Chapter 14

Gracie

I wasn"t in the habit of lying to myself. So I had to just admit it. I was falling hard for Ryan Davenport.

If I were back in my high school days, I"d pull out a notebook or journal and start doodling hearts around Gracie and Ryan. Hell, I probably still had a few of those lying around somewhere, though I'd never in a million years believed it would actually come true.

Now here we were growing closer by the day and falling into a normal couple routine.

I"d been staying at his place most nights, though we"d had our fair share of time at my cabin too. It had been a week since the first time we"d made love. Ryan was back to work in his office, but only for half days until we officially caught the arsonist.

For the last three nights he"d been quiet. It was a little unnerving. No fires reported. The only calls that came in were for cats stuck in trees, heat detectors malfunctioning, or just questions that could be answered over the phone. There hadn"t even been a car accident or emergency baby delivery.

Life at the firehouse was pretty boring.

This meant that the guys were getting restless. And when they got restless they caused chaos.

A civil game of darts ended with Big Dick throwing them at Dan instead of the board. The only good part of that was that Clarence had made us all get our EMT certifications claiming we were too small of a town to have separate departments, so stitching up Dan when he cut himself trying to remove one kept them all entertained.

I couldn"t believe I was even thinking it, but I was ready to get out of here. All I wanted to do was go home and cuddle up with Ryan. Sex wasn"t getting old at all, but the closeness was what I craved most, especially on a boring, rainy day.

He was stuck at the office all day in meetings. He"d put off his life last week for us to investigate the fires, but that couldn"t go on forever. He was an important man in Ravenden and had to eventually go back to his day job.

It was okay though. Being apart seemed to make our time together even better.

I"d never considered myself a relationship person and Ryan and I didn"t exactly match on paper, but somehow, I was, and it made perfect sense in reality. I was pretty sure he felt the same as well. Not that I"ve asked him or declared my love for him or anything.

I was definitely falling in love with Ryan Davenport. The man that not only followed the rules but helped write them was apparently the dream man for me, the girl who broke all the rules. It was almost comical. And if it didn"t feel so right, I"d laugh.

No one at the station thought anything of it. I doubted they even considered it a possibility, no matter how much time I spent with him.

When Clarence had reinstated me, I knew overnight and on-call shifts were going to start up again. Pre-Ryan I lived for these nights, even the slow ones. But now it just felt like a waste of my time to be here when I could be home with him.

With everyone occupied in whatever stupidity they were doing now, I snuck off to the bay and climbed up into one of the trucks. It was quiet and a place I commonly used to get away when I wanted my space. No one would think anything of it.

I pulled out my phone and called Ryan. He answered right away but sounded distracted.

"Hi," he said. "Give me just a minute."

I could hear him talking in the background and then things quieted down.

"Sorry about that. What time is it?"

"Almost eight," I confessed.

"Wow. I am just getting home. You caught me programming my coffee and reminders for tomorrow."

I smiled, shaking my head. It was such a Ryan thing to do.

"How"s everything going there?"

"Boring," I admitted. "Wish I was home with you instead."

"Me too."

A silence fell between us, but it wasn"t awkward at all. Somehow we"d gotten through that stage quickly.

I yawned. "I know if I crash early, we"ll inevitably get a call."

He laughed. "And I know how much you hate being woken up when you"re sleeping."

"You do know me well. How"d that happen?"

"I have no idea."

"What are you up to tonight?"

"Dad asked me to swing by, but it"s so late now that I'll probably just call and beg off tomorrow."

"They got back then?"

"Yeah, this morning. Mom came by the office for lunch, but I already had plans. It was nice to see her though."

I didn"t know his parents, but Helena and Edward Davenport were well-known throughout Ravenden. They were almost like royalty around here. And I really hoped that he wouldn"t ask me to meet them anytime soon. I was not ready for that.

"That"s nice."

He already knew I didn"t have any family. I had no siblings, and my parents had died when I was still in my teens. Those at the firehouse were the only family I had.

"What time do you get off tomorrow?"

I smirked. "I guess that depends on you."

He barked out a laugh. "Well in that case, I say why wait for tomorrow? Just sneak out right now. I"ll be quick."

"Ryan Davenport, did you really just ask me to break the rules?"

"Is it technically a rule not to leave the firehouse except for a call while on call?"

"Not exactly."

"Then we wouldn't exactly be breaking any rules."

"I feel like Mr. Black and White is playing in the gray area right now."

"Guess you"re rubbing off on me."

"I don"t think that"s such a bad thing."

"Most people would probably agree. So how about it?"

The alarm went off in the station before I could respond.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Sounds like it. Probably another stupid meaningless call. That"s all we"ve had today, but regardless, I have to go."

"Fire at 26 Millwood Drive," Dan yelled as he ran into the bay.

"Oh shit. It"s an actual fire."

"Our arsonist?" Ryan asked.

"I don"t know. Gotta go. Love ya."

I hung up the phone and then froze. Holy shit, did I just say the L-word out loud to him like that? That couldn"t be the first time I said it. What did I do?

