Page 2 of Reckless
“Ah.” Understanding dawned on Jones’s face, and he swung his gaze from Cole to Alex. “Nothing ever sticks to Teflon.”
“Ah.” Understanding dawned on Jones’s face, and he swung his gaze from Cole to Alex. “Nothing ever sticks to Teflon.”
“Nope,” Alex said with a grin. Going through life on a bunch of should-haves and maybes was about as appealing as a prostate exam with a root canal chaser. If he wanted something, he did it without hesitation. Dealing with consequences was for after the fact, and despite Cole’s smart-ass delivery, he wasn’t wrong. Alex could handle anything that came his way, no matter how big, how bad, or how dangerous.
And he tempted all three on a regular basis.
“Gentlemen!” The staccato clip of Crews’s already serious voice popped him back to full attention in the back of Engine Eight, and Alex replaced his headset with a swift tug. “We’ll be on-scene in two minutes. Squad is right in front of us, and O’Keefe and Rachel are in the ambo directly behind, but we need to be ready for anything. Look sharp and be on point to set up water lines if Thirteen needs an assist. Let’s get ready to work.”
Alex shot a gaze out the window, balancing the now palpable push of adrenaline in his veins as he used all five senses to calculate and categorize. Getting a good line of vision on the call site was impossible with the rows of tightly packed factories and warehouses on either side of the street, but even though he couldn’t get his eyes on the telltale column of smoke that always marked an active fire, the acrid bite of something burning filled his nose, growing stronger as they approached the heart of Fairview’s industrial park. Squat, boxy buildings in various states of dingy and decrepit lined either side of the street, and when Engine Eight screeched to a stop in front of one of the filthier suspects, Alex didn’t even burn an unnecessary nanosecond hitting the pavement to get a better visual.
“Whoa.” Even from the opposite side of the street, the warehouse was a nightmare waiting to shake out. Although access to the block had been cut off by the imposing presence of all the emergency response vehicles, a smattering of onlookers dotted the perimeter of the scene. Dark gray smoke chuffed from the partially boarded front windows of the shabby warehouse, painting a thick layer of haze over the bright early-morning sky. Thin ribbons of orange firelight glowed behind the few surviving windowpanes on the north side of the warehouse, but instead of staring at the flames, Alex focused on his assessment.
The fire wasn’t always where the biggest problem lay. Or the biggest threat.
“Nice of you girls to show,” came an obnoxious drawl from his left, and great. Looked like it was time to play Name That Asshole.
“Captain McManus,” Crews deadpanned, all business. “What’ve we got?”
McManus jabbed his pointy chin toward the dilapidated warehouse. “We’vegot a warehouse fire, lieutenant. Showing flames on the Alpha side, second floor, roof intact. My firefighters are trying to set up water lines, but the goddamn hydrant’s stripped.”
“You’re not going to search ahead of the water?” Alex asked, and McManus turned to pin him with a stare, his lips pressing into a thin, white line ofscrew you.
“Use the big head for thinking, would you, Donovan? This warehouse is abandoned. As in, no one’s inside.”
He straightened, pegging McManus with the irritation free-flowing beneath his sternum. “Nothing’s abandoned in this part of town.” Come on, this was Common Sense 101. Not that McManus’s over-privileged and underachieving ass seemed to care.
“Dispatch says this place is, and I’m not inclined to disagree.” The guy stepped up, his chest barely inches away from Alex’s. “A search isn’t necessary in this situation.”
Only if you’re too chicken-shit to do one.Alex opened his mouth to tell McManus exactly where to shove his “situation,” but Crews shouldered between them, decisive and quick.
“Captain McManus, can you advise?”
A smug smile twisted the man’s lips into an expression that was all teeth. “Let’s get Squad Eight on the roof for a vent. Engine Eight can run backup water lines if Thirteen needs an assist. You can clean up whatever my team doesn’t catch.”
The muscle over Crews’s jaw gave a single twitch. Alex silently begged the guy to argue, to tell McManus to get bent, to dosomethingother than fall in line.
But then Crews’s expression went blank. “Copy that. Jones, you come with me to ready the hoses from Eight in case we need them.” He turned, snapping Alex’s brewing protest in half with a don’t-fuck-with-me frown. “Ifwe see any evidence of entrapment, I’m sure we’ll re-evaluate the need for a search. Until then, Donovan, you and Everett stand by. Clear?”
“Crystal,” Cole said, walking Alex out of McManus’s earshot before either of them could respond.
“This is bullshit,” Alex hissed, grinding his molars hard enough to test the limits of their integrity. “The fire’s not fully involved, and the roof is sound. You and I both know if we’d been first on scene, Westin would’ve had us in that warehouse looking for squatters while squad vented the roof.”
“I do.” Cole stepped in, his voice low and level. “But I also know that’s a judgment call, and someone who outranks me made it. I want to make sure that building is clear just like you, Donovan, but as much as it sucks, we have no way of knowing what’s inside. Or more to the point, what’s not.”
Anger ricocheted through Alex’s chest, leaving a bitter exit path in his mouth as he exhaled. “Someone could be trapped in there.”
“And the second we see evidence that someone is, we’ll go in and get them out.”
Alex swore roundly under his breath, channeling his irritation into examining the scene again to look for any signs of life inside the building. The front doors were old and unchained, and although they were likely locked, it was nothing five seconds with his Halligan bar wouldn’t take care of. Heat blurred the edges of the dirty wooden window casings, escaping beneath the splintered boards nailed over the openings from the inside. Smoke poured from the building in thicker bursts, indicating the fire was growing, and damn it, this warehouse had shit for visibility in or viable exits out. Not to mention that their chances of getting anyonetothose limited exits were circling the drain with each passing second.
Alex’s boots had him on a trajectory for the building before the movement made it all the way up the chain of command to his brain.
“Hey!” Captain McManus scrambled forward to step directly in front of Alex, puffing out his narrow chest as his face turned the color of the fire truck blocking the street behind them. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going into that warehouse to do a search,” he said, and what do you know, it wasn’t a question. He’d have plenty of time to make nice with McManus later. Right now, he needed to do his job. His way.
No hesitation.
