Flashback (Chasing Fire: Montana #3)

Chapter 1

ONE

These mountains were Allie Monroe’s last hope. They weren’t nearly far enough to escape her past, but then again, nothing was. At least here she had the best shot at getting away and focusing on her search and rescue work. It’s really all she had, and she’d been out of it for far too long. She’d settle for a good training session with Scout so she could get back to it.

Of course, to do that, her best friend needed to get out of her cozy little bed in the camper next door. Allie might not be able to see the sun dawning on the horizon, with all the trees and the Rocky Mountains in the way, but there was plenty of light to hit the forest trail, even with the haze of wildfire smoke in the air.

Her phone rang. Allie stared at the picture of her mother and father together right outside the church she’d grown up in. Their smiling faces stirred up too much to deal with this early in the morning. She’d have to call her mother later. Or text. Mom would understand. There was too much riding on getting Scout trained to hear all about how great her siblings were doing at the moment.

She set the prepped backpack by her orange-and-yellow tent while her black Labrador sniffed around the campsite. He followed his nose to the base of a ponderosa pine until the slap of the camper door broke his concentration. He made a beeline for Belle Jamison as she walked toward them.

Finally.

“Ugh. How do you function this early?” Belle’s blonde curls escaping from the wide floral headband took the term bed head to a new level.

“You’re awake.” Allie pocketed her phone. “Great. I was thinking?—”

“Whoa. Pump the brakes.” Belle held up a hand. “I’m here, but I need a shower house visit and a couple mugs of coffee before I’m ready for anything.”

Scout whined. Her friend knelt down and scrubbed his neck with both hands. His tail thumped like a jackhammer.

“He’s a morning person like you.” Belle’s groggy voice teased. “No wonder you picked him out.”

“Actually, Dani picked him out for me.” As one of the lead trainers at the SAR K9 school outside of Benson, Washington, Dani Masterson was who Allie aspired to be. “He’s smart, but he’s no Dixie. He hardly listens to me on the first go.”

“Yeah, but is it even fair to compare the two dogs?”

“I guess not.” No animal could replace the sweet golden retriever mix that had stayed loyally by her side for the last seven years. Dixie could practically read her mind.

“You and Dixie just had a special bond. You’ll get there with Scout too.”

Would she? Her bond with Dixie had been forged by heartbreak and trauma, and even Belle didn’t know the whole of it. Allie couldn’t go through that again.

She shook the painful memories away.

Scout was intelligent and eager. He had the drive a search and rescue K9 needed, but they still weren’t…connecting.

“He needs to trust me. And we should’ve been at that point months ago.”

“Give him time.” Belle stood, letting Scout go on exploring. “And I know that’s why you’re all gung ho about hitting the trail and getting that training done, so why don’t you brew us some coffee and I’ll be back in a jiff.” She walked away toward the shower house in her flip-flops and pajama shorts.

Right. Coffee. And probably she should feed her dog. “Scout, come.”

He glanced her way for a second, then went back to sniffing out what was probably a chipmunk trail. He lifted a back leg and left his mark.

“Gee, thanks.” She stifled the sigh that rose. How exactly did Dani get him to listen to her? She could whisper a command at the training school, and Scout would immediately follow it and beg for more.

She tried a slightly higher voice. “Ready for breakfast?”

At that, she had all his attention. Scout trotted over and sat at her feet.

“Oh, sure. You come on the first call if it’s got to do with food, huh?”

She scooped food into his collapsible camping bowl. “Eat up now. As soon as Belle is back and properly caffeinated, she’ll hide out in that big forest, and you get to find her.”

He didn’t bother looking up at her as he dug into his kibble.

“I know you hear me.” She just didn’t understand why he didn’t listen to her. They needed that figured out by the end of this five-day trip.

She’d already missed so many opportunities. Opportunities to help find the lost. God couldn’t possibly expect her to sit around doing nothing while she had the resources to help.

It was going to be a hot one though. Even in her light trail pants and moisture-wicking tee, she was sweating. The air was heavy with smoke. She’d had to fight to find a cancellation to get this spot when she’d reserved it last month, but a good chunk of the campsites remained empty now, thanks to a wildfire outside of Ember. It had already burned hundreds of acres, but it seemed to be contained for the moment, according to the last report she’d found. It kept her friend Emily Micah, a hotshot firefighter, too busy to meet up with, but that was okay since Allie was here to train Scout.

