Page 11 of Burn Point

I kicked a leg up on the dash, opened my box and took a huge bite.

“You talk to Bunny?” I asked around a mouthful. They’d been dating on and off for a while. She wasn’t my favorite person, but it wasn’t my place to judge who the guy spent his time with.

He nodded, swallowing his own mouthful and making a backhanded swipe over his mouth. “Yeah. She’s good, I guess.”

“I bet she was scared shitless last night.”

“She said she took the dog to her tornado spot and hunkered down. I got all of two minutes to talk to her and she bitched the entire time because I wasn’t home. Kind of left me with a guilt trip.” He shook his head, frowning. “To hear her tell it, she’s a strong, independent woman and can handle herself. But she let me have an earful and made me feel like shit for doing my job.” He shook his head, studying the remnants of his food.

Relationships in the fire service were a touchy thing. It took a special kind of person to understand the drive required in this line of work and to support someone who chose this profession. The long shifts, the emotional impact of calls, and the day-to-day bullshit of people abusing the system placed a challenge on even the best relationships. Add in that most stations included members of the opposite sex, and that was fuel to the fire for anyone with jealousy problems. Most of the guys I knew were either single or divorced.

I’d avoided relationships, choosing to date casually, for that very reason. Why start something that was just going to end anyway?

Again, my mind filled with images of the woman I’d helped from that collapsed house. Jordan had been on my mind most of the night. I marveled over how close we’d come to being caught in that house when it caved in.

Did she make it to the hospital? Was her leg okay? And out of all the people I’d helped over the last twenty-four hours, why was she the one that kept piquing my curiosity? Maybe being so close to death ourselves is why I kept thinking of her. She had been alone for hours, literally pinned in the bathtub. Plus, she’d lost everything.

I felt sorry for her.

Thoren slipped his sunglasses off and rubbed them on the hem of his shirt. “You ready to get back to it?”

I wadded up the trash from my meal and set it in the empty seat next to me, jumped out of the seat, and grabbed my gear. “Let’s do it.”

A couple hours later the sun was blazing down on us, the humid air thick, soupy. We’d walked for miles, checked every home, and amazingly, everyone had been mostly okay. One guy’d had a heart attack and another had fallen off a ladder during the day, but for the most part, the only losses had been structural.

Thoren and our buddy Mike, a Newman police officer, met me at our four-wheeler. Mike was the latest addition to the fire department. Technically Mike was still a cop while he worked his notice with the police force, but soon he’d be joining us as our Fire Marshall.

“You headed back to the station?” Thoren asked.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler, dousing my head to cool off. “Yeah, you?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. I’m going to run by and check on my buddy and see if he needs help.”

“I’d heard that a guy from the county fire department had lost nearly everything.” Mike said.

Thoren pointed behind me. “That’s his house.”

I turned to look in the direction he pointed. “The brick one without a roof?”

The yard was filled with pickup trucks, and people filed in and out with rubber storage bins. At least the family had something to search for.

He shrugged. “Yeah, I just need to check in, you know. See if I can help.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “I get it, man.”

We were all feeling pretty damn grateful to be alive. And supporting those who’d been impacted was the least we could do.

“You mind running this case of water by the shelter at the church?” Thoren nodded at the remaining case in the bed of the UTV.

“No problem.”

“Speaking of,” Mike started, “we hear that some of our troublemaker regulars have been vying for space at the shelter. They’re harmless, but they’ve harassed people from time to time. I’m hoping they will all behave, given the circumstances, but let me know if you hear anything. Mostly, I’m on watch for the guy that was exposing himself downtown last week. I don’t know where he ended up.”

I knew the regulars he was talking about—we’d all dealt with them at some point. Some were homeless, some were just down on their luck and needed a meal, but for the most part they didn’t cause problems other than to ask for food or money. Occasionally, a business owner would complain if their customers were being harassed. When I ran into these folks, I tried to make sure they had what they needed. Most of the police and fire department personnel did. This town took care of their own, though the one guy was troubling.

“Well, at least for the time being they have a place to stay.”

I tossed my trash and clapped hands with Thoren and Mike. “I’m headed to the shelter, then I’m headed home to sleep for as long as possible.”

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