Page 116 of Derecho

My eyes snapped to his. “You working the fire at the ranch?”

“Among others.”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I think what happened at the ranch is connected to several other fires that have been happening all over the county. And not just recent ones. I think this goes back two, three years. Maybe longer.”

“The firebug. Warehouses in Lark Lake. That abandoned home in Bell Ridge.”

“Exactly.” Jackson shifted his stance, blocking more of the firehouse with his back. He dropped his voice low, looking to make sure we weren’t being overheard. “This has to stay just between us for now.”

I nodded. “But it’s only been abandoned places. The safe house doesn’t fit. There were people inside. It’s a new build.”

“It fits the escalation. Still remote. Very remote. But the stakes are so much higher for the crew responding. If they knew your family…”

“Jackson, what the fuck are you saying? You think it’s a firefighter?”

He shook his head. “I think it’s someone who knows they can rush in and save the day. They’ve tinkered with smaller, less risky situations for the past few years, and now they need more to keep them satiated.”

“You think hero syndromes at play? Or Angel of Mercy?”

“I’m willing to bet that’s exactly what we’ll find when we catch this arsonist.”

My stomach rolled. “Okay. How can I help?”

The firehouse alarm blared in two short bleeps, and my heart stopped, waiting to hear the call out over the speakers.

“Firehouse fifteen. Smoke of unknown origin reported at 1602 Cherry Street. All individuals out of building and accounted for.”

Christ. That was the address for the bookstore.

There were certain parts of this job that were so ingrained into who I was as a person that I barely needed to think to get through the actions. Putting on my bunker gear was one of those things.

Fifty seconds. That’s all it took for my gear to be on, and I was loading into the truck. First out of the guys, just like I’d always been. Because this career has always been everything to me. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to prove to my parents that firefighting was where I was meant to be.

And my dad had always supported that.

“Ready to get back in on the action?” Roger Smith asked as he parked his ass next to mine. Smitty had been on shift with me for over a decade. Compared to some of these young guys we had working beside us now, we were dinosaurs.

“Yep. Ready like I always am.”

The firehouse was five blocks away from the book store, and thank God for that, because my heart was doing weird things inside my chest. I wasn’t nervous about being back on shift. About having to fight a fire. But knowing Hadley might have been the one at work today…Fuck.

Hadley—and her daughter, Posey—were the one bright spot in my life outside of my family after Dad’s death. I watched Hadley come out of her shell a little more each time I stopped into the shop. And I was still buzzing over the fact that I’d finally gotten her to agree to go to the Fireman’s Gala with me next week, even if I had to settle for us going as friends.

“Hey, Park. Camp it here, would ya?” Smitty instructed the rig’s driver, Lucas Hershey. The poor kid got to pick his nickname. It was either Park, or Kisses. I knew which one I would have picked.

My eyes scanned the sidewalk landing on Hadley almost immediately. Damn, she was working today.

“Park, Lambo, locate extinguishers and walk down the building, report back on the source of the smoke. Halls and Danielson, run the line from the hydrant. Worst case, we flush a hydrant while we’re here.”

A chorus of yes, lieutenant went up around me.

“Hadley?”

Her eyes searched my face, glassy and unfocused. “Hayes…”

“Hey. You okay?” I smiled, but got absolutely nothing back in return. In fact, if it was possible, she looked like she might be sick.