Chapter One
All hell was breaking loose in the Pacific Palisades.
John Bartlett looked at the massive wall of flames before him and cursed. It was an eerie juxtaposition. That area was so beautiful along the coast. The ocean lapping at the beach. The gorgeous palm trees. Rugged, towering mountains. All those mansions. People paid millions of bucks to live there.
It was paradise on earth.
The roaring fire looked so out of place.
Hell invading heaven.
“This ain’t gonna be fun,” John muttered, though no one around him could hear the words, thanks to the mask he wore and the roar and crackle of the fire.
His fellow firefighters no doubt agreed with the sentiment.
They hadn’t signed up to do the job for fun, however. They were in it to save lives. And plenty of lives were on the line now as the wildfire spread, threatening Los Angeles.
They would fight the flames eventually. Right now, though, the goal was to prevent their spread. To play defense. If they could build a perimeter and keep the inferno from spreading, they might just win this fight.
But fire was a fierce competitor. It never gave up easily.
There wasn’t time to sit there and gripe about the nature of the struggle, though. John—and his brothers and sisters in arms—just needed to get busy.
The last thing the area needed was another fire.
It still held evidence from the last one. Whole lots along Sunset Boulevard were nothing but smooth slabs where piles of rubble and debris had been removed. Plenty of trees stood charred and gnarled.
Yet the magnificent beauty was still present. The community was rebuilding. And the past fire—though devastating—had not touched every part of the pristine neighborhood. It was still paradise. Just with a few scars.
But if the Los Angeles Fire Department didn’t get on top of this newest threat, well…
More sirens rang out in the distance. This was an all-hands-on-deck situation. Firefighters and EMTs would be pouring into the area. So far there weren’t any reports of injuries, and John prayed they could keep it that way. But it was best to have ambulances at the ready. In moments of crisis like this, every second counted.
Screeching tires pulled him from his thoughts. Looking to the right, he saw a car careening around the bend in the road. It was obvious what was going to happen. They were traveling way too fast to effectively maneuver that curve. Probably looking at the fire and not paying attention to their driving. The cause didn’t really matter now, though; it was too late to correct course.
But the driver tried. The vehicle jerked wildly as the brakes screamed. Metal scraped across metal as the car smashed into the guardrail and then flipped up and over it.
The little Honda bounced like a pinball as it bumped from the other side of the railing to a boulder and then another smaller rock. By the time it had absorbed those three impacts it was upside down, sliding down the steep slope on its roof.
John bit back a curse. He wished there was something he could do to stop the terrifying ordeal. But there was no halting the car’s plummet. All he could do was be ready to rescue the occupants once it came to a stop.
Assuming they survived.
John’s heart sank when he thought all might be lost. But he couldn’t give up hope. It was important to keep a clear head—the fate of whoever was in that car might just depend on it.
The Honda’s tires snagged on an outcropping of rocks, and it flipped one more time. That proved to be a blessing. The car landed on all four tires, right-side up.
That was the good news.
The bad news was that it was on a tiny crest about halfway down the mountainous slope, between the upper and lower portions of the highway. And the wall of flames was marching up that very mountainside.
Yay.
As if this inferno needed anything else to complicate it.
The rescue would pull valuable manpower off battling the flames. But leaving the person—or people—in the car wasn’t an option. No one would die, if John could help it. He knew every woman and man he served with felt the same way.
So, there wasn’t time to lament the new complication.
