Big sighed and fought the urge to roll his eyes. Idiots like that attributed to way too many deaths by fire. "What's your neighbor's name?"
"Alisha," Mrs. Weigel replied. "Alisha Larrington. I live in 5B, she lives across the hall. She ran in after Swabby."
"We'll do a sweep for her and any other residents. Go stand over there," he gestured across the street. She shuffled away, and he muttered a string of obscenities under his breath. Of course this would happen to him. Nothing else had fucking gone right today, so why start now?
"Get out here, you stupid cat," Alisha called, reaching under the couch for Swabby. "God, this was a really stupid idea. Why did I voluntarily run back into a burning building for this ugly thing?" Swabby hissed and scratched at her hand, making her yelp and jerk back. She looked down and saw three bloody scratch marks on her hand. "Thanks a lot, you little bastard." Spotting one of his toys on the floor, she reached for it and attempted to tease him out of hiding. "Please, Swabby," Alisha said softly. "Here, kitty kitty." His paw batted at the toy and Alisha held her breath. Almost there.
The door flew open and Alisha screamed; Swabby hissed and went back into hiding. She scrambled to her feet and saw the fireman standing in the doorway. "Jesus Christ—you scared the shit out of me," she scolded, turning quickly back towards Swabby. She frowned when she saw that the cat had retreated under the couch. "Dammit!"
Big wasn't sure exactly what he'd expected Alisha Larrington to look like, but it damn sure wasn't the young, petite brunette before him. Someone that age should have enough goddamn sense to flee a burning building. He felt momentarily sorry for scaring her when she screamed, but then he seethed when she went back to looking for the cat. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" he yelled.
Alisha stopped her movement and turned her head slowly to look at him. "Excuse me?" she asked, baffled.
"Pretty sure you heard me, but I'll speak more slowly in case you're impaired in some way. Your building—is—on fire. Let's go."
"Thank you for the tip. I know there's a fire. I almost had the damn thing until you came and kicked the door in and scared him, and me, half to death."
Big threw up his hands in amazement. Was she honestly that stupid? "Lady, let's go. It's a cat—no one cares."
"My neighbor cares." Alisha dropped to her tummy and reached under the couch for Swabby. "I've almost got him."
"You're fucking insane," he mumbled, lifting the end of the couch so she could grab the cat. Once she had a hold of him and got to her feet, he tossed her over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Alisha squeaked. "I'm perfectly capable of walking," she said, squirming in his grasp as he descended the stairs.
"Are you capable of thinking?" he snapped angrily. "What kind of idiot goes back into a burning building for a cat? Do you have a brain rattling around between your ears at all? Jesus fucking Christ!"
"You're the rudest person I've ever met in my entire life. Aren't you supposed to be kind and helpful? Put me down!" She tried to wriggle free, but he only held on more tightly.
"Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to drop you on your ass—or maybe your head to see if that would knock some sense into you—but as you pointed out, I'm here to help. So, stop yapping for a goddamn minute and you'll be out of here and I can get to my real job."
Alisha opened her mouth to yell back at him, but she inhaled a cloud of smoke and started coughing.
"See, you could have avoided the smoke inhalation if you had used your pea brain for a goddamn second and thought 'Gee, the building is on fire, I should leave now,'" he mocked harshly.
She seethed inside, unable to reply due to her coughing fit. Swabby was pissed and kept scratching at her, but she'd be damned if she let him go. If she had to endure this fireman's berating and questioning her mental capacity, she was going to have something to show for her decision.
He carried her down the last few steps and out of the building where Alisha gulped in a greedy breath of fresh air. She spotted Mrs. Weigel hurrying as fast as she could over to her. "Oh Swabby!" she exclaimed, nuzzling her cat. "Thank you, Alisha. Thank you, thank you so much."
Alisha could only nod as another coughing fit took hold. Great. Just what my voice needs. "You can put me down now," she ordered as he marched her over to the ambulance.
Big dropped her unceremoniously down to her feet by the paramedics. He nodded to Jones and Bart. "This idiot probably has smoke inhalation." He spotted blood on her hands and felt the tiniest bit sorry for the verbal abuse he'd been heaping on her. That is until she whirled around to glare at him and he finally got a good look at her. She was—hot. Stunning, even. He didn't care at all for the quick flip his stomach did as she stared murderously at him with her rich brown eyes. That little flip sent him right back to pissed. "Take care of her, I've got work to do," he said gruffly and walked away.
"Have a seat," Bart told her, then placed an oxygen mask on her face.
"No, no," Alisha shook her head. "I don't need that, I'm fine," she insisted.
"Look, ma'am, we won't be rude to you the way Big was—"
"Big?" Alisha queried.
Jones grinned. "Yeah, Jake Biggerman. Goes by Big around here. As my partner here was saying, just let us do our jobs…please?"
Alisha sighed, realizing how difficult she was being. "Of course, I'm sorry." She took the oxygen mask and held it to her face and breathed deeply, feeling the oxygen soothe her lungs. After they cleaned the scratches Swabby
