The station was abuzz with chatter in the wake of the fire. Everyone had their theories and suspicions about just what or who was behind the fires.

“I bet it’s some gangbanger shit,” said Mike as he sat back at one of the tables in the cafeteria. “Bet our little neighborhood has a bunch of assholes fighting over turf or something.”

“Nah,” said Stone as he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed and a mug of coffee dangling from one of his fingers. “I bet it’s just some kind of coincidence. Bunch of these old buildings going up at the same time. I bet if you looked into the wiring or something, you’d find out they were all installed by the same business fifty years ago.”

“You want to know what I think it is?” asked Rick, a conspiratorial grin on his face, as though he was about to let us in on some seriously top-secret shit.

“No, no,” said Stone, waving his hands and nearly sloshing coffee out of his mug and onto the ground. “I swear, if you start with some supernatural shit I’m gonna lose my mind.”

“What?” asked Rick. “Is it that crazy? This is New York freaking City! It’s ground zero for ghosts and demons and restless spirits and all that crap.”

“Yeah, Rick,” said Mike. “Restless spirits are really interested in torching delis and mom-and-pop shoe stores.”

I wanted to say something about the three men in black, but I knew that going off about that now would just make things crazier. The last thing I needed to be responsible for was half the team forming a search party for the scarred man and his two goons.

“All right, enough of this BS,” said Chief Swift as he strode into the center of the room like a general about to address his troops. “Let’s keep the idle speculation to a minimum.”

“But Chief,” said Mike, “if we can get to the bottom of these fires we might be able to stop the next one before it happens!”

“That’d be nice, but we’re not trained for that. We put out fires, we save lives, and that’s it. We’re not fire investigators, and trying to sniff out who’s behind these fires just isn’t in our pay grade.”

Some of the men let out disappointed groans, but they got it. The chief was right—wading into the middle of this situation without any knowledge or training on how to track down arsonists would likely result in just getting in the way.

At least, that’s what I tried to tell myself. Really, I wanted to rip this city apart trying to find the men who nearly killed Chloe, to let them know what happens when someone messes with a girl I…what, exactly? Hell, I didn’t even know. I cared about her. That was for damn sure. But things had heated up so soon between the two of us that I’d hardly had time to catch my breath and figure out just what was going on.

The situation with the fires sure didn’t make things any easier. I felt like I was being pulled in two directions at once, between my duties and this affair that was occupying more and more space in my mind and heart with each passing day.

“Ethan!” shouted Stone, snapping me out of my little daydream.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“You gotta have an opinion on this,” said Mike. “What do you think’s going down with these fires?”

I carefully considered the question. Should I fess up about what I’d seen?

“I’m with Chief,” I said.

Groans sounded out from among the men. Mike wadded up a nearby wrapper and tossed it at my chest. It bounced off and landed on the floor in front of me.

“I’m serious,” I said. “We just put out the fires. Think about it like this—You want the NYPD coming in here and telling us how to do our jobs?”

A few more murmurs popped up here and there. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Chief give me a nod of approval. He didn’t know the whole story, but I did lean toward agreeing with him anyway.

“Ethan’s a little busy these days,” said Rick. “Heroic deeds have a way of taking it out of a man, you know?”

He flashed me a smile, letting me know it was all in good fun.

“Oh yeah,” said Stone. “He’s got his social media career to worry about. Next thing you know he’s gonna have his own reaction video channel or some shit.”

Laughs broke out among the men, and I gave Stone a friendly slap on the shoulder as I plopped down in the chair next to him.

Chief Swift, still standing at the front of the room, opened his mouth to speak. But before he could get a word out, the alarm blared through the station.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Stone, shooting up out of his seat. “We got another one?”

“We got another one!” Chief called out, sweeping his hand toward the barracks.

The men didn’t need another word of encouragement. I was the second one out of the room, and the rest of the crew followed close behind me. Within minutes the boys and I were geared up and ready to go. We slid down the pole one by one and climbed aboard the trucks. Soon, we were out on the evening streets of Brooklyn, tearing toward our destination, whatever it was.

“Where we going?” I asked Stone, who was seated next to be behind the steering wheel.

“Eighth and Driggs,” he said.

“Let me guess,” I said, my eyes fixed forward on the illuminated blur of the city. “It’s a local business below some apartments.”

“That’s what the radio says,” said Stone.

“This is fucking insane,” I said. “We going to get one of these every night?”

“I’m telling you,” said Stone. “We gotta do something. I know the chief’s right, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna sit idly by while Williamsburg burns down around me.”

I said nothing, but I was beginning to agree. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, picturing Chloe in her apartment last night, her unconscious body sprawled out on her apartment floor. I remembered just how I felt with her lying there in front of me, me not knowing if she was alive or dead. It was an overwhelming feeling of rage and sadness, like nothing else I’d ever felt before.

Those men were behind the flames—there was no doubt about that. And if the cops weren’t going to track them down and do what needed to be done, I would.

We pulled up to the fire a few moments later, the blaze raging through the three-story brownstone. Sure enough, the inferno was at its most intense on the first floor, which appeared to be a small tailoring shop. As we pulled up, I spotted seven or so people gathered on the fire escape. But they weren’t making any attempt to come down.

“Shit,” said Stone as he pulled the fire truck up to the curb, the siren blaring and the red and white lights casting the surrounding buildings in an odd, flashing glow. “You see that? The fire’s going strong just under where those people need to jump.”

“That means we’re gonna have to help them down,” I said, throwing open the door and leaping out onto the street.

“Stokes!” shouted Chief Swift as he climbed down out of the other truck and strode toward me. “You see that?”

