Christian (The Beck Brothers Series) (20 page)

“Oh, you think you are so
funny, Oui?” Margot smiled sweetly.

Henry raised an eyebrow. “Of
course I am,” he scoffed.

Margot’s hand flicked out so
fast that Christian barely caught it. The next thing Christian knew, Henry was
doubled over, one hand cupping his injured balls while the other rested on his
knee so he didn’t completely crumple to the floor. All of the men in the room
were wincing.

“You bitch,” Henry ground out
then gagged loudly. “I was just screwing with you.”

Margot smiled brightly. “I
know,” she chirped as she spun away and flipped her hair over her shoulder
before walking past Christian and into the kitchen.

Christian chuckled.

“Oh god, I seriously might
throw up.” Henry wheezed.

“Not on the rug! Go to the
bathroom!” Shea exclaimed.

“I can’t move!” Henry cried.

Adalyn walked over to him,
holding onto the coffee table for balance. She patted Henry’s leg, her big blue
eyes looking up at him. “Da-Da?”

Henry gave her a tight smile.
“Hi, sweetheart.”

Adalyn smiled, showing off
her cute little teeth. “Da-Da!”

Henry pulled in a deep breath
and blew it out. “Jesus, that hurt,” he grumbled as he straightened up some.

“That’ll teach you to mess
with Margot,” Quinn said with a pointed look.

Henry shot him the finger.
Christian shook his head at his crazy family and took Skylar into the kitchen
to get her a bottle.

The past three months have
been a multitude of things for Shea, exhausting being one of them. Skylar was
just finally starting to sleep through the night, though. Shea had gone back to
work the week after they brought Skylar home. Christian stayed home another two
weeks after that to give Henry a chance to find a new assistant. Claire decided
to stop working and become the family daycare. Shea and Christian loved her for
it.
 
They were both stressing out
about putting her into daycare, neither of them wanted to do it. Christian was
even considering closing down his studio to become a stay-at-home dad. But
Claire announced that she was going to stop working and would take care of the
kids. She was an amazing woman. Henry was not overly ecstatic about it, but he
didn’t argue with her, which Shea was glad for.

“Shea, come out with us
tonight,” his buddy Greg said as he helped Shea put up kitchen cabinets.

“Eh, I don’t know…” Shea hedged.

“Come on, dude, you haven’t
come out with us in months,” Dan chimed in. Dan was another one of the guys
that worked under him.

“I have a three month old at
home,” Shea said defensively.

“I’m sure Christian wouldn’t
mind if you came out one night,” Greg said.

“I don’t know.” Shea sighed.

“Just ask, the worst he can
say is no,” Dan offered.

Shea rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

Shea got home at around 6:00
pm. He took a shower then sat down with Christian at the table to eat the
dinner that he made. Skylar was sleeping in her swing in the living room.
Christian made a delicious pasta dish that Shea couldn’t help but scarf down.

“Chris, would you mind if I
went out with a few of guys from work tonight?” Shea asked as he spooned
another helping into his bowl.

“No, not at all, as long as I
get to go out another night,” Christian replied.

“Sure, that’s fine,” Shea
agreed.

“Where are you going?”
Christian asked curiously.

“Just to Mac’s Tavern,
nothing fancy, just going to hang out for a few hours,” Shea told him.

Christian nodded. “Okay.”

So after dinner, Shea helped
Christian clean up the kitchen, then he gave him and Skylar a kiss before
heading out to the bar to meet up with the guys from work. Shea had told them
all about him being bi and the relationship he was in with Christian.
Surprisingly, they had all been extremely supportive about it. He was expecting
at least one of the guys to be homophobic and have a problem with it, but no,
they were all cool.

Shea hadn’t realized how much
he had needed to get out. He was definitely more relaxed and de-stressed by the
time he left to head home. He would make sure Christian got his night out soon,
he was sure he needed it just as badly.

As Shea got closer to his
house, he had to pull to the side to let a police car and fire engine by. He
really didn’t think anything of it, they lived in the city, police and fire
engines ran rampant at all times of the day. Then an ambulance had him pulling
to the side again a few minutes later.

