Slow Burn Read online

  I’d been a firefighter for over a decade now, so I was well familiar with the way a fire felt when it was taking over a structure. I could give you a scientific breakdown on the tipping point of a fire, but when I was in it, it was all about how it felt. I dashed through the doorway to the side of the house seconds before the ceiling above it collapsed. I kept moving, aiming straight for the ambulance waiting off to the side.

  Once I got there, I paused and glanced down. The woman I’d carted out had wide blue eyes. She was looking right at me with a grin. What the hell?

  Out of reflex, I smiled back.

  “How ya doin’?” I asked.

  “I think I’m fine,” she said slowly, still grinning.

  “What’s that smile for?” I asked, pushing my respirator out of the way.

  “Oh I’ve never been saved. It was rather exciting,” she said with a little laugh. Her voice was raspy.

  I returned her smile, relief rolling through me. No matter what, she appeared okay and that’s all I needed to know.

  “You looked asleep when I found you,” I replied.

  “Oh, I was. I didn’t even have time to get scared. I woke up, and you were running down the hall with me. I have a story now,” she said before she began coughing heavily.

  Concern came on the heels of my relief. She was okay in the basic sense, but she probably needed oxygen as soon as possible.

  “Hey, how are we doing?” Dana Halloran asked as she materialized magically by my side.

  Dana was one of the EMT’s. I was damn relieved because chipper as the woman in my arms was, she was elderly and from what I knew had likely been napping and inhaling smoke.

  “Hey Dana, our friend here thinks it was fun to be saved, but I’m a little worried about her breathing,” I explained, glancing from Dana to the woman.

  “I didn’t have a chance to get your name,” I said when the woman looked up at me again on the heels of another coughing bout. “I’m Beck Steele.”

  Damn if this woman didn’t miss a beat. She grinned again. “Oh my. Beck Steele sounds like a name straight out of an action movie.”

  A loud laugh came from behind me. I glanced back to see Cade Masters walking up to us. Cade was another superintendent who worked at Willow Brook Fire & Rescue with me. He’d just returned to town after almost three weeks out in the backcountry handling one of the massive wildfires plaguing Alaska’s vast swathes of land.

  He flashed a grin at me. “Beck Steele, action hero.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Same could be said for you.”

  “Yeah, but your name’s more action hero,” he countered with a wink.

  Dana chuckled and addressed the woman. “I’m Dana, and I’d like to get you situated over there,” she said, pointing to a wheeled bed by the ambulance. “I think a few minutes with oxygen might help you out.”

  The woman started coughing again. I could feel her frail body vibrating with each cough. I didn’t wait to see what she might think and walked over to the bed, easing her onto it. Dana moved quickly and was wheeling over an oxygen tank inside of a few seconds. I helped prop her up on the pillows and tugged my helmet off, hooking the strap over my elbow.

  Dana glanced to me as she adjusted the oxygen mask on the woman’s face. “You made it out in the nick of time,” she murmured.

  I nodded. Now that we were clear, I spun around to look at the house. Cade had walked over and turned with me. The home was falling into itself now. We’d gotten a call too late to do much other than rescue this afternoon. It was high season for fires in Alaska, and we’d had a long, dry summer so far. The home we’d been called to was on the outskirts of town and adjacent to a large swath of spruce forest. For reasons we’d yet to sort out, a fire had broken out in the trees beside the home. A low hanging branch was too close to the house and the fire spread. Aside from two teen boys and this grandmother, no one else had been home. The fire had been in full swing by the time the call came in from a neighbor who spotted the flames from over a mile away.

  Alaska was a great place to live if you wanted privacy. The downside to privacy was areas where homes were spread so far apart, no one was nearby to notice a fire early on. I watched while the crew positioned hoses and worked on controlling the burn.

  I glanced to Cade and then back to Dana. “It was close, but we made it.” I looked to the woman who appeared to be breathing more steadily now.

  She tugged at her oxygen mask.

  Dana eased it away. “Need something?” Dana asked.

