Desire Me If You Can Novel - Chapter 13

4

An abrupt silence descended upon the fire station, now reduced to a shambles. Dane scanned his colleagues, who were scattered across the floor, groaning in pain. His sprawled-out teammates were drenched in sweat, and a few who tried to push themselves up only slumped back down.

What the hell is this mess? He couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation. It was hard to believe that his colleagues, who never lagged behind when it came to physical fitness, had been knocked out so effortlessly. Even though he had seen it with his own eyes.

Even harder to believe was the fact that this man was standing right in front of him. Dane narrowed his eyes, glaring at his opponent. It was the very same man he had encountered at the Dominant Alphas’ pheromone party a few days ago. The guy who, unbothered even amidst the flames, had spewed thick pheromones to drive two Omegas out of their minds, laughing like a lunatic.

To think that bastard was Grayson Miller.

Dane had naturally assumed he was just a passing stranger when he knocked him out lightly, never expecting to cross paths with him again.

But there was no time to think any further. The man’s violet eyes seemed to deepen in color, and immediately, he swung the Halligan bar he was holding. The heavy sound of iron slicing through the air struck Dane’s ears.

“Whoops.”

Dane ducked reflexively. Dodging it by a hair’s breadth, Dane immediately lifted the item he had prepared beside him. And then.

Whoooooosh!

“Ugh… cough!”

Compressed powder sprayed out mercilessly. The white powder, pouring out with pressure strong enough to swallow the air into a haze, rode the fierce wind and scattered in all directions. It filled the room like a thick fog, making it difficult to see even an inch ahead.

A gargling, monstrous sound erupted from Grayson’s mouth. Fine powder clung to his skin and instantly invaded his nose, mouth, and throat. However, Dane, holding the fire extinguisher with its safety pin pulled, continued to spray the powder at him relentlessly with a nonchalant expression.

Eventually, the man who had been rampaging lost his fighting spirit and began to cough violently. Only then did Dane stop spraying, but Grayson’s coughing did not stop easily. Barely able to breathe, he glared at Dane with bloodshot eyes and gritted his teeth.

“Do you have any idea what you just did?”

It was a voice suppressed to the limit as if forcibly swallowing his anger, but anyone could tell he was tremendously enraged. The men sprawling on the floor turned pale, not knowing what to do, but Dane, the one actually facing Grayson, showed no particular reaction.

“I just broke up a fight.”

At his indifferent words, Grayson’s barely contained anger exploded.

“Are you crazy? Don’t you know you’re not supposed to shoot a fire extinguisher at a person? And a firefighter, at that!”

Despite the man’s fierce demeanor, Dane looked at him unimpressed.

“You’re an Alpha. Things like chemicals don’t work on you, do they?”

“Damn it, this isn’t a chemical! Do you call that an excuse? You bastard, you did this on purpose, didn’t you? Huh?”

Grayson continued to shout. The man who had been consistently relaxed was now running wild as if truly insane. His reaction was threatening enough to suggest he might strangle Dane right then and there, but Dane spoke with the same indifferent attitude.

“Did I? Then I guess so.”

At that moment, the string of reason Grayson had barely been holding onto snapped completely.

“You damn son of a bitch! I’m going to kill you!”

With a rough roar, Grayson lunged at Dane. He looked ready to snap Dane’s neck, but Dane still looked at him as if he were dying of annoyance. Haa. Letting out a short sigh, he adjusted his grip on the fire extinguisher he was holding. Just as he was about to swing it at Grayson’s head.

“What do you think you are doing?!”

At the chief’s angry roar, the two stopped moving simultaneously. Grayson, who was about to swing the Halligan bar at Dane’s face; Dane, who was about to smash Grayson’s skull with the fire extinguisher; the wretched appearance of his subordinates; and the furniture smashed and scattered everywhere—scanning the scene once, the chief let out a dumbfounded sigh. He seemed dazed by the absurd spectacle, but soon regained his senses and glared fiercely at the culprits of this incident.

“Just what is this mess? Why are you throwing punches in here? I gave permission because you asked to work here for just one year, I didn’t give permission for you to cause a riot like this!”

What the chief said was perfectly natural. When hiring was permitted exceptionally, various conditions were attached. This time, too, he had earnestly requested again and again that Grayson stay as quiet as possible and not inconvenience the other staff. He thought he would last at least a month, but to think this disaster happened before half a day had even passed.

It didn’t end there. This time, his reprimand was directed at Dane.

“Dane, you put that down right now, too! How can you think of hitting a person with equipment, huh? Even when you said you were at the police station, I didn’t say a word and even sent a lawyer! I understood everything, even you coming to work at this hour, but what is this sight as soon as you arrive! How can you disappoint me like this? Huh?”

At the sight of the fuming chief, the staff couldn’t say a word and averted their gazes. Dane reluctantly put down the fire extinguisher, and Grayson threw down the Halligan bar as well. In a situation where everyone was just gauging the chief’s mood, he fell into deep contemplation.

Should I just screw the donation and everything else?

Looking at the miserable state of his subordinates, he wondered what use changing equipment or getting new trucks was. He didn’t even need to ask who started this situation; it was obvious. The possibility of Grayson Miller, who came here borrowing his father’s power, causing such a major accident on his first day was significantly low. That meant his precious subordinates had caused this trouble, but he hadn’t known the backlash would be this severe.

Even though I specifically asked them.

But it was impossible to hold Grayson Miller responsible and kick him out now. Above all, the opponent was Ashley Miller. If his child, whom he had gone to the trouble of hiring through expedient means, was fired unfairly, there was no telling what he might do. He might demand astronomical damages. Aside from that, there would likely be thousands of unimaginably creative ways to torment them. Furthermore, if he found out his son had ended up in such a wretched state…

He might put me in the electric chair.

“Ugh.”

At the terrible imagination, a groan bubbled up from deep inside the chief. Closing his eyes and shaking his head, he soon scanned the foolish men with a grim face.

“I asked you to just quietly endure for exactly one year, and you can’t even do that? Where on earth did you all leave your brains! If you have brains, you should use them to think!”

He wanted to thrash these big, hulking idiots to his heart’s content, but now was not the time. Sorting out this situation came first. Right, starting with that Grayson Miller.

“…Are you alright? Look, you aren’t hurt anywhere, are you…?”

The fact that he had to be so servilely cautious made his heart sink once again, but it was too late. The future had been decided from the moment he accepted Ashley Miller’s proposal. Situations like this would likely repeat endlessly for the next year.

He swallowed sigh after sigh as he examined Grayson, but felt only gloom. Ugh. Making a groaning sound again, the chief finally hardened his resolve and looked around at the grown men.

“Everyone disperse! You, wash up in the shower room over there; you guys, go inside and treat your wounds! Dane, clean this up! Let’s all see each other at the welcome party later this evening. Got it? We’re pretending this never happened and starting from there, huh? Stop this childish behavior and act like adults!”

Pointing in various directions to separate the troublemakers, the chief only let out a sigh of relief—phew—after confirming that the disgruntled men were grumbling as they scattered.

As expected, my prediction was right.

Subsequently, he recalled with a pale face. He had known that his peaceful fire station would become a mess because of that Grayson Miller. I knew it!

Clutching his thinning hair in agony, images of state-of-the-art fire trucks and new turnout gear shimmered before his eyes. He had planned to replace the old axes with new ones, bring in about five new fire extinguishers, and buy additional oxygen masks. He had even intended to give extra bonuses to the guys who were short on money, but…