Shrugging, I turn back to the darkness. “I don’t know.”
“Your whole life you’ve been protecting others. And when they did things and you couldn’t….well, you see what happened. You shut down. Close off all those doors to your smooshy insides and tell everybody to fuck off. Then you go off alone. Is that all you want?”
Turning to glare at him, I slip my hands into my pockets. “Smooshy? Is that even a word?”
“It is. And you’ve got them down there somewhere. You just haven’t done anything with them in so long that they’re atrophied.”
My brows lift. “Big word, buddy. Finally taking a look at that word a day calendar I gave you two years ago?”
“Fuck off,” he growls. “It fits. All kidding aside…what are you going to do?”
Shaking my head, I lean against the wall and put my head back, staring at all those stars above me. “I don’t know. You think somewhere out there there’s an alien staring at the same stars and wondering what he’s gonna do about his woman?”
James snorts. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were drunk. Not just trying to avoid giving me a straight answer.”
“I need some sleep. Maybe we can pick this up later.”
“Yeah. I’ll hold my breath.”
I clap him on the back and head inside, growling, running my hands through my hair. I don’t know what the fuck I’m gonna do. But I sure as hell hope I can get some damn sleep.
The last week has been long and tiring. I need a break.
I should have known.
Jerking up, I groan when I hear the alarms going off. “Shit!” Jumping up, I race to my locker and slip on my turnout gear.There’s no time to even think. The alarms are blaring and my ears ring.
James races beside me to the fire truck. “I hope to hell this is a house fire.”
“I wish.” I heard the address and it’s another old structure. This one an old barn not a warehouse.
“Fuck,” he snaps.
We pile into one truck and the other two guys in the other one. If we need help I’ll call the guys who are off and we’ll do what we can until they get there.
With a roar the engines head into the night and I try to get my head on straight, hoping like hell that I’m not about to see what I think I will.
But when we pull up, there’s nobody around and the old barn is fully engulfed, red and orange flames licking at the star-lit sky, hiding them from view with waves of rolling smoke and fire.
“Fuck, I wish I was stargazing again, dammit!”
James nods and we step out into the madness of fire and fury and night rolled into one dangerous event.
Time to save what we can.
One side of the barn caves in on itself and a cloud of smoke and fire wafts towards us, sending us running out of the line of fire.
Literally.
“Get that stuff set up! Let’s get this buttoned down now!”
Scurrying around, we automatically move into position, each one of us knowing what our job is.
Save what we can and protect our families and friends from the beast that growls in front of us.
And hopefully live to come home another day.
CHAPTER 6
