Chapter 19

nineteen

ADELE

“…no, no, that’s good,” Fallon told him as Adele began to third- and fourth-guess himself. He hadn’t gone all out for his shoot. He was in artfully ripped jeans that were unzipped to show off tighty-whities, and he had paint splatters all over his arms and torso. “You’re better at this than you think you are.”

It was easy to feel good under Fallon’s instruction. He was precise and careful, and he was complimentary without making Adele feel like he was being ogled. He also ordered all the guys to do something else with their time while he was shooting him instead of watching, which meant Adele could breathe easy.

“Alright,” Fallon said, moving around to the left. “Do me a favor and put your arm up?—”

His words were cut off when Ridge burst into the room and came to a skidding halt. Adele immediately knew something was wrong. His hands fell to his sides as Ridge took four steps to close the distance between them.

“We just got a call…”

Car accident. Gage ?

A fall. Kash?

“…fire at your house. County is already on their way. We’re trying to assess if anyone’s still in the house—” As Ridge spoke, Adele could hear the sirens start up as the trucks began to roll out.

“And the address, you’re sure?—”

“Yeah. It’s yours.”

Before Adele could process those three words, the doors flew open again, and Frey appeared, wild-eyed and panicked. “I just got a text from Bowen. Let’s go.”

Adele moved without thinking. He was barefoot, shirtless, covered in paint, and a little cold, and he didn’t notice any of it. Frey caught his arm, and he realized he was shaking from head to toe.

So much for his training. He was about to fall apart. “Phone,” he said.

Frey dug his out of his pocket as he dragged Adele to his car and shoved him into the passenger seat. They were on the road before Adele could get to Gage’s number, and it rang. And it rang. And rang.

“You’ve reached the number of…”

“Fuck!” Adele said, slamming his fist against the dash.

“Call Kash,” Frey ordered, taking a hard right. They weren’t following the trucks. Frey knew the back way through the neighborhood like no one else.

Adele was grateful his friend had Kash’s number in his phone because there wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to remember it on his own in his state of panic. It went right to voicemail though, and Adele felt his heart in his throat.

“If they’re not okay…”

“They’re okay,” Frey said, like that was the only answer it could be. “They’re okay. Kash is a firefighter, remember? He’s going to make sure he and Gage are okay.”

Adele repeated him under his breath like a mantra. Like a chant. Like a prayer. He kept his gaze on his bare feet and squeezed Frey’s phone, willing it to ring. Just as Frey turned the corner toward their street, he saw the smoke. It was black, billowing, and all-encompassing.

They were forced to come to a halt at his street corner by two sheriff’s cars blocking the entrance, and Frey rolled down his window so Adele could lean over him. “It’s my house.”

He vaguely recognized the rookie looking at him through his mirrored aviators. “We can’t let anyone through.”

Adele reached for his badge before realizing he’d left it at the station. “I’m Adele Galanos. I’m the fire chief, and it’s my house going up.”

The rookie hesitated, then seemed to recognize him. He made a gesture at the guy in the other car, who backed up to let them through.

“Fuck,” Frey whispered.

Adele was fighting off the urge to scream. It felt like his skin was ready to peel right off his body if he wasn’t careful. The blackness got thicker the closer they got, and he eventually grabbed Frey’s arm. “Stop here. I don’t want you getting sick from the smoke.”

“I’ll be fine. I just?—”

“Stop!”

Frey did, slamming the car to a halt. The smoke wasn’t too bad, but any closer and it would be. He wouldn’t risk Frey.

“I’m going to walk. Stay put here.” There was a small gust, and some of the smoke cleared. Adele was able to see his house now, two hundred yards down and engulfed in flames. “Oh my God,” he breathed. His voice cracked. “Oh my God, oh my God.”

He was out of the car before Frey could stop him, running on raw pavement, tearing up the bottoms of his feet, but what did he care when the two loves of his life were there. But they were alive. They had to be. There wasn’t a chance in hell they were gone because that couldn’t happen.

