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“Blind, I’m afraid,” the captain said. “Do one preliminary sweep and if you don’t see him, get the fuck out. Understood?”
“Crystal,” Joe replied. He clapped his gloved hands together. “All right. Let’s do this.”
He flipped his helmet down, adjusting the breathing apparatus. He held up a thumb to Reece, who followed with his own helmet. He returned the thumbs-up and Joe led them into Hell. Their equipment helped shield them from the intensity of the fire, but it wasn’t completely foolproof. They had a short amount of time to get in, find their handyman, and then get out of there.
“Can you hear me?” Joe asked, his voice filtering through the radio in his mask.
“Loud and clear, old man,” Reece replied.
“Fuck off with the ‘old man’. Not retiring yet.”
Reece grinned. Joe had been his mentor when he had first started with Firehouse Seventy-Two, a fresh-faced rookie with wide eyes and hero worship. Now, ten years later, there wasn’t anyone else he wanted to walk into a burning building with.
Inside was nothing but chaos. Smoke curled at the ceiling level, thick plumes of grey swelling up from the ground. Flames licked up the walls to play peek-a-boo through the beams. The heat was far worse than he expected and he tread carefully behind Joe. There was nothing to the right and left of them, and he realized nothing could’ve survived. The crackle of flames steadily rose in intensity, as the creak and groan of timbers contracted. Glass shattered and turned into hissing puddles as the temperature rose even more, and Reece knew when to throw in the towel. He tapped on Joe’s shoulder then the older man turned, nodding his understanding. It was time to get the hell out of there. He turned, taking lead, and retracing his steps.
One foot in front of the other. The exit was there, within reach, but just as they reached it, a hollow moan came from beneath them. Reece hesitated, and in that split-second, everything went wrong. He and Joe looked down. They knew that sound. It was the death knell for any firefighter. Reece had no time to think about his life or his family. No time to mourn for all that would be over. Each firefighter knew it might go this way, their death coming on the swift wings of fire. He also knew that pain would only be intense for the first thirty seconds or so, only until the nerve endings were burned away.
Then he was flying forward as Joe pushed him, hard, out of the building. He fell safely onto the ground outside the fire, and two of his fellow fighters yanked him away from the blaze. Once far enough away, he pulled his helmet off and turned to thank Joe. Only… he wasn’t there. It took a moment for his brain to come to the realization that Joe didn’t make it out. That his last action on Earth was to push Reece to safety.
No. No, no, no!
An agonized cry tore out of him. Shock, fear, denial shifted through Reece, driving him to his knees. His tears dried up immediately from the heat radiating outward as his heart broke.
Chapter One
Reece watched twilight descend as he lazily moved his rocker with a foot. Mountains surrounded the cascading thoroughfare of the endless forest. The lush valley gave him a sense of peace unlike anything else. The first time he had seen the cabin surrounded by tall trees and a carpet of grass, it had become his salvation. The isolation was his therapy. The death of his partner, Joe, had forced him into a mandatory psych evaluation, but even when he’d been released to go back to active duty, he discovered he couldn’t. The moment he stepped foot in the firehouse, a cold shiver sluiced down his spine, leaving him frozen in the doorway, unable to move forward.
So, he went to the one place that always healed his soul.
He had never been afraid of fire. It was probably the first requirement to do his job, but every nook and cranny reminded him of Joe. How he had made the ultimate sacrifice by saving Reece, and it made him feel … unworthy. “Survivors guilt,” they called it, but whatever technical name it happened to be, it showed he was nothing but a fucking coward. Joe had traded his life for a man who didn’t even have the goddamn balls to pick up the pieces and resume the job.
He had taken a leave of absence to work through his grief. Not wanting to be around people, he had fled to his cabin. Anger, depression, anxiety—he was pretty sure he had skipped a few steps in the grieving process, but he didn’t care.
When his phone rang, he glanced at the caller ID and sighed. It was his childhood friend, Dan. They had done everything together growing up on the streets of Richmond. While he had gone to college, Dan had decided to be a firefighter and managed to convince Reece to change his major to fire science. Once he graduated, he got his EMT license and joined Dan in Firehouse Seventy-Two. Now, his best friend called every day to make sure Reece hadn’t done something stupid like blow his brains out. What he and everyone else failed to realize was that he would never disrespect Joe like that. How could he throw away the second chance Joe had given him? Reece connected the call.
“I’m here,” he greeted.
“Good,” Dan muttered, his voice a bit weak. “My daily mental dose of is today the day Reece doesn’t answer has been fulfilled.”
Reece frowned. Dan was always the happy-go-lucky type of guy, and his distracted tone was completely out of character. “You okay?”
“Reece, I … I’ve done something stupid and now I might lose my marriage.”
“What the fuck did you do?”
There was a pregnant pause. “I, ah, had an affair.”
That floored him. As far as he knew, Dan and his wife Anna were happily married. He’d been best man at their wedding. Anna was like a little sister to him. “What the fuck? You cheated on Anna?”
“Listen, I’m not proud of it. Okay? But that’s not the worst of it.”
“It never is. Jesus, Dan! You’re married to the nicest woman on the planet.”
“I know! Shit, I know. There’s nothing you can say that I’ve not already told myself.” He let out a breath in a whoosh. “Now this woman is blackmailing me and I don’t want Anna to find out how much of a stupid fuck I am. I don’t want to lose her, Reece.”
“Should’ve thought about that before you stuck your dick into a woman that wasn’t your wife. Why the fuck did you do it?”
“Because … hell, she’s gorgeous. Even you would’ve cheated, asshole.”
