“Okay. I’ll go get some other work done.”
She wanted to call him back, but she couldn’t look weak, not even in Sean’s eyes. He was her best friend and now her lover, but she just couldn’t let him know what had almost happened there on that bridge.
All her life, her father had told her not to show fear, don’t let them see you’re scared.
So she told Sean she was fine, even though he knew she wasn’t. It seemed to damage their relationship every time it happened. A cut here, a chip there, and it eroded and eroded. Working with a man you were sleeping with wasn’t good but working with a man you were sleeping withandwho was your best friend was just plain stupid.
CHAPTER9
Lana set the food on the table. Again, Pete took Sean’s seat. When Sean came to the table, he sighed and took another chair.
But the minute she brought her food up to her mouth, the alarm sounded.
There were grumbles and groans as men threw down their napkins and headed to the engines.
The call came over the loudspeaker that the burning structure was fully engaged.
“Don’t bother going in,” a firefighter said, and Lana looked at him. The same guy from the other fires. Strong, square jaw with a ragged scar along the cheekbone. His turnout coat and pants looked almost brand-new. A probie? But if he was a probie, where was his veteran?
“Why?”
“We tried an interior attack, but the stairs collapsed. The whole roof is gonna come down,” he explained.
Captain Troy nodded and said, “Surround and drown, people.”
Lana headed toward the specially designed ladder with a hose attached, which was already being propelled into the air. Without missing a beat, she climbed the seventy-five-degree angled ladder, ascending through smoke and steam that obscured everything.
At the top of the eighty-foot ladder, she took up the nozzle. She positioned it over the warehouse and opened the nozzle.
Water streamed out forcefully through a tip in a concentrated stream and then loosened and fell, like rippling ribbons of silver.
Lana found it peaceful at the top of the ladder, like sitting on a cloud in heaven watching hell burn. The wind picked up, giving fuel to the fire and throwing a fine mist all around her. As time passed it soaked her through.
Once she started to shiver, she descended the ladder and Sean was waiting down at the bottom to take over.
For a moment, he paused and swallowed.
“What’s wrong?”
He turned to look at her, his eyes wide. “Nothing.”
Without another word, he scrambled up the ladder.
Lana watched him, making a mental note to ask him about it later.
Once there was nothing but smoldering ruins left of the warehouse, Lana began the tedious job of making sure that no living embers survived. All debris had to be pulled out and hosed down.
She walked toward the fire ground but was brought up short.
“Don’t even think about doing any snooping around in there.” Bryant stood a few feet away from her, his helmet dangling from his hand. “Just do your scutt work and leave the investigation to me.”
It took all the willpower she had not to snap back at him. “I’ll do what my captain told me, but have you even looked at the reports?”
“No, I told you that you’re off base. Those were basements. Of course, there’s going to be fuel type products in them.”
“Bryant, you’re…”
“Go ahead, Dempsey. Just give me a reason to write you up. I’d love some insubordination about right now.”