There was no fucking way. There was no way!

“Kash!” he screamed. “Gage!”

Arms grabbed him before he got to his lawn, but he didn’t recognize the face behind the mask until he spoke. “Boss! You can’t go in there like this!”

He shoved at Antonio. “My son is…”

“He’s there.” Antonio bodily spun him, and through the hazy smoke, he realized that both Kash and Gage were on the neighbor’s lawn. Gage was on his back, his head pillowed on Kash’s lap, an oxygen mask over his face.

Adele sobbed loudly as he ran faster than he ever had in his life. He hit the grass and skidded forward until he collided with them both. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t see through his tears, and his heart felt like it was trying to break every one of his ribs.

“Hey,” he finally heard over his own terrified noises. Kash was speaking to him, holding him, running fingers through his hair. “Hey. It’s okay. We’re okay.”

Adele forced himself to take several breaths until he felt like he could make words people could understand. “You’re okay? You’re both okay?”

A smaller hand found its way into his. Gage’s. Adele collapsed on the ground beside his son, and when Gage tried to take the mask off, he forced it back on .

“Don’t you fucking dare,” he warned.

Gage scoffed, the sound hollow against the silicone. “Kash saved me.”

Adele looked up at Kash, who was staring across the street at the house, which was still burning. The air was filled with the acrid scent of burning insulation and the mocking scent of falling rain from the hoses. The fire was contained, he could tell that much. But the house was gone.

Nothing would be salvageable.

The world seemed a bit clearer now, and he realized his shock was fading. He was still trembling, holding Gage’s hand and Kash’s thigh. He licked his lips, then brushed hair off Gage’s forehead before looking up at his beloved.

“What happened?”

“Gage was cooking lunch—frying something in the dutch oven,” Kash said, his voice raspy from the smoke. “There was a lip on the lid. He didn’t realize it was full of water, and oil exploded. He flew backward, and the pot tipped over onto the flames. He was knocked out, but I got to him before the fire could reach him,” Kash finished.

If Kash hadn’t been home, Gage would have been killed. That reality hit Adele like a ton of bricks.

“The curtains and the wall beside the table caught before I could get to the fire extinguisher. I managed to drag Gage out, but my legs…” His voice trembled. “It took me too long to alert the neighbors to save the house.”

“Fuck the house,” Adele said. He sounded furious, though he hadn’t meant to. His fear was too real right then. “The only thing in the world that matters to me is right here. And you saved him. And yourself.”

Kash swallowed heavily. “Everything else—Gage’s things… ”

“I don’t care,” Gage said quietly. He pulled the mask off, and this time, Adele let him. Turning on his side, he wrapped his arms around Kash’s waist and held him. “Thank you.”

Adele knew this would be too much soon. He was going to fall apart. He was going to fucking shatter. But his family was okay. Everyone was okay. If Gage or Kash were hurt, they’d heal.

And more importantly, they’d live.

It was hours before Adele was allowed to leave the scene. Kash and Gage had been transported to the hospital, with Frey on their heels and Renato already there waiting for them so they wouldn’t be alone.

Bowen managed to make it through the barricade and quickly took Adele inside his house, wiping him clean of paint and scrounging up a shirt and a pair of Crocs so he could save what was left of his feet.

Neither of them said much as Adele washed his face, but as he watched the last of the paint swirl down the drain, he cracked. His knees hit the bathroom tiles, and he hadn’t realized he was sobbing until Bowen’s arms were around him, pulling him close.

He let it all out. He didn’t bother trying to hold back. There was no point, and he’d rather fall apart there in his brother’s bathroom instead of in front of Gage and Kash. He wanted to be strong for them. He needed to be strong for them.

“I don’t ever want to be the one left behind,” Adele managed to get out as the feeling began to abate into something more manageable .

Bowen laughed, pressing his face to the top of Adele’s head. “I know what you mean.”

Adele believed him. He had a partner and a daughter now, and he and Lane were even talking about expanding their family. He knew exactly what he had to lose. Adele could only hope that none of the other guys ever came this close to knowing what it might feel like.

