A Firefighter's Ultimate Duty

by Beverly Long

  “Fine.” Blade didn’t want to be rude, but he wasn’t interested in small talk. “Any feedback from the weigh station?” he asked.

  “No unusual incidences. Every truck has pulled over as required. Every vehicle has been searched. Every driver has been compared against the photo of Jacob Posse that was circulated to me and all other law-enforcement personnel in six states.”

  “No trucks have circumvented the stop?” Blade asked.

  “None,” the trooper said.

  The thought that he’d been wrong was heavy on his heart. It had now been almost two hours since Daisy had been taken from the alley. She could be anywhere.

  His cell vibrated in his pocket. When he looked at the number, he saw that it was Marcus. He immediately thought of Raven and Sophie. “Everything okay?” he answered.

  “We’ve picked up Posse’s two accomplices,” Marcus said.

  The ones who had thrown his daughter away like a sack of garbage. “Tell me they resisted arrest.”

  “No. We got a lucky break. Did Daisy tell you about the hang-up calls on her work phone?”

  “No.”

  “No matter. Suffice it to say that she had a bunch of hang-up calls. We discussed it, and she asked her tech people to find the number. She gave them my name to contact if they couldn’t reach her. They called with a number. We were able to locate the phone. It belonged to the man, who was with his wife at a motel outside of Knoware, laying low.”

  “Did they tell you where Posse is headed?”

  “Claim they don’t know. But they really wanted to make sure that they weren’t taking the fall for shooting Gertie. They confirmed the girls’ statements that it was Posse.”

  “Okay.” He supposed it was good news, but Marcus seemed overexcited about it. “Anything else?”

  “Yeah. We saw an incoming call that came in about an hour ago on the guy’s phone. He said it was from Posse. We’ve successfully traced the location of Posse’s phone.”

  Blade could feel his heart start to beat faster. “Tell me.”

  “He’s on Blue Turtle Pass, headed east.”

  “Hang on.” Blade yanked the map from his coat pocket and spread it out across the hood of the police car. Trooper Hogan handed him a flashlight off his utility belt. Posse was either crazier or more cunning than Blade had anticipated. He was traveling back roads through the mountains, roads that were certainly not built for semitruck traffic. Roads that weren’t guaranteed to be plowed. But if he had chains on his truck and he was damn lucky, he might make it.

  It took him less than a minute to figure it out. Damn. Posse had already passed their location. “I’ve got the location,” he told Marcus.

  “We’re scrambling some resources right now to have our folks available to meet him when he crosses Interstate 90.”

  It made sense. But that left Daisy in a dangerous situation longer. If Posse didn’t hurt her intentionally, he might just send her sliding over a mountain pass to her death.

  “What’s going on?” Jamie asked from behind him.

  Blade brought him up-to-date and gave him a chance to study the map. Then he said, “I’m thinking of the summer after high school graduation. Travis Ridge.”

  Trooper Hogan frowned at him, clearly puzzled. But Jamie smiled. Looked at the map again. “Okay,” he said.

  Blade folded his map and stepped away from the car. “We’re sorry to have wasted your time. We’ll just be getting back now.”

  He and Blade wasted no time in getting back to the plane. Jamie had it in the air in less than five minutes. Neither of them spoke.

  Finally, Blade said, “I don’t want you to take any chances. This isn’t your fight.”

  “He shot Gertie, left her for dead,” Jamie said, not looking at Blade. He was focused on flying. “Scared the hell out of two teenage girls. Abducted a woman that my friend intends to marry. It is definitely my fight. It’s everybody’s fight.”

  Blade swallowed hard. “How much farther?”

  “Five minutes, tops. It’s going to get a little dicey now.”

  Chapter 22

  Dicey, as in they were going to have to get low enough to see the lights on the road, but avoid clipping their wings on the surrounding mountains. Blade studied the ground below them.

  “There,” he said, pointing at the lone set of lights.

  Jamie said nothing, just took the plane a little lower. He was cutting way back on speed. The bright moonlight and the white snow helped visibility, but a mountain was a dark place.

  Lower. Lower.

  Looking. Judging.

  Finally, he turned to Blade. “Hang on.”

  And less than a minute later, the wheels touched down on the highway that thankfully had been plowed since the last snowstorm. It was hard and rough and by the time the plane skidded to a stop crossways on the highway, with its nose and front wheels encased in the packed snow alongside the road, Blade thought some of the fillings in his teeth had shaken loose.

  He sucked in a breath. He’d been holding his. “Amazing,” he said.

  “Better than Travis Ridge?” Jamie asked, as if it had been no big deal.

  They’d been eighteen and fearless then. And there hadn’t been any snow on that highway. “Good thing Marcus isn’t here,” Blade said. That night, their friend, who’d been in the back seat while Jamie flew and Blade rode shotgun, had thrown up twice once they were on the ground.

  “Good thing,” Jamie agreed. “We’re about five miles down the road. I want to give him a nice long time to put on the brakes so I’m going to jog up ahead and light some flares.”

  That was a good idea, assuming Posse wasn’t truly a crazy bastard and rather than stopping, would try to plow through the plane parked in the middle of the road.

