by Abigail Owen
She’d been horribly wrong.
She ran to the water faucet that stuck out of the ground about twenty feet from the barn. A long hose lay coiled beside it, already attached. With a twist, she turned the water on full force and dragged the hose toward the barn.
I can’t let Sera’s wine burn.
That reason, more than her own safety, drove her actions.
Carefully, she moved closer to the building. Her aching eyes and fuzzy vision didn’t help, but she kept going. She inched inside until she glimpsed flame, then she aimed her hose at the spot and sprayed, using her thumb to focus the water. The fire appeared to laugh at her pitiful effort like a crazed, caged animal. Flames receded in fizzling, smoldering protest before lunging for her with renewed vigor.
I’m not even making a dent.
Delaney stepped forward, not giving up, dousing more of the blaze.
A snap of sound was the only warning she had before the beams above her crumbled. With a scream, Delaney jumped, feet scrambling as she tripped and fell backwards. Luckily the beam didn’t land on her, but it lay so close, heat singed her skin. Grabbing the hose, she crawled back to her feet and turned the spray on the beam.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” a deep male voice thundered in her ear a second before a strong arm banded around her waist.
Delaney found herself hoisted over a shoulder, the air punching from her lungs with a whoosh as her middle connected with a broad shoulder, and she was bodily carried from the burning structure.
She didn’t struggle.
She also didn’t think to let go of the hose.
Her rescuer stumbled over the line and jerked to a halt.
“Damn,” the same deep voice swore and he yanked the hose from her hands.
Realization sank in that she’d been dousing the firefighter who’d “rescued” her, and a completely inappropriate giggle escaped her.
He took off again, not letting her go, jostling her none too gently as he ran across the gravel drive to plonk her on a boulder beside the main winery building. Delaney lifted her gaze up, way up, over his green flame-resistant pants, yellow long-sleeved shirt, and white helmet. A firefighter, but not any kind she’d dealt with before, not based on the clothing. He pinned her to the rock she sat on with the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.
Delaney blinked.
Anger and frustration pulled his brows down in an intimidating glower. “Are you hurt?” he asked. Yelled more like, his voice a harsh growl.
Delaney blinked at him again, shock taking over and slowing her brain way down—like molasses in the winter.
When she didn’t answer, his severe expression softened. “Are you hurt?” he repeated, no less urgently, but more gently.
Pull yourself together. Delaney shook her head.
“Is anyone else in there?”
“No.”
“Any animals?”
“No.” At least, she assumed the cat she’d saved was the only creature in there. “It’s for wine. State of the art with temperature control.” No way should fires be happening in the building.
He nodded. “I’ve got this now. Don’t go back in there. Wait here for the paramedics.” He straightened and anything soft about him disappeared behind granite determination. “Aidan?” he called out to someone she couldn’t see. “Take care of her.”
The flicker of annoyance that her rescuer was leaving her, dumping her on someone else, was completely ridiculous. He had a job to do.
A serious-looking individual stepped up, took off his helmet, and gave her a nod. “Ma’am.”
She blinked up at him. As tall as her rescuer, the younger man had dark Middle Eastern good looks, which made his light blue eyes that much more striking.
Jeez, two sexy firefighters with amazing eyes. What are the odds?
Only, unlike the zing of awareness still tingling through her thanks to firefighter number one, nothing happened with this guy. And the fact that she reacted to her rescuer at all irritated the hell out of her. She shoved that thought away and searched for something, anything, else to focus on. “I need to get the cat out of the office.”
The guy named Aidan frowned and he cleared his throat. “Sorry. The cat?”
Delaney pushed to her feet, determined now. “I don’t want it messing up Sera’s office.”
Aidan glanced over her head.
She half turned to see where he was looking only to find her firefighter had stopped to watch their interaction. He gave a small nod then turned away. She spied a word stenciled on the side of his helmet: Boss. She’d been rescued by the guy in charge? Or was that a nickname because he was bossy?
She flicked a glance at Aidan. Probably a bit of both.
The boss and several other similarly dressed men—though most of them wore yellow helmets instead of white, and one wore red—assembled off to the side. The firefighters had gotten here fast, faster than she’d expected given where the winery was situated on the gentle western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Except…
“Um. Don’t you need a fire truck?” she asked Aidan.
He shook his head. “No ma’am. We’re a hotshot crew, not structure. But we were close by and saw the smoke, figured we could help until the Placerville boys can get their asses out here.” He cringed. “Excuse me. Get out here.”
Oh. That explained her not recognizing the uniform. She’d heard of hotshot crews—teams of firefighters whose sole purpose was to fight the massive wildland fires that regularly devastated entire forests, especially here out west.
She turned her gaze back to the boss who barked out orders, total confidence radiating from those broad shoulders and the calm set of his expression.
These guys had it.
Relief surged through her followed immediately by the prick of tears that had nothing to do with the smoke.
Why does this keep happening to me?
Chapter Two
What the hell had that woman been thinking? She was either very brave or very stupid—probably a bit of both—trying to tackle that fire with a fucking garden hose.
