Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (15 page)

"My bad," he said
holding up his hands in a show of surrender. "I'm used to flying solo, I
screwed up. It won't happen again."

"Make sure it
doesn't," I grumbled as I took another swig.

"What's got your boxers
in a bunch tonight?" Leo asked as he signaled to the waitress for another
round.

"I just...nah, forget
it," I said waving him off. I wanted to tell Leo about what had happened
with Alex, but since I hadn't gotten an entirely positive response from her, I
didn't want to jinx it by spilling the beans prematurely. What if she decided
to walk away? I didn't want to have to deal with the pity Leo would feel.

"What's wrong,
Cam?" Leo pressed.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX

Alex

I
stayed with Liz in her room all night, and
then before the sun rose, I got up and went downstairs to see if Leslie could
find me a pair of scrubs for my shift. I was tired, but I knew that if I were
going to be able to keep things on track, I would have to adhere to my schedule
and finish my internship. The only thing that was distressing me was how I
would pay for rent and tuition if they didn't settle the cheating case soon.

I had nothing to worry about
and I knew it. I hadn't cheated, but the question was whether they would figure
that out in time to allow me to pay my tuition and keep from getting evicted
from my apartment. I was worried about Liz, too.

It was obvious that she had
some kind of serious problem that she wasn't ready to face, but there was no
way to make her own it if she wasn't ready to. I could understand why she would
have turned to drugs in the first place, but now that she'd gotten caught, I
couldn't understand why she continued to deny it.

Leslie handed me scrubs and a
pair of old tennis shoes, and I quickly changed into them and headed back to
the floor. I needed to talk to someone, but I was afraid that if I did, I'd
sink Liz's chances for reinstatement when she was released. Mrs. Rikka didn't
like her to begin with, and this absence was going to cause a bigger rift in
the already tenuous relationship.

"Ms. Pierce," Mrs.
Rikka said as she found me walking down the hallway. "What on earth is
going on with you and Ms. Baker?"

"Liz is sick, Mrs.
Rikka," I said simply as I tried to avoid having the conversation
altogether. "She should be back in a few days."

"I’m already aware of
the situation," Mrs. Rikka said looking over her glasses at me. She was a
tall, imposing woman, and I felt dwarfed by her presence. "And what, prey
tell, was she doing that made her so sick?"

"I'm sure Liz would be
happy to tell you if you talk with her," I said trying to dance around the
need to talk about Liz's problems when she wasn't here. "I need to get to
the floor."

"Mmm hmm," Mrs.
Rikka nodded as she raised and eyebrow and pivoted on her heel before walking
the opposite way down the corridor. I breathed a sigh of relief and headed back
to the safety of the ER.

Leslie asked me how Liz was
doing, and I wasn't quiet sure how to respond. I wanted to ask her what she
thought might be the problem, but I also knew that Leslie was our supervisor,
and as such was required to report any improprieties. So, I held back and let
her talk, but didn't answer many of her questions.

"Alex, if you girls are
in some kid of trouble, there are people who can help you out, you know,"
Leslie said as she looked through the stack of files that the residents had
piled next to her computer. "I can give you the number of some resources,
lawyers, recovery therapists and such."

 
"Thank you," I nodded feeling
uncomfortable talking with her about Liz's problems when Liz wasn't here to
explain herself. "We're good, but if I need anything, I'll let you
know."

"You don't have to
shoulder this alone," Leslie said as she gave me a pointed look before
returning to the files.

I wasn't sure how I was going
to handle this, but I knew Leslie was definitely wrong about her last
assertion. Liz was telling me that she wasn’t doing drugs, and I wanted to
believe her. I also knew that I was alone in this mess and I was going to do
what I had always done and handle it.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

Cam

"
Engine
One, Truck One, Ambulance
Fifty-four, warehouse fire at Jackson and Green. Be advised there are workers
trapped in the building."

"Shit, I hate warehouse
fires," Newsome said as he and I climbed up onto the engine and waited for
Mike to hop into the driver's seat. It wasn't like Mike to be lagging behind
us, but today he seemed a little slower than usual.

"You okay, Kelly?"
I hollered as he turned the key and fired up the engine.

"Yeah, fine," Mike
yelled. "Your cooking was a little off this morning, that's all!"

"My cooking is never
off, you asshole!" I yelled back with a grin. "It's your pansy ass
stomach that's incapable of making even the slightest change! From now on, I'm
gonna make you plain oatmeal with fruit."

"Aww, fuck off,
Connor," Mike grinned as he turned on the siren and pulled out of the
firehouse.

He drove like a bat out of
hell down Jackson and pulled up to the fire less than five minutes later. I
wondered what was going on, but then got busy hooking up the hose and getting
ready to go in and forgot to ask.

"Vangel, don't go in
till Chief gets here," I yelled as Victor shouldered his axe and headed
for the door taking the new probationary firefighters with him.