  “The man probably doesn’t have a death wish,” Jamie said, proving that he was tracking with what Blade was thinking.

  “He’s a con artist. He’ll think he can talk his way out of most anything,” Blade said. “I think we have to assume that if he’s been watching Daisy, he might recognize me. You should stand by the plane. Make him get out of the truck. I’m going to be over there,” Blade said, pointing to some tree cover. “I’ll make sure it’s him.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then I’m going to take him out.”

  * * *

  Daisy saw the lights of the low-flying plane, and it made her think of how she and Blade had chased after Sophie. Flashes of the day came back to her. Blade silently warning his friend not to push her into conversation. Him buying her a candy bar when he could see that she was just about to fall over. His face when he came to find her to tell her that Sophie was outside pumping gas.

  From the beginning, he’d been a rock.

  Exactly what his coworkers counted on him being. Cool. Calm. Focused.

  Exactly what she counted on him being. Kind. Caring. Loving.

  She would hold on to those memories and hope that they got her through the long days ahead. And she would look for her chance to escape. Always look.

  She jumped when Jacob uttered a curse under his breath. Then saw the flare. What the heck. Jacob was slowing down. They rounded the next curve. Another flare. And then a hundred yards out, she saw it.

  A plane. A man standing in front of it, waving his arms.

  It was Jamie Weathers.

  Her heart was beating so hard and so fast that it would be a miracle if Jacob didn’t hear it. But she didn’t move a muscle. Stayed curled up next to the door, as if she was half-asleep.

  If Jamie was here, then Blade was nearby. He’d come. He’d found a way.

  Jacob brought the truck to a stop. They were now less than fifty yards, half a football field away. He turned to her. “Stay in the truck. If you don’t, I’ll find you and I’ll kill you.”

  “I don’t think I’d ge
t very far dressed like this,” she said.

  “You always were a sensible woman.” Jacob reached down toward his right ankle. From inside his work boot, he pulled out a gun. He slipped it into his coat pocket. “Remember,” he said, “if you make any noise, this guy dies and that’ll be on your conscience.”

  Right. It certainly wouldn’t be Jacob’s fault.

  He got out of the truck and walked toward Jamie. He had one hand in his pocket. Daisy wanted to scream out a warning, but she was afraid that might spook Jacob and he would shoot. She thought about what Blade had said about Jamie. That he was supersmart. Surely he was anticipating that Jacob would be armed.

  * * *

  Blade lay on his stomach in the trees and waited for Posse to make his move. From his vantage, he could not see into the cab of the truck. But he knew Daisy was in there. He could just feel that she was close.

  Finally, he saw the door of the truck open and a man step down. It was Posse. Blade had studied that face over the last week. He walked toward Jamie with one hand in his pocket. Blade resisted the urge to run over to the truck, to pull Daisy to safety. He would take care of Posse first.

  “Boy, am I glad to see you, mister,” Jamie said, his voice carrying in the still night. “I had engine trouble and had to ditch my plane.”

  “That’s too bad,” Posse said. “But unfortunately, I’m in a bit of a hurry and you’re going to need to move it to the side so that I can pass.”

  “If only I could,” Jamie said. “The damn thing is stuck.”

  “You either get it out of my way or I will,” Posse said.

  “I’m not sure—”

  “Shut up,” Posse said. “And move over there,” he said, pointing toward the side. “If you’re lucky, somebody will come along and pick you up.”

  Posse intended to push the plane out of his way, literally off the mountain. Blade sure as hell wasn’t going to let that happen.

  “Listen, man. There’s no need to do something crazy,” Jamie said.

  “Move or I’m going to use the gun I have in my pocket, and your biggest worry is not going to be about your plane.”

  Jamie stepped to the side, his hands in the air.

  Posse took four steps. Then turned. Pulled the gun. Aimed it at Jamie. “Can’t leave any witnesses. You under—”

  Blade charged him. Leading with his shoulder, he hit him with a flying tackle that would have made his high school football coach proud. The two of them rolled, landing, unfortunately, with Posse on top. He got in two good punches before Blade managed to scramble free. Blade hit him hard. Once. Twice. Posse fell to his knees. Blade yanked him up and hit him again.

  “That’s for knocking Daisy out of her chair,” he said.

  He hit him again. “That’s for our daughters.”

  He pulled his fist back, but didn’t land the punch because Jamie was pulling him back. “That’s enough.”

  “He was going to shoot you,” sputtered Blade. Damn, his nose was bleeding.

  “But he didn’t. You saved me, like I knew you would. Somebody here wants to say thank you, as well.” Jamie stepped aside. “I’ve already assured her the girls are just fine.”

  Daisy, beautiful Daisy, wearing Jamie’s big coat, was standing fifteen feet away. “Watch him,” Blade mumbled. He withdrew his own weapon from the waistband of his jeans and handed it to Jamie.

  Then he ran and scooped Daisy up. He held her tight and kissed her hard. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No,” she said. She held his face in her hands. “Your poor face. You’re bleeding.”

  “The bastard landed a couple. No worries. You’re safe. That’s all that matters.” And then, on a moonlit night on a mountain pass, he fell to one knee. “Daisy Rambler, will you marry me?”

