BEHIND THE FLAME
An Everyday Heroes World Novel
RENEE HARLESS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead are entirely coincidental.
©2020 KB WORLDS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
Published by KB Worlds LLC.
Cover Design by: Porcelain Paper Designs
Cover Image by: Deposit Photo
Editing by: Harless Productions, Patricia Rohrs
Formatting by: Harless Productions
Published in the United States of America
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the Everyday Heroes World!
I’m so excited you’ve picked up this book! Behind the Flame is a book based on the world I created in my USA Today bestselling Everyday Heroes Series. While I may be finished writing this series (for now), various authors have signed on to keep them going. They will be bringing you all-new stories in the world you know while allowing you to revisit the characters you love.
This book is entirely the work of the author who wrote it. While I allowed them to use the world I created and may have assisted in some of the plotting, I took no part in the writing or editing of the story. All praise can be directed their way.
I truly hope you enjoy Behind the Flame. If you’re interested in finding more authors who have written in the KB Worlds, you can visit www.kbworlds.com.
Thank you for supporting the writers in this project and me.
Happy Reading,
K. Bromberg
Chapter One
He had one more day left on his required leave and Ridge couldn’t wait to get back to work. Fighting fires was his passion, the one thing he was always good at. In school, when his kindergarten teacher asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he proudly told her, “A fireman.” Decades later, that desire never changed. The adrenaline, the rush, the penchant for helping, Ridge knew that there was nothing else for him.
Which was why he lamented taking the required leave, but he understood the Chief’s demand. He and his crew had been trapped in the San Rios fire and waited for what felt like years to get rescued. He had watched his teammates do their best to remain strong, but the fear was there. Many said a prayer for survival or a heartfelt goodbye to their loved ones. For Ridge, he marked off a checklist of his shortcomings. A nasty divorce, a broken family, and a perfect life he feared he would never have. He’d had so many regrets and the only thing he knew would calm him was being taken away, even if temporarily.
Who was he if he wasn’t a firefighter? He wasn’t even sure if he was a good father, though he tried, but his ex-wife kept their daughter distanced from him. Not that he could blame her, he worked crazy hours and slept when he wasn’t working. That was no life for his daughter.
Leaning into the fridge, Ridge sighed as he took in its lack of sustenance. A few bottles of water, an egg carton he was sure was empty, and a jar of pickles that had a more bluish tint now that mold had started taking over. All the food he had bought for the week was now gone and he only had himself to blame.
Sighing in defeat, Ridge turned around and sifted through the pantry, noting its only contents were snacks for his daughter when she was able to visit. Grabbing the yogurt bites, he tossed a few into his mouth and immediately spat them back out into the trash can.
Oh god, how could his daughter like these things? he thought to himself.
With no other option left at his home, Ridge and his growling stomach succumbed to the necessity of leaving the apartment. He had only ventured out once since the forced leave. A quick visit to the grocery store should have been easy enough in Sunnyville, but he should have known better. Someone down every aisle at the store had peppered him for information. As if he knew much other than the fire had closed them in.
It didn’t take long for Ridge to make his way to Bertha’s café. It was a hop, skip, and a jump away from his apartment. What did surprise him was to find Grady Malone sitting in a booth finishing up his own meal. Ridge considered ignoring his friend and teammate, but he knew he’d regret it if he did. And he’d had enough of those.
“Hey, man,” Ridge said as he stood at the end of Grady’s table. His friend wiped his mouth and gestured for Ridge to sit down.
“How are you holding up?” Grady asked, looking equally as miserable as Ridge felt.
“You know,” Ridge responded vaguely. “Just wishing I was back on the job.”
“You and me both. It won’t be too long now.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Just a few more days.”
Ridge watched as Grady threw a few dollars on the table then stood. “I hate to up and go, but I have a couple of things that I need to grab for Sherry.”
“No sweat.” Sherry was the widow of one of Grady’s previous teammates and his best friend. Ridge and the rest of their team knew how much it meant to Grady to help her out any way that he could. “I’ll catch you later.”
The staff at Bertha’s knew his order and it wasn’t long before a double stack of pancakes with extra bacon was placed in front of him with a large glass of orange juice – he was not a coffee drinker. Something about the pancakes was out of this world and no matter how hard he tried, he could not recreate them at home. He couldn’t wait to take his daughter there one day.