"Fuck you, Connor,"
he said waving me off. "I've been doing this job longer than you've been
wishing you could do it."

"It's not safe, you
dumbass," I said loud enough for him and the probationary candidates to
hear me then turned back to helping Danny get the hose ready.

The next thing I knew, Victor
was at the side door to the warehouse knocking the handle off the door with his
axe. There was a momentary silence before the familiar woosh.

"GET AWAY FROM THAT
DOOR!" I shouted as the air entered the building and fed the flames.
Suddenly there were flames shooting out of the door and windows shattered as
the intensity of the heat that had been trapped inside the warehouse struggled
to escape.

Victor jumped to the side,
but the two probies behind him didn't have the reflexes that he'd developed and
were quickly engulfed in flames.

"Hose! WATER!" I
shouted at Danny who cranked the hydrant and sent water shooting out of the
nozzle. I pointed the hose at the probies and doused them as I pushed them back
a good ten feet. Neither one was burned, or even hurt, but they were both
shaken by the close call.

"Get back to the
truck," I said motioning toward the engine. "Just sit there and wait
for Chief to tell you what to do next. You got it?"

Two heads bobbed in unison as
they moved back to the back of the engine.

"Vangel, you son of a
bitch, you almost got the probies killed!" I shouted as I pulled on my
mask and prepared to enter the building.

"They need to get some
on the job training sometime," he shouted back. "Don't be such a
pussy, Connor!"

"Asshole," I
muttered into my mask. Danny nodded at me as if to say he understood and we
headed inside. The entire building was in flames, and I could hear people
yelling in the back of the room. They'd gone into the back room to escape the
flames, but it didn't have a way out and now they were trapped. The building
was a textile mill, so there was plenty of material to be burned as the fire leapt
from bolts of cloth and machinery used to sew enormous rugs.

"There's a shit load of
flammable stuff here," I shouted at Danny as we sprayed the room, trying
to get the flames under control enough to get to the people who were trapped.
"Be careful, Newsome! Hold the hose, I'm gonna spray it all down."

Danny saluted me as held onto
the hose and helped me guide it toward the worst parts of the fire. The rest of
the guys were working their way across the floor looking for those who might
have been trapped under the tables or injured by the explosion. Mike signaled
that he'd found someone, and moments later he pulled a small girl out from
under the table. She couldn't have been more than fifteen, if that. He gave me
a "what the fuck?" look as he carried her small body out to the
waiting paramedics.

"They're in here!
They're in here!" Victor shouted as he pried open a door that had been
sealed shut by the intense heat.

"VANGEL, LOOK OUT!"
I shouted as he slammed his axe into the door handle and pried the door open.
There was a wave of air that cut across the sewing floor and then sucked the
fired back into the room before everything exploded. Machinery went flying and
I could see the flames spreading up the walls that hadn't yet been ignited.

Overhead, I heard the sound
of cracking wood and looked up to see a large portion of the roof being pulled
back by the guys from the ladder. They were venting the fire and looking for
the trapped workers, so I aimed the hose at the area where Victor had opened
the door and moved forward with Danny right behind me.

"Stay close!" I
shouted over my shoulder and felt Danny pat my shoulder to let me know he
would. The flames on the far side of the warehouse refused to die no matter how
much water we poured on them, and I knew we were running out of time.

Victor had recovered from the
blast and was now moving through the warehouse hacking wet equipment out of our
way as Danny and I did our best to quell the flames. The guys above us sliced
holes in the rest of the ceiling and vented the smoke in the hope that it would
keep the oxygen flowing to the people trapped in the back room.

It was almost an hour before
we were able to get the fire under control and access the back room. What we
found there stunned us all into silence. The workers had all crowded into the
small back room that was now filled with soot and ash. Two people were groaning
and coughing, but the rest were still, and as we felt for pulses, we came up
empty.

"Dammit!" I growled
as I walked out of the room and slammed my fist against the doorframe yelling,
"This is all your fault, Vangel! You're recklessness cost these people
their lives! You're a menace!"

"Me? It's my fault that
a bunch of illegals are dead in the back room of a sweat shop?" he
shouted. "I don't think so, Connor!"

"You slammed your axe
into that door and set off the explosion!" I yelled. "You're careless
and dangerous! You could have gotten us all killed!"

"But I didn't," he
shot back. "I vented the heat and got us closer to the back room, so I'd
be careful about how you go spinning the story, Connor."

"Oh, I'm going to tell
the truth, Vangel," I said. "Unlike you, I still value it."

"You'd better be careful
how you go about telling your truth, Connor," Victor snarled. "I've
got enough ammunition to put you six feet under in no time."

"Try it, and I'll make
sure you never work in this town again," I said in a cold voice that made
Danny do a double take. I leaned down and lifted one of the moaning workers off
the floor and headed out to the ambulance, "Now, let's get these people
out of here. MOVE!"