He finished his breakfast and went back to sniffing around the trees.

Allie dug through her supply tote for the percolator and coffee grounds.

“Nice doggie!” A little boy in a striped shirt and floppy-rimmed explorer hat left the campground gravel road and crossed the sandy dirt to approach her useless campfire ring. With the burn ban, it was propane fuel only for heating up her water.

He reached out to pet Scout.

“Nolan, you shouldn’t pet a strange dog without asking.” An older boy—probably a brother, given the similar blue eyes and tawny blond hair—pulled the younger one away.

Allie smiled at the boys. “It’s okay. You can introduce yourselves if you like. Let him smell you.” The boys moved closer. Allie knelt by Scout and held his collar. “This is Scout and I’m Allie.”

Nolan squatted in front of Scout, who proceeded to lick a sticky purple smear off the boy’s cheek. The older brother stuck a hand out in Allie’s direction. “I’m Ethan. This is my brother Nolan.”

Allie shook the proffered hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“We’re here for the weekend. We’re over there with the blue tent.” He pointed a few spots down the way with a black truck parked next to the metal fire ring.

“And where are you off to so early? You look like you’re ready for an adventure.” Their tent was zipped up, no adults in sight.

“We wanna get another hike in before we hafta go home.”

“Alone?” The older boy could’ve been nine or ten, but his younger brother looked like he was barely in kindergarten.

“We’ve been here a bunch of times. I keep Nolan safe. And we always have our survival packs.” He pointed to his rather full backpack.

“What about your parents? Do they know you’re going on a hike?”

Ethan balked. “Of course my mom knows. We do this all the time.”

Nolan stopped petting Scout long enough to nod.

“That’s pretty…brave.”

Ethan pulled his shoulders back and puffed out his chest a little.

“Ethan knows these trails real good. And he is super-duper brave. Like when we hided and runned away from that bad man, or when Ray tells scary stories about grizzly bears or ghosts. He never gets scared.” Nolan moved over and grinned up at his big brother.

But wait?—

“A bad man? On the trail?” Allie asked them.

Ethan elbowed his little brother. “He’s just making that up. Like the ghost stories. Right, Nolan?”

Nolan’s face scrunched up. “We saw that scary?—”

“Bear. Yeah, we saw the bear, but it was a black bear. Not a grizzly. And it was far away.” Ethan backed away, pulling Nolan with him. “We better go if we want to do the Green Hiking Loop. Mom said we’re leaving after lunch. And you know Ray hates it if we’re late.”

Something flashed in the little boy’s eyes, but it dissolved into giggles when Scout gave him one more lick. “Okay. Bye, Scout! I’ll come say goodbye before we go home!”

The boys skipped off in the hazy air. Oh, to be carefree and excited like a child. Following the siren call of adventure and imagination only caused trouble. Trouble she was still paying for every day.

But she wasn’t their parent.

And didn’t that send a shaft of pain straight to her heart.

If their mother was okay with them hiking alone, hopefully they’d be all right. But she couldn’t quite settle the unease in her middle as she watched them go off down the gravel road.

The Green Hiking Loop.

Maybe that’s where they should do their training this morning. Just in case.

Allie went back to her burner and lit the blue flame under the percolator.

“I hope my boys weren’t bothering you.” The woman who walked into Allie’s campsite was young and pretty, with wavy brunette hair pulled back in a ponytail and dark brown eyes. Eyes acquainted with hardship, giving her an older appearance.

Because of Ray and his scary stories, maybe?

“Ethan and Nolan? They just wanted to meet Scout here.” Allie nodded toward the Lab, who had already trotted over to the woman and sniffed her boots. “They weren’t a bother.”

“Good.”

“I’m Allie.”

The woman made no move to come closer, keeping her gaze directed at Scout and offering him some scratches behind the ears. He leaned into her legs as if he couldn’t get enough.

Huh. He never did that for Allie.

Even a perfect stranger had a better bond with her dog. But who was she?

“What’s your name again?” Allie asked.