Ridge wasn’t sure how long he sat at the table watching the customers from his perch in the back corner. Everyone seemed to go on with their lives as if they never expected for this day to be their last. And he hoped that they all lived long and healthy lives, but he knew it could all be taken away in a flash. That was the fear he lived with on a daily basis. It never ceded. If anything, it blossomed more each day. Each fire, each accident, each life lost weighed on him more and more. He wished that he didn’t feel the weight pressing on his chest, but that was part of who he was. He just hoped he’d be there to watch his daughter grow up, even if from the sidelines.
Ridge took his time walking back to his apartment, letting the warm sun and slight breeze wash over him. He loved living in Sunnyville, but he longed to move back to the east coast with his family every once in a while. Ridge considered the town where his cousins grew up as he stepped closer to his apartment. Only when a familiar car zoomed past him did he break from his memories.
Why did that black car seem so familiar? He asked himself as he took the steps two at a time until he reached the top floor of the building.
His breath caught in his lungs as he stared at his door. He thought he was imagining things. Ridge rubbed his eyes with the back of hi
s fists until everything was black and white, only pulling his fists away to find that nothing had changed.
Ridge took a step closer to his door, still in disbelief. He swore that these things only happened in movies, not in real life. But it was happening to him.
An arm wrapped around her favorite pink teddy bear and her giraffe teether wedged in her mouth was his sweet baby girl, Delilah. She rested in the carrier Ridge had splurged on without a care in the world. And when their eyes met, she squealed in delight.
Ridge knelt in front of his daughter and sighed when he noticed the envelope pressed between Delilah’s leg and the carrier.
“Come on, little one. Let’s get you inside.”
Ridge lifted the carrier, noting that there was no diaper bag left behind. He guessed he would have to make a trip to the store now; he could only hope that Delilah had been fed recently.
He quickly unhooked his daughter from the belts strapping her to the carrier and lifted her into his arms.
“Hey, baby girl. I missed you,” Ridge cooed as he rubbed his nose across her soft cheek, savoring the way she giggled at his touch.
As he settled her on his hip, Ridge reached down for the envelope with his name scrawled across the front in Penny’s writing.
It didn’t take him long to read the note. Penny had left with her latest fling and didn’t want the burden of Delilah any longer. She wasn’t a fit mother, she noted toward the end and attached signed documents giving up her maternal rights.
He was astonished and almost lost his grip on Delilah as he read through the short note one last time.
Penny had been so excited to find out she was pregnant, explaining to him that she wouldn’t spend her nights alone. But five months before their daughter graced the world, Penny had served him with divorce papers. He didn’t fight it sine he knew that he wasn’t giving Penny all of his time and attention and wouldn’t be able to do the same for his daughter.
But now, he was given no choice just as his required leave was about to end.
Delilah chose that moment to reach for the papers in his hand. Looking down at the daughter in his arms, he didn’t have time to wonder about Penny’s motives, though he was worried about the way she worded the letter. He was used to her typically girly lettering, but the note seemed hurried and rushed.
Reaching into his back pocket, Ridge did the only thing he could think of; he dialed the first number on his speed dial.
“Chief? I need your help.”
***
River blinked back the tears as she watched her neighbor load the last box into the car. Her grandmother had lived in this tiny house outside of Asheville, North Carolina since she was a little girl. It was also where River had grown up after her hippie parents left her on the doorstep.
The breeze knocked the For Sale sign back and forth and River sighed deeply at the notion that she and her grandmother were really leaving. Not that they were given much choice. An equity loan had been taken out on the home when River started college, though she hadn’t been aware of it at the time, but when she graduated and moved in to help her grandmother, the unpaid bills didn’t go unnoticed. It didn’t help that her grandmother was slowly losing her way. Spouts of dementia and a stroke over the summer had left her grandmother worse for wear. River did the best that she could, but she was failing miserably.
And for the first time in her life, she asked for help.
Being self-sufficient and independent was something that River prided herself in, but she knew when she had reached her limit.
But an angel had been looking down on her and her grandmother when she was at her wit's end and knee-deep in fear and chaos. In the early morning, a phone call the same day she had planned to quit her job at a private school changed her outcome. An assisted living facility in Carson had an opening for her grandmother. The facility was located in the valley of the mountains not far from where they lived. It was about an hour's drive from Asheville, so they didn’t have to travel far, but it still left them having to sell the home her grandmother cherished.
Looking over her shoulder toward the porch where her grandmother sat in a rocking chair, River found herself wishing that things were different, but there was no turning back. She couldn’t fix the fact that her grandmother was forgetting more and more every day and that River was stretched to her limit.
“Everything is ready, Ms. Matthews,” her neighbor called out as he closed the tailgate to the utility truck.
