Kade's Rescue (Detroit Heat Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

and get his gear dirty.” He watched me for a split second. I understood what he was doing. The slightest bit of hesitation on my part would have change his mind. I had to be dedicated one hundred percent.

    I nodded, accepting the risks. “Grab a set of irons, probie. We’re going hunting.”

    I reached back into the truck and took out the thermal imaging camera. Clipping it to my bunker jacket, I knelt down on the small bit of grass between the road and the sidewalk. After laying my helmet on the ground, I threw my mask over my head. Rico followed suit. As I walked toward the burning structure, I seated the mask, pulled my hood up, and strapped my helmet back into place.

    With a twist of my wrist, I opened the air bottle behind me. My PASS device beeped, letting me know how much air I had. I slid the regulator over my mask, popping it in with a click, and sucked hard to pull the first breath from the tank. I looked back, waiting for Rico to catch up with me. I saw him shuffling toward the building carrying the axe and Halligan bar like a handful of sticks. I shook my head. The kid had so much to learn.

    I walked past the rapid intervention team, patting one of them on the shoulder. Reading their last names on their bunker jackets, I realized I knew three of the four guys. I gave them a quick salute. All four of them nodded. Between us was the understanding of survival. If something happened to me or Rico while we were inside, they’d be in to pull us out.

    Through the static of the microphones embedded in our masks, Rico said, “You ready?”

    I’d been tired of his arrogance even before the events in May. Now I was downright done with it.

    I grabbed him by his shoulder strap and pulled him so close our masks collided. “You don’t get to ask me that. I ask you that, and you should shit your pants when I do. We’re about to crawl around in a living, breathing monster looking for ghosts. You need to pull your head out of your ass and remember that you don’t know the first thing about fire. You can wave your certificates at me all you want, rook, but you ain’t seen shit.”

    I pushed him away, knowing I had extinguished the flame in his heart. It was cruel, but it was also reality. “Let’s go.”

    The second floor of the apartment was bare and we were able to stay on our feet for most of it. As we got toward the back of the building, the smoke got thick and I pointed down. We crawled on our hands and knees back through the kitchen and a second bedroom, but it was empty too. Once we got back to the front of the structure, I climbed back to my feet and hustled up the stairs to the third floor.

    On the way up, I radioed my shift commander. “Second floor clear, S and R moving to three.” I turned back to see sweat on Rico’s forehead beneath his mask. “You good?”

    He nodded. “You?”

    I nodded. Overall, I was handling the whole thing better than I thought I would. I was keeping my mind in check and staying focused on the job at hand.

    We hustled up the metal stairs. I thought I felt them give a little bit as we ascended.

    It was another one of those things I’d look back on later and question.

    Rico used his Halligan to bust the door to the third-floor apartment wide open. When he did, heavy smoke pushed out and we both dropped to our knees as it shot above our heads and into the night sky.

    I saw dark plumes puff out and then pull back inside as if the building was breathing. A cold thought gripped me and I dove forward and tackled Rico to the metal grating in front of the apartment.

    The building shook as a smoke explosion rippled over our heads. I could feel the heat as the air ignited inches above our helmets. A window shattered, raining wood and glass down around me and my partner. The shrapnel became the least of our problems when the landing twisted.

    The metal creaked and groaned, pulling itself free from the rest of the apartment. As it began to sag, Rico reached out, frantic to