“Oh, I’m Jen.” She didn’t quite meet Allie’s eyes as she gave a tremulous smile in her direction. Must be shy. Her boys certainly weren’t though.

“So, the boys were off to hike the Green Loop. They must be pretty experienced to go by themselves.”

“They’re in Boy Scouts. They know these trails since we’re here so often. I can hardly keep up with them anymore.”

“You’re not afraid of wild animals or something happening to them? I’m an SAR worker, so I get a little paranoid, I admit. But they mentioned a scary man.”

Jen’s eyes widened for a nanosecond. It was so slight Allie almost didn’t see it as Jen quickly laughed and waved her hand, as if pushing Allie’s concern aside. “Oh, the boys love telling stories. I blame my husband. He’s always riling them up with ghost stories and the like. They always try to outdo him. And they have such vivid imaginations at this age.”

But following a flight of fancy could have dangerous consequences. How could this woman so flippantly let the boys go gallivanting off in the woods?

Hopefully Belle would be back soon, and they wouldn’t be too far behind the boys.

Before she could ask anything more, Jen stuffed her hands in her jean pockets. “I better get back. We leave soon, and it’s easier to pack everything without the boys’ help.”

She gave a half-hearted smile and walked away. Walked away in her dark jeans and a flannel shirt, while Allie was ready to rip off her trail pants and trade them for shorts, except that she didn’t want to deal with the mosquito bites, scratches, or ticks once they were in the forest.

“Scout, come.” She snapped her fingers.

The Lab looked at her but then focused once more on the woman walking away. Allie called again, this time a little more gusto in the command. Scout whined but obeyed. He was acting strange, even for him. Allie absently stroked his ears as she watched Jen reach her own site.

“Look at you making friends.” Belle walked up, hair still wet, but she was dressed for the day in leggings and a long-sleeve tee. “Who was that?”

“Just another camper. Her boys wanted to meet Scout. But she’s letting them hike all alone.” Allie turned down the flame as the coffee inside bubbled. “I thought we could use the same trail for training this morning. In case they run into trouble.”

“Give me some of that coffee you have there, and we can get started.”

Belle’s phone rang. By the way her eyes lit, it had to be her husband, Matthew. She stepped over toward her camper and answered. Allie focused on the coffee, trying not to eavesdrop on the newlyweds. She tamped down the irritation at yet another delay. She should be grateful she was even able to convince Belle to come with her for the trip when she’d barely left Matthew’s side since the wedding four months ago. But if it was anything like every other phone conversation they’d had, Allie might as well settle in for the long haul.

She glanced at Allie with a forced smile and then pointed toward her camper. “But we just got here last night,” Belle said. The door slapped shut behind her.

Yup. This was going to be a while.

But it was only a few minutes before Belle was walking out of the camper with worry lines on her forehead.

“What’s going on?” Allie handed her friend a mug of coffee.

“We need to go.” Belle sipped her drink.

“I know. As soon as you finish, we can.” Allie whistled to Scout. It took three times, but he finally came and sat at her feet. Reluctantly.

“No, Al. We need to leave. Matthew said that wildfire is too close. He’s not comfortable with us being out here.”

“But I thought the fire was to the east. I checked yesterday.”

Belle shook her head slowly. “It’s heading this way. According to what Matt’s buddies at the fire department said, he’s surprised they haven’t issued an evacuation order yet.”

“If they haven’t issued the order yet, we’re fine.”

“Maybe, but I told Matt I’d head home today.”

“Belle—”

“If he were here and I was back home, I’d want him to leave. I think you and Scout should leave too.”

“Leave? Now? We just got here yesterday.” She needed training time. This was her chance.

“Why don’t you come to Idaho with me? You could see our new place. You haven’t been back to Twin Valley in ages.”

And be a jolly third wheel to the honeymoon couple? As much as she missed Belle and was happy for her to have found true love, she didn’t think she could stomach five days of witnessing their happy lives together and all that Allie would never experience herself. And besides, she couldn’t leave knowing the boys were out in the Kootenai National Forest alone.

“Go ahead, Belle. But Scout and I will stay.” Allie opened up her backpack, looking for Scout’s harness.

