My safe place.
My true home.
Remington.
I love you . . .
47
Remington
Our trucks stop in front of my worst nightmare.
My house is engulfed in fire. The monster we face down every day has come knocking on my own door. Threatening the one person that matters the most to me.
My heart is trapped in that house, and I can’t fucking breathe.
We spill from the trucks, and what should be natural feels like chaos in my panicked state. Eli fills my field of vision, his strong hands clamping down on my shoulders.
“Rem!Focus. One goal. One mission.” His calm determination and leadership is exactly what I need to snap me out of my mental tornado.
All I can do is nod. I grab my gear, strap on my SCBA mask, pull up the protective hood, check my oxygen tank, put on my helmet and gloves, and ignore all the shouts and directions being given, and rush to the door—my fucking front door. I try to kick it in, but it’s not as simple as it should be. That’s when I notice the door has been tampered with, barricaded from the outside.What the fuck?Eli’s right behind me with his irons,chopping through, helping me forcibly enter my own space.
The door slams open, blasting us with a wall of flame, heat, and smoke. It’s the middle of the night, so Lainey would be in bed, Ash in his crate. I told the guys that on the way over. Everyone knew there was not a chance in hell that I am not going in here to try and save my woman. They all know my house, but we have no idea what we will find inside.
I quickly make my way into the house, flames consuming the spaces that I have loved. The rooms that Lainey and I made into our home, gone with each stroke of the flames up the walls and along the floors.
“I’m going to the primary bedroom to look for Lainey.” I talk into the radio. “Ash should be in the spare room.”
“Got it.” Eli copies, and we head into the flames together. Unafraid of the fire but terrified we are too late.
I make it down the ruined hallway to our bedroom and the closed door.
Pushing it open, my heart nearly stops when I see the love of my life collapsed on our floor. She looks so tiny, so fragile, covered in soot, dark smoke blurring the room. Yanking off my mask, I place it over Lainey’s face to give her breaths of the oxygen I know she desperately needs. I don’t give a shit about the risk of my mask being contaminated by the fire, of what I am breathing in, or that I am breaking protocol.
I kick the bedroom door closed again and call out over the radio, choking on the thick smoke, “Ryder, back bedroom. Third window off the deck. Come bust out the window. Hallway is blocked, I can’t carry Lainey out that way.”
“Ten-four, we are coming, Rem.” Matt’s voice crackles over the line.
I take a pull of oxygen from the mask then place it back over Lainey’s face. I scoop her limp body into my arms, tucking her close to my chest. The window shatters, and I seeRyder and Jacobs on the other side. They clear the glass, and I slip Lainey out into their waiting arms. I’m next through the window, sinking down onto my knees for just a moment once I’m out before I have Lainey back in my arms, and I am running for the front of the house.
I see Eli at the end of the driveway, Ash cradled in his lap, oxygen over his little muzzle.
The ambulance is there, doors open and waiting. I place Lainey’s still body gently on the gurney. Our paramedics start to work on her quickly, and I rip off my tank, helmet, gloves, and jacket. We load Lainey up, slamming the doors closed, and I am right next to her, that small hand held perfectly in mine.
I don’t give a shit that we are racing away from the fire, my gear left in the middle of the street with my crew, my house burning to the ground.
None of it matters.
If I didn’t get to her in time ...
If Lainey doesn’t make it, I will never have a home ever again anyway.
48
Remington
It’s been well over twenty-four hours and she still hasn’t woken up. The noise of the machines beeping in the ICU are not what’s keeping me awake. It is the panic of closing my eyes and then waking up to a world that exists with Lainey no longer in it.
