Wendy only grinned as she wiggled her eyebrows.
“Will you stop talking about dates and get in the car?” Amil huffed, walking towards the back door.
Wendy looked him up and down. “What’s got you all puffed up this morning, young man?”
Amil’s mouth opened and closed several times.
“Okay, guys, please,” Isla said, appearing from the stairway with a coffee cup in her hand. “Jesus, it’s like watching toddlers poke each other with sticks. Taylor, Amil, you’re to liaise with fire. John-Paul, Wendy, you secure the perimeter in case it all goes Pete Tong, alright?”
They all nodded, and Amil grumbled as he watched Taylor adjust the straps across his stab vest. He really did need to rein in the eating, becausefuck,the sucker was getting tight.
Just as he was tuning his radio to the correct channel, he felt a feather-light touch on his lower back.
“Wait for me if you get back first,” Johnny said, mouth pressed to the shell of his ear.
Taylor shivered and rolled his shoulders. “As if I’d go without you,” he replied. “Need you for rent money, remember.”
Johnny chuckled, his breath warming Taylor’s cheek. “Do I need to remind you that you’ve been AWOL for the last three days? See you later.”
Taylor tutted, adjusting his trousers as he strode towards the back door. Amil looked him up and down. “There’s a reason people think you’re fucking.”
Taylor sucked his teeth and looped the car keys around his index finger. “And there’s a reason you have no friends, but we don’t talk about it, do we?”
Amil smirked and trotted along beside him through the car park. “Hard to make friends when I’ve got a six-foot turd stuck to my side all day.”
Taylor laughed, shoving the key into the car door. “Six foot two, actually. And maybe that’s why you attract so many flies.”
Amil rolled his eyes. “Hilarious.”
They dropped into the car, and Taylor could already see Amil’s nostrils twitching. Then he sniffed. “Go on,” Taylor said, clicking his seat belt into place. “Ask about my sordid sex life. I can tell you’re dying to.”
Amil crossed his arms. “I was just going to ask if you’d changed your shower gel. You don’t smell as horrendous as usual.”
Taylor laughed, turning the key in the ignition. “Probably best you don’t ask, actually. It’d only offend your delicate omega sensibilities.”
“Piss off.” Amil scowled, waving to Isla as she slipped into her own car.
It was a swanky Ford Ranger—of which Taylor was incredibly jealous—complete with an impatient sounding voice that told people when it was reversing, and a bullhorn. Taylor may have tried out the horn once or twice, right when Amil was about to take a swig of coffee.
Taylor grinned. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you look good in front of sargie. Now, punch it.”
Amil scoffed. “Punch what?”
Taylor raised his eyebrows and pointed to the ancient control panel in the middle of the dashboard. “I said ‘punch it.’ I’m Solo, you’re… Oh fuck, never mind.”
The fire service were already waiting for them at the bottom of the massive driveway. Lazy fuckers, always happy to stand around and let the police take charge so they could run back to their dart boards and pool tables and comfy beds or whatever they had in those cushty little station houses.
Out of all the emergency services, the police were definitely the shit on the bottom of the government’s shoe. Blamed for everything, praised for nothing, all whilst the fire service gotback slaps and ‘oh, my heroes’ for dragging cats out of fucking drainpipes.
Maybe Taylor was bitter.
Maybe he’d tried to get into the fire service once upon a time but failed the paper sift, but that was his business. Actually, being a paramedic looked pretty terrible too, if only for theGod-awfulgreen uniforms.
“Oh look, the paw patrol have finally arrived,” one of the aforementioned cat wranglers said as he tapped Taylor’s window, gesturing for him to roll it down. Taylor clenched his teeth, because the guy had a look about him that he did not like, all arrogant and smarmy. Taylor grunted, rolling down the window as the firefighter leaned straight into the car. His arm was all hairy as it pressed against the windowsill and he smelled like burning plastic.
“We’ve situated the hydraulic lift at the side of the building—” God, even his voice was annoying, and he was looking at Amil in a way that Taylor didnotlike. “The kid heard us coming and ran into one of the air vents. We didn’t wanna spook him so we came away.”
“Riiight,” Taylor said, winding up his window a little, making the man snatch his arm away. “Why couldn’t you just grab him?”
