Page 24 of Rescued Dreams (Last Chance Fire and Rescue #8)

TWENTY-FOUR

“W hat did he take?” Eddie leaned across the table in the firehouse kitchen.

Ridge had caught them all up on the entire story so far. All the firefighters—including the floater, Warren Kaminsky, who was here to cover Amelia’s absence—were drinking coffee and listening intently. “We don’t know. Aside from the fact it was a pouch.”

He showed them the screen of his phone, where he’d taken a picture of Kane’s tablet screen on the surveillance of Elam Hilden. Was it really after eight in the evening already? They’d fried up burgers for dinner and cleaned up, opting for coffee for dessert. Because coffee.

Zack said, “Money? Couldn’t be much. That’s the size of a checkbook.”

Eddie nodded. “Paperwork, like the home’s title or bank bonds. So he can cash in. Maybe that’s the stash everyone has actually been looking for.”

Zoe gripped her mug, sitting beside Eddie across the table. She seemed to have fit in well enough on rescue squad while Ridge worked Truck. She said, “I still can’t believe people break into her house all the time. That’s crazy.”

Bryce, at the end of the table, shook his head. “She never said.”

They all would’ve helped her, and maybe that was precisely the reason she’d never said anything.

Not just refusing to let her coworkers into her personal life but also using the separation to keep herself safe.

Given how she’d been raised and the disastrous way her personal and professional lives had collided in Benson, he couldn’t really blame her.

“Anything on that Nicholas guy?”

Bryce gave him a slight nod. “I’ll tell you later.”

Which Ridge took to mean when there wasn’t a room full of people.

Eddie said, “What’s this?”

The whole crew would be all up in Amelia’s business if they told them all about her former boss and ex-boyfriend. Ridge had no intention of explaining to Eddie what they weren’t talking about.

He was just about to change the subject when Bryce said, “All the talk of rank tests has got me thinking. I might go for captain.”

Zack grinned.

Della said, “That’s a great idea, Lieutenant.”

Ridge set his mug down and stared at Bryce over at the head of the table. “Captain?”

“Means an open lieutenant spot.” Bryce took a sip from his chipped Midnight Sun Smokejumpers mug. “In case anyone was interested.”

Amelia back on Truck 14 in the lieutenant’s spot with him working alongside her as the LT of rescue squad? “I’m definitely interested.”

Bryce grinned.

“How is Logan doing?”

Bryce’s twin had recently suffered a health scare after being knocked out one too many times. He was grounded from smokejumping until he could recover or chose a new position to work in at the Midnight Sun base in Alaska, where the wildland firefighters lived.

“Andi and Jude just got back from a quick visit before she gets so late in her pregnancy she can’t fly.

” He took a sip of his coffee. “Logan isn’t happy about what happened, but he’s all right.

I think he’ll take a ground position at the base, and he and Jamie will live there for a while after they get married.

Which I don’t think will take too long.” Bryce smiled.

“It’s good he’s okay.”

Bryce nodded. “Concussions are nothing to mess around with.”

“It’s a good thing for all of you to remember,” Trace said. The EMT sat down at the opposite end of the table, reading from a novel.

Ridge hadn’t even known he’d been listening.

Trace said, “Head injuries aren’t something you ignore. Or walk off.”

Eddie made a dismissive noise. Zack chuckled.

Trace shot them both a look.

Zack lifted his hands. “We know. We know.”

Ridge drank the last of his coffee. By end of shift this might be over, with the police already moving on intel Kane had passed to them from Elam.

They could arrest the guy who’d targeted firefighters, and put this whole thing to bed.

Amelia would be protected, and knowing Elam held no ill will toward her meant she could have a little bit of peace.

Standing beside her while she faced her brother had been one of the best moments of his life. He was so proud of her. The whole thing made his affection for her grow. And he was already mostly in love with her. Did she know?

She might not be aware of how far his heart was wrapped up in this thing. But with quiet ahead of them, they’d have time to spend together, and he could show her. Tell her. Prove she was worth it and at the same time that she had nothing to prove to him.

High on the wall, the speaker blared to life. “Rescue 5. Truck 14. Ambulance 21. Structure fire. Possible victims.”

Chairs scraped back on the floor, and cups of coffee were left abandoned as the crew jogged down the hall, dispersing to their vehicles.

Ridge got his turnout pants and coat on and climbed into the passenger seat. Della took her spot as the driver, Izan and the floater, Warren Kaminsky, in the back.

Ridge pulled up the information on the dashboard computer. “Looks like it’s the company SparkTech. Don’t they make circuit boards and such?” He was pretty sure they were hardware, not software.

Kaminsky said, “They don’t make that stuff here. It’s transported down from Idaho, where they manufacture it.”

“Three stories, two hundred employees,” Ridge said.

Izan chimed in. “Most of them probably went home at five.”

Ridge scanned the information he had. “Whoever called 911 said there were up to thirty employees inside. They were having a dinner meeting.”

Kaminsky muttered, then said, “That’s a lot of people.”

“Makes sense both us and Rescue are responding,” Izan said.

Ridge kept reading. “And Westside. They’re sending their truck. We’ll have multiple teams on site for this.”

Della swung the truck around a corner.

