Page 85 of Anchor Point

“No fucking way. You can’t run across that yard. You know how to control the panic, Liv. Breathe and think. Where was she?”

“At the back of the engine.”

“Okay, can you see her?”

Olivia peered around the end of the engine, and her shoulders relaxed. “She’s talking to someone. I can’t tell who it is, but it’s one of our guys.”

“Okay, let’s get our head back in the game. We’ve got to get these crews out of the building.”

From behind us, someone called out, “Chief.”

Olivia looked over her shoulder and cursed. “The mayor is waving me over.”

I looked over to find the mayor, halfway hidden behind a glass door, motioning at Olivia. “Go. I got this. Stay low and get inside the building.”

I clicked my mic to call for a report and got nothing. “Dammit. Fucking cheap-ass battery.”

I pitched the useless radio and sprinted behind the barricade of an emergency vehicle to the pump engineer manning Aerial One. Over the truck radio, I could hear the interior crews calling for direction. “Four personnel are inside, hunkered down without water,” I barked at the engineer. “I want all the water you can get dousing this bitch.” Taking a chance that there might be a spare radio, I ducked into the cab, and score, one last fully charged unit.

No further shots had been fired, so with any luck, the shooter had run off. That, or he was waiting for us to get complacent and would then start taking us out again.

I scanned the scene.

PD was on high alert, trying to keep people from sneaking out of hiding. The aerials were dousing water on the structure.

Halfway down the sidewalk, out in the open, not under any cover at all, Olivia was arguing with Mayor Smith. His round face, mottled with anger, shook as he yelled right into her face.

That motherfucker.

I strode across the street, ready to hand him his ass. I knew damn good and well she could take care of herself. But no one was going to yell at my woman while I stood by and let her take it.

“Chief! Chief Hawkins!” I raised my voice until it boomed over the chaotic din.

She turned, looking pissed as all hell.

“You’re needed.”

I couldn’t go up and accost the man, even if the thought of planting my fist in his face was a heady thing. Instead, I gave her an out.

She spun, leaving him with some parting shot over her shoulder, and stalked toward me.

“Thanks. I was two shakes away from getting myself fired.”

“No problem.” We made it back to the original command point and stood taking in the scene. Olivia scanned the area with an experienced eye. “You know I trust you, Mac. But they’ve got maybe five minutes before we need to pull them out. That shooter is long gone, and this thing is getting out of control. I don’t give a damn how old this building is, it’s not important enough to lose one of our men or women over it. Pull them out.”

“10-4, Chief. Understood.”

“I’m going to see if I can find Rosie, and I’ll report from the other side of the square,” she said, taking off before I could get a word in edgewise.

I keyed up my mic. “NFD 1222, all personnel.”

Another loud flash and boom sounded from inside the structure. It was then that the guys in the building started calling out in panic. The second story was caving in.

Another crackle of urgent radio traffic.

I sprinted to the west side of the building in time to see Thoren and Nate hauling Mo out of the building, backlit by a wall of fire. Thoren and Nate had been partners. Where in the hell was Mo’s partner? My heart rate kicked into overdrive, and my vision tunneled to what was happening before me.

“NFD 1222, all personnel. Retreat and report,” I commanded, yelling into the mic to be heard.

---