Finn tried to put those wide dove-gray eyes, red-rimmed from smoke and tears, out of his mind as he went through the motions of getting set up to contain the beast with his men. The easiest way to handle the fire, shifting to fit into the limited space and drawing it into their bodies, wasn’t possible with this many human witnesses around in broad daylight, and they didn’t have the gear to deal with a structure fire. The most his team could do was try to contain it and keep it from spreading until the local fire department arrived.
He eyed the smoke billowing through a hole in the roof.
Why had a dragon shifter gone after a human location? And why just this building? If it’d been an accident, more buildings would be part of the blaze.
No, this had been deliberate.
Smoke banked down to the ground around him, because, as always seemed to happen, the wind blew toward them as if Mother Nature herself was pushing the flames toward the only creatures who could control it.
Yeah, this place wasn’t going to make it long enough for the fire department to save it.
Time to move.
Equipment already in hand, he headed for the building. “Titus with me,” he barked. “We’re going in through the main door.”
The black dragon was as stealthy as a ninja. If the structure crews arrived before they got out of there, Titus would be able to slip out unnoticed the easiest.
“Levi, you run the guys out here.”
His Beta acted as foreman when they tackled fires as humans. Levi immediately turned, issuing orders. “Rivin, I want you on the saw. Keighan and Drake with me. Start clearing any shit you find.”
Unlike in the wilderness where there was tons of overgrowth that needed to be removed, creating a wide swath of land free of anything flammable, there probably wasn’t much they could do around the barn. But they’d try. This fucking fire was caused by a dragon. They co
uldn’t let their kind be discovered.
The familiar spike of adrenaline had him firing on all cylinders. He ticked off in his head what they’d do as he and Titus entered the building.
His men—all dragon shifters—were impervious to the flames, but the humans watching didn’t know that, so they couldn’t appear to be trapped inside at any point. And with all the synthetic materials like polyesters and plastics in new construction, they’d have to contend with toxic gases—something dragon shifters were not immune to. Since this wasn’t a typical barn based on the smoky glimpse he’d had of tall silver containers and stacks of wine barrels, Finn didn’t know quite what to expect.
He gestured to Titus and they entered the building slowly, hunched over, duck-walking their way in. Mostly for show for the humans gathered and watching.
“I think that woman was fucking brave, trying to tackle this,” Titus yelled.
“But at what cost? Her lungs might be burned.”
Again, those eyes popped into his mind—captivating and almost pleading. Why pleading? Finn shook it off. Not the time or place to think about a woman.
Using his enhanced sense of smell to taste the dense smoke they practically swam through, he determined none of it was toxic. Yet.
“Do what you can to save the wine and equipment,” he instructed Titus.
The man obeyed immediately, raising his arms. Most dragons could contain fire in either form by drawing it into their lungs, but the dragons on Finn’s team were specialists, trained to utilize their entire body for maximum effect. Titus was especially skilled.
A sound like rushing wind whipped through the room as the flames stretched toward Titus, licking furiously at his body. Being a living, breathing thing, the fire fought him, but Titus was stronger, pulling the flames to his body and absorbing them through his skin.
Finn did the same, while at the same time scanning the area for any evidence that might point to dragon shifters.
It continued like that until Aidan’s voice came over the radio at Finn’s shoulder. “Structure crews are almost here, Boss. I can hear the sirens. You’ve got maybe three minutes.”
“Copy,” he replied.
Time to vacate. They’d done what they could.
He and Titus slipped out of the building and around back, joining the rest of the men who were now covered in dirt and dust as they dug a trench around the perimeter of the structure.
The next ten minutes were a blur as two water tender trucks arrived and set up. A quick word with the guy in charge, and Finn pulled his men back, letting the structure guys do their jobs.
He and the team gathered a safe distance away to talk.
“Good job,” Finn said.
Chests puffed out a bit. That was the most praise they’d get from Finn, and they knew it. Today had been a good call. A tricky call—daylight, an audience, and not a wildfire.
Levi glanced around at the structure, his coppery eyes serious. “Hope they’re insured.”
Finn turned to do the same. Even with water pouring over it now, this thing was toast. Hopefully, he and Titus had saved some of the equipment inside, including the barrels of wine he was guessing were worth a lot to the winery owners. Not his problem though. “Yeah.”
The crew in charge was going to have to call the local fire marshal, and with insurance involved, that meant calling the state fire marshal to investigate. This situation could’ve been a problem for Finn and his team if not for the man they had on the inside to help disguise them.
“What do you think, boss?” Levi asked.
“You smell it?” Finn asked.
Levi’s lips flattened. “Yeah. Definitely dragon.”
The scent of the accelerant matched the chemical all dragon shifters carried inside them to fuel the inferno in their bellies. No doubt about that. “Anyone we know?”
If they’d come across this fucker before, they should be able to recognize the scent. He suspected he did but wanted confirmation.
Levi grimaced, his brows scrunching under his red helmet. “Same guy who started that blaze over by Pyramid Falls a couple months ago, unless I miss my guess.”
All the confirmation he needed. Finn sighed. “Yeah.”
