Hot as Sin Read Free Page B

since last summer. “Don’t go in if it’s too dangerous.”
    The previous summer’s wildfire in Desolation Wilderness had turned from a routine job to a disaster in a matter of moments. The two of them, along with Sam’s younger brother, Connor, had gotten caught in a blowup. Although Logan and Sam had emerged unscathed from their run up the mountain to safety, the wildfire had chewed Connor up and spit him out, and he’d ended up with serious burns on his arms, hands, and chest.
    This was the first year in almost a decade that Sam had run these trails without his brother beside him. Every day, Sam missed Connor’s company out in the forests. They were all adrenaline junkies—even the hot-shots who denied it—but Connor had always been more reckless than most.
    In the past few years, Sam had felt that he wasn’t all that far behind his brother on the recklessness scale. Without a wife or kids to go back to at the end of a fire, he had no reason not to go all the way to the edge. Especially if the chances he took meant saving a life.
    So even though this was a potentially deadly situation, Sam couldn’t turn back.
    “I’m heading in on foot to verify whether the area is populated,” Sam informed Logan before shoving the radio back into his turnouts.
    He was going in with his Pulaski, an ax-hoe combination, his chain saw, his “shake and bake” emergency fire tent, and his first-aid supplies. Hopefully, he’d need only the first two to cut a fire line through the brush and light a backfire. But until he knew what awaited him down below, he’d make damn certain he was prepared for a worst-case scenario.
    “Drop me in, Joe.”
    A strong breeze shoved the helicopter a half-dozen feet closer to the mountain and Joe shot Sam a concerned glance. “The winds are really picking up. You sure you don’t want to wait for backup?”
    The breeze blew the flames away for a split second, just long enough for Sam to see a structure.
    “There’s a cabin down below. I have to check it out.”
    “I don’t know if this is such a great idea,” Joe said as he maneuvered the helicopter so that it hovered directly over a flat part of the roof, just out of reach of the highest flames. “I can’t get any closer. It’s going to be a long way down.”
    Sam looked out the bubble-front window to assess the risk. By rough calculations, he figured that the distance was a little less than ten feet. One measly story. No problem.
    “It’s close enough.”
    Sam pulled the emergency ladder out from beneath his seat, then opened the passenger door and latched the ladder onto the metal rim. Carefully climbing out of the hovering helicopter, he was halfway down the ladder when Joe shifted position so that the distance from the ladder to the roof closed in from ten feet to eight.
    Sam let go and dropped. The fall was faster than he’d expected, but he managed to land on the peeling roofing tiles with both feet and hands like a spider.
    The helicopter pulled up and away, leaving an eerie stillness all around the remote mountain cabin. Sam understood why people liked living deep in the woods. Who wouldn’t want to listen to the wind through the trees and the rushing river, rather than traffic and neighbors? A cabin like this was the perfect place to get away from it all.
    The only downside was that when danger struck, it usually meant there was no one around to help.
    Suddenly, the silence was replaced by the sound of a child crying. Moving quickly across the roof, Sam found a rock cropping at the rear of the house. Using the rocks as natural steps to the ground, he headed in the direction of the cries toward an outbuilding.
    A little girl with tear-streaked cheeks barreled into his legs. She was crying too hard for him to understand what she was saying, so he knelt down and gently brushed the hair out of her eyes. She was a skinny little thing and he wasn’t exactly sure how old she was, but he guessed she wasn’t quite in the double