“Side by side. You and I are going to do a sweep. Not sure of the number of residents in this home. Let’s make it quick,” Lance told him.
“I’m right here with you,” Mike said, and then they heard their radios go off.
“Got the grandmother and a small child, four years old, still missing. The other children say grandmother lives in an apartment downstairs,” Chief Martelli radioed to them.
“Got it.”
“Let’s head down the stairs. Maybe they’re in there.”
In the next instant, they heard the explosion. The entire house shook, and they both knelt down and covered their heads. Pieces of wood and railing hit them, covering them.
“Shit. You okay, Mike?” Lance asked.
“Yeah. You?”
He nodded, and Mike felt the ach in his arm and leg. One look at Lance and he saw the expression of pain. They were both hurt, but there were two people trapped inside this house. They needed to get to them.
Painstakingly, they made their way down the staircase leading to the lower level. Their chief radioed in to make sure they were okay.
As they descended the stairs, more smoke began to encase the lower level and the side walls by what appeared to be a bedroom covered with flames. The heat was unbelievable.
Mike scanned the room. They had to move in closer. They checked the bed. Lance checked the closet mere feet from the fire. Mike moved around the bed to the floor. There were no windows. The basement was a death trap.
He saw the ponytail.
“Lance,” he called out and knelt onto the floor. The little girl was crying and shaking her grandmother, who lay unconscious on the floor.
“We got her. Come on now, honey,” he said to the child, who was coughing. Her face was blackened from the smoke.
“I got the woman. You take the child,” Lance said.
The little girl was hesitant, but he lifted her up and into his arms. Lance bent down for the woman. As they headed out of the bedroom, another explosion rumbled the house. The stairs they’d come from erupted in fire and smoke. They covered the woman and child as best they could.
“We need help in here. The staircase by the front door is engulfed in flames. There no other way out,” he called into the radio.
“Coming in now,” Chief Martelli said over the radio.
A few seconds passed, and then the sounds of creaking made Mike wonder if he was going to get out of here alive. But then water began shooting from the staircase. The fire sizzled to smoke, and there were Bear, Hal, and Marcus, shoving wood out of the way and making a pathway to escape.
“We need to move. This house isn’t going to be standing much longer,” Marcus said as Mike and Lance carried the victims from the home with their fellow firefighters right behind them.
The paramedics were there, including Johnny Landers, who took the little girl from Mike. “Great job, Hawk,” he told Mike, and Mike watched the little girl reunite with her family.
Two other paramedics were working on the grandmother. She wasn’t breathing.
Breathe, damn it. Come on now. Breathe.
He felt Lance right beside him.
“She’ll make it. We got to her in time. She’ll make it,” Mike told him, hoping that the woman lived.
“We got a pulse. It’s weak, but we have one. Let’s get her to the ER,” Johnny said, and Lance and Mike looked at one another.
“That was close.”
“Tell me about it,” Mike said and then undid his turnout coat.
He could instantly feel the pain, the bruising against his arm and ribs. He flinched, and Lance squinted at him.
“You okay?”
“I’ll be fine.” He started to head toward the truck and to begin cleaning up. Lance grabbed his arm, and Mike cursed.
“If you’re hurt, you have to get checked out. It’s protocol,” Lance told him, saying it loudly so the others would hear.
“Hawk, get your ass over there now. That’s an order,” Chief Martelli yelled at Mike. Mike shook his head at Lance. He didn’t need to be pampered or fussed over. He would check himself over at the Station. But there was Ace, giving his back a shove.
“Come on, tough guy. I’ll hold your hand.”
Mike shook his head as the teasing began, and he chuckled. When he took off his turnout coat by the ambulance, Mercury St. James was the paramedic checking out his injuries.
“Damn. This is going to be nasty for a while. What the fuck happened?” Mercury asked, and Mike explained about the railing and walls exploding over him and Lance but how he’d been closer.
He pressed along his ribs, which were sore, too.
“Could be broken. You may need X-rays.”
“Fuck that. I’ll be fine,” Mike said and pushed his shirt down.
