Burning Up: Firefighter Contemporary Romance Series Box Set

by K. C. Crowne

“I'm going to ride with Eric in the truck with Silver,” Jacklyn said.

  “Silver?” I asked.

  Jacklyn nodded. “She's the mare who just gave birth,” she said. “If not for Owen here, she might have died having her foal. He's a pretty handy guy.”

  I looked over at Owen, who still wouldn't meet my eyes. I would have called him a great many things, but handy wouldn't have been one of them. Especially when it came to horses giving birth. I guess you really did learn something new every day.

  “I need to drive the other truck,” Owen said, finally looking up at me.

  I opened my mouth to object, but he headed me off. There was a firmness and resolve in his face that I'd never seen in him before. There was also something else. Something I couldn't quite identify, but his bearing was a lot more mature than I'd ever seen in Owen. It was actually impressive.

  “I know I'm in the shit with you again,” he said. “I get it. But I want to get these horses out of here and to safety. Most of the ranch hands are gone. Eric and I are the only ones who can drive the trucks with the trailers on them. So, let's get the horses out, and you can tear me a new asshole later.”

  I nodded. “Okay,” I said. “Let's roll then.”

  I watched Owen walk toward the lead truck, and then watched Jacklyn and her guy, Eric, as they made their way to the second. Something about the guy seemed off to me. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something about him I didn't like.

  “Yeah, I'm not crazy about the guy either,” Sarah said from beside me.

  She looked up at me, studying my face, and could obviously read my thoughts. She'd always been sharp, intuitive, and insightful like that. It was something I appreciated about her. At least, I did, until she turned that on to me.

  “Okay, let's get out of here,” I said. “Fire's coming.”

  As we walked back to Wes' truck, I saw just how close the fire was getting, and it worried me. The orange and red glow in the sky was brighter than before, and the smoke seemed to be getting even thicker. As I looked out across the fields where they trained their horses, I saw small fires beginning to spring up as hot ash fell from the sky to ignite the dry grass.

  We were out of time.

  “Run,” I called. “Get to the truck.”

  With the two horse trucks behind us, their headlights slashing into the wall of smoke and darkness in front of us, we made it to Wes' truck and quickly piled in. The wind was starting to howl, carrying the heat of the fire with it. If you looked around, you'd swear the world was ending – and unless we got moving, it very well could be for us.

  Wes fired the truck up, and quickly turned around, heading back down the service road we'd come in by. All around us more fires, aided by a few strong gusts of wind, were springing up in the fields, and began spreading rapidly among the dry grass and brush.

  Sarah looked out the window, her eyes wide, her expression aghast. “It's moving so fast,” she murmured.

  “Wildfires do that,” I said.

  “The ranch is lost,” she said. “My sister is going to be devastated.”

  “They'll rebuild,” Wes said. “And you saved the horses, so there's that.”

  “Everything's going to be okay,” Luke chimed in. “The ranch can be rebuilt. The important thing is that you and the others are all okay.”

  “Yeah,” she said listlessly.

  Wes powered down the service road, and though fires were igniting in the fields all around us, adding to the nightmare landscape, our path somehow remained clear of falling debris. That might not have been the case if we'd waited too much longer to leave, but we made it out unscathed.

  Wes got off the service road and pulled back out onto the main highway. With both horse trailers behind us, we headed back toward base camp. Everybody was safe and accounted for. Sarah was safe and accounted for.

  That was all that mattered in that moment.

  Luke

  Wes was behind the wheel, Sarah in the passenger seat, while Austin and I had piled into the back seat. The smoke was thick, and the fire was bearing down on the ranch. The sky was lit up in shades of orange and red, seeming like a pale imitation of the sunrise.

  All of us were coughing and hacking a bit, clearing the shit out of our lungs. Wes put on the air conditioner, trying to blow the odor of the fire out – though, I didn't think he was going to be able to get that stink out for a while.

