“Yeah, I know,” I admitted. “Me too. But she’s giving me this chance, and it’s all I want. I will make it worthwhile.”
“Congratulations, man,” Hansen said, shaking my hand before giving me a pat on the shoulder. “I’m happy for you.”
“She’s moving into the high rise with me,” I said, and Paisley continued to beam. “She’s hoping she can keep the job she had at the PT clinic.”
“Everything was just waiting for the perfect moment, wasn’t it?” said Paisley, and I nodded in agreement.
“As long as I don’t fuck this up before I can begin.”
“Yeah, well, if you lose her again I have no sympathy for you,” Hansen said with a laugh. “At that point it’s her I’ll be judging for giving your dumb ass so many chances.”
“Never mind him.” Paisley went to the kitchen to make us all coffee, but just as she started the pot the alarm sounded, breaking the happiness in the room with the blink of an eye.
“Ladder One, Ambulance One, Engine One, report to 564 Hansen Street for reports of a commercial fire. Casualties are unknown at this time.”
“What the fuck,” I muttered out loud as the rest of our crew came from upstairs, some of them still only partially dressed and yanking shirts on over their heads.
“Another commercial fire?” Matt Nelson grumbled. “This is getting ridiculous.”
“Stay alert on this call,” Chief Davis said, coming out of his office. “Keep your eyes and ears open.”
“Yes, sir.”
It didn’t take us long to arrive downtown, where a huge office building was already starting to crumble beneath the heat of the flames. As Hansen and I dressed in PPE, ready to go in and scout the building, Chief Davis held us back.
“It’s too late,” he said. “The structure is going.”
I opened my mouth to argue with him just as splintering wood and crumbling bricks fell, collapsing onto itself. The crowd of bystanders screamed, and several people jumped back as debris and stubble littered the road and parking lot. We shielded our faces and turned away as people’s screams were drowned out by the falling building.
“Holy shit,” Matt mumbled from beside me. “Holy shit.”
“Godammit,” I said, exchanging a glance with Hansen, and then Chief Davis. “This can’t be a coincidence, chief. Why are these fires so damn similar?”
Chief Davis looked sternly at me, but he didn’t have to answer. I knew. He knew. We all knew.
This was a case of arson. And that was bad, bad news.
“Why?” Hansen asked as the rest of our crew put water on the flames to diminish the fire. “What’s the motivation for this? Who has an angry grudge?”
“No idea,” Chief Davis said, his expression hard. I could see the concern in his face, the pain he held as he watched his men battle the flames in front of us. Something was wrong, but we had no idea what it was yet.
Chapter26
Peyton
Korbin left an hour or so later to get ready for his shift at work, leaving me to sort through my stuff and my thoughts as Remington helped me find boxes for packing, chatting along excitedly as we packed. I didn’t have to work until tomorrow and planned on letting my doctor at the clinic know that I’d have to give my two weeks.
“I’m really going to miss you around here,” Rem said, holding up a framed photo of the two of us, on vacation a couple of years ago in Miami.
“Don’t be silly, I’ll be an hour away,” I promised him. “We can see each other whenever we want.”
“There will be no reason for you to come back to the city very much,” pouted Rem. “An hour away or a lifetime away? There’s no real difference.”
“Then I guess you’d better start making some real trips to Eagle River to see me, yeah?” I said, and Remington scoffed. “Don’t laugh,” I scolded. “I bet you we could find you a guy in the summit who is ten times better than any jerk here in the city.”
“A country boy,” Remington pretended to swoon. “Sure, as long as he looks like Korbin.”
“Sorry, Korbin’s spoken for.”