  “I’m fine now. That thing is annoying,” the woman declared.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Mind telling us your name?”

  “Susie. Susie Smith, the most boring name ever,” she announced. “Oh and before you go wondering how that fire started, I’ll tell you.”

  Dana arched a brow and glanced my way. I shrugged.

  “The police chief will want to talk with you, but go ahead and fill us in.”

  “It’s that idiot who lives down the road and drives his loud ass truck all the time. I swear, he confuses his truck with his penis,” she announced with a roll of her eyes and another bout of coughing.

  Dana promptly put the oxygen mask back on Susie. I assured her I’d send the police chief over to talk with her. There was no shortage of idiots who drove trucks around Willow Brook, so I didn’t really know who Susie meant.

  Dana and another EMT got busy rolling Susie’s bed up to the ambulance. I looked back to Cade. “Well, I’ll call this one a win. Everyone got out safe and sound.”

  Cade shrugged. “With ya there. I called back to the station. They’re rounding up the new guys in training to bring ‘em out here. This will need to be monitored until it’s out. Damn shame. This house wasn’t that old.”

  “Any idea how it started?”

  “Not yet. Best guess is sparks blew over from a fire down the road. I’m gonna guess the fire in question was started by the guy who confuses his truck with his penis,” Cade replied with a roll of his eyes. He knocked his fire helmet against the tire of the truck we stood beside. “Ride back with me?” he asked.

  At my nod, we turned in unison. I stopped to check in with Thad Mason who was one of the foremen on my crew. Leaving him in charge, I departed with Cade who had been born and raised in Willow Brook with me. I’d known him forever, yet he’d moved away for a chunk of time and had only been back for a little while. He’d come back the same old Cade—on the quiet side, but funny and solid as they came for a friend. He’d finally seen straight and married his high school sweetheart, Amelia, not too long ago. They’d had a classic misunderstanding break up years back, and Cade had stayed away from Willow Brook because of it.

  It was damn good to have him back and finally happy again. Cade was a one-woman man through and through. I’d never quite seen the appeal because it wasn’t my personality, but when it came to Amelia, Cade couldn’t see past that woman. I figured it was a damn good thing she had it just as bad for him.

  I leaned my head back as he drove the truck down the winding dirt road that led away from the burning house and back to the highway. I rolled my head sideways. His dark brown hair was a sweaty mess. I knew I looked just as bad and could feel the soot on my face.

  “You wanna grab a few beers at Wildlands after we check in at the station?” I asked.

  “Sure. Amelia will probably want to meet us. That okay?”

  I chuckled. “It’s always okay, man.”

  Cade glanced my way and flashed a grin. “Guess so. You wouldn’t see me much if it wasn’t.”

  “Nah. I sure wouldn’t. I’ve given up on you ever getting past being whipped by her.”

  Cade shrugged. “Me too. It’s all good though. Trust me, you’ll find the right woman and you won’t know what hit you.”

  I chuckled along with him and steered the conversation onto other matters. I’d never admit it, but the only woman who came to mind when Cade teased was Maisie.

  Hell, I could hardly stop thinking abou
t her since the other day. It had been a full week since I’d walked in on her naked in the showers at the station. Six days since I kissed her at her house. That totaled up to one hundred and sixty-eight hours that I’d barely been able to stop thinking about her. If I subtracted seven hours of sleep a night, that left me with just under one hundred and twenty waking hours for her to sashay about in my thoughts. The woman had fucking taken up residence in my brain.

  I’d jacked off to the memory of the way she felt pressed up against me yet again last night when I couldn’t sleep. She’d been nothing but appropriate around the station since then. She’d also never replied to my last text. I couldn’t resist baiting her here and there, but that was nothing new. Except now it was more loaded, at least for me. I suppose it was fair to say my cock was loaded.

  Thank fuck it had been a busy week around the station. We were handling a low level wildfire on the outskirts of Willow Brook and had responded to various and sundry emergencies almost daily. That was about the only thing that nudged my mind off of Maisie.