Ridge spotted the glow above the buildings when they were within a mile. When Della turned the truck into the business complex, he scanned the structure. “Looks like the upper two floors are engulfed. We probably need to vent the roof.”

Izan patted the back of Ridge’s seat. “Let me go up the ladder. Please, please.”

Della laughed.

“Kaminsky too,” Ridge said. “Both of you go up on the roof.”

Making holes in the roof allowed smoke and heat buildup inside the building to exit, clearing the air inside and releasing some of the heat. That would make it easier for the firefighters entering from below to see their way through the structure.

“Chief James is behind us.” Della pulled up.

They all climbed out. “Get the ladder going,” Ridge said. “I’ll check in. He’ll have a plan already.”

Each of them said, “Copy that.”

Ridge jogged to Macon. Bryce and the Westside lieutenant met him there.

The chief studied the fire for a few seconds, his eyes intense under the brim of his helmet.

“Okay, we go floor by floor from the ground, but I want two pairs to get to the third-floor conference room first while the others start a search. That’s where the victims should be.

And I want water on the west wall. Foster? ”

“Vent the roof?” Ridge asked.

Chief James nodded. “Exactly. Get to it, people. And be safe.”

They dispersed to their individual crews. Ridge ran to the truck, where Della had the controls for the ladder. Ridge got his pole and climbed up behind Izan and Kaminsky.

“Spread out.” Ridge took the left side, opting to use the building’s own ventilation system to help him. He could also break some windows in the upper floors by leaning over the edge and hammering the glass with this pole.

Izan hammered his spiked pole into the asphalt of the roof.

Kaminsky had the same idea as Ridge and pulled back a vent. He knocked it free and hammered into the hole with his pole, creating greater airflow than there had been before.

“Whoa!”

Ridge turned to Izan in time to see flames whip up through the hole he had made.

“Things are nasty down there!”

“Let’s get this done and get back downstairs,” Ridge ordered. He went to a spot a few feet from Izan’s fiery hole and slammed down through the roof. The spike got hung up on the layers between him and the floor below, or the drop ceiling like that school.

Amelia was going to be upset she’d missed a fire like this. Such a large-scale callout didn’t happen often.

From the radio between the open lapels of his jacket, he heard the other crews report in as they entered.

Ridge pulled the pole out and backed up fast. Flames burst out the opening, spraying sparks. “Chief,” he radioed in. “Lot of activity up here on the roof.” Conditions inside had to be bad for there to be flames and sparks like this. “We’re about done here.”

“Copy that, Foster,” the chief responded. “Take the ladder down to three and get in through a window. We need to get those people out.”

“Got it, Chief.” If whoever was funneling those people out of the conference room down the hall on three heard that, they could find the window and he could retrieve the people with his ladder. Get them out that way so the victims didn’t have to go down flights of stairs to safety.

Back on the ladder, they climbed down far enough for Della to lower them to the third floor. “We need to break that window.”

Kaminsky moved fast to the end of the ladder and used his pole to break the glass.

Hot air, smoke, and flames flashed out the window.

The floater ducked down on the ladder, crying out.

The flames came out so fast they seemed to wrap around him, disguising him from view before they billowed up into the sky.

“Kaminsky!” Ridge rushed up the ladder, Izan right behind him.

He gently rolled the firefighter over and spotted some light burns on the man’s cheeks, giving him a flushed appearance. “We need to get him down.”

Izan said, “I’ll get the basket.” He moved down the ladder faster than Ridge had seen anyone else do it. Trying to make up for what had happened in the training house with Amelia?

He had zero problem with the guy going above and beyond for a while.

Ridge shot an assessing glance at the fire raging high through the open window. They’d need to get water on it before they could evacuate people. He passed that information to the chief, who told him to get Kaminsky down, then take the hose back up.

Izan returned with the basket, and they slid the stunned but awake firefighter onto the backboard with its high sides. They strapped him so he didn’t fall out and brought him down so the EMTs could take care of him.

Ridge raced back up the ladder. He pushed his arms and legs to do the work, enjoying the burn of exertion.

Doing it to save lives gave the whole exercise thing a different spin.

Later, when the situation was over and the adrenaline had dissipated, each of the firefighters would crash hard.

For now, he kept his focus on the task at hand—making a safe path for the others down that hall to the window.

He half listened to the radio and tracked their progress to the victims, spraying water on the fire.

Missing Amelia, but knowing she’d be here if she could.

They’d never work on the same crew again, but even side by side on callouts like this, he’d be around if something ever happened to her.

Like Kaminsky being caught off guard by that rush of fire—or anything worse.

Ridge would be right there. By her side.

No matter what.

Firefighting had always been about the kind of men Grandpa had raised him and Kane to be. Now it was more. It was about life with Amelia.

Finally, he saw the first teammate appear. The firefighter handed off a civilian, a round woman in a skirt suit. Flustered and crying. Ridge said, “I’m right here with you. We’re going down together. All right?”

She nodded, sobbing.

“I’ve got you.”

He lifted two fingers to indicate to the firefighter he was good—he had the woman. Through the face mask, he couldn’t tell who it was, but it didn’t matter. They were all a team. He’d give his life for any one of them.

But for Amelia?

For her, he wanted to live.