Billionaire on Fire Volume 2
Chapter Eleven
Cam
"Engine One, Truck One, Ambulance Fifty-Five, apartment fire on Jackson and Halsted. Residents trapped on the upper floors."
"Let's go, guys!" Mike yelled as he raced to the truck and swung himself up in the driver's seat. Danny and I were in next as the guys raced for the truck knowing we'd need the ladder. We hit the street, and Mike cranked up the siren as we sped toward our next call.
I was quiet on the ride as I thought about what Victor had said up in the bunkroom and wondered if he really did have something connecting me to CSC. I tried to come up with an explanation for it in case he did, but all of my ideas fell flat. There was no way to explain to the guys I worked with that I had more money than all of them combined, and it would be even harder to explain why I'd hidden it from them for so long. The best option would be to keep the business undercover and not have me connected to it in any way. I needed to talk to Leo as soon as possible.
We arrived at the call and found the entire building engulfed in flames as residents screamed from the upper floors that they had no way out.
"Raise the ladder!" Chief Riley yelled at the guys from the truck. "Newsome, Connor, get the hose ready to go in. Kelly, you're lead!"
"Gotcha, Chief," Mike said as he prepped his gear and got ready to take the door while Danny and I hooked up the hose.
The heat of the fire had blown out the lower windows and the flames were climbing the building. I knew that the inside was getting hotter by the second, and that if we didn't get those people out, it was highly likely that the floors would collapse and send them tumbling down to their deaths.
"You ready, Kelly?" I hollered from behind my oxygen mask and got a nod as Mike raised his axe and busted in the front door. He leapt backwards as the flames shot out, and I hit them with a blast of the hose.
Above us, the guys from the truck were climbing the ladder as they waited for it to reach the edge of the building. As soon as it did, they began transferring people from the open window in a bucket brigade fashion that soon had the stranded residents down on the ground. The children stood huddled against their parents' legs as their tears left tracks in the soot on their cheeks.
Mike led us into the building and pointed toward the inferno raging in the corner.
"Hit it, guys!" he yelled as he began to vent the lower rooms calling out in case anyone had been left inside. It didn't take long for Danny and I to bring the flames under control on the ground floor, and the guys on the ladder worked it from above.
The problem came when Mike climbed up to the second floor yelling, "Fire department! Call out!" It was there, in a small studio apartment in the back corner, that he found what looked like the body of a young woman badly burned but still alive.
"MEDIC!" Mike screamed over and over until the paramedic climbed the stairs to check out what he'd found. They quickly assessed her injuries and loaded her up on a backboard carrying her down to the ambulance and whisking her off to the hospital. After canvassing the rest of the second floor, Mike came back down and helped us break up the walls.
"Hey, man," he said as he looked at me.
"Don't say a word," I said as I swung my axe. "Not a fucking word."
He nodded and we worked with only the sound of the water flowing from the hose outside and our axes hitting the walls as we tore the building apart.
#
Nobody said anything to me once we got back to the station when I took Tesla out to the yard to play ball. I stood there throwing the damn tennis ball thinking about what had happened and how close to home the situation had been. My eyes were dry, but my chest was tight, and I felt the weight of the world bearing down on my shoulders.
More than anything, I wanted to talk to Alex. I wanted to feel Alex's body pressed against mine and her lips moving under my own. I wanted Alex. I pulled out my phone and stared at the screen for a long time before I scrolled through and found her number. I debated whether I should call or not and then hit the dial button and waited.
"Hey, Cam, what's up?" she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.
"Nothing much, just bored out of my skull," I said, smiling back.
"Oh, so I'm your fallback for mind-numbing boredom? Good to know." She laughed. I could hear noise in the background.
"You sure you're not busy?" I asked.
"No, I'm just helping Liz with a project she started but couldn't finish on her own." She laughed again as I heard running water in the background.