“Don’t be like that. There’s plenty of wilderness where I am?—”

“You need to be with Matthew. I get that. But I can’t go. Not yet.” Allie slipped Scout’s harness on him, focusing on the clip, willing her eyes not to drip the tears stinging them. This was supposed to be time with her best friend. Time together and time to figure out how to get Scout to listen to her.

“Allie, you don’t have to do this alone.”

“I’m not alone. I have Scout.” Allie stood and settled her backpack straps onto her shoulders. She dug up a bright smile for her friend. “It’s okay. We’ll just stay a day or two, and maybe I’ll stop and see you on my way home.”

Belle studied her as if sniffing out any sign of caving. With a resigned sigh, her brow relaxed. “Are you sure?”

“Those boys are still out there, and Scout knows their scent. That will be our training today. And if there’s any sign of the fire getting close, I’ll leave. But for now, I’ll stay, and we’ll be fine.” Allie gave Belle a squeeze. “Really.”

“Maybe this will be good. You could hike this morning for fun. Get some bonding time with Scout.”

Allie quirked an eyebrow. “What exactly are you implying?”

“It’s just…I’ve seen you with Scout now, and I don’t think he has a listening problem. I think you two haven’t bonded yet, and it’s because you’re holding back.”

Allie folded her arms across her chest. “I have spent every waking hour of the last few months with that dog.”

Belle didn’t stand down. She met Allie’s stare-down with a pointed look of her own. “You spend a lot of time with him, yes. But you barely touch him. You talk to him only when it’s something you need him to do. And I haven’t seen you once smile or look at him like you actually like him. Like you would with Dixie?—”

“Let’s not go there.” Allie clenched her teeth together tight, willing the emotions clogging her throat to stay down and not leak out.

Belle must’ve gotten the message. “So you’re not ready to talk about that. Fine. But I’m here for you when you are.” She wrapped her arms around Allie’s stiff shoulders. “Al, come with me. Please.”

Allie allowed herself to relax a fraction and lean into her friend’s embrace. “I love you, Belle, but you belong with Matthew.” And she belonged…well, nowhere, really. Not that she had anyone but herself to blame. “You should get going.” She pulled away and stood tall.

“What about your family? They miss you.”

“I talk to them all the time.” With her six siblings, it tended to be more texts, but still. She stayed in touch. “Mom and Dad call weekly.”

“Calls that I’ve heard tend to go to voicemail or are cut short.”

“I can’t help that they always call while I’m busy.”

“Which is exactly why you should come with me. You can have some quality time with me and your parents.”

“My job is riding on this. I have to stay.”

“There’s nothing I can say that will convince you to leave?”

“You know me better than that.” Allie tried on a smirk. She didn’t need Belle worrying about her.

Belle chuckled as she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I do. But first, I think I have enough time to cook you a real breakfast instead of one of those gross protein bars you’re so fond of.”

As much as she wanted to hit the trail, she wouldn’t begrudge one last meal with her BFF.

They lingered over their pancakes and bacon—Belle always did have a knack for pancakes—but eventually Allie helped her friend unhook the lines to the camper and pack her little Subaru.

Belle headed toward Allie’s tent. “We should get you packed up and ready to go.”

More delays. “That’s okay. You should hit the road. I know Matthew is texting you.”

Belle’s sheepish grin said she’d guessed right. “Yeah, but you helped me. I can?—”

“It’s a little tent. It won’t take long. You should get back to your husband.” Allie steered Belle toward the car.

“All right. But promise me you will get everything ready. And you’ll come visit me on your way to Benson.”

“Of course.”

Allie pushed away the disappointment of the ruined trip and put on as cheerful a face as she could muster to wave goodbye when Belle pulled out. True to her word, she took her own tent down and packed all her belongings in her SUV.

Finally, she clipped the lead on Scout’s harness, ready to track the two boys on the Green Hiking Loop. They were probably back by now, but Scout could still follow their trail.

“Come on, Scout. Let’s go for a hike.”

She took two steps before a fire truck pulled into the campground, lights flashing.

A loud voice from a speaker called out. “This is Jude County Hotshots. Please evacuate the campground as quickly and safely as possible.”

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. But any former addict knew life didn’t always go the way it should.

