E-Book, Englisch, Band 3, 400 Seiten
Reihe: The Sullivans
Andre Can't Help Falling In Love (The Sullivans 3)
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9837202-7-0
Verlag: Oak Press, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
E-Book, Englisch, Band 3, 400 Seiten
Reihe: The Sullivans
ISBN: 978-0-9837202-7-0
Verlag: Oak Press, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Bella Andre's New York Times and USA Today bestselling novels have been #1 bestsellers around the world and she has sold more than 8 million books so far! Known for 'sensual, empowered stories enveloped in heady romance' (Publishers Weekly), her books have been Cosmopolitan Magazine 'Red Hot Reads' twice and have been translated into ten languages. She also writes 'sweet' contemporary romances as Lucy Kevin. There are more than 50,000 5 star reviews for Bella Andre's books on Goodreads!
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
CHAPTER ONE
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. The air was cool, the sky was clear. Couples were walking hand in hand through Golden Gate Park, tourists were discovering the wonder of clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls at Fisherman’s Wharf and kite-surfers were out en masse in the bay, zigzagging around the yachts and sailboats with their bright sails.
Unfortunately, for the two dozen people who lived at 1280 Conrad Street, a fire had turned their perfect Saturday into a nightmare.
The fire trucks and firefighters arrived first, the news trucks close on their heels. To the casual observer, the fast-moving men in their turnouts who were yelling information and coordinates at one another, the radios that were turned up loud in their hands and the hoses that snaked across the road and the sidewalk looked like utter chaos. In truth, the men of Station 5 were a well-oiled machine.
Earlier that afternoon, firefighter Gabe Sullivan had been enjoying a fundraising concert his brother Marcus’s girlfriend, Nicola, had put on at the fire station. Everyone had been beside themselves with glee at the chance to pay big bucks to attend the very intimate acoustic concert with Nicola, who went by the name Nico when she performed. Her show had been amazing, as usual, and Gabe was still beyond impressed that his oldest brother had scored a woman like her. She wasn’t just beautiful and sexy, she didn’t just have amazing musical talent: She was really sweet, too.
Nicola had just come to the end of her third encore when the call had come in. Ten minutes later, the firefighters from Station 5 had arrived on scene, hooked up their hoses and began to evacuate the building and work to put out the fire.
Wearing his full turnouts, Gabe helped an elderly couple down the stairs of the old San Francisco apartment building and out onto the sidewalk. They looked to be in good health, but their nervousness about the fire was giving them trouble with the stairs. With a gentle hand on their elbows, he worked to keep their pace up so that he could get them completely out of the building and away from the fire as quickly as possible. They’d just made it to the sidewalk when the gray-haired man started coughing. Gabe steered them over to the ambulance parked a few feet behind the largest fire truck.
Gesturing for one of the paramedics to come over to them, he told the couple, “We’re going to get you checked out for smoke inhalation. If you have any questions about anything, make sure to—”
His words were cut off by an explosion of flames and smoke out a second-story window.
After ten years as a firefighter, Gabe knew no fire was ever routine. No flame ever played the same game. And sometimes the simplest call could turn into the most complicated. The most dangerous.
Over his radio Gabe could hear concern in the voice of his station captain. “Everyone out!” Todd barked to the crew. “This fire has accelerated. We’re switching to defensive operation. Repeat, evacuate the building.”
Gabe still had his hand on the elbow of the gray-haired woman, and she turned to him with a look of horror on her face.
“Megan and Summer are still inside. You have to get them out!”
He could tell from her rapid breathing and dilated eyes that the woman must be on the verge of going into shock, so he spoke to her in a clear, steady voice to make sure he got the information he needed.
“Who are Megan and Summer?”
“My neighbors, a mother and her little girl. I saw them go into their apartment a while ago.” The woman looked at the other tenants who were gathered around the fire trucks and watching—horrified—as their homes and possessions went up in flames. Flames that were raging more out of control by the second. “Megan and Summer aren’t out here.” She was clearly panicked and gripped his arm harder than her earlier frailty had suggested she was capable of. “You have to go back inside to save them. Please!”
Gabe wasn’t a firefighter who believed in superstition. He didn’t have a routine he lived and died by. But he did believe in his gut.
And his gut was telling him there was a problem.
A big one.
“Which apartment are they in?”
She pointed to the third-story windows with a shaking hand. “Number 31. They’re on the top floor, corner unit.” The woman looked terrified. The stress of the situation was clearly becoming too much for her.