He pointed toward the huddled mass of civilians on the fire escape. Now that I was closer I could make out the terrible fear on their faces.

“Sure as hell do, Chief!”

“Your ladder gets them, mine gets the fire,” he shouted. “Got it?”

“Got it!”

He nodded, and we went to work.

I quickly appraised the situation. Just as I’d thought, there was no way that these civvies would make the jump down the front of the building—they’d land right in the large, licking flames of the fire shooting out of the front windows. Their only chance was to leap down from the roof onto the air cushion we had for occasions just like this.

“Stone!” I called out. “Get the mattress and meet me in the alley behind the building!”

He gave me a thumbs-up and went to work. He, Mike, and a pair of other crewmen opened up the back of the truck and pulled out the black and yellow square form of the air cushion and heaved it onto the ground. Even uninflated the thing was heavy as hell—the four men carrying it would have a hell of a time toting it around to the back of the building.

I opened up one of the other cargo compartments and pulled out a megaphone. With a flick of the power button, the device screeched to life.

“We can’t get you down from this side!” I called out. “Move to the back of the building—my men will meet you there!”

A few of the civvies nodded, letting me know they’d gotten the message.

This had the potential to be a huge goddamn mess, and as I hoofed it around the building and toward the other side I couldn’t help but wonder if between the last rescue and the kid at the station my luck had run out, that the third time was going to be a hell of a charm.

I glanced back over my shoulder as I turned the corner, catching the briefest glimpse of Chief and the rest of the other crew just beginning to take aim at the fire, a massive jet of water spraying out of the hose. The men were all over it, but I knew that the odds were slim that they’d get the fire under control before the smoke had a chance to do some major damage to the civvies.

The rest of my men awaited me on the other side, the massive jump mattress already about halfway full.

“What we got?” I asked, looking up at the civvies making their way to the top of the roof on this side.

There wasn’t a fire escape on this side, so the jump down was going to be rough. We had to get the mattress blown up all the way or we’d risk some serious injuries.

“We’re about there!” shouted Stone. “About two more minutes and this thing’ll be ready for jumpers!”

“Shit,” I hissed under my breath, wondering if we’d be able to get these people down in time.

Worried expressions painted their faces. A bead of sweat ran down my face, and I knew it wasn’t from the fire.

“Almost!” shouted Stone.

The fire reached the second floor, the windows shattering from the heat of the flames. I clenched my hands as we all waited for the mattress to fill, slowly but surely, and taking a solid, rectangular shape.

It was the worst damn feeling—there was nothing to do but wait and hope.

“Got it!” shouted Stone. “Good to go!”

I gave the thumbs-up and the rest of the men formed around the mattress, taking position to catch the jumpers if they happened to bounce and veer off.

“Come on!” I shouted. “Jump! We got you!”

The first jumper took the plunge, landing on the mattress harmlessly. The next was moments later, then the next, and the next. Soon, every one of the civvies was down safe on the ground. We’d gotten them all.

“Stone! Get them around to the trucks until the ambulances can check them out!”

He nodded and started leading them back around the way we’d come.

I leaned against the mattress, giving myself a moment to catch my breath. Through the broken windows, I watched as the fire diminished, the men on the other side having done their job. One more fire up, one more fire down.

Once I’d collected myself, I shoved off the mattress and signaled for my men to follow me back around the building. I was ready as hell to give the scene one more look-over before getting back to the station and getting out of my gear. I hated to admit it, but these fires were starting to wear me down.

But when I turned the corner back to the trucks, my jaw nearly hit the damn ground at what I saw.

It was Chloe. She was standing with the just-rescued survivors, bringing them water, blankets, ice—whatever they needed.

“Hey!” I shouted to her, my booming voice getting the attention of just about everyone there. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Good to see you, too,” she said, turning her attention away from the small child she was currently tending to.

A small smile was on her face, but this was no lighthearted matter.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I said, cutting the distance between us, coming to a stop only a few feet from her. “Who let you in here?”

“One of the firemen,” she said. “I told them it was OK with you.”

“You what?”

“It is, right?”

“Now why the hell would you assume something like that?”

“Because I’m here to help. Can’t you use all the hands you can get for stuff like this?”

“No,” I said. “Civilian volunteers are only going to get in the way at a scene like this. And the fact that you told my men that you had my permission to come here… That was wrong, Chloe.”

Chloe gave me a hard look as she finished up with the kid and sent him on his way.

“Listen,” she said. “After everything that happened I couldn’t just sit around while another fire broke out, especially after how close I was to losing my damn life at the last one.”

I opened my mouth to speak but stopped myself. I knew that if I didn’t take a minute I’d lose my temper in a bad way.

“How the hell did you even know about the fire?” I asked.

“The radio at your apartment. You left it on.”

I shook my head, remembering my radio connected to the bands of all the fire departments nearby.

“Listen,” I said, taking on a stern voice, “I know why you’re here, but you can’t—can’t—just show up to a fire scene like this. This was fucking stupid, Chloe.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Don’t you talk to me like I’m a child,” she said. “I get that you’re pissed I came here without asking, but that doesn’t mean you can scold me like this.”

“It absolutely does,” I said, feeling my temper slip by the moment. “You might be the boss of your little classroom, but here I’m the boss. And you need to get off the scene before I get one of these cops to escort you off. Got it?”

Chloe gave me a look that was one of surprise, anger, and shock.

“Screw you!” she shouted, stomping her foot and storming off.

I watched as she disappeared down the street and around the block. I let out a sigh, knowing I’d done the right thing.

But why did I feel like such an asshole?