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PROLOGUE

Walking into the Valley Hospital’s waiting room makes my skin tight. All the chairs are filled with the LCFD firefighters. They look exactly like me. Grimy. Sweat-crusted. Exhausted and worried all to hell.

When I approach the desk, a weary-looking volunteer says, “There’s no news on the fire chief yet. You can join the others.”

Nope. That’s not happening. “Thanks, but I’ll be outside.”

I’m not going in there with all that grim air. Feels far too much like a funeral .

Detective Martin is lingering outside the hospital, his back against the brick exterior wall. His eyes are quick to find me. He waves a notepad in the air, beckoning me toward him.

I shake his hand. “Thanks for coming. I know the chief would appreciate you checking in on him.”

“Of course. He’ll be fine, by the way. He’s too salty to go like that.”

“Let’s hope so.”

“Since we’re both avoiding the waiting room, I might as well catch you up.” He taps his notepad. “Looks like this could be another arson case. Neighbors reported seeing someone running from the antique store just before the flames were spotted in the window.”

“I was afraid of that. Shit, I can’t believe we’ve got a third possible arson.”

My work phone rings in my pocket. “Sorry, got to take this, looks like a county-issued phone number.” Wandering toward the parking lot, I answer the call. “Captain Mitchell here.”

The nasally voice on the other end is unmistakable. It instantly makes my hackles rise. “This is Mayor Johnson.”

My first inclination is to tell the S.O.B. to fuck off for all the trouble he gives the department, but he hurries his words. “I just got a call from the chief’s wife. He had a stroke. He’s going to be okay, but he’s not going to return to work any time soon, and he told her that you should be appointed as the temporary chief.”

A weird choking sound comes out of my throat. It sounds dangerously like a growled version of ‘fuck.’

“Mitchell? Are you there? Can you hear me?”

Unfortunately .

I try not to sound like a dick, but probably fail. “I can hear you.”

“Report to me tomorrow morning, at nine.”

Forget me not sounding like a dick. This just got out of hand. “Whoa! Wait a minute there?—”

The phone beeps. Call ended. I stare angrily at the screen. That asshole.

Gripping my temples between my thumb and index finger, I stare at my boots. What the fuck? This is the last thing in the world I wanted.

I want to be a firefighter, not a damned politician. The chief’s job requires way too much playing nice.

The door of the hospital whooshes open. A familiar voice booms behind me, “Brock! Chief’s alert and talking! The report is good.”

Reeves looks relieved until he sees my face. “Shit. Man, what’s wrong?”

I shake it off. “Glad he’s okay. What a fucking scare to have him go down like that.”

He rubs both his hands over the dark shadows riding his cheekbones. Reeves aged ten years since we left the firehouse for the call. He was the first one to get to the chief when he collapsed at the fire.

His frown deepens when he looks at me again. “Why do you look like you’re about to go in front of a firing squad?”

My lip curls back. Reeves will understand when I tell him who was on the line. “The mayor called.”

“I don’t know where this is going but you’re scary-looking right now.”

“Well, I feel scary right now.” The cords in my neck are tense. My chest is tight as fuck. “He said that the chief wants?— ”

My words die like the plug has been pulled on my cord.

I feel like I’ve been hit by a downed electric wire. They might be dragging my ass into that Emergency Department for a tranquilizer. I can’t believe who just walked in front of us.

This is just too fucking much for one night. Hell, for one lifetime.

His eyes follow mine as I track the petite brunette that’s hurrying through the glass sliding doors into the hospital lobby. “You know her?”

To keep my jaws from fusing together, I force my mouth open. I can barely speak, I’m scowling so hard. “Met her once.”

A year ago. Right before she bowed out in the middle of a blind date.

He glances back and forth between the place where she disappeared into the lobby, and my face. “Damn. I’d ask for the story, but I think you might rather knock my head off.”

“Smart man.”

Clearing his throat, he changes the subject, “So, about the mayor…”

“Excuse me for a minute.” I brush past him toward the door. Avery Ellis isn’t getting away from me this time.

Only, my night gets a whole lot fucking worse. A high-pitched woman’s voice shouts, “Captain Mitchell!”

I can’t suppress my cringe. This is not happening.

The woman yells my name again. Mother of headaches!

There’s no escaping the news camera that’s pointed right at me. An over-caffeinated reporter shoves a mic in my face. “The mayor’s assistant just told us you’re the new acting Chief of Lynn’s Cove Fire Department. How do you feel about that news?”

Like I’ve taken an express elevator to hell .

By the time I finish the agonizing interview and do my damndest to bore the woman with my one-word answers, I’m as twitchy as a beetle on a hot skillet. When I storm inside, everyone’s gone.

Everyone.