Off Chance

Two people in particular deserve the largest of shout outs, for they helped me make this book authentic in my research. First, Kizzy Williams, who has been a beta reader of mine from the beginning and my favorite, New Yorker and Brooklyn babe! She made sure I was authentic, even if I did have to take a little bit of license with some of the settings. Love you lots girl!

Next to my hometown Jacksonville buddy, Tim Davis. He is a firefighter for the City of Raleigh and a real life hero. He gave freely of his time to go over my manuscript with me and provided a ton of great material from which I could borrow and help add to the realism of what it takes to serve. I owe you sushi for life, my friend. And I’ll never forget, “Two go in, two come out”!

A huge thank you to my cover model, Derrick Vargo. You are just spectacular and I’m so thankful you were involved in this project with me. I hope we can work together again in the future.

Finally, I want to just thank all of my fans, especially those of you I have come to know through Facebook and Twitter. The best part of every day for me is when I can interact with you. You make this job so fulfilling and worthwhile. I am forever grateful.

Now… I’m off to write another book. It won’t be the Off Series, and although I said this was my last one, I think it is safe to say you all will see another one in the future. I’ve heard from too many of you asking me to keep writing them that I just can’t ignore.

Love,

Sawyer

8 years ago

I glance down at my watch.

11:50 PM.

In about ten minutes, I’m going to see Marney. In about twenty minutes, I’m going to be buried deep inside of her. My horny, eighteen-year-old body starts to get a boner just thinking about it.

Marney and I have been dating for just over six months but we had sex for the first time very recently.

Five days ago to be exact.

That’s one-hundred and twenty long hours or seven-thousand, two hundred excruciating minutes.

We haven’t been able to see each other the last few days between school events and work. She’s on our high school soccer team and I play baseball. When we’re not working our part-time jobs, we have our studies, and although we are just weeks away from graduation, we are both competitive and strive for good grades.

That’s a lot of shit we both have going on, which means our time together has been limited. And that’s pretty fucked up in my opinion, because sex with Marney really should be a priority in my life.

Damn... I love my girl!

She is everything a guy could ever want. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, smart as shit, and funny as hell. We hadn’t been going out barely three weeks and I knew I was in love with her. I was too chicken shit to say anything, but luckily for me, Marney confessed she loved me first, at just the five-week mark in our relationship, and then I was able to reciprocate.

Even though love hit us kind of fast, we took our time with sex. Which is strange, now that I think about it, because neither one of us were virgins. Marney had been dating our high school quarterback, Sam Faber, since the ninth grade, but they had broken it off at the end of our junior year.

Lucky for me!

And while I hate to think about Marney having sex with Sam, I’m grateful I didn’t have to worry about deflowering a virgin. I mean, that’s a lot of pressure on a dude. I’d been around the block a time or two, so even though I certainly had the ability to eradicate the V-card, I was still glad I didn’t have to.

It made that first time together freakin’ fantastic. There was no fumbling around or uncertainties between us. We chose our six-month anniversary to have sex for the first time and it was mind blowing. It was exactly how I’d imagined it would be... soft, slow, and shattering. I’d gotten us a hotel room for the night and, armed with a box of condoms, both of us left starry-eyed and sore the next day.

We made plans to sneak out and meet up tonight. Marney lives just two blocks east of me and I’m going to her house to get her. I know just the place to take her. There’s a quiet spot in the woods that border Griffith Park and it’s perfect because it’s an unusually warm spring night. I pilfered a bottle of wine from my parents’ liquor cabinet as a surprise and I hope to spend most of the time making love to my girl under the stars. Glancing at my watch again, I note the time.

11:55 PM.

Time to rock and roll.

Bending over, I grab my backpack, which has a blanket and the wine... oh, and condoms. Just as I turn for the bedroom door, the piercing wail of a siren slams into my brain. I walk to the window and pull the curtain back, catching a glimpse of a fire truck as it barrels down the road right in front of our house.