Any cop knew a situation could go sideways fast?—especially in SWAT situations.

For hotshot firefighter Dakota Masterson, a guy who had been both those things—and still was—the fight to prove himself didn’t look much like battling wildland flames.

Right now it looked like riding around in the truck with two other crewmates, including Houston James, who was asking a whole lot of personal questions.

It must be the youth pastor in him. That drive to get to know people.

Dakota liked the guy. He really did. He appreciated that they shared a faith and all, but he was asking about Dakota’s past.

And that just wasn’t gonna fly.

He was a new man. That’s what Preach always said in their morning Bible studies this last year. So, no need to drag out all his dirty laundry in front of this new team. Commander Miles Dafoe knew the gist of it, but no one else did. Which was how it should be.

They didn’t have to know about him getting kicked off the SWAT team, the stint in rehab, or any of it. This was his fresh start. No more depending on his big brother Will Masterson, former federal agent, and his perfect reputation to help Dakota move up in the world. He would do that with hard work and by the sweat of his brow. Literally. And the sign-on bonus would help him pay Will back every cent he’d spent on the Ridgeman Center.

For now, Dakota would keep a tight lid on his ugly past. Although, if anyone understood, it might be these guys. Between Hammer and his big “trouble” tattoo and Kane and his somewhat melancholy personality, they probably all had ghosts of the past they wrestled with. But they barely knew each other. It was one thing to have his former boss, Gage Deluca, checking in with him, asking about his addiction. If these guys knew, he’d probably lose what little connection he’d already forged with them.

So how much longer before he could put boots on the ground and get out of this conversation?

Kane drove the truck through the campground, also avoiding the conversation. But Houston still craned his body around from the passenger side, looking at Dakota. Waiting.

“So, Masterson, what was it that made you switch from SWAT to hotshot again?”

“Guess it’s my turn now.” Dakota grabbed the speaker from the middle console and tried for a playful grin. “This is the Jude County Hotshots firefighter crew. Please evacuate the campground as quickly and safely as possible. This is a mandatory evacuation.”

He peered out the windows as they rolled down the winding road through the big campground dotted with tents and campers and surrounded by towering pines. “I still can’t believe there’s this many people here. This is going to take a while.”

Finally, the truck in front of them stopped. “Looks like we’re ready to start knocking on campers.”

And that was just fine with him.

Kane brought the truck to a halt, and they piled out. The man didn’t talk a whole lot. Usually got right to the point and spent the rest of the time brooding. But he was quick on his feet and strong. Not a bad kind of guy to have as a partner. He’d have to make sure he stuck with Kane for whatever assignment came next and avoid Houston.

The three men approached the hotshots leader, Conner Young, and the others gathered around him.

“Masterson and Kane, catch up with Emily and take sites two hundred to three hundred. James, go with Sax and Sanchez and take the four hundreds spots on this loop. The others are covered.”

Whew. Houston would go with the quiet Saxon and prickly Sanchez. Maybe he could use his youth pastor skills and figure out whatever it was that made the Latina woman walk around like she was angry with the world.

Dakota and Kane walked past the few empty campsites. Smoke hung thick in the air. Why would anyone want to stick around in this? But tents and RVs still remained. Kane and Dakota walked up to the first RV and knocked on the door.

An older man in a Hawaiian shirt answered. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I heard ya. We’re packing.”

“Sorry to disturb you, sir. And make sure you avoid the highway south. They’re detouring everyone west.”

The man nodded. “Understood.” With the slap of the screen door, they were dismissed.

Alrighty then.

The next few sites were vacant. Emily Micah stood talking to a woman by a yellow-and-orange tent. Something about the woman was familiar, but her back faced Dakota. She was petite with medium-length, sable-brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. A black Lab on a lead sniffed Emily’s boots.

Why did something about the stranger stir his memory, like he knew her? He didn’t know anyone with a dog like that.

The woman turned to call the dog, her profile now in view.

No. It couldn’t be.

Here? In the middle of nowhere? He’d thought—okay, he’d hoped—he would never see her again. But was it even the same woman from over a year ago, the one who’d driven him from Benson, Washington, to Last Chance County for rehab?

