Bane Knight's entire life revolves around family, and his is made up by more than blood. As a firefighter in the city of London, the rest of his watch are his kin too. With their lives on the line everyday he's kept his heart closed to love, fearing...
As the air got colder, we pulled our clothes back on and huddled onto the sun lounger, together. She laid between my legs, her head resting against my chest, and both of us staring up at the stars, the subtle scent of the roses drifting on the breeze. I looked down at Lacey's face, and I felt content. It was everything that I shouldn't have allowed, but being with her was incredible, I'd never felt such a connection with someone, and that sensation and experience was intoxicating and addictive. Her fingernails gently danced up and down my forearm which was wrapped around her, the motion sending a pleasurable shudder along my spine.
"How did you get this?" She asked softly, her finger running over a long scar that ran across the crease of my inner arm.
I rested my head against the top of hers, and twisted my arm slightly, the moonlight casting the dark scar tissue in a ghostly light.
"It was a rescue in a high rise. The stairway was blocked by flames and we were getting the last few people out by the window. There was a sudden explosion on a lower floor, and it knocked the ladder, the woman we'd just got out fell off and clung to the ledge. I grabbed her hand and the broken glass in the pane sliced into my arm."
Lacey rubbed soft circles over the scar with her thumb.
"Did you save her?"
"Thankfully, yes." I answered, smiling as she lifted my arm and pressed a tender kiss over the scar. "What about you? Any scars?"
She giggled, nodding her head.
"A few, comes with the job I guess."
The alarm rang from inside, and we both leapt to our feet.
"Speaking of." I mumbled as we threw open the glass door and ran down the steps, hurrying towards the pole.
"RTC on Garing Street!" Will called out over the hustle towards the appliances.
I dove into the nearest one, right behind Lacey, as the sirens rang out and we sped off into the night.
When we arrived at the scene, the road was mostly abandoned, one car had spun around and was horizontal across the wrong lane, with a huge dent smashed into the side doors from a clear, high speed impact. Looking around, there was no sign of another car. I jumped down with the others, and began to walk towards the car, when I caught sight of the broken barrier along the river side of the road. Whilst the others started tending to the passengers in the Peugeot, I headed in the opposite direction, approaching the shattered barrier. Reaching the edge, I peered over the side, and with a horrified jolt, I saw the fading glow of a set of tail lights beneath the water.
"Fuck," I breathed, "Over here! We need a line quickly, the other car's in the river."
Dodger and Rosie leapt into action, readying what we needed and hastening to my side, Alex shouting over his shoulder at Will and Jax to continue tending to the other car, as he ran towards us at the barrier.
"We need to secure the line to stop it from sinking." I said, taking hold of the cable that Dodger was holding, and stepping closer to the edge.
"Right, I want you secured too before you go down there, Rosie fetch th-"
"There's no time." I argued, preparing myself.
"Rebel, there is absolutely no way that I'm letting you in without being wired up first, the current could pull you down too." Alex snapped, with the full power of his authority.
"And the current is already dragging them down." I shouted.
I didn't wait for him to answer as the lights grew even fainter. Instead, I leapt over the edge, landing in the icy cold river, sinking under, before gasping as my head broke the surface long enough to take a deep breath. I pulled myself back into the murky depths, forcing my eyes to stay open, despite the stinging sensation in them, whilst I sought out the tail lights. I fought my body's natural drive to float, pushing myself deeper and deeper, until I found the rear of the car, and managed to attach the line. My lungs burned with the need for oxygen, but I kept swimming, aiming for the front of the car, where I stopped at the window, catching the driver's attention, and signalling to her to stay calm. The water had reached above her neck, and was rapidly getting higher, but she began to calm down as I motioned for her to take slow breaths. My eyes were blurring and I needed air urgently, the burning in my lungs was getting worse, making it feel like they were going to burst clean out of my body. Kicking my legs hard, I headed for the surface, gulping down air as soon as I broke through, and hearing Rosie and Alex's voices shouting to me.
"It's attached, start it up." I yelled out, swimming towards the bank, and out of the way.
I heard the appliance start up, and saw the tension on the line, the car's lights beginning to get brighter as they were pulled up from beneath the water. Alex guided the car's progress up to the surface until it was halfway out of the water, the front doors now free enough to open. I could hear the driver screaming out, whilst water poured from under the doors. I began swimming over, stopping by her door and holding my hands up for her to calm down, her continued squirming and thrashing causing the car and line to shake violently.
"Easy! I'm going to get you out, but I need you to stay calm." I called out to her, reaching out and trying to open the door. The handle was locked into position and refused to budge. No matter how hard I pulled at it, it wasn't opening. The driver was getting more and more panicked with each failed attempt at opening the door, and the car was beginning to creak. There was no way that we could pull it safely back up to the road, especially with her inside it.
"Rebel, what's happening down there?" Rosie shouted down to me.
"The damn door won't open." I groaned, pulling as hard as I could, but still to no avail.
The creaking got louder, and with a sudden ping, the car dropped suddenly, sinking back into the water.
"Fuck, Dodge pull it up!" I shouted, hearing the driver beginning to scream inside as water began rushing back inside.
The car didn't rise back up though, instead it dropped lower, rapidly falling lower into the river.
"The line is breaking." Rosie yelled out, pointing to where it was rubbing against the edge of the road.
With each loud ping from the disintegrating line, the car fell lower, and the water level rose within the car. I heard a splash behind me, and turned just in time to see Rosie swimming towards me.
"What the hell are you doing?" I gasped, a part of me filling with worry at the fact that she was putting herself in danger.
"Helping you get her out." She stated, coming to a stop in front of me. "Okay let's try again."
"I've tried, I can't get the handle to budge."
She smirked, lifting her arm to show me the halligan in her hand.
"But now we have this."
I nodded, and set my hands on the handle again as she wedged the tool into the edge of the door, applying the pressure. Together we managed to prise the door open. The water instantly flooded inside, filling the front of the car so fast that there was a loud snap as the line broke and the car dropped back down. I took a deep breath and dove down, Rosie following after me. I located the woman, still inside, tugging at her ankle which appeared to be stuck in the footwell. The current was beginning to drag us all down lower, and my muscles were tiring from having to force myself to stay on course. My lungs were crying out in protest as I fought to hold my breath whilst I reached inside, taking hold of her leg, and trying to find where she was caught up. Rosie's arm reached out next to me, pointing to the pedals, where I noticed that the woman's foot was lodged underneath the accelerator. We worked together as quickly as we could to get her out, and when she was finally free, she wasted no time in swimming past us, her arms working at a lightning speed to drag herself up to the surface. Before we could kick off to follow after her, the car jolted, it's nose tipped down and it sank rapidly, hitting the current and dragging me and Rosie with it. I tried to hold onto her, but her small hand slipped straight through my fingers as she was pulled away from me.
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