I was furious at myself for
losing my cool with Victor, but I was even angrier at him for costing these
people their lives. He was irresponsible and reckless and he needed to be
stopped before there were more deaths. I wasn't sure how I was going to
approach Chief with the problem, but I knew that it couldn't wait.

"Chief, when we get back
to the station, I need to talk to you," I said as I grabbed my axe and
headed back in to help the guys make sure the fire was completely out before we
rolled up the hoses and headed back to base. Chief gave me a funny look, then
nodded as he spoke to dispatch over the radio.

I was going to keep Victor
from doing any more damage, come hell or high water -- that much was absolutely
certain.

#

Back
at the station, I stepped into Chief's office
and closed the door. It wasn't going to be easy having this conversation with
him, but once it was over I wasn't going to have to worry about Victor outing
me at the station anymore.

"You wanted to talk,
Connor?" Chief Riley said as he looked over the schedules for the next
month.

"Chief, I need to tell
you something that I've been keeping to myself," I began.

"Shit, Connor, tell me
this is not drug or alcohol related," Chief said as he stood up.

"No, no, nothing like
that, sir," I said shaking my head. "It's something outside of the
department. Something I do on my own time, sir."

"Jesus, you're not
coming out, are you?" Chief asked. "'Cause if you are, we're gonna
need to bring in HR and get everyone into sensitivity training, and that's
going to take scheduling."

"Chief, it's nothing
like that," I said trying to steer the conversation back to the issue at
hand. "But a little sensitivity training never hurt anyone, you
know."

"I know, I need to get
it on the books anyway," he nodded as he bent down and made a note on his
calendar. "I just didn't know how quickly I'd have to do it."

"I see, sir," I
said as I took a deep breath and blurted it out, "I am part owner of
Chicago Security Company and we're taking on a contract to protect Richard
Metzler during his upcoming run for office."

"Okay," Chief said
as he stood looking at me with an expression that told me he wasn't
particularly shocked or bothered by my revelation. "And you're telling me
this because?"

"Because Victor Vangel
has been trying to blackmail me into supporting his bid for the Lieutenant
position in this station by threatening to tell everyone that I am part owner
of a multi-million dollar corporation," I quickly said. "I'm tired of
his threats."

"That sneaky little
bastard," Chief said as he sat down in his chair and made another note on
his calendar. "I'll take care of his sorry ass, don't you worry about
that."

"That's just it, Chief; he's
getting dangerous," I said. "Today at the fire, he didn't check the
door before he opened it. I can't say if those people were still alive when he
set off the explosion, but if they were..."

"I'll take care of it,
Connor," Chief said with a determined look. "There's no reason to go
spreading rumors or discussing this with anyone else, got it?"

"Yes, Chief," I
nodded solemnly.

"And as far as your
personal business goes, son, it's your personal business," he said bracing
himself on his desk. "If anyone has an issue with you doing something to
better your situation outside of work, then tell them to come see me and I'll
set them straight."

"Yes, sir," I
smiled as I stood up and waited for him to end the meeting.

"You are free to go,
Connor," Chief said as he began punching his keyboard.

I walked out of the office
and back to the common room where Kelly was wrestling with Tesla as he tried to
pull her stuffed elephant out of her mouth. She was wagging her tail and
growling happily as he reached out and took a hold of one end of the stuffed
animal and pulled. Tesla's only flaw was that when she got overly excited, she
would bark. She barked and Mike pulled the elephant away and held it over her
head. Tesla crouched low and then sprang up and grabbed the toy bringing it and
Mike's arm back down to tugging level.

"Don't you ever get
tired of that?" I laughed as I watched the two of them repeat the action
over and over.

"Nah, she loves
it!" Mike said as he growled back. If he'd had a tail, it would have been
wagging a mile a minute.

"Where's Vangel?" I
asked. Mike pointed out toward the bay where I could see Victor wiping down the
trucks. I walked out and looked at him for a long time before speaking,
"You can stop trying to blackmail me now."

"What the hell are you
talking about?" he said looking around nervously.

"You asshole, there's no
one around, and even if there was, it doesn't matter anymore," I said.
"Chief knows and he doesn't care."

"But the guys don't
know," Victor said in a snooty tone. "What would they think if they
knew one of their own was a multi-millionaire running a security firm on his
off days?"

"They'd probably
congratulate me and then ask for a job," I scoffed. "You're the only
one who seems to have an issue with it, Vangel. So, now's the time for you to
get over yourself."

"Does HQ know that you
sunk your insurance check into the business?" Victor asked. "And does
your little girlfriend? She's quite the hot piece of ass If she’s got a friend
 
maybe we can do a double date some time and
switch it up, eh?"

"What the fuck is wrong
with you, Vangel?" I growled as I moved closer. "You're just a
disgusting little troll who can't do anything right so you have to tear
everyone else down to make yourself feel tall? Is that it? No girl in her right
mind would ever agree to go out with a loser like you.”