“They’re okay,” Bowen whispered.

Adele sat back and looked at him. “I haven’t been this scared since your accident.”

Bowen’s eyes widened. “You freaked out after my accident?”

Adele let out a hollow, humorless laugh. “I lost it, Bo. I thought…fuck, the first call I got was that you weren’t waking up and you were being rushed into emergency surgery. For a single, terrible moment, I thought I was going to have to face the world without you in it. I never wanted to feel like that again.”

But here he was. And it was as terrible as he remembered. This time, luckily, he was able to set his eyes on both Kash and Gage within minutes to verify they were okay. He was able to take them in his arms and hold them. There had only been a short few breaths between his panicked fear and finding out they were okay.

With Bowen, it had been worse. He was in surgery, then a coma, and then he had several infections before he was given the all clear. It had been hell, and he never wanted to feel like that again. It was too bad the universe seemed to have a kink for making him suffer this way.

“Everyone’s okay,” Bowen said very quietly.

Adele held him a little harder, then let go and scrubbed his hands over his face before climbing to his feet. He felt a little more human now that he’d let go of some of his tension and grief. He knew it would creep up on him again, and the first time he put his arms around Gage, he’d probably feel the need to shatter all over again.

But it would be more manageable.

He would be levelheaded and able to help his son.

“Have you heard from them?” Bowen asked.

Adele shook his head. “My phone’s at the station, and Gage’s and Kash’s were in the house, so they’re gone.” The weight of it all hit him like a sledgehammer. Back on the grass in the neighbor’s yard, the loss had meant nothing.

Now, it meant everything.

“It’s all gone. Total loss, I think.” He hadn’t been across the street yet. Antonio had secured the scene, and the trucks were gone. The house would be checked for arson, but he knew the investigators would find nothing more than the freak accident that nearly destroyed his life.

“You’ll rebuild,” Bowen reminded him. “And you’ll never be without a home.”

Renato had already called Frey and told him to let Adele know they were making up the extra rooms at his house. Renato’s place was massive and gorgeous and probably a great place for Gage to unwind with the pool and everything.

And Adele would be taking some time off to heal his nerves and make sure that Kash’s body was okay with everything it had gone through.

He startled when the bell rang, and he followed Bowen into the living room, unsurprised to see the station SUV parked out front. Bowen opened the door, and Ridge quickly walked in. “I spoke to my brother—he just started in the ER a couple weeks ago. He said you can come down whenever you’re ready. ”

Adele let out a trembling breath. “In a good way, right? No freak injuries that were missed on scene?”

Ridge gave him a pointed look. “You know that’s against policy…but yes. In a good way. No freak injuries.”

Adele managed to hold back a sob. “Okay. Okay. Fuck, I don’t have my car…”

“Like I’m going to let you go alone,” Bowen said, offended. “Let me give Lane a call, and then we can take off. They don’t need you, right?”

Adele glanced out the window, then shook his head. “No. Not until tomorrow.”

“The guys will make sure of that,” Ridge said. He hesitated, then pulled Adele close and held him. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

Adele shook his head, swallowing past a lump in his throat. “It’s fine. They’re okay. We’re all okay, and that’s all that matters.”

“Good thing we all got naked to raise money, right?” Ridge said.

Adele pulled back, and his urge to cry turned into a laugh. Covering his face, he shook his head as tears welled in his eyes. “That is so fucked-up.”

“Sorry—”

“No, it’s…it’s good. It’s fine.” He took a trembling breath, then glanced over his shoulder as Bowen appeared. “Text the guys and tell them I’m taking time off the club for a while.”

Bowen rolled his eyes. “Stop giving a shit about anything except your boyfriend and your son right now.”

“He’s not—” Adele stopped himself. Kash wasn’t technically his boyfriend, but fuck that. He was done in limbo. He was done toeing a line but never stepping over to take what he wanted. Kash was his, and they were a family.

And he was going to make goddamn sure all of that became a reality tonight.