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“Come on, guys,” I clapped. “This isn’t a drill. Gear up. Load up.”

Everyone kicked it up a notch as I descended the stairs, taking control of the response and preparing myself to be in charge at the scene. Any other night, Captain Reed would have been with us, but we were a small station and we did what we had to do. Captain would stay behind, fielding calls while we handled the front lines.

My first stop was his office to get the information we needed. It would also be communicated to us in the truck, but Captain Reed was old school and didn’t always trust the radios.

When he saw me approaching, he ripped a piece of paper from its pad and handed it to me, and then I ran. Less than a minute after the alarm sounded, I was in the truck, rattling off the address to our engineer. It was also coming through the radio and up on a GPS, but we all knew our way around town.

Once again, I held the tiny paper up, getting ready to read the address just as a reminder. “Again, the call is coming from...”

Instead of repeating the address for the driver, I looked at Captain’s messy script and paused. Thankfully, the engineer was following the GPS, and it didn’t matter that I had just been smacked in the head with a realization.

The house was one of my brother’s. I knew that address and was with him when he first saw it. As far as I knew, it was still in disarray, not ready to be sold, and supposedly vacant. Yet there we were, headed to a call that the operator had to trace because the caller couldn’t give her an address.

“Maybe the old wires,” I suggested, but no one else could hear me over the truck's sirens. There was a sigh of relief in my chest, though, because no one should be in the house. That meant we shouldn’t have to pull anyone from a fire. No oneshould be in danger except the neighbors, who I prayed woke up and got away from the blaze.

The note also said a kid had called the emergency number and demanded a fire truck, not to mention that it was a traced call from inside the house.

Shit, there were so many unknowns, and I was anxious to get there and see for myself. It crossed my mind that it could have been a prank from a few kids who were bored and thought it would be funny, but I let that thought go, praying the kids in town weren’t that stupid.

Still, I wondered if Miles was on duty, and if he and the police department were also responding to the call. I had been so out of it since seeing that address that it didn’t dawn on me to look for a police response.

The house was less than five minutes away and we were approaching quickly. I couldn’t see smoke, or even smell it, and when we pulled into the front, I realized that there was no fire at all. The idea of it being a prank was now at the top of my list, and I bristled with anger. My fists clenched and wadded the paper with the address on it.

As the lieutenant and highest ranking on the scene, I knew that we had to be sure even if I suspected it was a false alarm.

“Give me a five-minute head start,” I ordered, then exited the truck just as an ambulance pulled up behind us.Roryhopped out of the passenger seat and I held my hand up to her. “Stand back, give me five.”

They all held back, waiting as I walked through the small gate and up the sidewalk. A car was in the driveway, and I could see the lights were on through the house’s window. There were also lace curtains that made the house look lived in. West hadn’t told me anyone was living in the house, but clearly, I was wrong.

That was when I should have checked to make sure Miles was coming. He wasthe police, after all. I was just a fireman,and although I could hold my own, it seemed as though I was about to walk into something that would be better handled by law enforcement.

When I stepped up the few steps to the rickety porch, the boards below my feet didn’t break like I had thought they would. But they groaned enough that I signaled to the crew behind me to be careful when they came.

Knocking on the door, I waited to see if someone answered. For all I knew, West could have rented the house out without telling me. But if he had, I needed to kick his ass because then I wouldn’t have been so worried about what I was walking into.

When no one answered, I turned the knob and pushed the unlocked door in. There was some old furniture that hadn’t been there before and a lamp on that made it look quaint.

“Hello?” I called out. “Anyone here?”

“Fire truck!” I heard from a voice that couldn’t have been old enough to spell the word “fire.” His repetitive words pushed me into immediate action, though, and I ran up the stairs to find the source. “Fire truck!”

Hurdling over a baby gate, I turned the corner into the main bedroom and locked eyes with a young boy. He was no older than three, holding an iPhone and happily saying "fire truck.” His big brown eyes widened with bewilderment. His hair was messy, and his mouth was open, suddenly quiet as he saw me approach.

“Hi!” I said softly, not wanting to scare him. Looking down, I saw the red fire trucks on his white pajamas and smiled. “Did you call for me?”

His stunned face turned slightly, scared at seeing a stranger, and he dropped the phone he had been holding tightly in his little hand. As I made my way closer and started to lean down to pick up the phone, a blood-curdling scream stopped me in my tracks.

The quiet Sunday night I had hoped for was going from bad to worse, and I had no idea what was about to happen as I stood up and took in the sight before me.

Chapter Three

JESSE

“Get away from him!”I yelled, not caring that the towel I had wrapped around me was barely hanging on.

I scooped Max into my arms and held him against me as I backed up toward the bathroom door I had just exited. When I moved into the dilapidated home, I knew it would require some work, but the doors locked, and the neighborhood seemed quiet and safe. I never imagined someone entering while I was in the shower and trying to…

“You’re a firefighter?” I suddenly realized as I saw the gear the man was wearing, along with his helmet. I stopped backing up and stood straighter, tilting my head to get a better look at him.

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