Desire Me If You Can Chapter 34

“Hey, Ezra… that won’t work. Is Dian… already inside? Then…”

Wilkins, who had been calling out several names in succession, clutched his head. Man, there’s no one left!

“If there’s no one to go in with, I’ll go.”

Just as he was about to give up, a voice of salvation came from behind. Wilkins, who had turned around with a sense of relief, froze in shock. Grayson was looking at him with the same smiling face as before.

“Ah, no, that’s okay. You don’t have any experience…”

He hurriedly turned his head, but Grayson replied nonchalantly.

“I’ve received enough training, so I can do it. And isn’t this something I have to do eventually?”

It wasn’t a lie. But sending a total novice and his ace in together—he couldn’t afford to lose his ace so pointlessly.

“No, really, it’s fine. There’s no need to…”

He refused repeatedly, but he couldn’t drag it out for long. From behind the flustered Wilkins, Dane didn’t seem to care; he adjusted his mask and moved his body.

“I’m going in.”

“W-wait, wait a second!”

Wilkins called out to stop Dane, who was about to dive into the house immediately. It couldn’t be helped. Perhaps he might do surprisingly well. He just had to make sure to follow Dane’s lead.

Wilkins made up his mind and spoke to Grayson this time.

“Don’t push yourself too hard, just follow behind him. If anything happens, don’t come out alone; make sure you stick with Dane… understand?”

It was work he had to go through eventually. Of course, even if it was just for a year, they were always short on manpower. Even if it was Miller, as long as he was helpful, there was no reason to refuse, right?

To Wilkins, who kept giving repeated instructions while trying to justify his decision to himself, Grayson replied with the same constant smile.

“I understand perfectly. Then, I’ll be off…”

Wearing his mask and equipped with his gear, he jumped into the house. Dane had already entered, carrying a hose.

“Don’t act on your own! You must follow Dane’s instructions!”

Leaving Wilkins’ desperate shouts behind him, Grayson also disappeared inside.

∞ ∞ ∞

The unsettling sound of burnt furniture breaking and falling continued from all directions. Grayson silently followed behind Dane, who was advancing steadily while holding the hose and spraying water. Not even five minutes after entering, he was already regretting it.

Wasn’t this too reckless a decision just because he wanted to see the look of panic on Wilkins’ face?

It was when he was thinking this internally that one side of the ceiling caved in with a loud noise.

“Whoa!”

Surprised, Grayson let out an exclamation and instinctively stepped back. That was close. Looking at the large chunk of debris that had fallen right in front of him, he whistled shortly, smiled, and bantered.

“Man, I thought I was going to burn to death, but I almost got my head smashed in instead.”

He even let out a cheerful laugh, “Hahaha,” but Dane didn’t even look his way and just kept moving forward. Grayson stopped laughing abruptly, tilted his head, and frowned.

“No sense of humor.”

Muttering like he was talking to himself, he followed behind Dane, who had already become blurry behind the smoke, and started walking again. He was inhaling oxygen, but breathing still wasn’t easy. It was because the heat felt outside his fire suit was immense, and he was tense in the midst of life-threatening flames. It was even more so because he had to maintain his breathing in the confined space of a mask. However, Dane wasn’t stopping; he was heading deeper inside.

Is that guy not even hot?

Grayson frowned and stared at Dane’s back. Only when he felt the hose he was holding being dragged did he move his feet, having no other choice. The interior, engulfed in thick smoke, was full of bright red flames, making it difficult to maintain visibility. Yet, Dane sprayed water without hesitation, moving forward as if he had been here many times before.

“Charlie!”

For the first time since entering the house, Dane made a sound. Though it was just calling out the dog’s name. He called for the dog at the top of his lungs, but his voice was easily buried by the noise of the building being damaged here and there.

“It’s useless.”

Grayson shouted at Dane. For the first time, Dane turned back to look at him. Grayson felt a small sense of accomplishment and jeered.

“It’s already dead anyway, that’s why there’s no response.”

Dane stared at him without a word and kicked the door in front of him hard with one foot. As the door, already weakened by the fire, flew off miserably, Dane went straight into the room.

“Ha.”

Grayson let out a gasp of disbelief. That guy just ignored me, didn’t he?

A vein bulged at his temple. Grayson immediately walked quickly toward the room Dane had entered. Just as he was about to step inside, he ran into Dane, who was coming out having finished his search.

Rumble, a loud, thunder-like sound rang out. It seemed like something else had collapsed. It looked as if Dane was frowning behind his misty mask.

“What? Move.”

Without giving Grayson a chance to back away first, Dane pushed him aside as he spoke.

“Hey, watch it! Look here!”

An enraged Grayson shouted at him again, but Dane didn’t care and headed into the next room this time.

“Charlie! Charlie, where are you? Charlie!”

Grayson could only look at him with a cynical face as he yelled for the dog again. Let’s see when you give up. Watching him with a feeling bordering on spite, and seeing him repeat the same thing over and over only to come out empty-handed every time, that feeling soon withered away.

“Hey, let’s talk for a second.”

When Grayson, unable to hold back anymore, finally spoke up, Dane had just pulled out a crowbar and broken the door handle.

“What is it? Make it quick.”

Saying that as he snatched the dangling handle and threw it behind him, he reached his hand through the hole he’d made, opened the door, and went inside again. Grayson, while dumbfounded, followed him anyway and poured out the words he had been holding in.

“How long do you intend to keep doing this stupid thing? The dog is dead; there’s no way it could be alive in these flames. It would have already suffocated from the smoke before it even burned.”

It was a foolish act to come in and wander through the middle of the flames just to save it. Isn’t this enough? How much longer are you going to keep going?

As he asked, hiding a myriad of questions behind his words, Dane—who had been lifting mattresses and opening and closing closets—came back out. He gave Grayson a short glance without a word and headed to the second floor. Dane hadn’t said a single word, but it was the same as having already heard his answer.

“Wait a second, hold on! Stop!”

Grayson shouted, but Dane ignored him again and climbed the stairs quickly. Grayson bounded up the stairs as if he were flying and grabbed Dane at the landing.

“It seems like you have a penchant for repeating meaningless tasks, but I absolutely hate wasting my life on things like this. So let’s turn back here.”

To Grayson’s demand, Dane stared at him with an expressionless face. The look in his eyes, visible past the dust-covered mask, was unexpectedly bored. Letting out what sounded like a sigh, Dane opened his mouth.

“That’s not something you should be saying, considering you’re the one wasting your life hunting for a ridiculous ‘destined love’.”

“What did you say?”