Shea turned onto their block
and slammed on the brakes. He stared at the scene in front of him, not fully
comprehending what was going on. There were police cars, two fire engines, and
a couple of ambulances crammed onto his street, in front of his house. Shea
blinked, put his truck in park and looked over at the houses to see which one
they were there for. The night his parents and sister died flashed through his
mind when he saw the smoke billowing up from his roof.

Horror.
 
Pure, unadulterated horror was all that
Shea felt as he shoved open his door and got out of his truck.
NO!
Shea started forward, taking a few
steps before bursting into a full out run. Shea scanned the crowd of people who
were out front, milling around, watching everything that was going on. No
Christian and no Skylar. Could they possibly still be in the house? Shea almost
threw up right then and there.

“CHRISTIAN!” Shea screamed as
he sprinted up his front walkway, blowing past the police keeping people at a
distance.

Shea heard them shout at him
to stop but that was not going to happen. There were firefighters lined up just
outside the front door getting ready to go in. Shea wasn’t going to wait; he
needed to get to his baby and the love of his life. There was no way he would
let the rest of his family die the same way his parents and sister died.

Shea shoved his way past a
couple of firefighters who tried to grab him just as they kicked in the door.
The black smoke that poured out of the front door momentarily stunned Shea. He
stopped long enough that a cop was able to run up and grab him and start
pulling him away.

“NO! MY FAMILY IS IN THERE!”
he screamed, tearing himself out of their grasp.

Shea barreled past the
firefighters and into the smoke and flame filled house. He could barely see
past the smoke as he started up the stairs. He pulled the collar of his T-shirt
over his nose and mouth, but he still started coughing. He crouched low when he
got to the top of the stairs and made his way toward the front bedroom, which
was Christian and his room. The smoke filled the hallway almost from ceiling to
floor.
Oh God! Please, let them be okay!
Shea
made it to the bedroom door, which was closed. Shea was just about to open it
when he heard a whoosh and then a roaring behind him. Shea turned to see that
the back room, the one at the top of the stairs, was fully engulfed in flames.
That was the room that Christian used as his closet, and now there was no way
Shea was going to be able to leave the same way he came in. The fire was too
intense and close to the stairs.
Fuck!
They were all going to die. Shea would rather die with Christian and Skylar than
be left to mourn them, though. Shea hacked hard and turned back to the bedroom
door.

Shea quickly entered the
room, shutting the door behind him. The room was not as smoke filled as the
rest of the house, but there was still a lot. Shea rushed over to the
bassinette where Skylar was laying. He checked the pulse on her neck, she was
still alive, but she didn’t so much as move a muscle when he touched her, which
meant that she was most likely unconscious from smoke inhalation. Shea went to
the bed next; Christian was sprawled out on his stomach in his underwear. Shea
turned him over. He was also unconscious and complete dead weight when Shea
flipped him over.

Shea smacked his face hard.
“Christian! Chris, wake up!” Shea yelled before checked his pulse. He was still
alive, too, thank fucking Christ!

Shea looked around the room,
trying to figure out what he should do next. First, he grabbed the comforter
off the bed and stuffed it against the bottom of the door to stop some of the
smoke from coming into the room. Next, he ran over to the windows. He opened
one and pushed out the screen. They had the kind of windows that you could open
in toward you for easy cleaning, which also made them easy to remove. Shea
removed the bottom pane of glass then removed the top half. The smoke that had
settled in the room started to pour out.

“HEY! UP HERE!” Shea
screamed, waving at the firefighters down below.

One of them pointed at him
making them all spring into action. They grabbed a ladder, setting it up right
under the window; one guy held it in place at the bottom while another started
climbing.

“Are you fucking crazy, man?”
The firefighter snapped at him when he made it to the top.
 
“You could have been killed!”

“There are a three-month old
baby girl and a twenty-nine year old man in this room,” Shea said, ignoring
what the guy said.

“Jesus Christ…hand me the
baby first,” he said.

Shea ducked back into the
room and grabbed Skylar. His stomach rolled at how limp her body was. Shea
handed her out to the firefighter then went back for Christian. Shea blinked
away tears, not sure if they were from the smoke or the emotions roiling
through him. He pulled Christian up into a sitting position so that he could
hook him under his arms and drag him over to the window. He had just tugged
Christian off the bed when a couple of firefighters came through the window.
One of them came over and hoisted Christian’s slack body up over his shoulder.