Mercury crossed his arms.
“Come on now. Don’t be bullheaded. You’re the most sensible of all of them,” Mercury teased.
“Hey, what the hell?” Lance said as he joined Mercury and Mike.
Ace chuckled then headed back to help the others. One glance up toward the house and Mike could see that the fire was out and now stood an unrecognizable house of smoldering smoke, broken windows, charred nearly to a crisp siding and what could have been all of their graves. The house would be demolished. It was located on such a beautiful spot right across the street from beach. One of the older dwellings in Treasure Town.
Mercury chuckled. “Tell your boy he needs to go for X-rays. Now.”
“What’s this about X-rays?” Chief Martelli asked as he approached. Mercury lifted up Mike’s shirt.
“Shit. Go. Now. That’s an order.” Martelli pointed at Mike, and Mike blew out his breath.
“This is stupid. I don’t need to go by ambulance.”
“Then you can go in my car.” Mike looked up to see his brother Turbo standing there in uniform, all official.
“That works for me. We’ll work out the report together later, Turbo. Just get him checked out,” Martelli said.
“You got it, Chief.”
“Come on,” Turbo said, and Mike tensed up as he walked.
His buddies wished him well and teased him a bit, but it was all good. No one had died today. They could have lost the family of six in that house, but they didn’t. So what if he was a little banged up. He would live to serve another day. That was life as a firefighter.
* * * *
Rye couldn’t take his eyes off of Frankie. She wore one of his shirts, which hung to right above her knees. Her breasts filled out the top of the shirt, and since they’d hidden her bra and panties, she was naked underneath. He pulled her close as she tried to clean up the dishes from breakfast.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he stared up into her eyes as she stood in front of him placing her hands on his shoulders.
He was sitting in the chair, legs spread, wearing sweatpants and no shirt.
He ran his hands under her shirt and massaged her ass. “I think I can get used to seeing you in just my shirt all the time.”
She smiled down at him as she ran her hands over his shoulders and then gently massaged his neck.
“I don’t think that would work,” she whispered, and he squeezed her closer then pressed a finger down the crack of her ass to her pussy. Her lips parted.
“Why not?”
“I would never be able to leave the house.”
He pressed one digit up into her cunt.
“That’s the whole idea.”
She stepped closer and lifted one leg up and against his thigh, giving him better access to her pussy.
“You feel awfully wet, Frankie.”
She held his face between her hands and moved her lips closer. “I guess you turn me on.”
He thrust a little harder. “You guess, or you’re sure?”
“Oh. Oh God, sure. Definitely, positively sure that you turn me on.”
“Good.
He pulled his fingers from her cunt, lifted her shirt up and over her head, and then lifted her by her hips, placing her ass on the table.
He shoved his sweats down, his cock hard and tapping against his belly, and stepped out of them.
“Lie back. Hold your thighs open. I want dessert.”
“Oh jeez, you’re so wild.” She panted as she lay back.
He grabbed her hands, placed them on her inner thighs, and began to direct her in spreading them wider.
He released them and watched her.
“All the way back. I’m exploring this pussy and ass then fucking them. Got it?”
She nodded and pulled her thighs back.
“What do we have here?” Nate asked, and she began to close her thighs when Rye stopped her.
“Don’t you dare. This body belongs to Nate, too. Open for both of us.”
She bit her lip and spread her thighs as wide as she could.
Rye rubbed his hands together and stared at her glistening cunt.
“Now this is a feast made for kings.” He licked her from anus to pussy. Back and forth he wet each hole then pressed a finger to her cunt, pulling more and more juices from her body.
Nate leaned over by her side and held her hands up and above her head then licked across a nipple.
“Delicious,” he whispered.
“She sure the fuck is. Ass or pussy, bro?” Rye asked him.
“I think I’ll watch.” He pulled on her nipple, and Frankie moaned louder.
“Fuck, watch and learn, bro. This is how you satisfy our woman.”
Rye pulled fingers from her pussy and stood up. He aligned his cock with her pussy and stared at her as he stroked the muscle back and forth against her pussy lips.