Page 18 of Set Me On Fire

Chapter 11

Knox

I knew exactly what Charlie was doing. The not-so-little prick was setting Millie up using the same prank we’d pulled on pretty much every new person that joined the station and their wives and girlfriends. People thought handling a fire hose was just like watering the garden, but it wasn’t. Part of me wanted to warn Millie, ruin the prank, make sure she wasn’t taken by surprise.

The other half just wanted to see how she’d react.

Probably because I could almost feel her heart rate pick up the minute we got in the back of the truck with her. I shouldn’t have. I drove, so it should’ve been in the front seat, but Charlie took on that role. Instead, I wedged myself into the backseat just to feel the press of Millie’s leg against mine through the thick fabric of Noah’s uniform.

In my head I tried to justify it, that it was just helping create a vibe in the backseat that made clear what Noah had done for Millie, but I knew. It wasn’t just Charlie who was revisiting that night in the backseat. Like every other night since the momentI picked Millie up and carried her away from the fire, I felt the shadow of her body against my skin and wanted more.

Just like Noah did, if Millie truly was his childhood sweetheart.

Which meant I needed to step forward now and follow through on this prank.

“Roll the hoses out,” I barked, but Charlie and Noah had already started moving as Millie shrugged out of Noah’s tunic. My focus shifted back to Millie as we stepped out into the big open-air training space at the back of the station. “The boys will hook the hose up, get the water running, but you need to know a few things before you start squirting water everywhere.”

“Bet you say that to all the girls.”

That little smirk of hers would be the death of me, but I forged on.

“You’ll be aiming for that target on the back wall.” We’d painted a sloppy bullseye on the wall at some point. “Seems easy enough, right?” She nodded. “Well, a fire hose is different to the one you use in the garden. It’ll have massive amounts of pressure pumping through it. Release that pressure? It’s a bit like a bullet being fired from a gun. The force used to propel the water, the bullet, creates recoil, pushing you back.”

“Recoil…”

She looked up at me in alarm.

“Remember every action has an equal and opposite angle,” Noah called out.

“Was that the guy with the apple?” she asked, the tremor obvious in her voice.

“Newton?” Noah asked. “Yeah. That means when the pressure rises in the hose, it has to go somewhere. When you release the valve, it’s going to propel the water forward and push you back.”

She stared into my eyes.

“So how do I stop that?”

“We use several different stances,” I explained, “but for tonight, the best thing might be a simple standing hold. You need your feet at least hip width apart.”

I demonstrated that, trying not to preen when she watched me closely, then she mimicked my stance, only to waver on her heels. With a little hiss, she pushed them off, reminding me of that night. Half the reason why I picked her up was because I didn’t want her tearing her bare feet on the asphalt.

Though I’d never shown that level of consideration to any other member of the public before.

Pretty feet with bright red nail polish emerged, but she planted them on the concrete floor as Charlie approached with the hose. I grabbed the nozzle and then started to show her how it worked.

“This here is the bale.” I gripped the big lever on the top of the hose. “Pull it back and the water comes out.” She blinked as a jet of water shot through the air, and I was quietly proud of the fact I didn’t move an inch. “Hose is kept tight to the body, tucked under the arm…”

That wouldn’t be enough on its own. There was a reason we had such a stringent physical aptitude test to join our ranks. I looked over her head to where Noah was ambling over, knowing he’d take up the slack.

“OK, show me how it’s done.”

I handed over the hose and she looked at it like it was a venomous snake or something, flinching when she felt the pressure, but she held on. Just as I told her, she squared her stance, tucked the hose under her arm, and that’s when Noah moved. Kneeling down behind her, his knee pinned the hose to the ground. We used similar poses when a team member needed extra support on the hose. He hooked an arm around the hose below her, but Millie didn’t feel it because she pulled the baleout. A little gasp, then a nervous laugh, and she was sending water cascading all over the wall.

“Shit, shit, shit…!”

I stepped closer and so did Charlie, Noah’s grip tightening. Nothing would happen to Millie, not while we were here, but she didn’t know that right now. Instead, I was willing to bet that enough adrenaline pumped through her veins, lending her strength she didn’t know she had.

“Hold it!” I snapped.

---