"Uh, okay?" I said as I picked up the ball that Tesla dropped at my feet and chucked it halfway across the yard. I watched as she tore off to find the ball in the dark yard and smiled when she did.
"Liz started dying her hair and got stuck because she couldn't reach the back strands," Alex explained. "So, now I'm here playing stylist as we try to even out the peacock blue highlights she attempted to put in. It's a mess!"
"You girls are nuts." I laughed as I imagined Alex trying to apply highlights to her friend's head.
"Indeed we are." She laughed with me. "Look, can I call you back? We're at a crucial point and -- Liz, sit down and wait! God, she's my best friend, but she's a major pain in the ass!"
"No problem, call me back if you have time," I said as Tesla wandered around holding the ball in her mouth, a sign that she'd had enough catch for one night. "And be careful!"
"I'm trying! Talk to you later!" Alex laughed before the line went dead.
I put the phone back in my pocket and wished I could be there to witness the chaos. I just wanted to be near Alex again. I shook my head and looked down at Tesla.
"I'm nuts, girl." I sighed. "Just flat out nuts. And I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that, so if you've got any ideas, throw them my way, would you?"
Tesla dropped the ball and barked once as she headed for the station door. I sighed as I picked up the ball and tossed it in the toy basket before heading inside.
"You okay?" Newsome asked quietly.
"Yeah, fine." I nodded as I grabbed a soda and sat down to watch television with the guys. My mind was a million miles away as I stared at the screen and thought about the past, present, and future.
#
The next morning, after I got off shift, I drove home and dropped Tesla off before I headed to the CSC offices to find Leo. The remainder of the night had been uneventful at the station, which had left my mind to wander. I wanted to know what information Victor could possibly have and then I wanted to find a way to shut it down.
"Morning, Becky," I said as I entered the office. "Leo in yet?"
"He is, indeed," she said. "Not a good morning, though."
"Why? What's up?" I asked, stopping at the desk.
"It seems Mr. Marini got some bad news this morning and he had a bit of a meltdown." She sighed. "I hate mornings like this."
"I'll see if I can't go turn it around," I said. "Keep your chin up, Becky. It's bound to get better."
"One can only hope, sir." She sighed again as she turned back to the ringing phone.
I walked down the hall to Leo's office and noticed that several of the pictures that had been hanging on the walls were now on the floor. One frame's glass was cracked, and I frowned when I saw it was the shot of the state capitol.
"Leo, what the hell is going on here?" I said as I walked into his office and found him leaning against the floor to ceiling window with both palms pressed to the glass as if he were single-handedly holding up the wall.
"Don't start with me, Cam," he said in a voice that sounded more weary than angry.
"I'm not going to, I just want to know what's going on," I said calmly. "C'mon, tell me what happened and why you're so damn angry."
"The son of a bitch..." he began as he dropped his hands and turned around to look at me. His mouth twisted into an ugly grin.
"Leo, just tell me what's going on and we'll work it out," I said.
"Richard Metzler wants to sign a contract with us for security coverage during the election campaign," Leo said.
"Okay, so what?" I replied as I watched him start to pace in front of the window.
"He's demanding that we limit our work to his campaign alone," Leo said, running his hand through his already messy hair.
"I still don't get what the problem is," I said. "So, we only work for one candidate. What's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that Metzler isn't really giving us an option, Cam," Leo said. "He's gotten a hold of our financials and he knows all about you."
"How the hell did he get that information, Leo?" I asked as I felt the anger rising. "This was the one reason why I didn’t want to move forward with this idea, and now you're telling me that it's turned out exactly the way I'd feared it would?"
"I don't know how he got it, Cam," Leo said as he moved away from the window and walked to his desk. "I had the lawyers bury it so deep that it would have taken dynamite to uncover it."
"Obviously, Metzler has the necessary explosives," I said bitterly. "Dammit, Leo. I never wanted to go down this road!"