“Thank you, Hank,” River said to the older man that had been like a grandfather figure to her after her own passed away when she was six. She tried to fight the tears that had been threatening to fall through the afternoon, but she knew it was a lost cause when the first one crested her lower lid.
“Now, don’t go doing that,” he admonished, his voice turning gravelly as he fought against his own emotions.
“I’m sorry. I’m going to miss you. I’m going to miss this house and everyone in this neighborhood.”
The giant of a man wrapped his arms around her shoulders and River found herself settling against him. He was massive against her small frame, but he felt like a warm marshmallow.
“We’ll be thinking of you and your grandma. Make sure to keep in touch, okay?”
“I will, Hank. And I’ll be sure to get you Grandma’s information once she’s settled.”
“You do that. Now get on your way,” he urged as he stepped back and opened the passenger door. She watched him walk up to the porch toward Grandma Sue and gently guide her toward the truck.
It took a few minutes to get her settled, but once Hank closed the door, Grandma Sue gazed out of the window with a haze in her eyes. River took her time stealing one last glance at the small bungalow she grew up in before hauling herself into the truck.
The vehicle lurched as she switched the gears into drive, and in the blink of an eye, she and her grandmother were on the road toward their new home.
A bright green sign about with the name Carson beckoned her from the highway an hour into their trek and River maneuvered the vehicle carefully down the exit ramp, depositing them on a lonely road with wheat fields edging both sides.
Stealing a peek at her grandmother, River was surprised to find a smile gracing her thin lips. She hadn’t stirred much during the drive, only grunting when a song came on the radio that she didn’t like, but other than that, she had wistfully stared out the window at the passing landscape and cars.
A sharp turn took River by surprise and she found herself pressing the brake to the floor to slow down so that the small Mazda Miata she was towing behind the truck didn’t swerve off the road. She whispered a prayer as she maneuvered around the bend, grateful when the vehicles stayed on the road and no one came in the other direction.
Glancing at her phone, the screen’s map indicated that she had another thirty minutes down this main road until the turn off for the assisted living facility and another twenty until they reached the main town of Carson, where River would be living. She noted that lunch was drawing near, and River knew how detrimental it was to keep her grandmother on a schedule, even if she knew that bringing her grandmother somewhere new could cause an outburst.
“Hey, Grandma. Want to stop in town to grab some lunch and drop off the truck before we take you to get settled into the new place? We can drive the convertible.” River knew how to sweeten the deal for Grandma Sue. The woman bought the sports car right after her husband had passed away and it was one of the few things that had brought a smile to her lips. River knew she still had a soft spot for the vehicle, even if she couldn’t drive it much longer.
“Lunch?” Sue’s hollow voice asked as she turned her attention to River. She was sure her grandmother was trying to figure out why she was in a car with a stranger. Some days she remembered her and other days she didn’t. River had hoped for a good day today.
“Yeah, the place we’re going to is supposed to have the best meatloaf in all of North Carolina. Next to yours, of course.
”
“Steve loved meatloaf,” Sue longingly said as she turned her attention back out the window.
Whispering more to herself, River replied, “I know, Grandma. I know.”
The remainder of the drive was filled with silence as they traveled the mountainous roads until they landed in a valley's small crevice. The right-hand turn for the facility came up and River was happy to see that, even from the road, the pictures online looked exactly as they claimed. Beautifully manicured hedges gave way to a sprawling lawn and flowerbeds. She slowed down to take it in and felt the tightness in her chest dissipate.
“What are you looking at?” her grandmother said in a fiery tone, her hunger evident as it was whenever she knew lunchtime was approaching.
“Nothing,” River replied, pressing down on the accelerator to gain speed once again. “Let’s get some lunch.”
River hadn’t expected much as she neared the small town of Carson. She hadn’t been able to find many pictures of the town online, but the few she had reminded her of a classic small town from the fifties.
She knew from the map that the diner was located at the far end of the town, but as she approached the first stop sign, River could make out the building off in the distance. The town was no more than three or four long blocks of buildings with meticulous sidewalks and window dressings.
She slowed the truck to a snail’s pace as they ventured into town; River noting the clothing and grocery stores since she’d need to check those out as soon as she settled in. A small bar named Horizons also caught her eye. She may not know much about small-town living, but she knew that if she wanted to make friends, Horizons was going to move to the top of that list.
The parking lot for Angie’s Diner was small and River knew she wouldn’t be able to situate the storage truck and her car into one of the small spaces. Luckily, there was a large public parking area across the street with plenty of room for the vehicles.
Behind the Flame: An Everyday Heroes World Book (The Everyday Heroes World) Page 1