolute bullshit, Suzanne. Let’s set the record straight. One minute, we were together, and the next, you were telling me we were over and you’d suddenly made plans to go to the prom with Wes Parker. That’s what I remember. So you want to talk about who gutted who? No, better yet, let’s not.”

  Chapter Seven

  Was he serious? Evidently so.

  She took in the room. More smoke was coming in, and after Harold started coughing again, she pulled off her mask and pressed it to him, making him breathe in the air.

  Toby now had his mask on. “Suzanne, put your own mask on and stop playing hero,” he yelled at her.

  She just shook her head, but Harold pushed it away. She pressed it to her face and breathed in the air, keeping Harold right there so she could pass it back to him.

  He seemed furious, and she was still stuck on the fact that he didn’t remember that Saturday night with Jessa Armstrong. It was so long ago, but it felt like just yesterday. Toby was watching her and Harold, and she wasn’t sure what was there in his expression. Fighting this fire was the only thing that should be their focus, not a school love affair gone bad.

  “So tell me about this best friend I supposedly cheated on you with,” Harold said. “I’m dying to hear this, Suzanne. Always wondered why you did what you did, yanking the rug right out from under me.”

  He was standing so close, but she was well aware that Toby was only a few feet away. Talk about a love triangle gone wrong. This wasn’t something she wanted to discuss, let alone have Toby hear it.

  “You want to talk about Jessa, really? Because I don’t. It may have been a long time ago, but having a reminder of the fact that you slept with my best friend and couldn’t even be honest that it happened? I never expected that from you, Harold. That just shows how little I knew you. I cursed you and hoped every bad thing happened to you because of what you did to me.”

  His jaw slackened as if he had something to say, and she could see the frustration. She’d expected shame or embarrassment at the reminder that he’d been a dirty dog, but all she saw was the opposite.

  “That’s absolute bullshit! However you came up with that story, it never happened. You really think I would do something like that to you?” He made a rude noise and then coughed again.

  She pulled off her mask and put it over his face, making him take in the air, breathe it in. “You say that’s bullshit, so even all these years later, you don’t want to come clean?”

  He pushed the mask away and actually forced it back over her face, making her breathe. “Who told you I slept with Jessa? Let me guess…it was Jessa herself?”

  For a second, she didn’t know what to say. She had believed something for so long, but now, as she stood there, she didn’t know what to think.

  He was shaking his head and was so close to her, holding the mask to her face. “And you believed her. You think I would do that to you, to us?” He shook his head, sounding so accusatory. “Who’s the asshole now, Suzanne? No, I never slept with her—”

  “But you took her to prom,” she said, cutting him off.

  He coughed again. Everything about this situation was dire. “I took her to prom because you ended us just like that, and you were with some other guy. I did it to hu
rt you, but how do you think I felt, watching you just laugh and have fun and party with some other guy, his hands all over you? And you let him, after all we’d been through together. You made everything about us seem like a lie. So when she asked me, damn right I said yes. But you know what really gets me, Suzanne, is the fact that you so easily believed it. What does that say about us?”

  He started coughing again, and she managed to get her mask off her face and put it on him. She couldn’t figure out how to handle what he was saying. This was crazy. Why wouldn’t he just admit what he’d done? It didn’t matter now. She was so over him. Right?

  “Are you telling me my best friend lied to me? Why would she do that? That’s crazy. She was my best friend…”

  He was breathing in the air, and she lifted her jacket over her mouth, her nose, as she leaned there against him. He must have known she was struggling as she coughed, as he pulled the mask away.

  “Put this damn thing on and keep it on,” he said. “You know, what I don’t get, Suzanne, is how you could believe a lie so easily. She told you we slept together, and instead of coming to me, you automatically believed her?” He was holding the mask to her face so tight. He was so close. “You know Jessa always wanted me. She’d hit on me more than a few times while we were together, but I told her no. Yet the minute she ran to you and said that I slept with her, you believed her, you cut both of us off, and it was that easy for you. No, let me guess, you were still friends with her…?” He shook his head.

  She was still at a loss for words, because that was exactly what she’d done. She’d believed her best friend over a guy she was totally, madly in love with. She couldn’t have been that stupid. “You’re wrong about it being easy on me. It wasn’t easy. It gutted me that you could cast me away that easily, as if I was nothing. Just tell me the truth. It doesn’t matter now, not anymore. When I saw you take her to prom…”

  “You, what, assumed it was true?” He coughed again, and she took in Toby standing there, hearing all of it. “You’re wrong, Suzanne. It does matter. It matters to me, because it says everything of who I am, of who you are, of who we are. You’re right, though. It wasn’t easy…”