Desire Me If You Can Chapter 35

Grayson looked as though he might grab Dane by the collar, but of course, it didn’t come to that. It was at that very moment that a section of the stairs collapsed with a thunderous roar. Standing precariously on the half that remained, Grayson looked down to see a yawning, pitch-black space staring back at him. Taking advantage of Grayson’s momentary hesitation, Dane sprinted down the hallway. Grayson had no choice but to spit out a short curse and chase after him once again.

By the time they had searched almost all of the second floor, a voice suddenly crackled over the radio. It was Wilkins’ voice.

Dane, Dane! Are you okay? Haven’t you found it yet?

“I’m searching. I’m on the second floor.”

Wait a second! Charlie must be in the attic!

The man’s voice suddenly cut in. Seeing Dane’s back as he stopped in his tracks, Grayson realized. He’s thinking, “Damn it, this is ruined,” right now.

Just as Grayson judged that now was the time to head back and prepared to retreat, Dane suddenly asked:

“Where is the attic?”

What is he talking about?

Grayson frowned and stared at him. He couldn’t see Dane’s expression because his back was turned, but he could certainly feel that Dane had no intention of backing down.

“Ceiling of the inner room… you just have to press the button… Did Charlie go up there often?”

Yes, yes, we trained her to go straight up there whenever things got scary. In case robbers broke in and tried to kill Charlie. And because I couldn’t afford to lose her if she got startled and ran outside…

The man asked desperately in a voice laced with sobs.

Y-you can find her, right? Charlie is still alive, isn’t she…

He kept talking, but Dane ruthlessly cut the radio transmission. It was unclear whether it was because he didn’t want to hear the whining, because he was pressed for time, or both, but his next move was certain.

I can’t let him do that.

“Hey, cut it out now…”

“Miller.”

Just as he was about to say he wouldn’t go any further, Dane suddenly called his name. For the first time, he turned to look at Grayson—having only looked straight ahead until now—and said:

“You get out. There’s no need for you to stay here. You’re just in the way.”

Naturally, that was exactly what he intended to do. Coming this far was more than enough, and Grayson had done his part. But hearing the other man say it first made Grayson feel less than pleased. Of course, that was likely due to that same unpleasant tone of his.

“What about you?”

He meant to say, Are you really going to jump into those flames to save a dog that’s surely already dead? but there was no time. Dane had vanished into the smoke in an instant, without even answering.

Left alone, Grayson blinked in bewilderment until a loud, crunching sound brought him back to his senses. Another part of the house had collapsed.

It was already impossible to chase after Dane. Of course, he had no intention of doing so anyway. Staying in such a dangerous situation was suicide. There was no way Dane didn’t know what Grayson, a mere novice, knew.

He’ll do it for a bit and then come out.

Thinking that, Grayson immediately pulled back. Humans basically have a fear of death. The same goes for the fear of pain. With flames rising from all sides, Grayson didn’t agonize over it any longer and ran toward the exit without a trace of regret.

∞ ∞ ∞

Wilkins stood in the same spot, anxiously watching the house as it roared with flames. It had been quite a while since Dane went in, and he had absolutely no idea how things were going. He had even turned off his radio—what was he thinking?

“Charlie, Charlie…”

The man kept weeping, calling out only the dog’s name. They were just as anxious on this side, but they couldn’t bring themselves to chide him. Wilkins was silently patting the man’s shoulder when, suddenly, a human silhouette flickered within the flames.

“Dane?”

As soon as Wilkins spoke his name, the man also jumped in surprise and looked in the same direction. Hoping for their respective loved ones to emerge, they waited for him to come out of the fire, but the man who stepped out and removed his mask was not the person they had expected at all.

“Miller!”

“Where’s Charlie?”

To the shouts that came almost simultaneously, Grayson took off his helmet, swept back his hair, and replied:

“That guy went back inside to find the dog.”

“What?”

Wilkins shouted in shock. The man immediately shot back, fast as a bullet:

“Then you haven’t found Charlie yet? Where did you get separated? You heard everything I said, right? I said Charlie would be hiding in the attic, but the radio cut…”

“Enough! Just be quiet for a second!”

Unable to take the man’s relentless barrage of words any longer, Wilkins bellowed. The man, who had been wailing and screaming until that moment, stopped his sobbing for a split second and widened his eyes. Leaving him be, Wilkins turned his body back toward Grayson and asked urgently:

“Dane went back inside? To find the dog?”

Following the shocked tone, Wilkins scanned Grayson from head to toe before fixing his gaze on his face.

“Then why did you come out alone? I emphasized so strongly that you two must stay together! How could you leave your partner behind and come out all by yourself? How? Could you even move your feet? Huh?”

He truly seemed unable to comprehend it. A firefighter abandoning a colleague and escaping alone in such a situation was unthinkable. To Wilkins, who was waiting for an answer, Grayson replied brightly with the exact same smile as before:

“He told me to get out because I was just in the way, so I came out. I’m just not very good at refusing other people’s requests.”

“…What?”

Wilkins’ reaction was delayed as if he were thoroughly flustered. On his face, looking up at Grayson with large, pale, wide-open eyes, were confusion, bewilderment, contempt, and all sorts of other negative emotions, all tangled together.

“What’s going on? You mean Dane is in there all alone?”

Hearing the news belatedly, Ezra shouted in horror. Support from other fire stations had arrived, and since the fire seemed mostly under control in other areas, firefighters who had a moment to spare were gathering in front of the house. Wilkins seemed to be overcome by delayed fury; he gripped both fists tightly and glared at Grayson. Only then did he scream:

“You dare say that?! Even if Dane said that, you should have stayed there! At the very least, you could have radioed us! You abandoned a colleague in those flames and came out? And you still call yourself a firefighter? Did you come here to be a firefighter, you damn bastard!”

He was shouting like a madman. It wasn’t just Wilkins. Ezra and the other colleagues were also shouting, blaming Grayson.

“You son of a bitch, you aren’t even human! Even if you aren’t a firefighter, you don’t just dump a colleague in that danger and walk away!”

“The very idea of you showing up saying you wanted to be a firefighter was ridiculous! Get out of here right now, you piece of trash!”

“I knew you were a lost cause! We never should have accepted someone like you in the first place! I was against it from the start! We all knew you wouldn’t cut it!”

Despite the flood of outcries, Grayson just kept smiling. His expression, as unchanging as a mask, even made it look as if he were sneering at them. To the firefighters whose anger only mounted at that face, Dane shrugged his shoulders and asked:

“I know you all have incredible camaraderie, but if you’re that worried, shouldn’t you stop criticizing me and have someone go in and get that guy out?”

“Even if you didn’t say that, we were going to, you asshole!”