Chapter 1
Reed
The shrill alarms blast my ears and I grimace. I’ve had a damn headache all day and was sound asleep when the alarms went off. I jumped up and got into my turnout gear so fast that I beat most of the guys to the trucks.
“Come on, man!” James hollers, throwing himself up into the truck seat. “I don’t know how such an old bastard like you manages to beat all us young guys out here! I think you’re sleeping in your gear.”
Chuckling wryly, I hop into the back and pull the door shut. “Not a chance. I tried. Not comfy.”
He grins and hollers as the other guys get into our truck or the other one. “I bet it’s not.”
We slam into gear and roar out of the huge doors, lights flashing and sirens wailing.
All of us are silent now. Each one of us running through everything we need to do when we get there. Our equipment checks. All the little things that are required to make sure that we do our job as safely as possible.
Each one of us knowing that we might not go home.
Pain bites at my heart and I close my eyes. I can’t help but get swept away for a minute….old memories, old pain.
My little brother. I tried my best to keep him from going into this field. But he wanted to be just like me. Followed me around from the time he could walk.
And I hated every second of it. I mean, I couldn’t get away from him. I was lucky I got a shower by myself.
My mom was a single mom after our dad died and she did the best she could. She worked at the school as a secretary so that she worked the same hours as us. We’d ride the bus home and by the time we got there, she was pulling into the drive after finishing up her work for the day.
It was a good life. We didn’t have a lot of extra money but we had a small stipend that mom got every month from our dad’s death.
He was a firefighter too but he died right after my little brother was born. I was only nine.
Roger was a pistol. We had the best time when we were home together. I taught him how to play basketball and baseball and he taught me a whole helluva lot of patience!
But he was always there.
Until one day he wasn’t. One day, one call, one horrible fire.
James swears as he comes around the corner so fast that I slide into the side of the vehicle.
“Sorry, guys.”
I don’t respond. Because now I can see it.
A roaring blaze that turns midnight into midday.
Red and orange lights up the sky. The monster is alive and fully engulfs the building.
It’s crumpling up already and I wince. My heart races in my chest and my breath hitches until I get it under control, my hands clenching in my lap.
There’s one thing I know when I get a look at the fire.
There’s no way that we can go into that building.
“Did the caller say that there’s anybody in this building?” I holler at James. Perry groans.
“I sure as hell hope not,” he mutters.
Me too. Because there’s nobody coming out of that blaze.
“No! It’s another abandoned house!” James hollers. I take a deep breath.
“Thank fuck,” I growl and grab the door handle, waiting for James to stop.
As soon as he does, I hop out and grab the hose from the back, pulling it out and eyeing the area. Nodding, I point out the fire hydrant to Perry and he takes it and runs.
I yank out more coils as I eye the blaze.
James stands next to me and growls, “we need to get going here. Before it spreads into the trees.”
The area is exactly what you hope not to see. Dry trees all around the broken-down house with no real break between them. No way to keep the flames from jumping if we don’t get this shit under control.
Hollering to each other, we quickly get set up and start the water, desperately fighting to beat back the huge monster roaring and destroying everything in sight.
It crackles and whooshes, its maw devouring the wood and metal, searching for more and more to feed itself, gorging itself and yet eating more and more.
I hate it. Hate that it’s so damn destructive. Hate that the only time it ever shows up, something is lost.
Something like Roger.
But I shove all that shit down and focus and hours later, I cough and finally put down the hose. Water slows to a trickle and I wipe at my streaming eyes.
Burned wood and metal sit all around us and the hulk of the building stands, stark and black against the beauty of the golden rays of sunrise. The sky is all peach and lavender and pink. Soft and delicate. It’s a deliberately stark contrast.
And it was deliberate, dammit! I could smell the fucking gasoline, see the trails. You couldn’t miss it.
Perry stalks up to me, his dark eyes angry as hell. “Well...?”
I nod my head and he growls, muttering a swear word under his breath.
Maple Hills is a small community that doesn’t get much excitement but that means we’ve got a spread-out map of buildings and a lot of them are empty.
This hasn’t been a boom year for people moving in or starting new businesses.
Just like a lot of other places in Colorado, we’re struggling. Unlike our closest neighbor.
Wildwood has been in a boom since they deliberately started targeting new people. And especially since they put out their calendar of firefighters. Those guys are practically legend now.
Huffing under my breath, I continue packing up. There’s no way in hell I want to do a damn calendar.
But I’d kill to get some new blood. To not see my friends and neighbors struggling so much.
Instead we’ve got a string of fires in far-flung places that aren’t an accident.
Sighing, I wipe the dirt off my face and throw my gear up on my seat and then haul my tired ass up in the truck.
Opening a cold bottle of water, I take a hearty sip that empties half the contents.
Closing my eyes, I lean back and pray that I’m not right. That we don’t have a fucking firebug running loose around here. That this is just an aberration and it will get quiet again.
And no more fires will pop up. Nobody else will die.