  She knelt. “Sophie said that she thought you could take Jacob. She was right. And she was also right when she told me that I could trust you. I love you, Blade. I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve brought to your life, but if you still want me after all that, then yes, yes, I will marry you. Tomorrow, next week, any day you pick.”

  He stood and pulled her up with him. “We have to make sure it’s a day that Gertie’s free to cater the reception.”

  “Is she...” Her voice trailed off.

  “She’s going to be okay. It’s all going to be okay.” He turned.

  Jamie had the gun aimed at Posse and was holding his cell phone up to his ear. He finished the call. “That was Marcus. He’s already on his way. After he talked to Trooper Hogan who told him we were talking about Travis Ridge, he knew what we were up to.”

  “I want to go home,” Daisy said. “I need to see Sophie. See for myself that she’s safe.”

  He handed her his cell phone. “I’ll get you there, I promise. For now, call her.”

  “Can I tell her our news?” she asked. “She’ll want to tell Raven, and you probably want a chance to do that.”

  He smiled. “That’s okay. She’ll understand and she’ll be superhappy. Go make your call.”

  * * *

  It took time for everything to get sorted out. Daisy didn’t really mind the wait. Her conversation with Sophie had given her peace. Both girls were doing fine at Sheila’s and Sophie had said she was thrilled about the proposal.

  She, Blade and Jamie sat in the cab of the truck, where they turned the heater on nice and high. From that vantage, they had a clear view of Jacob who had been secured to a tree.

  It made Daisy happy to think that he was probably a little chilled.

  At one point, Jamie turned to Blade, studied his bruised hand. “You could have just shot him.”

  He shook his head. “Nope. I wanted him to know what it felt like to have somebody hit you so hard that you fell down. I wanted it to hurt. I want him to rot in jail and maybe get his ass kicked there a few times, too.”

  She reached over and stroked his battered hand. “My hero,” she said, her voice cracking.

  “Nobody pushes my girl around,” he teased. “This should get me out of dishes for, what, maybe a week or two?”

  “For sure,” she said. She settled back to wait. Everyone she loved was safe. The rest would work out.

  Once Marcus arrived and arrested Jacob, it didn’t take long to get him bundled into the back seat of the police vehicle and headed on down the mountain. The three of them had to continue to wait. For two tow trucks. One to tow the semi and one to tow the plane. When the vehicles finally arrived, Daisy was relieved to see that they’d brought a black SUV with them. It would make for a more comfortable ride home.

  Once they were on their way, Jamie drove and Blade sat in the back with her. There were some jokes about him feeling like he was their dad and chaperoning them on their first date. Blade didn’t seem to mind. It was as if both could not bear to be separated. She thought it was especially nice when she curled up with her head on Blade’s shoulder and closed her eyes.

  She woke up when they arrived at Rainbow Field. “I’m going to go check on Gertie,” Jamie said, letting them off at Blade’s SUV.

  Even though she still had on Jaime’s jacket, she shivered when she got into Blade’s cold vehicle. “I am never wearing a strapless gown again. They are useless.”

  “Oh, I disagree,” he said. “I really like that dress. You were the most beautiful woman there tonight.” He paused. “I planned on bidding on the Paris trip. I wanted to win it and surprise you.”

  He knew how to warm her up. “I don’t need Paris.” If she had Blade and Sophie, that was more than enough.

  “We’ll see,” he said. “Let’s go get your daughter.”

  “It’s late.”

  “They’ll be up,” he said.

  He was right. Every light in Sheila’s house was on. Sheila opened the door at their knock. She hugged Blade first, then Daisy. “I hear congratulations are in order. Very happy for
the both of you.”

  Then Sophie was in Daisy’s arms and all was right with the world. “Let’s go home, honey,” Daisy said. She turned to Sheila. “Thank you for watching over her. I’m grateful.”

  “We’re in this together now,” Sheila said, giving Daisy another quick hug. Then the two moms stood there and watched their daughters hug so tight it was lucky that no one broke a rib.

  “Your house?” Blade asked once they were in the car.

  There was no reason they couldn’t go back home. “I think Sophie should get to sleep in her own bed.”

  “Fair enough,” he said.

  “Is it really over, Mom?” Sophie asked as they pulled into their driveway.

  “Yes. Marcus said that he’s confident that Jacob will spend a long time in prison. Attempted murder. Kidnapping. Assorted other charges. We don’t have to worry about him.”

  Blade walked them to the door, but he didn’t step inside.

  “What’s wrong?” Daisy asked.

  “I just figured the two of you might need a night to yourselves.”

  “I was really hoping you’d stay,” Daisy said.

  “Yes,” Sophie said, and did a fist pump in the air. Then she kissed her mother good-night and gave Blade a quick hug before almost running up the stairs to her room.

  “You have to be tired,” he said.

  “Not that tired. Come on.” She took his hand. “You know my preference for beds.”

  * * *

  Look for more books in Beverly Long’s

  Heroes of the Pacific Northwest series

  coming soon from Harlequin Romantic Suspense!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Colton 911: Temptation Undercover by Jennifer Morey.

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