Desire Me If You Can Novel - Chapter 116

When Dane looked back at him, his face contorted in a frown, Diandre asked with a startled expression, “What are you doing now? Making Miller work? Are you serious?”

Diandre glanced back and forth between Grayson and Dane, utterly disbelieving. To his surprise, Dane answered in his usual tone, brimming with annoyance.

“This bastard needs to do something. We can’t just let him stand around watching. I taught him how to spray the water, so he should be able to do it.”

“You… taught him? You? Taught Miller?” Diandre questioned, astonished yet again.

Dane answered without hesitation. “Yeah.”

Good grief, what is going on? The guy who always had ‘too much trouble’ on his lips actually took the time to teach Miller? Seriously?

Seeing Diandre’s wide eyes, Dane added, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world: “The job needs to finish fast so we can go rest, you idiot.”

“Ah.”

That was a plausible enough answer. This guy always looked bored to death and threw tantrums every time they had to respond to a call. Dane Stryker was, as far as he knew, the laziest man who just wanted to goof off and avoid work. In fact, he was a total deadbeat.

…But still, the fact that he went out of his way to do such a bothersome thing just to leave work early didn’t quite sit right with Diandre.

As Diandre’s demeanor softened, Dane commanded with an annoyed jerk of his chin, “You focus on your own job. Don’t loiter around and waste time.”

“…Got it.” Diandre reluctantly agreed, unable to argue further.

Tearing his eyes away from Diandre’s departing back, Dane glanced sideways at Grayson. Grayson was wearing his characteristic smile, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Dane tossed a gruff remark at him.

“How many times do I have to tell you to wipe that face off?”

This was not the time to stop and talk. The sounds of the fire burning and his colleagues shouting mixed together in a loud, chaotic din. Dane quickly told Grayson what to do, then shouldered his gear, preparing to enter the building. As instructed, Grayson picked up the hose and moved to spray water. As soon as he was in position, Dane turned the water on. A powerful stream poured down onto the flames, creating a hazy rainbow in the smoke.

“Good job. Keep it up,” Dane said, giving Grayson a light pat on the shoulder before finishing his preparations to go inside with Ezra.

“Is anyone inside?” Ezra asked.

Wilkins shook his head. “They say everyone evacuated. You two, go in first and—”

As Dane stood listening to Wilkins alongside Ezra, his gaze happened to catch sight of a man. Wilkins followed his line of sight and said, “Ah.”

“That’s the homeowner. He came back from work, saw the fire, and called it in.”

“Looks like he lives alone,” Ezra commented.

Wilkins nodded. “He’s divorced. His wife left the house.”

The man stood there listlessly, staring at his burning house. His wife had left, and now he was about to lose all his possessions; it was understandable that he’d be out of his mind. Dane even felt a degree of understanding for him, likely due to the shared sense of having lost a home to fire.

Turning back to focus on Wilkins’ instructions, Dane and Ezra stood ready. Behind them, Diandre joined the rush of busy colleagues. As soon as he arrived, one of them asked as if they’d been waiting.

“What’s the deal? What happened?” The question was about Grayson.

Diandre glanced in the direction he had come from. “I don’t know, Dane must have just taught him quickly. Maybe he thought he’d be helpful if he did something…”

“He’d be helpful, sure, but is that bastard going to do it right?” another man grumbled.

Soon, remarks poured in from all sides.

“Who trusts Miller? They trust Dane.”

“We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t cause an accident.”

“Anyway, let’s keep checking on him periodically. Even though we’re all busy.”

“Right. If anything looks off, we have to go fix it immediately.”

The firefighters high-fived one another and quickly moved to perform their assigned tasks. And then, Dane and Ezra stepped into the heart of the flames.

The interior of the house was already mostly reduced to ash. Drenched by the water pouring down on the burned structures, there was barely any space left that hadn’t collapsed. Stepping over debris, Dane surveyed the ruins, past the fallen walls and furniture, observing the inner rooms. As they had been told, there was no sign of a person. While he swung the hose of the fire extinguisher on his shoulder to put out the remaining embers, the sounds of burning and collapsing continued to roar around them.

“Looks like it’s almost done,” Ezra said, emerging from another room. “Was the report late? To be this completely scorched…”

It made sense that it was found only after the homeowner returned from work, but a question still lingered: If no one was home, how did the fire start?

“It seems the fire started here,” Ezra said, stepping into an area that was particularly blackened and charred.

It looked like a child’s playroom. Burnt dolls and a children’s bed barely retained their shape. As they continued to put out the visible flames and look around, Dane, who had turned toward the bed, suddenly paused.

Something felt wrong. Something that shouldn’t be under the bed…

“Dane?” Ezra cried out in surprise as Dane immediately bent down.

The next moment, when Ezra saw what Dane found under the bed, he went pale and gasped for breath. A lifeless child, scorched black, lay there.

Dane desperately pulled the child out and froze for a moment in shock. The remaining skin was completely covered in a tangle of bruises and bloodstains. There was no unblemished skin to be found.

“W-What is all this?” Ezra muttered in a trembling voice.

The injuries were clearly not caused by the fire. Without wasting another second, Dane frantically scooped up the child and bolted outside.

Do those bastards think I’m an idiot?

Grayson quietly suppressed the irritation that was starting to build up and focused only on spraying the water. Since he started, the other guys had been constantly glancing at him. He knew exactly what those looks meant: they were anxiously watching, worried that he might make a mistake. The fact of the matter just made Grayson feel utterly ridiculous.

I just have to spray water. What’s so hard about that?

Besides, he was quite focused right now. He wanted Dane to think he was useful when he returned. If only he’d give him a kiss, too…

Just as the corners of his mouth were lifting into a faint smile, a sudden commotion broke out. He soon found out why: Dane had rushed outside, carrying a young child in his arms.

“Oxygen! Get the oxygen!”

“Dane, over here! Lay him down here, quickly!”

“Prepare for CPR, fast—!”

The paramedics scrambled desperately, but the commotion didn’t last long. They quickly performed chest compressions and administered oxygen, but it was already too late. Everyone knew it. A heavy silence descended.

Ezra placed a hand on the shoulder of a stunned, blank-faced Dane, who was only staring. “It was already too late when we first saw him. You knew that.”

Dane stared blankly at Ezra, then turned his gaze back to the child. Shoulders slumped listlessly, he belatedly took off his helmet and covered his face with one hand. Through his fingers, the child’s face was visible, blackened in places by the fire. No vitality could be felt in the limp body. How terrified he must have been in those fierce flames. How agonizingly he must have waited for help. How… how much…

Following that thought, rage boiled up inside him. Dane immediately spun his head to face the direction where the homeowner had been standing. The man was still there. Even with all this commotion, he stood stock-still as if it were none of his business, just blinking.

“Dane? Dane?”

“Hey, where are you going?”

People cried out in surprise as he suddenly began walking, almost running. Grayson also stopped spraying water and followed Dane with his eyes. And the next moment—

With a loud, jarring sound, Dane swung his fist at the man.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

Ignoring the shocked firefighters, Dane yelled at the man sprawling on the ground.

“You killed him! You son of a bitch!”