The Mountain Man’s Save (Willow Ridge Mountain Men #3)

Prologue

SOPHIA

Ithumb through the old stack of newspaper clippings as snow drifts on a lazy breeze.

I can almost hear my brother in the back of my head telling me to sort through my junk.

There’s clippings here from every major win of the Willow Ridge fire brigade—even small ones, like the time my brother and his best friend entered a sewer to rescue a litter of puppies, or when they raised money for the town with those cheesy bare-chest calendars.

Every year, I tell myself I’m going to make him a scrapbook.

And every year, I forget.

But I keep looking for the articles, keep cutting them from the local papers and storing them in the old shoe box on my bookshelf. There are even photos in here; some old and worn because I cut them directly from the newspaper. Others are ones I took myself and printed at some point.

God, I don’t even remember doing it. Some of these are from the first year my brother joined the station as a cadet with his friends. I’d been so proud of him—of all of them.

And then I come to the bottom of the pile, and my stomach drops.

FIRE LIGHTS UP SMALL TOWN HORIZON, CLAIMING FOUR LIVES

Last night, January 26th at 11PM, the Jade Mountain Lodge experienced an oil fire that started in the kitchens of the Jade Bar and Grill.

The Jade Mountain Rescue Team, with help from Willow Ridge Fire Brigade 278, evacuated 147 guests and 58 staff members from the incident.

Unfortunately, line cook, Henry Klein (45), did not make it out of the initial fire.

Guests, Bernadette Williams (62) and son, Joseph Williams (34), died from smoke inhalation on route to Wilfred Green Memorial Hospital at 12:33AM.

Four additional staff and guests were airlifted to the hospital for burn related injuries.

A secondary fire started in one of the rooms south of the first after 12AM. Fire Captain Everette Page has yet to comment on what caused the secondary incident, despite it trapping three on duty firefighters sent to evacuate guests.

Of the three firefighters: Noah Grey (30), Oliver Sanderson (27), and Jason Rhodes, Rhodes (26), did not survive.

Rhodes is survived by his sister, Maggie Rhodes, and infant daughter, Lillian Rhodes. Grey is in critical condition at Wilfred Green Memorial and there is no news on his recovery. Sanderson escaped with minor burns.

No guests or staff were harmed in the secondary fire. Most were hospitalised for smoke related injuries.

A memorial for firefighter Rhodes will be conducted on the 28th of January. All those who knew firefighter Rhodes are encouraged to attend. Another memorial for the civilians who passed will be conducted in the town square on February 2nd.

My chest aches with the memory of that day. Three years, and it feels like it was yesterday. I still see flashes of the moment we got the call in the ER. Clearing beds as fear threatened to consume me. No word from my brother over his status, knowing his best friends were coming.

And remembering the sight of the one man I’ve ever loved, in pain, writhing on a stretcher as he was brought into the burn unit.

I’ll never forget.