  “This is where it gets hairy,” Austin said.

  The fields all around us were beginning to glow with the embers of the burning ash that rained down from above. I knew it wasn't going to be long before they were ablaze. I didn't have much hope that the ranch was going to survive the fire. That didn't matter though. All that mattered was that we got the people – our people – out safely, and alive.

  A powerful gust of wind rocked the truck as we rumbled down the dirt service road. Ahead of us, the trailers were swaying back and forth, both from the wind, and from bouncing along the rutted track we were driving on. The glow of their taillights dull and eerie in the smoke.

  “They really need to start paving these fire roads,” Wes said.

  The atmosphere inside the truck was tense and filled with a sense of dread. With smoke thicker than San Francisco fog, the glow of the fires painting the sky, and the flames shooting heavenward in the distance, the world outside looked like the gates of hell had been opened.

  “Luke, are the roads ahead clear?” Austin asked.

  I tore my gaze away from the window and looked back down at the tablet in my hand. I called up the drone footage and tried to get a fix on where we were in relation to the blaze. I saw the main highway, watched the fire coming down the valley, headed for the ranch. Smaller hotspots were flaring up as the burning ash spread with the wind, and the flames were moving quickly. Faster than even I anticipated them moving. Tomorrow was going to be a hell of a day, and I didn't think we were going to be able to save all the structures. I just hoped all of the people had gotten out in time.

  “Fire's moving fast, but it's mostly still contained to the valley,” I said. “We need to get off this service road, and onto the main highway as quickly as possible. If we can keep it behind us, we'll be able to get back to base camp in good shape.”

  “Good,” he replied. “Good.”

  “Thank you, guys,” Sarah said, her voice soft. “Thanks for coming to save our asses. I wasn't sure we were going to make it out.”

  “We're just glad you're okay,” Austin said.

  “Yeah,” Wes chimed in. “Very glad.”

  “I third that,” I said.

  Everything had been so nuts, and we'd been moving so fast. It didn't hit me until that moment just how glad I was everything turned out okay, and how glad I was Sarah was safe. Seeing here there, sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, alive and unharmed, filled me with a sense of relief that was as deep as the ocean.

  “I know I'm in deep shit with you, Austin,” she said. “And I'll accept whatever punishment you hand down. I just need you to know that I'm grateful that you got my sister out. There was no way I was going to leave her there to burn.”

  “I understand,” Austin said, not sounding angry, but disappointed. “But you not only put your own life in danger, you put ours in danger too.”

  “I know,” she said softly. “And I'm sorry.”

  “You screwed up big time, Sarah, and –”

  “Guys,” Wes said. “Can we do this later? We have more important things on our plate right now.”

  We all fell silent, but the tension, and ominous energy inside the truck ratcheted up a few notches. He was right though, we did have more important things to worry about. Praying that wind didn't take a sudden and violent shift, sending the fire straight up our asses was one. Another was the question that had bouncing around in my head since we first pulled up to the ranch.

  “Who was that guy with your sister?” I finally asked.

  Sarah groaned. “His name's Eric,” she said, sounding ann
oyed. “He's just some lodger at the ranch who does work for the brothers, I think. Jacklyn thinks she's in love with him or something.”

  “Uh huh,” I said, as some of the pieces of the puzzle start to fall together in my head. “And do you know how long he's been staying there?”

  Sarah turned in her seat to look at me, her eyes boring directly into mine. My voice must have given something away because the look on her face was one of intense curiosity.

  “No, I don't actually. She's pretty spare with the details about him,” she said. “Why do you ask?”

  Austin met my gaze in the rearview mirror, and I saw the same knowing look flash through his eyes I knew was in mine. Maybe he'd already thought it too. Maybe he hadn't, and I was imagining what I was seeing. Either way, he knew where I was going with this now. The whole picture was starting to come into focus for me. I just hoped that when it resolved, it was an accurate picture. It felt like it was deep down in my bones. But a feeling is not proof.