"I know, I know," he said as he dug through a stack of papers and pulled out one sheet. He handed it to me saying, "Look, we can make this work. We can just choose to work with Metzler. The contract is unbelievably generous, and it'll get our name out there for future business."
"What if I don't want to do this, Leo?" I asked. "What happens if I say no?"
"Metzler releases the financials and exposes us in the media," Leo said quietly. "I'm sorry, Cam."
"This is fucked up, and you know it," I said, looking down at the sheet detailing the proposed contract with Metzler's campaign. The amount of money they were willing to pay us for security services bordered on obscene. I looked at Leo. "What in the hell? This figure is more than we would have made from all four campaigns."
"I know." He nodded. "Can't we just take it and run with it, Cam?"
"What? And then be another one of the companies that Richard Metzler bought off on his way up the political ladder?" I asked. "Hell no!"
"Cam, we don't have a choice," Leo pleaded. "We have to take the offer or we'll be exposed."
"No, you've got it all wrong, my friend," I said, shaking my head. "We won't be exposed, I will. And that makes all the difference in the world."
"Cam, I didn't do this on purpose!" Leo yelled. "I really did think that making the move into campaign security was a profitable decision!"
"But you didn't think it all the way through and anticipate every possible outcome!" I shouted. "You didn't think about my life at all!"
"No, I didn't!" Leo yelled, then backing down a bit, he collapsed into his chair and rubbed his eyes before looking up. When he did, I could see the anguish. "I didn't think of you this time, Cam. That's true. But it's because for the past decade I've thought of nothing but you. All day, every day. I think about how every decision will affect you. How every deal will affect you. What about me? When is it my turn to think about me, Cam?"
"Leo, you knew the deal when you took the job," I protested.
"I did, indeed." He nodded. "But it's been ten years, Cam. At what point are you going to let go of the memory and start living? Because until you start living in the world again, I can't."
"Leo..." I said, not knowing how to respond to his raw honesty. He was right on some level. I had been living a life closed off from the rest of the world as I tried to absorb the enormous loss, but now I wondered if it wasn't time to open up a bit and pull down some of the protective walls I'd built. I sank down into one of the soft chairs that faced his desk and dropped my face into my hands.
"Cam, look, I've done everything you've ever asked me to," Leo said quietly. "And I've never complained, but now..."
Leo got up out of his chair, walked around the desk, and perched on the edge of it. He leaned forward and rested his hand on my shoulder.
"But now it's time to come out of the shell and start living again, my friend," he said. There was sadness in his voice, but it was mixed with a bit of hope around the edges. It was as if he thought that he could shock me out of my years of sadness, and maybe he could.
"How am I going to handle this?" I asked as I shrugged off his hand and rubbed my head until my hair was a tangled mess. "We need a plan, Leo. Victor Vangel is going to try to ruin me just out of spite if we don't have a plan."
"Then let's sit down and draw one up and release the information," he said with a hopeful smile. "On our terms, in our own way."
"This is gonna suck, Leo," I said as I sat up and looked at him shaking my head as I played out the scenario. "The guys at the station are gonna be pissed that I kept this a secret, and the news media is going to turn it into a circus. I can't do this."
"You can do it, Cam," Leo said. "You can and you will. And once you do it, you'll be free from it all for good."
"Maybe that's what I'm afraid of," I muttered as I watched Leo grab a notepad and some pens and move over to the conference table in the corner of the room.
"Maybe it is, but if Vangel or Metzler is going to release the information, you've really got nothing to lose at this point, do you?" he said as he began sketching out a diagram for how we could break the news and maintain control of the flow of information.
Two hours later, I looked up from the rough draft of the report we'd created and, for the first time in a very long time, I smiled at the prospect of telling people what was going on in my life. I’d told Leo a million times that we should hire a PR person to do this work, but he insisted that we were better able to handle our own PR and, besides, he didn’t trust anyone who was able to spin the story better than he was able to.