LITMIR.BIZ

      CAST OF CHARACTERS

      Tamara King—As a firefighter, she thought she knew what danger was—until she walked into a burning building and met the smoke-gray gaze of Stone McQueen.

      Stone McQueen—The ex-arson investigator is a man who’s reached rock bottom. And he doesn’t want Tamara King to save him.

      Petra Anderson—The little girl adores McQueen, despite his hard-edged manner.

      Robert Pascoe—He’s a man who never existed. But McQueen thinks he’s returned to finish what he started seven years ago.

      Claudia Anderson—Once Tamara’s best friend, Claudia betrayed her by running off with her fiancé on her wedding day. Now it’s too late to make amends.

      Jack Foley—The gruff ex-firefighter and his late wife adopted Tamara when her family was killed in a fire, and he’d do anything to keep his adored Tammy safe.

      Bill Trainor—The arson investigator once had a thing for Claudia. Now he and his partner are looking into her death—and trying to pin it on McQueen.

      To the real heroes

      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

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Epilogue

      Chapter One

      The beast had devoured her world. At five years old she’d looked into its face and had barely escaped from its jaws. Now she was twenty-six—okay, twenty-seven in a couple of weeks, Tamara King thought grimly. She was still battling the beast.

      She was a firefighter. She hated fire.

      “Anybody in there?” She saw Joey Silva spare her a glance from a few yards down the corridor, but already she was kicking the door open. She entered, moving quickly through the tiny rooms before racing back into the corridor.

      “These freakin’ rooming houses.” Under his helmet, her partner’s expression was disgruntled. “Freakin’ fire-traps. Come on, I found another freakin’ hallway.”

      “Gosh darn it all anyway.” Tamara looked at the stairway behind them. “You know, Joey, you’re going to have to get a couple new cuss words one of these days.”

      He followed her glance. “We can’t wait for the hose. Let’s go rouse the rest of the rubbies and the junkies.”

      She fell into step behind him, not taken in by his seeming callousness. It and his profanity were part of the protective shell that all of them had to grow, in their own individual ways.

      The yellow bands on Joey’s coat were bobbing smears of color in the smoke, and she reached with her leather-gloved hand for the air-pack at her chest. Following him into the secondary corridor Tamara realized that although a few tendrils of smoke were eddying in from the hallway they’d just left, this one was clear.

      Bad sign, she thought, instantly alert. It’s trying to trick us.

      “The bitch is around here somewhere.”

      Joey’s gaze had narrowed in identical suspicion, and despite the situation she hid a smile as she scanned the hallway. She called it the beast. For reasons known only to himself, he saw fire as a heartless female who—

      Her thoughts screeched to a halt. Running along the top of the walls in front of them was a tracery of glowing red.

      “Hell, Joey—it’s in the ceiling,” she whispered hoarsely.

      “And the freakin’ ceiling could go any minute.” He wiped his mouth. “Come on, Red, the faster we check this hall the faster we can get out of here.”

      He’d bestowed the roughly affectionate nickname on her the

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