  “It's just that I've seen some recent reports about the fires from some of the locals who've blogged about it and whatnot.”

  “Yeah, and?” she pressed.

  “In everything I've read, they've listed a potential suspect. Somebody who was spotted near some of the bigger fires we've seen lately,” I said. “And frankly, Eric matches those descriptions physically. More than that, he matches the description of the suspect, right down to the limp.”

  Sarah's entire body tensed up, and her eyes grew wide. “And you let my baby sister get in the truck with him?”

  “Not like we had time to argue,” I said. “And honestly, this is speculation at this point. I have nothing in the way of proof. Not concrete proof that will hold up in court of law. Hell, I don't even think we have enough at this point for the cops to arrest him. But, let me ask you, did anything seem off about him to you?”

  “Yes, just about everything,” she said. “Jacklyn was convinced I was being paranoid. That everything going on had me so freaked out that I was chasing ghosts. She was so insistent on him being a good man that I was starting to think that maybe I was being paranoid. After all the help he'd given us with the horses and all, I thought that maybe I'd judged him wrong.”

  She turned around in the seat again and stared through the windshield, trying to make out the forms of the trucks in front of us. One of those trucks, of course, holding her sister and a potential firebug – and murderer, given the fact that a few people had lost their lives because of them.

  Her face was a mask of worry. Sarah's eyes were wide, her jaw clenched, and she looked like she was on the verge of jumping out of the truck and rushing to her sister immediately. I always knew she was protective of her sisters but seeing the mama bear come out in her was really something else entirely. It was the difference between knowing something, and seeing it play out live and in front of you.

  That fearlessness and determination I saw in her face in that moment only endeared her to me even more.

  “Do we really think this is the guy?” Wes asked.

  “I think it's a strong possibility,” Austin said. “Luke may have figured this one out.”

  “You know, Owen said something back at the house that I brushed off at the time...”

  Sarah's voice trailed off, and she seemed lost in thought for a moment. She stared straight ahead, as if her eyes could cut through the smoke and see all the way through to Jacklyn.

  “What did he say?” Austin asked gently.

  “When Eric came in, Owen said something about him reeking of gasoline,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.

  “Gasoline?” Wes asked.

  She nodded. “Yeah, he said his truck had broken down, and it was actually oil Owen was smelling on him,” she said. “But, from where I was, I'd say it was definitely gasoline. At the time, I didn't think anything of it, really. There was a lot going on, we had a lot to figure out, and I just accepted him at his word that his truck had broken down. Fuck, how could I have been so stupid?”

  “It's not your fault, Sarah,” Austin said gently. “You couldn't have known.”

  “I'm a firefighter,” she said. “I should have known.”

  “You're not a mind reader, nor are you an arson investigator,” I said. “And hell, we don't actually know for sure we're looking for a firebug. Everything seems to point to it, but until we have a definitive ruling from the Commissioner's office, we can't say it for sure.”

  “Nor can we rule anything out,” Austin said. “If it looks and sounds like a duck –”

  “It's probably a goddamn firebug,” Wes said, his voice tight with anger.

  “What are we going to do?” Sarah asked.

  “What we're not going to do is let this guy ghost us,” Austin said, his voice hard. “If he is the arsonist, we need to make sure we know where he is.”

  “Which, given the fact that he's a lodger at the ranch – and said ranch is probably going to burn – will be pretty fucking difficult,” Sarah said. “The guy's a transient. He doesn't have a fixed address. If we lose him now, we lose him for good.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Austin said. “But, we're not the cops. We can't make an arrest.”

  I slip my phone out of my pocket. “No, we can’t,” I said. “Which makes it a good thing that we have friends who can.”

  “What are you going to do?” Wes asked.