"Gracie, get a move on it," Clarence barked.

I jumped out of the cab of the truck and ran to grab my gear and suit up before jumping back in.

Soon we were speeding off with the siren blaring and lights flashing.

Adrenaline started to kick in. It seemed like ages since I"d felt this exhilaration. This is what I lived for.

"Think this is our guy?" Dan asked.

"Let"s hope so."

"Gracie," the chief warned.

"What? We have a lot of unsolved cases, and I"m not sure they"re going anywhere without more proof. If this is him, then just maybe it"ll be the break we need."

When we pulled up to the house it was already blazing.

"It"s a hot one," Clarence warned.

But I barely heard him as I noticed the familiar blue lights already at the scene and Vance standing there staring at the house.

A car pulled in behind us—Ryan. Our eyes met across the chaos, and I turned to point to Vance. He noticed too and nodded. While I got ready to go in with my team, he walked over to talk to Vance.

"The mayor came out to watch us tonight, so let"s keep this one by the books."

"How the hell did he get here so quickly?" Guffy asked.

I was just grateful that my mask was already on to hide my blush.

"Let's go."

Dan was the first one in, followed by Guffy, and then me. Big Dick brought up the end. Clarence stayed out by the truck, running the show from there, while Rodney was on truck and hoses.

Together the guys and I carried hoses in and got to work putting out the fire. We all expected the fire to have started in the kitchen, but the house had been abandoned for quite some time and it was easy to see it had started in what I assumed was the living room. It was already fully engulfed in flames and through the floor leading upstairs.

Rodney and Guffy carefully combed through the house, looking for any signs of life and finding none.

"The roof"s about to cave. I think you all should get out of there. Finish sweeping for life and then abort. We"re going to have to let it burn and control the spread from out here. It"s too far gone."

"Give us a few minutes to determine that in here," Dan said.

The water kicked on and soon I was gripping my hose and concentrating it on the floor of the living room. Putting it out at the source was our best option, knowing the rain outside would help to control the spread beyond the house.

A loud crack told me the chief was right though.

"Let it go Dan. We need to get out of here."

"Yeah, I"m calling it. Abort the mission now," he said over the radio.

Big Dick, Dan, and I followed our path back outside to safety. When we got back to the truck, I realized my mask was malfunctioning. I took it off and gulped in some fresh air—well, as fresh as it got when you were surrounded by smoke.

"Helmet back on, Gracie. That"s an order."

"Something"s wrong with my air line. I can"t breathe in the thing." I showed the chief the error my suit was reading.

"Fine, then stay back or get into the truck."

We both knew that wasn"t going to happen. I stood my ground, and he didn"t say anything.

Soon Rodney stumbled out of the building and collapsed. We all ran to his side to assist and check on him.

"Where"s Guffy?" I shouted.

"Beam came down on him. He"s still inside."

I didn"t hesitate as I ran into the building despite the screams of protests at my back.

"Guffy!" I yelled. It was hard to see with the smoke burning my eyes. I coughed trying to clear my lungs. I knew the fire couldn"t hurt me, but the smoke was still brutal. "Guffy!" I yelled out again.

Hearing what I thought was a response, I ran toward the noise to find him completely surrounded by dancing flames of fire as he struggled against the burning beam pinning him to the floor.

I pulled it off of him and then carefully tossed it to the side.

"Can you walk?" I asked.

"I don"t know," he replied.

I leaned down and took a quick inventory of any injuries. Finding nothing serious, I pulled him to his feet and allowed him to lean the bulk of his weight onto me.

"Gracie, your hair"s on fire."

"Shit. I gotta get you out of here quickly."

I would have ran, but his weight was too much. I dragged him to the door and then shoved him outside. I already knew it was too late for me. I"d been here before enough times to know what was happening.

Stripping out of my suit, I tossed it to the side not wanting to ruin yet another one.

"Gracie, no!" Clarence yelled as my team looked on in horror.

I already knew my head was up in flames looking like a demon straight out of hell, or at least that"s how Andrew always described it. With the suit gone, my body would soon follow.

There was quite the audience forming around me, so I turned to walk back inside but stopped suddenly when I heard Ryan screaming. It pierced through the noise of the fire and shook me to my core. He sounded a lot like a tormented animal and the look on his face wasn"t disgust but agonizing pain.

"Gracie!"

He was running towards me while Dan and Big Dick physically held him back.

"It"s okay," I yelled back to him. "I"m going to be okay."

I wanted to go to him, but I knew that I would just burn him.

His distraction was too late and I didn"t have time to get back inside. The flames engulfed me quickly, and I looked down to see my flesh curling away from my skin. It wasn"t painful. I actually didn"t feel a thing. But I knew that I was seconds away from dying and couldn"t explain to Ryan what was happening.

I"d never been through this with regrets before. It was an awful, helpless feeling. I"d done what I had to do to save Guffy, but I should have prepared Ryan better. He shouldn't be here. He didn"t need to watch me die.

With a final flash, everything went dark.