“It will be all right,” her husband soothed her. “He’ll find Megan and Summer.” He was speaking to his wife, but his eyes held Gabe’s, along with the silent message: Don’t you dare let my wife down. She loves those girls like they are our own.
Seconds later, Gabe found both the captain and his partner, Eric, marshaling the crowd of people out on the sidewalk and street. Reporters were now swarming the street, only adding to the confusion.
“We’ve got to go back in. A neighbor just told me a mother and daughter could still be inside. Third floor, corner apartment.”
They all glanced up in the direction Gabe was pointing. All that could be seen was dark smoke billowing above the rooftop.
Todd looked from Gabe to the fire raging inside the building. “Make it quick, guys. You’ve probably got ten minutes, tops,” he said, and then turned and gave instructions to the rest of the crew to focus their fire-hose streams up toward the apartment.
In the same way that the loud boom from the explosion had rocked through the crowd, now a momentary hush fell over the assembled masses as Eric and Gabe moved in tandem to pull another hose into the building. Masks on, their earpieces activated, they moved up the stairs as quickly as they could through the smoke that hung thicker than the fog San Francisco was so famous for. With their breathing apparatus on, they were okay. But a civilian wouldn’t last long in these conditions without frequent hits of oxygen.
Forcefully pushing his fears for the mother and daughter aside, Gabe concentrated on moving from the first floor to the second, and then to the third. All the while the roar of the fire increased, and the heat notched up higher and hotter. A door on the second floor blew out and shook the landing.
Gabe and Eric dragged the heavy hose through the thick smoke and debris. Despite the steep, tight flight of stairs, and the immense physical challenges, they arrived at apartment 31 in a matter of minutes.
Gabe tried the door, but it was locked. He prayed that the fact the fire hadn’t yet blown out this door meant the people inside still had a chance.
Sliding his ax from its holster, while Eric waited several feet behind him, Gabe pounded on the door, yelling, “If anyone is by the door, I’m about to knock it down with an ax. Back away.” Even though he shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice was muffled by the protective mask.
Jesus, the smoke was heavy—nearly thick enough to cut with a knife—and the heat was probably approaching eight hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
Would they find anyone alive inside?
“You got it?” Eric yelled, then took a few quick hits of oxygen.
Nodding, Gabe cocked the heavy tool back and landed the top of the ax head right against the doorknob. A hollow door would have split apart in seconds, but this old wood door was thick enough that he had to do a dozen sustained hits to get it to budge. When he felt the frame start to loosen up, he kicked at it, putting all of his two hundred pounds of muscle behind the effort.
Finally, it swung open, and he was suddenly inside the apartment.
Sliding his ax back into its holster, he reached for the hose and started to drag it inside, but it wouldn’t move.
“It’s stuck. I need more hose,” Gabe shouted to Eric.
He looked behind him and saw Eric yanking on the hose with all his might. “It’s caught on something, damn it! I’ve got to head down and figure out where it’s hung up.”
They both knew how dangerous this situation had suddenly become—leaving his partner behind was not something a firefighter ever did unless there was a dire emergency.
No question, if a mother and daughter were stuck inside apartment 31, this was one of those times. They didn’t have a choice; they needed that extra length of hose.
Gabe and Eric exchanged a look that held a world of meaning. If one, or both of them, didn’t make it out alive, they’d had a good run together full of honor, laughter and countless pots of firehouse chili.
“Hurry,” Gabe yelled to Eric.
Lives were on the line tonight. And the sixty seconds it would take Gabe to help Eric with the hose might mean a child would die.
Eric ran back down the stairs through the smoke as quickly as he could, and when Gabe looked up at the apartment’s ceiling, the flames were already rippling above his head. Gabe cracked open the nozzle on the hose and started blasting the ceiling in an attempt to douse the blaze. He could feel the oppressive heat coming down on him as he moved farther into the room. Judging by the black-and-white soot already covering the furniture, this apartment was clearly one of the hot points of the fire, possibly the room where it had begun.
He stilled as he thought he heard someone calling out, crying for help. With the hose still stuck, he had no choice but to drop it and make a move in the direction of the sound, a white interior door with a mirror on it. The door was closed, so Gabe kicked it open with his steel-toed boots.
A new flood of smoke rushed through the door, impairing his vision for a split second. But even though at first glance he couldn’t see anyone in what was a small bathroom, he...