  I punched in a number and held the phone to my ear. It took a minute, but Rick Morgan finally answered the call with a gruff grunt. I'd obviously woken him up. Morgan was an old friend from the Sheriff's office. We got together for a beer and a game every now and then and had done each other professional courtesies from time to time. This was a big ask though, given the fact that we had no proof of anything. All we had were our suspicions and circumstantial evidence – and barely any at that.

  After talking to him for a few minutes, he was on board. He said he'd rather err on the side of caution and get this son of a bitch, than having him in the wind. I disconnected the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket.

  “Okay,” I said. “He's going to meet us there.”

  Austin nodded. “Good.”

  Sarah looked at me, panic in her eyes. “What about Jacklyn?” she asked. “What if –”

  “As soon as we park the trucks, I need you to grab your sister and get her away,” I said. “I'll have Morgan hold off on doing anything until she's clear.”

  She nodded. “Thank you, Luke,” she said. “Thank all of you.”

  The truck sped along the highway, the wind gusting, but the fire still at our backs. I didn't want to jinx anything, but I had a feeling this was all going to turn out okay.

  I just hoped that optimism wasn't misplaced.

  Wes

  Everybody was tight and tense inside the truck, which was understandable. We were walking into a real shitstorm. If this guy turned out to be the firebug and he got wind of what we'd set up back at base camp, it might not go well for Sarah's sister. Our top priority once we got back to camp, was to get Jacklyn out of harm's way.

  Until then, we had to play it cool. We couldn't afford to tip Eric off. Which meant not even telling Owen what was up. We couldn't afford to have him acting all squirrely or trying to play the hero. It was something that was going to piss him off. Dude already had an inferiority complex and didn't feel like part of the team as it was. This was just going to add to that attitude.

  Owen wasn't really a bad guy. He just had a sense of entitlement and attitude that always got under my skin. He never failed to make me feel like he was looking down his nose at me, or that he thought he was better than me. Maybe part of that was my own shit. Probably was. But he just irritated me at times. Despite that, I didn't think the kid was a bad guy. He just had some growing up to do.

  But we couldn't afford to fuck this up. Jacklyn's life was literally on the line. We had no idea what Eric would do once he figured out we'd walked him into a trap. I don't know a whole lot about the psychology behind firebugs, bu
t I figured they probably weren't the most stable people around.

  Of course, nobody was officially saying we even had a firebug. The Commissioner's Office hadn't connected all the dots. If not for Luke, we might not have even been suspicious of Eric to begin with. It was his brains that put all the pieces together, and after seeing what he'd laid out, I would have bet my pension on the fact that we had a firebug setting off all these blazes – and that the firebug was up in the lead truck with Sarah's sister.

  We had to get this right and take him down with as little drama as possible. For Sarah's sake. I didn't want a hair on her sister's head harmed, knowing it would devastate her. I knew how close they all were, and how protective she was about Jacklyn. I couldn't even imagine what it would do to her to have something bad happen to her baby sister.

  “Luke, what do we know about firebugs?” I asked. “Are they known to be violent?”

  I glanced in the rearview and saw him shrug. His eyes were fixed to his tablet – no doubt studying up on them a bit more. Of all of us, Luke was the most likely to know. He was, without a doubt, the smartest of our group. He seemed to know a little bit about most everything – and everything about certain subjects. The guy was brilliant and I'd never understand why he gave up the career path he did to become a firefighter.

  But, he had, and I was glad we had him.

  “Just depends on the person,” he said. “From what I've read, no, they're not normally known to be violent. But there are a few cases that disprove that rule.”

  “Do we know if he's armed?” Austin asked.

  “We don't really know shit about him,” Sarah said. “My sister barely knows the guy.”

  “If he sees the squad cars there when we roll into camp, there's a chance the guy could freak out,” I said.

  “Yeah, there is that chance,” Austin said through gritted teeth. “But we don't have any choice. We can't let this guy leave. We can't afford to have him in the wind.”

  “He's right,” Luke added. “If he gets away, there will be more fires, and more people will die because of him.”