ChapterOne
Smoke drifted low across the ground, heavy and wet, clinging to Colby Landon's turnout gear like it meant to stay.The last of the flames hissed beneath steady streams of water while firefighters wound hoses across the gravel, their movements practiced and efficient despite the late hour.Engines idled along the service road, their lights painting the collapsed frame of the Norman House Inn in urgent pulses of red that stretched long shadows across the yard.
Colby dragged a hand down his face, streaking soot across an already filthy cheek.The skin beneath felt raw, scraped by heat and ash.He'd fought enough fires in his twenty years with various Fire and Rescue teams to know when one wasn't an accident, and this one had screamed the truth from the moment they rolled up.Too fast.Too hot.Too deliberate.
One hundred and thirty years of Norman family history had folded in on itself in less than an hour.The wraparound porch where guests had sipped lemonade every summer since before his grandfather was born now lay in charred heaps.The dormer windows that had caught the morning light and made the place look like something from a postcard—gone.All of it, gone.
Boots crunched on gravel behind him.
"Landon."
He didn't have to turn to recognize Sergeant Diaz's bark.Colby angled slightly, keeping his gaze on the smoldering ruins."You're missing your evening beauty rest, Sergeant."
"Tell me again what Sabrina said when you pulled her out."Diaz came to stand beside him, notebook already open, pen poised.The flashing lights caught the silver threading through her dark hair, making her look older than her forty-two years.
Colby exhaled slowly, the memory hitting him fresh.Sabrina Hartley.The moment he'd found her on the second-floor landing, half-conscious, barefoot, and coughing so hard it shook her whole frame, something inside him had gone tight and protective.She'd been terrified, but trying not to show it, her fingers clawing at his jacket even as she pushed him away, insisting he check the rooms.That particular brand of stubborn bravery was always its own warning.
"She was disoriented," he said."Smoke inhalation, panic.Kept asking if the guests had gotten out.Then said something about someone 'never letting her go.'After that, she shut down.Wouldn't say another word, just stared at the fire like she was watching her whole life burn."
Diaz's pen moved quickly across the page."Anything else?"
"She's afraid of someone.Not the fire.Something else."He finally turned to look at Diaz."Something that's been scaring her a lot longer than tonight."
"You get a name?"
Colby lifted a brow."She was barely breathing and half out of it.Sorry, I didn't conduct a formal interrogation while carrying her down the stairs."
Diaz's jaw worked once, a muscle jumping near her ear."I'm aware of her condition.But you're the one she talked to."
"People talk more easily to someone pulling them from a burning building."He stripped off his gloves, the leather stiff with sweat and ash."You should try it sometime."
Diaz grunted.For her, it counted as a laugh."Fire Chief says burn pattern suggests accelerant.We'll know more in the morning."
So arson was official, or close enough.Colby's gut had known it from the moment the first flames had licked through those century-old walls with unnatural speed.
He stared at what was left of the inn.He'd stayed there years ago, long before he joined the department.Back when he first started coming here with Hank and Brian for the cup race, when Copper Moon Beach was just a name on a map and not the place that had become more home than anywhere else.Sabrina's grandparents had run the place then.Warm people.The kind that pressed extra slices of pie into your hand because "you look like you need feeding."Their granddaughter had that same softness, that same instinct to care for others before herself.
And now her entire world lay smoking at their feet.
"I'm heading to the hospital," Diaz said, tucking her notebook into her jacket pocket."She's being evaluated.You get there first, see if she'll talk."
"You want charm or intimidation?Need to know what tools I'm working with."
Diaz snorted."If you find any charm, let me know.For now, just talk to her before I do."
Colby didn't argue.He'd already planned to go.He tossed his gloves in the truck bed and shrugged out of his turnout coat, draping it over the tailgate.The night air hit the sweat-soaked shirt underneath, cooling the skin that had been baking under all that gear.The fire had burned itself out, but the damage wasn't done.Not by a long shot.
He looked one last time at the ruin.Sabrina had stood on this very gravel earlier, as her family legacy went up in flames.Her expression had been unreadable, or nearly so.He'd seen enough people lose everything to recognize the particular stillness that came over someone when the world tilted sideways, and nothing made sense anymore.Shock.Grief.Fear.
She hadn't broken.But she'd looked one breath away from it.
Colby climbed into his truck and headed for Lakeview Hospital, the copper moon hanging low over the water as he drove, its reflection rippling across the dark surface like a promise he couldn't quite name.
The hospital corridor hummed with the soft buzz of fluorescent lights and low voices.A nurse at the station looked up as Colby approached, her expression shifting from professional neutrality to recognition.Everyone in Copper Moon knew Sabrina Hartley—her grandmother had delivered half the town, and Sabrina herself had hosted charity breakfasts at the inn for as long as anyone could remember.Word of the fire had traveled fast in a community that thrived on looking out for its own.
"Room 114," the nurse said, her voice soft."She's awake.Doctor cleared her about twenty minutes ago, but she's got to stay for observation through the morning."
Colby nodded his thanks and followed the numbers down the hall, his boots too loud against the polished floor.He paused in the doorway of 114.
