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“Now that is the best medicine a guy could ask for. But be careful. I might get addicted.”
“I think that suits me just fine.” She kissed him again.
“That’s enough of that, you two.” Kane sauntered in twirling his keys. “Since neither one of you is supposed to be driving, guess I get to be your chauffeur. You ready to head to the sheriff’s office? They want your statements.”
“Let’s get out of here.” Dakota kept his good arm around Allie as they walked out to the truck. “Did they find the boys?”
Allie nodded. “They’re safe and sound with their aunt. And Jen is still here in the hospital. She said she’ll move in with her sister for a while until they get settled and find a new place to live.”
“Good. And Earl?” Dakota asked.
Kane opened the truck door for Allie. “From what I hear, he’s still out there. Are you leaving the hotshots to look for him?”
“No, although the doctor wants me off the crew for the week until I get my stitches out. Maybe I’ll do a little investigating while I’m recovering.” Dakota hefted himself up gently into the truck.
Allie sat in the middle, while Kane drove. “What about you, Allie. You sticking around?”
She looked over at Dakota and took his hand. “Yeah. I’ve still got some training to do for Scout. And you never know when a search and rescue dog will come in handy.”
Kane turned out of the parking lot. “Yeah, there’s something strange going on around here. I feel like we’re just hitting the tip of the iceberg. So count me in on whatever you two are investigating. Someone’s gotta watch your six.”
Allie chuckled. “Yeah, especially with all the trouble Dakota seems to find.”
“Trouble? Me?” Dakota gave her a look of mock innocence.
“Oh, I knew you were trouble the first time I saw you.” She gave him a pointed look.
He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Yeah, but you like it.”
“Maybe.” Her eyes lit with a mischievous glint. A pause. “Okay, fine. I do.”
She kissed him until Kane cleared his throat. “All right, all right. That’s enough, you two. I said I’d chauffeur, not chaperone.”
Allie laughed. Dakota smiled. Flashing back to where he’d been a year and a half ago, in the throes of his addiction, he couldn’t have imagined this was where he’d end up. A hotshot firefighter. An incredible woman wanting him to meet her family. A man humbled and broken but now, somehow, so much stronger because he knew what it meant to depend on God. Every day was a blank slate. And he had plenty of family, brothers and sisters in Christ, to help and serve.
How did that old hymn go?
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
Thank you for readingFlashback! Gear up for the next Chasing Fire: Montana romantic suspense thriller, Firestorm by Lisa Phillips. Keep reading for a sneak peek!
SECRETS. BETRAYAL. SACRIFICE.
THIS TIME, THEY'RE NOT JUST
FIGHTING FIRE.
He thought his life was over…and then she walked back in.
Charlie Benning has always been a rescuer—first with the Last Chance County Fire and Rescue team, and now as a firefighter with the Jude County Hotshots. But this summer isn’t about saving lives—it’s about hiding his own terrible secret. A secret he’s keeping from his estranged daughter, Alexis.
But fate is about to intervene.
Will their secrets destroy their second chance?
Jayne Price raised her son, Orion, on her own just fine, thank you. And now, she runs Wildlands Academy, a summer camp that teaches kids how to fight forest fires and confront their own teenage angst?—kids like Alexis Benning, who clearly has a chip on her shoulder about her semi-estranged, firefighter father.
And Jayne has her own issues, like not wanting her only son to join the elite smokejumping corps. It’s enough that he’s risking his life as a hotshot on the Jude County team.
Then the wildfire turns its force onto the camp and suddenly the hotshots show up to help her fight it. Only problem…the last person she expects is for her former flame, Charlie Benning—the man she can’t forget—to show up working alongside her son.
Rather,hisson.
Who he doesn’t know exists.
And then Charlie discovers the secret she’s been keeping, and he’s torn between anger and the long-simmering love that refuses to die. And Jayne isn’t about to let go of the man she loves a second time. But if the blazing wildfire isn't enough, a dangerous and relentless killer is on the prowl in the woods…
Now, with the camp cut off from the outside world and the fire closing in, it’s a race against time as Charlie, Jayne, Orion, and a team of courageous smokejumpers join forces to protect the campers against a merciless inferno and a murderer. But thebiggest threat of all might be Charlie’s devastating secret that could destroy the happy ending they’ve waited for so long.