Didn’t that just beat all? He’d come to the wilderness—where no one would know him—for a fresh start, and here was Allie Monroe, whose only connection to him was the fact that she knew his brother and had driven him to rehab. And she was already talking to Emily.

“You comin’ or what?” Kane, having walked on, looked back at him.

And have to talk to her? “Ya know, why don’t we split up? I’ll cut across and start over?—”

“Oh no. You’re the smooth talker. I’m the intimidation. Besides, looks like Emily found a friend I wouldn’t mind being introduced to.”

Right. Because Allie did have rather alluring hazel eyes. Eyes that had never once judged him, despite seeing him at his absolute worst. And she was beautiful.

But she could also destroy everything he was building here with a few words.

Dakota attempted to tamp down the unease in his middle as he followed Kane. This was what he got for wanting to keep the past in the past. He should’ve known he could never outrun it.

Maybe Allie wouldn’t remember him. They’d only met once.

Then again, they’d spent eight hours in that car together. Of course she was going to remember him.

The problem was, would she blab it all or keep his past to herself?

“Emily, who did you find?” Gone was Kane’s usual brooding face. He flashed Allie a smile he must keep only for pretty women, because this was the first Dakota was seeing it.

He tried to keep his face down by petting the dog that came to check him out. But wait, she’d had a different dog last time. A golden retriever.

Emily said, “This is?—”

“Dakota?”

Shoot. She remembered all right. Dakota looked up from the dog licking his fingers.

Allie’s hazel eyes widened. “It is you.”

What did that mean?

“Wait. You guys know each other?” Emily asked.

“Met last year,” Dakota spat out quickly before Allie could say anything about the circumstances of that meeting. “How have you been?”

“Fine.” Given the look on her face, he wasn’t sure that was the truth. “What are you doing here?”

She thought he should still be in rehab or something? “I’m with Jude County Hotshots.” He looked back at the black Lab. “Where’s Dixie?”

“She—” Her voice caught. “Um, she was hit by a car.”

Dakota rubbed against the ache in his chest. Allie had loved that dog. And of course he had to bring up all that pain. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She attempted a smile, but it didn’t quite reach. “You didn’t know.”

The Lab moved from Dakota to Kane, begging for more attention, by the looks of it, as it pawed Kane’s leg. The broody glare Kane typically wore was nowhere to be found. Huh.

“So, who is this?” Dakota asked her.

“This is Scout. We’re doing some training exercises so I can get back to my SAR work.”

Good. The tight muscles across his abdomen relaxed a bit. If she wasn’t here in an official capacity, she’d have to follow the evacuation orders and had no choice but to leave. As much as he might want to help her process more through the loss of Dixie and see how she was really doing, she was the one person here who knew why he’d left Benson. And he didn’t need that spread around his new team.

It was hard to start a new life when the old one wasn’t too far behind, constantly haunting him and trying to trip him up. He wanted to be the man God wanted him to be, and that meant reinventing himself. Wasn’t that one of the verses they’d learned, something about forgetting the past and straining toward the goal?

So, time to say adios to Allie and her glaring ties to that past. No matter how alluring those eyes still were.

Dakota tried for a charming smile to soften the blow. “I’m sorry to cut your trip short, but you and Scout will have to leave. There’s a mandatory evacuation.”

Emily swung around and stared at him. “It’s not like Allie is some green tourist. She’ll be okay if she sticks close to us while we clear everyone else out. We might need a search and rescue team.”

Dakota pressed his lips together and stared at Emily instead of saying what he wanted to. “I’m sure she has better things to do. There’s got to be other places to train.” He tried to keep a pleasant expression and turned away.

“Actually, I’d rather stick around and help. Scout needs all the experience he can get.”

He winced and glanced over his shoulder to see her sharing a smile with Kane. That was the very last thing he needed. “Don’t you think it would be better to go somewhere safer?”

She glared at him. Probably knew he was trying to get rid of her—just not for the reasons she thought. “I’ll be f?—”

“Allie?” A woman in flannel ran up to them, stumbling, her face red and fear in her eyes. Emily caught her arms and held her steady. The woman gasped. “Did you see the boys?”

Boys? Who was this lady?

Allie shook her head. “I haven’t seen them.”

The woman wrung her hands together. “They’re missing!”