Desire Me If You Can Chapter 32

“We have to give that guy a real piece of our mind this time!”

Diandre shouted.

“Yeah, let’s tie him up tight and drag him in.”

“And let’s not forget to beat him with a stick!”

“If the chief tries to stop me again, I’m going to challenge him, too!”

“I won’t hold back either!”

The guys gathered there had cranked their rage meter to the max. Dane kept his mouth shut while watching them run wild with excitement, acting as if they were going to go and drag Grayson Miller away to hang him right now. He had no intention of getting swept up in this atmosphere and causing trouble, and he knew it would just ruin his mood if he stood out for no reason only to hear people say things like, “You’re worse than Miller.” Just as he started his lat pulldown exercises again, thinking they’d stop soon enough, it happened.

—Waaaaaah!

At the sound of the blaring siren, the rowdy guys flinched in unison. The moment of hesitation didn’t even last a second. Like springs, they shot out immediately. Dane also left his equipment and ran at full speed. As they quickly donned their firefighting gear and rushed out, Wilkins opened the passenger door of the fire truck and shouted.

“Get in! Come on! Hurry, hurry up and get in!”

Wilkins urged the team members on, waving his arms wildly. Ezra, who was about to climb into the vehicle while listening to the team leader’s repeated shouting—perhaps because he was feeling anxious—hesitated. As his colleagues, who were standing by to follow him, also paused, he looked flustered and quickly shouted while looking in one direction.

“Hey, Miller! What are you doing? Why aren’t you getting in? Come here, fast!”

The other guys, who were blinking in confusion, grasped the situation a moment later and twisted their faces. Grayson, who was standing all alone leaning against the wall, also furrowed his brows as if he didn’t understand. But Ezra ignored that and continued to call his name.

“Get in, hurry! Come here, we have to go!”

“Man, have you lost your mind?”

One guy, who had finally come to his senses, urgently grabbed Ezra by the shoulder. Staring him down with a hushed voice, he pressed Ezra further.

“Why are you calling that guy? How is he any help?”

“Yeah, it’d be a miracle if he didn’t just ruin the job.”

“Just leave him be, and you get in already.”

Other guys joined in, adding their two cents. Their words seemed reasonable at a glance, but Ezra thought differently.

“Man, what are we going to do if we leave him here and he actually sets the fire station on fire? It’s not like anyone is going to be watching him.”

The nagging voices stopped all at once at those words. Ezra, having looked at their wavering eyes one by one, nodded and said, “Yeah.”

“If he’s not right in front of us, he’s going to cause trouble immediately, that guy. I’m telling you, it’s better to drag him along and let him loiter around there. Then one of us can keep an eye on him, or someone watching the fire might spot him if he pulls any nonsense.”

Ezra’s reasoning was very plausible. Considering they had been talking about him right before they were dispatched, his concern felt highly persuasive.

“That makes sense.”

Once one person agreed, the same opinion poured out in succession.

“Yeah, let’s take him with us. I’m anxious if he’s not right in front of me.”

“I mean, he wouldn’t really set a fire, but…”

“That guy is a ‘Peak Alpha,’ a psychopath. It’s obvious he’d do something massive that we haven’t even thought of without batting an eye. We at least have to stop our station from disappearing, right?”

If that was all it took, they were more than happy to do it. Thanks to this, everyone reached a consensus, and they began shouting for Grayson in unison.

“Miller, come fast! We’re finally heading out!”

“Yeah, you passed the test, so now you really have to be a firefighter!”

“Let’s go, we’ll even make space for you. Miller, I said hurry up!”

Grayson was still standing there with a sour expression at their calls. But they didn’t give up and continued to call out to him. Even though the loud siren was wailing continuously, they seemed determined not to move unless Grayson got in.

“Haa.”

In the end, Grayson let out an annoyed sigh and pulled his body away from the wall. His expression was full of boredom as he walked toward the truck, but everyone pretended not to notice and waited. And as he got within arm’s reach, Ezra and the rest of the guys grabbed Grayson’s arms and shoved him into the truck as if they had been waiting for that exact moment.

“Let’s go, hurry up! Dane, what are you doing? Get in!”

The guys who climbed in behind them called for Dane. Dane, who had been watching them with a pathetic expression until then, climbed into the fire truck last without a word. Wilkins’ shouting could be heard from behind.

“Too slow, you’re too slow! Diandre, you sit over there! Is everyone in? We’re leaving!”

As Wilkins was about to board the truck, he suddenly spotted Grayson sitting in the back seat. He flinched, suddenly remembering what the chief had said, but there was no time to waste. Forced to climb into the passenger seat, the guy in the driver’s seat immediately started the engine. And the fire truck sped onto the road, wailing with a loud siren.

The fire had broken out in a quiet residential area. The old neighborhood, which one would always see when passing by, was usually quiet and peaceful. To think there was a fire in a place where children were often seen running around and elderly people were seen gardening leisurely.

“My mother-in-law lives there, too.”

A colleague, a family man with two daughters, said with visible nervousness. Ignoring him as he urgently called home, worried about his family, another guy asked Wilkins:

“Has everyone been evacuated?”

“It’s going to be chaos right now. We have to go and confirm.”

Dane, who had been waiting for them to reach the destination with his arms folded silently, suddenly paused. Grayson, who was sitting across from him, was looking at him. When their eyes met, the sweet scent he always felt whenever he got near that guy felt even stronger. It wasn’t because of the enclosed environment of the car. It seemed Dane wasn’t the only one who felt it, as the other guys also turned their gazes toward Grayson.

Even while gathering their uncomfortable stares, Grayson himself didn’t seem to care at all. If anything, everyone flinched and fell silent at the face of Grayson Miller, who had a faint smile on his cheeks that were slightly flushed as if from excitement. Seeing his colleagues, who had been denouncing him so fiercely in the gym, now avoiding eye contact entirely, Dane thought to himself, figures.

There was no profit in going head-to-head with a crazy person. It was a principle he had kept throughout his life, yet unlike the other guys, Dane did not take his eyes off him. Instead, he narrowed his eyes with a frown, leaned back against the seat, and sat arrogantly with his legs spread wide. Grayson, sitting across from him, also stared intently at Dane with his mouth shut. For a while, the two just glared at each other like that. Nobody opened their mouth. The uncomfortable silence continued inside the fast-moving vehicle.

It was Grayson who changed his expression first. The way he tilted his lips and smirked could only be seen as mocking. Dane’s eyebrows twitched, but that was all. Watching him, Grayson remembered what someone had said.

—It also means that if you help others while doing that job, your match will appear. Regardless, the keyword is fire.