Page 1 of Firefighter Billionaire
1
Kaiden
I feellike I’m boiling alive. Sweat runs down my face and into my eyes. I can’t wipe it off. I’m wearing big, thick gloves. A helmet. My breathing is shallow and fast. My heart thunders in my chest so hard it feels like it’s trying to break out of my rib cage.
“Get back!” Riley, my boss, puts his arm out in front of me and stops me from getting any closer. “It’s too big. There’s too much wind.”
This fire season is a real killer.
Animals skitter past us. Some of them are still half aflame. Their scorched fur sends stinking fumes into the air and burns my nostrils. The sound of them screaming is almost too much to bear.
“Boss,” I say, “I hear something.”
We stop for a second. Smoke rises up from the grass around our feet. For a moment, I think I must have been imagining things. But then I hear it again.
I can tell from Riley’s face that he’s heard it, too.
“Don’t you even think about it, Kaiden,” he says.
“Sounds like a woman, sir,” I say. “She sounds like she’s in real trouble. Could have children with her.”
“God damn, Kaiden.” He pulls me by the shoulder, but I resist. “It’s too risky! It's suicide!”
Riley’s a good man. He’s a good boss. He’s one heck of a firefighter, too. But I can’t stand by while a woman burns to death.
“No can do, boss,” I pull free and start running toward the flames. If he wants to stop me, he’s going to have to tackle me and pin me to the ground.
“No!”
I hear Riley’s shout over my shoulder as I burst through the first wall of fire. The heat is extreme. It’s like walking into an oven.
Smoke fills my lungs and I instantly start to cough. My eyes dry up. Like two plastic ping-pong balls under a lighter.
“Help!” The voice sounds from my left. “Please, someone! Help me!”
A flaming branch crashes down in front of me. It nearly kills me.
I shake my head. Riley was right. This is crazy. I'll be lucky to get out alive, let alone save someone.
But, what the heck do I care? It’s not like I have anything worth living for.
“Keep shouting!” I call back through the pain. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves. The quicker I get out of here, the better the chance I have of surviving. “Where are you?”
“Here!” Again she calls back to me. “I’m over here!”
I follow her voice until I reach a small clearing. The smoldering remains of a cabin lay in the middle of an open field. The grass has already burned away. I’m able to walk to the cabin with relative ease.
It feels good to be out of the flames.
“Oh, God! You came!” There’s tears in her voice. "You actually came!"
I run the last few hards. My legs feel like lead weights, dragging me down. My whole body aches. A headache throbs deep inside my brain.
“Yeah, I’m here now,” I cough. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”
A hand appears from the rubble. Like a corpse rising from the dead. I carefully climb over the wood until I’m looking down at her.
For a moment, I freeze. The fire around me disappears. All I can do is focus on the beautiful woman lying trapped beneath the collapsed ruins of a porch.
