Desire Me If You Can Chapter 13

An unexpected silence descended upon the messy fire station. Dane glanced around at his colleagues, who were sprawled across the floor, moaning in pain. They were drenched in sweat, and a few who tried to drag themselves up only to collapse again.

What on earth is this mess? He couldn’t grasp the situation at all. It was hard to believe that his colleagues, who were second to none when it came to physical strength, had been taken down so helplessly. Even though he had seen it with his own eyes.

What was even harder to believe was that this man was standing right before him. Dane narrowed his eyes and glared at his opponent. It was the very same person he had encountered a few days ago at the Extreme Alpha pheromone party. The guy who, undeterred by the flames, had sprayed such dense pheromones that two Omegas had lost their minds, laughing like a madman.

To think this guy was Grayson Miller.

Naturally, he had thought of it as a fleeting encounter and had knocked him out lightly, but he hadn’t expected to run into him again.

However, there was no time for further thought. Just as the man’s purple eyes seemed to darken, he swung the crowbar he was holding. The heavy sound of steel slicing through the air struck Dane’s ears.

“Whoa.”

Dane reflexively ducked. Having barely dodged it, Dane immediately lifted the object he had prepared nearby. And then—

SSSHHHHHHHHHHHH!

“Ugh, gack!”

Compressed powder sprayed out mercilessly. The white dust, poured out with enough force to swallow the very air, scattered in all directions on a powerful current of wind. It filled the room like a thick fog, making it difficult to see even an inch ahead.

A gurgling, beastly groan erupted from Grayson’s mouth. Fine powder clung to his skin, instantly burrowing into his nose, mouth, and down his throat. But Dane, with a bored expression, continued to spray the powder at him relentlessly, holding the fire extinguisher with its safety pin pulled.

In the end, the man who had been running amok lost his fighting spirit and began to cough repeatedly. Dane only then stopped spraying, but Grayson’s coughing did not cease easily. Having barely managed to breathe, he glared at Dane with bloodshot eyes, gritting his teeth.

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

His voice was tightly suppressed, as if he were forcing himself to quell his temper, but it was obvious to anyone how immensely furious he was. The men who had been sprawled on the floor turned pale and didn’t know what to do, but despite facing such a Grayson, Dane, the person directly involved, showed no particular reaction.

“I just broke up a fight.”

At the indifferent remark, Grayson’s barely contained anger exploded.

“Are you crazy? Don’t you know you shouldn’t spray a fire extinguisher at a person? Especially a firefighter!”

Ignoring the man’s menacing aura, Dane looked at him listlessly.

“You’re an Extreme Alpha, aren’t you? Drugs or things like that don’t affect you, do they?”

“Damn it, this isn’t a drug! Are you actually saying that with a straight face? You bastard, you did this on purpose, didn’t you? Huh?”

Grayson continued to shout. He, who had been relaxed from start to finish, was acting like a total lunatic. His reaction was threatening, as if he might choke someone right then and there, but Dane remained dismissive.

“Was I? Well, I suppose so.”

At that moment, the thin thread of reason Grayson had been clutching onto snapped completely.

“You damn son of a bitch! I’ll kill you!”

With a rough shout, Grayson lunged at Dane. He looked ready to snap Dane’s neck, but Dane was still looking at him with an expression that said he was bored to death. Haa, letting out a short sigh, he tightened his grip on the fire extinguisher. Just as he was about to swing it toward Grayson’s head—

“What the hell are you all doing!”

At the chief’s roaring voice, both men froze. The chief looked over the scene: Grayson, who had just been about to swing the crowbar at Dane’s face; Dane, who had been about to smash Grayson’s skull with the fire extinguisher; the disheveled, miserable state of his subordinates; and the broken, chaotic furniture. He let out a breathless sigh. He looked stunned by the absurd sight, but he soon regained his composure and glared fiercely at the instigators of this incident.

“What on earth is this mess? Why are you throwing punches here? You asked to work here for just one year and I allowed it, but I didn’t give you permission to run riot like this!”

What the chief said was entirely reasonable. When he had exceptionally granted the hiring, several conditions were attached. Once again, he had begged and begged for them to be as quiet as possible and not to inconvenience the other staff. He thought they would at least endure it for a month, but to his surprise, this disaster had happened in less than half a day.

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

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

Facing the chief’s huffing, the staff avoided his gaze, unable to say a word. Dane reluctantly put down the fire extinguisher, and Grayson threw down the crowbar. While everyone was treading on eggshells around the chief, he fell into deep contemplation.

Should I just scrap the donation and everything else?

Looking at the miserable state of his subordinates, he wondered what the point was of changing equipment or cars. He didn’t need to ask to know who had started this situation. It was highly unlikely that Grayson Miller, who had come here even by leveraging his father’s power, would cause such a massive accident on his first day. That meant his precious subordinates had caused this disaster, and he hadn’t realized the backlash would be this severe.

And I even specifically asked them to be careful.

But it was impossible to hold Grayson Miller responsible and fire him now. Above all, the opponent was Ashley Miller. He had used underhanded methods to hire his child; if he were unfairly dismissed, there was no telling what he might do. He might demand astronomical damages. Besides that, there were thousands of unimaginable, ingenious ways he could make their lives miserable. Furthermore, if he found out his son had ended up in such a wretched state—

He might even put me in the electric chair.

“Ugh.”

At the horrific imagination, the chief let out an audible groan. Closing his eyes and shaking his head, he soon glared at the dim-witted men with a fierce face.

“I told you all to just quietly endure it for a year, can’t you 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 beat these overgrown idiots to a pulp, but this wasn’t the time for that. First, he needed to resolve the situation. Right, starting with that Grayson Miller.

“…Are you alright? Is there… are there any injuries…?”

The fact that he had to be so servile made his heart sink again, but it was already too late. Ever since he accepted Ashley Miller’s offer, his future had been sealed. For the next year, this situation would repeat endlessly.

He sighed repeatedly as he checked on Grayson, but he felt only despair. Ugh, letting out another pained groan, the chief finally steeled himself and looked around at the grown men.

“Everyone disperse! You, go wash up in that shower room over there! And the rest of you, go inside and treat your wounds! Dane, clean this place up! I’ll see you all at the welcome party tonight. Got it? We’re going to treat this as if it never happened and start from there, okay? Stop this childish behavior and act like adults!”

After pointing here and there to separate the troublemakers, the chief finally let out a sigh of relief only after confirming that the disgruntled men were grumbling as they scattered.

My prediction was right, as expected.

He then recalled with a pale face. He had known that because of that Grayson Miller, his peaceful fire station would be turned into a total wreck. He had known!

In front of his eyes, as he clutched his few remaining strands of hair in agony, he saw the latest model fire truck and new turnout gear hovering in his mind. He had planned to replace the old axes, buy five new fire extinguishers, and even purchase additional oxygen tanks….