  Chapter 7

  Maisie

  “Oh come on, Maisie. The only way you’ll make more friends around here is to actually go somewhere to meet people,” Susannah Gilmore said.

  “I see plenty of people here,” I countered.

  Susannah rested her chin in her hand and glared at me. “I thought I was stubborn. Then I met you.”

  A laugh bubbled up as I looked across the counter at her. “You are really stubborn.”

  Susannah rolled her eyes and sighed. “Come out for dinner with me. It won’t kill you, and you might even have fun,” she cajoled.

  “Fine. I’ll come.”

  I didn’t really have a reason not to go, other than I tended to be a ‘to myself’ kind of person by default. Susannah was the only other woman who worked with me. She was a badass hotshot firefighter and could hold her own with all of the guys. She’d intimidated the hell out of me at first, but I’d slowly gotten to know her. She was funny and smart and nice. She also happened to be cute as hell. She was medium height with strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Being a firefighter meant she was insanely fit, although she still had curves. She’d just returned with her crew from a three-week stint out on a fire in the middle of Alaska and had decided my company was required to celebrate her return. I figured it couldn’t hurt to try to be social.

  Not much later, I walked beside Susannah into Wildlands Lodge & Bar. Wildlands was one of many wilderness lodges scattered about Alaska. The lodge consisted of a sprawling timber frame hotel, which had been expanded and modernized. The place was booked to capacity all summer long. It was situated beside Swan Lake, the centerpiece of Willow Brook. Between Willow Brook’s location within a short drive from Anchorage, the view of Denali in the distance, and Swan Lake, hordes of tourists passed through town every summer.

  When we stepped inside, I glanced around, taking in the crowded restaurant. I hadn’t been here much. I’d started to feel like Willow Brook was truly my home, but that didn’t mean I was a social butterfly. Willow Brook was a popular destination in southcentral Alaska due to its location, but it also served as a hub for planes that arrayed out across the Alaskan geography, taking tourists all over the state for wilderness trips. As I scanned the faces in the room, I saw a few familiar ones, but not many.

  Susannah hooked her arm through mine and dragged me through the tables. She’d been insistent lately that I needed to start making more friends. Though Susannah had bossed me into coming here tonight, I hadn’t clued her in to my worry that I might run into Beck. This was definitely his stomping ground. I shoved him out of my mind, knowing any effort to kick him out of my thoughts would only be temporary. Clusters of tables were scattered throughout the large restaurant with a bar running along one side. As we walked through, a female voice called Susannah’s name. She immediately redirected our path, walking me over to a table where Amelia Masters and Lucy Caldwell were seated.

  “Hey there,” Susannah said. “Please tell me you were saving this table for us.”

  Amelia grinned and took a long draw off her beer. “Of course.”

  Susannah sat down across from Amelia, and I slipped into a chair beside her. They were seated at a large round table in the corner. I figured they were expecting more company, otherwise there’d be no point in snagging such a large table. With the crowd here, they’d be fending off people if the table weren’t filled soon.

  “How’s it going, Maisie?” Amelia asked. “It’s good to see you out and about.”

  I busied my hands, snagging a menu from the center of the table and starting to flip through it. “Oh, it’s good. How are you? Haven’t seen you at the station lately.”

  Lucy elbowed Amelia in the side. “That’s because she’s working too hard. I’m a workaholic and even I think it’s too much.”

  A waitress paused by our table and took drink orders. Conversation carried on around me as Susannah commiserated with the grueling summer work schedules in Alaska. I knew Amelia in passing. She was married to Cade Masters, another hotshot superintendent at Willow Brook Fire & Rescue. Apparently, they’d been high school sweethearts years ago, and things had ended ugly over a misunderstanding. I wasn’t hip to all the gossip around Willow Brook, but their reunion had half the town swooning, so it had been hard to miss.