I hope to God the sound doesn’t wake my parents up and ruin my escape plan. Just as I start to turn away from the window, an orange glow catches my eye.

Right over the rooftops of the houses across the street... just east of here.

My brain doesn’t process what I’m seeing at first, but then I realize the glow is from a fire, and it looks to be pretty big. Now I know where the fire truck is going.

I turn away from the window but then a shiver runs up my spine, warning me that something is wrong. Turning back again slowly, I look back at the fire.

Just east of here.

Oh God!

Marney lives just east of here and my stomach bottoms out as I realize that glow is coming from somewhere in the vicinity of her house.

I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and hit Marney’s number. It rings four times before going to voice mail. There’s no fucking way she wouldn’t answer.

Dropping my backpack, I sprint for my bedroom door, throwing it open so hard it slams against the wall with a resounding crack, knocking my signed photograph of Martin Brodeur to the floor, where it shatters. Adrenaline pumps through me as I take the stairs three at a time. I vaguely hear my dad calling out, “What the hell was that?” but I’m out the front door and tearing down the street.

I would normally go down Pine, then turn east onto Glenford Street until I hit Macon to get to Marney’s but fuck that... I don’t have time. Angling through Mrs. Capistrano’s yard, I scrabble over her chain-link fence, only to take three sprinting strides in her small backyard, and do the same to get over the back part of the enclosure.

Dodging and weaving through the next block of yards, I run out onto Macon Street and come to a dead stop.

Marney’s house is just two doors down and my knees almost buckle underneath me when I see it. Flames leap out of the downstairs windows and thick, white smoke pours out from under the eaves. Four large fire trucks are parked outside of her house, two with ladders already extended with water raining down onto the top floor. The rest of the street is filled with police cars and two ambulances. My hesitation lasts only a second before I start running.

Running toward Marney.

I push my way through a sizable crowd, which has filled the streets, knocking people roughly out of my way. I think I even knock a lady over but I could give a shit. Careening around one of the fire trucks, I’m almost knocked backward by the wave of heat that is pouring off her house. With a huge boom, the upstairs windows explode outward, raining glass all around. Huge tongues of flame are now waving from every window but I don’t stop. In fact, I kick my speed up a notch.

I’m just steps away from the front porch, holding my arm up to ward off the heat. I can’t even fathom how I’m going to get inside with the fire pouring out the front door, but that doesn’t slow my progress.

Almost there... three feet from the first porch step and then... I’m tackled from the side.

My body slams into the ground and the air is knocked completely out of me. I try to take in a breath, but my lungs aren’t working. Fuck it... I don’t need them to get to Marney. I start struggling with the lead weight that is on top of me, vaguely noticing that it appears to be a fireman.

Pushing hard against him, I try to get my legs up so I can kick him off me. I make another attempt to breathe but my lungs still aren’t cooperating.

Pulling on the last vestiges of air I have left in me, I rasp, “Get the fuck off.”

“All right, kid... calm down,” I hear and then the weight is gone.

I suck in a huge lungful of oxygen. Replenished, I spring to my feet and start to make a dash for the porch but arms of fucking steel wrap around my waist, slinging me away from the house. I stumble for a few feet and then right myself.

Spinning around, the fireman is standing between Marney’s house and me with his arms held out in front of him. “You can’t go in there, kid.”

“The fuck I can’t,” I scream at him. “My girlfriend is in there.”

“I’m sorry...” he starts to say but I don’t have time for this shit.

Lunging for the house, I try to juke around the fireman but my skills must be rusty. He easily catches me again, wrapping me in a bear hug that I cannot break free from.

My body strains toward the house, the blazing heat causing rivulets of sweat to pour from my face.

“Marney,” I scream. My eyes frantically search the windows, hoping to see her somehow through the angry flames and billowing smoke.

I try to lunge toward the house, time and time again, but the firefighter isn’t letting me go. I scream Marney’s name, over and over, until my throat feels like it’s riddled with glass shards.