“Get the hell out of here!”
he said, his voice muffled by his oxygen mask and shoved Shea toward the
window.

Shea nodded, coughing hard as
he started toward the window. The smoke was really starting to get to him, and he
was actually becoming lightheaded. The other fireman was standing by the window,
and helped Shea out of the window and onto the ladder. Shea stepped off the
latter and fell to his hands and knees from a horrendous coughing fit that
racked him; he coughed so hard that he swore his lungs were going to come up
his throat. He watched through blurry eyes as the firefighter carried Christian
down the ladder. Christian just hung over the guy’s shoulder, arms dangling
limply. That was the last thing he saw because he passed the hell out, face
first on the front lawn.

“Sebastian! Sebastian, come
here!” Raelynn called from the kitchen. Sebastian frowned at the franticness in
her voice.

He got up from the couch and
walked into the kitchen. He found Raelynn leaning in close to the police
scanner she had on the counter, her face screwed up in concern.

“What’s going on, sweet
cheeks?” Sebastian asked, going to stand next to her.

“I think…I think Christian’s
house is on fire,” Raelynn said warily.

“What?” Sebastian squawked.

They listened for a moment. Sebastian
couldn’t understand a word of it, but he knew Raelynn understood. After a moment,
Raelynn gasped and straightened up. When she looked up at him, Sebastian’s
stomach dropped at the grim look on her face.

“What? What did it say?”
Sebastian asked frantically.

“It’s Christian’s house.
 
One adult male ran into the burning home
before the firemen. One infant female and one adult male were found unconscious
in bed.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!”
Sebastian cried and ran for the front door.

He glanced at the clock on
the cable box and saw that it was midnight. Henry and Quinn were probably
sleeping, but he had to call them. Sebastian shoved his bare feet into his
sneakers, grabbed his keys then raced out the door without even saying goodbye
to Raelynn.

While speeding toward
Christian’s house – which was only ten minutes from his own – he
called Henry. Henry in turn called Quinn. Sebastian pulled onto Christian’s
block behind Shea’s truck, which was parked in the middle of the street. He got
out and ran toward the horrific scene in front of him. Sebastian hasn’t felt
this kind of fear since they thought Henry died in that plane crash. As
Sebastian got closer, he saw that Shea was laying face first on the front lawn
and a fireman had Christian over his shoulder as he carried him down the ladder
from the second floor window. Christian was dangling lifelessly over the guy’s
shoulder in nothing but his black boxer/briefs. Sebastian rushed forward only
to be stopped by a police officer just before he stepped onto the property.

“Hold on there, pal, we
already had one maniac run into the house, we don’t need another one,” the
officer said.

“I’m not running into the
house, but that’s my brother they are carrying out,” Sebastian said as calmly
as possible.

The officer glanced over his
shoulder then looked back at Sebastian and gave him a tight nod before moving
aside. Sebastian thanked him and ran for the fireman who was carrying Christian
toward the EMT with a gurney that was running to meet him. Sebastian made it to
him just as the fireman placed Christian on the gurney. Christian was out cold
and looking a bit blue.

“Oh, Jesus.” Sebastian
breathed, frozen in place as he watched the EMT rush Christian toward the
ambulance.

Sebastian heard one of them
yell that he needed to be intubated. Sebastian turned to look at Shea. Two EMTs
had rushed over with a backboard and gurney and were rolling him onto the
backboard and putting a neck brace on him. They strapped him in then lifted him
onto the gurney and started for a second ambulance.

“Hey, where are you taking
them?” Sebastian asked as they walked by.

“Aria Hospital,” one
answered.
 

“And the baby?” Sebastian
asked.

“The baby is going to CHOP.”

Sebastian nodded. “Thanks.”

The fireman who carried
Christian out stopped next to him. “Are you family?” he asked.

“Yeah, you just carried my
brother out,” Sebastian said.

“Who is the other guy to
you?” he fireman asked curiously.

“He’s my brother’s
boyfriend,” Sebastian answered.

The fireman shook his head.
“That crazy motherfucker just saved your brother’s life, and the baby’s, too.
We would not have made it in time,” the fireman said, awed and saddened at the
same time.