  I happened to think Cade was a great guy. He was much easier for me to deal with than Beck, mostly because I didn’t get all flustered around him. Amelia often stopped by the station to see him. To be honest, she was slightly intimidating. She ran her own construction company, named, of all things, Kick A** construction. I figured she could probably kick my ass, but I liked her. Funny and nice, she was easily as tall as most men and beautiful with amber hair and eyes. I knew Lucy, but not quite as well. I saw Lucy maybe once in a blue moon at the station if she stopped by with Amelia. Lucy worked with Amelia. She was a startling contrast to Amelia. At a glance, you’d think she was girly. With her fair hair, blue eyes, and petite, curvy build, she was drop dead gorgeous. As far as I could tell, the last thing she thought about was her looks. She typically looked as if she’d just stepped off of a construction job site.

  Once the waitress returned with our drinks, my ears perked up at Amelia’s comment. “Cade’ll be here in a bit. Did you come straight from the station?”

  Susanna nodded as she snagged a menu from the center of the table. “Yeah, but the guys weren’t back from their last run. I told Maisie it was time for her to go somewhere other than home after work.”

  Lucy caught my eyes. “Isn’t it fun to be bossed around by our friends?” she asked with a wry grin.

  The warm empathy in her gaze helped me relax a little. “I suppose being bossed isn’t the worst thing,” I offered with a small laugh. “I don't get out much. I'm happy to just work and go home, but Susannah seems to think I need more friends.”

  “Oh I get it. I like to keep to myself, but some people around here think that’s a sacrilege,” Lucy said, sending a pointed glance Amelia’s way.

  Amelia rolled her eyes. “Oh cut it out. You have friends, and you’re the one who gave me a hard time after I got too busy with Cade.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes even harder. “Yeah, well that’s because you were so gaga over him, no one ever saw you.”

  Susanna chuckled. “My friends keep me sane. I spend too much time with guys anyway, so I need nights like this.”

  Amelia and Lucy chatted about some job they were working on. Susannah gave the update on the wildfire she’d just returned from after a three-week stint with her crew. Susannah was on a different crew than both Cade and Beck.

  Amelia was nodding along. “Any chance you’re gonna tell me they’ve got that fire under control?”

  Susannah shook her head. “Not yet. We made good progress containing the fire, but there’s plenty more to do. You worrying about Cade’s crew rotating out there?”

  Amelia shrugged. “Define worry. It’s his job, so I have to li
ve with it. He said his crew will probably head out in another week or two if it’s not fully contained.”

  Sometimes I wondered what it was like to be close to a hotshot firefighter. I’d become friendly with all of them. I worried about them when they were out in the field, but I imagined it was a different kind of worry for Amelia.

  “I bet it’s hard when he’s away like that,” I commented.

  Amelia twisted her mouth slightly. “Always,” she said softly. “Not much I can do about it though. It's what he does and he loves it.”

  Lucy piped up. “I always tell her, statistically speaking he's more likely to get in a car accident than he is to get hurt out fighting a fire. I know it’s cold comfort, but I have to say something.”

  Amelia grinned. “And I love you for it.”

  “I bet it’s hard. I’ve pretty much given up on finding someone. Most men are not gonna want to deal with the risk my job entails. Unless I end up married to a firefighter,” Susannah said with a rueful grin.

  “Who’s to say you won’t marry a firefighter? You’ve got about fifty to choose from among the crews here,” Lucy said with a sly smile.

  Susannah rolled her eyes at that. “Right, like I'm gonna go for one of the guys that I work with. I can't even imagine.”

  “I might joke, but I get it. Hell, I'm an electrician and a construction worker. I’m probably not gonna do the guy thing, and that's good with me. Cheers to our independence,” Lucy said, lifting her drink aloft in a faux toast.

  Amelia laughed and glanced to me. “Don't tell me you're gonna say the same thing too?”

  “Probably. My life is just fine how it is. I've got a good job, a good house and a peaceful life. I don't mind keeping it that way.”

  Amelia looked slightly dismayed as she glanced among us. “You know, relationships aren’t horrible.”

  Lucy looked from her to Susannah and me. “This is her new thing. She thinks I’m missing out,” Lucy said drolly. “I keep reminding her not everyone gets a second chance with the love of their life.”