Page 99 of Where There's Smoke
Scoffing, I waved him off. “I've already thought that through. If we build her a state-of-the-art facility next to the firehouse, she can use the old building as asecondarylocation.”
Melody was in full swing, getting the rescue back up and running. It was only a fraction of what it once had been, but I wasn’t going to diminish her work. If she wanted to use the old space, then I would ensure she had all the funds she needed to do so.
On the way to go pick up Melody, we kept talking about what color she would want to paint the walls of the new place and how we would manage traveling back and forth between the two rescues. It was silly, and there was still so much to do before we got to that point. Hell, there was even a discussion of buying a vehicle specifically for moving animals.
Elliot wouldn't admit it, but he loved that idea. I could see the way his eyes lit up when he thought about car shopping as a pack.
“We would have to get it fitted wi—what the fuck?!”
His sentence cut off as we turned down the road that led to the rescue.
Pillars of smoke emanated from the building, and my stomach dropped out of my body as my mouth fell open.
Melody.
“Hurry up,” Samson snarled, sitting forward like he could will the vehicle to move faster as he gripped the dash.
Elliot didn’t need to be told twice, and within seconds, we were pulling up to the building, jumping out of the car and darting toward the burning rescue with our omega inside it.
Samson already had his phone up to his ear. “I’m calling Melody. You call the fire in!” he instructed, his voice hard as nails.
Elliot was already gone, running around the back of the building, no doubt checking the fire exits. Yanking my phone out of my pocket so roughly that I almost dropped it, I dialed the familiar number for the emergency switchboard.
“This is Fitz Holden Wilder. I'm a firefighter with Station Seventeen. We have just come across a fire at a local animal shelter, and we need full backup immediately. The fire is rapidly growing, and we suspect potential foul play. Send authorities as well.”
I rattled off the address before hanging up.
There had to be more going on that a simple accident. We’d learned the first fire was arson, and now it was happening again? Yeah, that didn’t bode well and was way too convenient to be a coincidence.
More importantly, Melody was inside that building, and if I lost her, I’d search for whoever did this, even if I had to hunt them down to the ends of the earth.
Samson’s shout grabbed my attention, but as I turned to look at him, a door next to me slammed open, and Melody came staggering out, covered in soot, with a towel wrapped around her face.
“Firecracker!” I called, grabbing her and pulling her away from the worst of the smoke. “Holy fuck! What happened?”
“Fitz?” she asked through racking coughs.
“Yeah, it’s me. Jesus, fuck, are you okay?” I ran my eyes over her, looking for any sign that she was injured or burned, thankfully not seeing anything horrible. “Is anyone else in there?”
She shook her head. “Not anymore. Reed ran. Blocked the exit,” she spluttered.
Reed ran? Of course, it was that fucker. If I see him again, I swear?—
“He…he was angry…” Melody’s voice was rough, her stare distant, showing how upset she was.
I wanted to probe for more information, but I needed to ensure Elliot knew that she was out so he didn’t try to go in. Samson hurried over next to us, scanning Melody for injuries as well. We couldn’t see anything too bad, sure, but she was going to need to see an EMT as soon as possible.
“Tell Elliot,” I instructed Samson.
When it came to nasty situations, we all barked orders at one another, and we were mature enough to understand the necessity. We respected each other, and emergencies weren’t the time for pleasantries. I’d ask politely when there wasn’t a building on fire and a “potential” arsonist getting away with it.
“Will do. There're bottles of water in the car, make sure her airways are clear,” Sam shouted as he turned to run around the building, toward where Elliot had gone.
As I pulled Melody back, she glanced up at the building, her face distraught. “Oh God, it's going to be ruined—again,” she whispered.
“We can rebuild. For now, the only thing that's important is making sure you're okay.” I tugged her toward the car. As I was cracking open a bottle of water and thrusting it into her hand,several fire engines pulled up, along with squad cars and an emergency medical truck.
Dylan and the second shift from Station Seventeen came, along with an engine from Sixteen.