The first time they’d run up against this particular dragon had been in the wilderness, and their investigation had turned up nothing. The man was a ghost. Did that mean he was new to the area? Was he working alone? Or was he part of the growing network of assholes working for the man they’d once considered a brother—an enforcer turned rogue and traitor, Rune Abadonn?
And why target this particular winery?
“I don’t like this,” he muttered.
Levi looked around. “Nope.”
He gave his Beta a significant look. “Get everyone back to headquarters.”
“What about you?” Levi asked.
“Aidan will stay here with me. I’ll call Deep, fill him in. Then I want to talk to witnesses. Send Titus back with a truck to pick us up.” They’d make sure humans saw, holding up the lies that they’d happened upon this fire and stopped to help, once again hiding their true identities.
Levi gave a thumbs-up. “Let’s go, boys.”
They made a big deal of gathering up their gear, pulling off helmets as they walked toward the parking lot, cooling off in the crisp fall breeze. Once they were far enough away, they’d slip deep into the vineyards, then shift and fly home.
Finn pulled out his cell and dialed the first number in the memory. It rang once before a gruff voice answered. “Finn? What do you need, son?”
Finn could just picture his mentor, Deep, at the other end of the line: craggy dark skin, reddish-brown eyes clouded with age, a shock of white hair, and more energy than a tornado, despite his advanced years.
“Is that Finn?” a female voice called from the background.
Finn smiled. He had a soft spot for Deep’s mate. “Tell Calla hi.”
“He says hi,” Deep shouted at his wife.
“Tell him I expect him to visit soon. It’s been too long,” came the loud reply.
Finn shook his head and chuckled.
Deep and Calla had come here with Finn, Rune, Titus, and Levi shortly after humans had discovered the new world. The first enforcer team, as it were—not that they’d called it that at the time. Dragons had been faster on the uptake than humans to colonize here, coming over as sailors on ships since they couldn’t fly the distance required to traverse the ocean.
Once here, they faked their deaths and stayed. The timing had been perfect. He’d just lost Phoebe and needed a distraction, a major change of scene. And Calla had taken care of him in her own bustling, inimitable way—making sure he ate, talked, didn’t withdraw too much.
“What do you need?” Deep asked, back to business.
Mated and settled, the older dragon lived among the humans in whatever role gave him the most chance of helping Finn and the team. These days, that was as the California State Fire Marshal. He directed them from behind the scenes at larger fires where human crews were involved and helped cover their tracks when needed.
Quickly, Finn filled him in.
Deep said nothing as Finn talked. He knew the drill. “Do I need to be up there for this one?”
“Only if the state calls you.”
“I don’t like it being so close to headquarters.”
“Yeah.” Two fires this close to where enforcers lived. This dragon had balls.
Silence greeted that, and Finn could picture Deep nodding. “All right, son. I’ll be in touch if anything looks tricky.”
“Thanks, Deep.” After that there wasn’t much else to say, so they hung up. After hundreds of years together, they had a shorthand way of communicating that didn’t require hellos or goodbyes.
Slipping his phone back into his pocket, he searched for Aidan. As the rookie of the team, Aidan wasn’t yet allowed to work directly with the men on calls until he completed more training, instead operating in a more logistical capacity. Usuall
y that was Kanta’s job because the guy actually liked humans, but he’d been willing to step aside while they trained the rookie.
Finn spotted Aidan standing across the road talking to a curvy brunette who stood among the winery guests. The woman looked as though she might melt in a puddle at the guy’s feet, but Aidan seemed oblivious to her regard.
Finn gave a whistle and Aidan snapped to attention. He walked away from the giggling brunette while she was still midsentence.
Finn crossed his arms. “We’re not here to flirt.”
Aidan’s immediate frown told him everything. “No, sir. I was talking to witnesses while I waited for you.”
He had no doubt Aidan was being truthful. “Good. Where’s the owner?” Finn asked. While the human crews were busy, he needed to do a little more investigation.
Aidan pointed across the drive to a woman with short blond hair, arms wrapped around her middle, watching from a stone porch attached to what appeared to be the main building. “Sera Morrison.”
“And the woman I pulled out of the barn?”
That was a perfectly normal question. One Aidan wouldn’t find strange. As the person immediately on the scene, they would need to question her. No way was Finn going to admit to having already scanned the crowd for her face.
Aidan canted his head off to the right. “At the ambulance.”
A knee-jerk need to check on her kicked through him, and Finn pulled back in a mental pause. He’d spent fewer than five minutes in her company, been doused by her hose, and left her with Aidan. Protectiveness was a…strong reaction to be having.
A wrong reaction to be having.
“She okay?” Shit. That wasn’t pulling back, that was getting involved.
Aidan nodded, not having clued in to Finn’s internal irritation. “Looks like it.”
“Good.” Finn forced that weird reaction to settle. He had work to do. “Let’s talk to Ms. Morrison first.”
After that, he’d tackle the garden-hose-wielding would-be firefighter at the ambulance. And no, his body did not perk up in anticipation.
He clenched his hands as he deliberately turned his back on the ambulance and followed Aidan over to the petite blonde who stared at what was left of her barn with a white face. At least the owner seemed to be composed, though that could just be shock.