to relieve another team.
Braden shook his head. “No, I passed on this assignment.”
They had been called up and Superintendent Zimmer had refused to go?
Cody cursed—because he knew why. “That damn arsonist.” That was undoubtedly why Braden had called the whole team together for a meeting later that day. But that didn’t explain why Braden and Wyatt had come in to the firehouse so early.
“Why are you two here now?”
“Because of you,” Wyatt replied.
“What about me?” Cody asked as his blood chilled again. The air was blasting in the firehouse, and the cement-block walls kept it cool. But that wasn’t why he was cold.
Wyatt Andrews was one of Zimmer’s two assistants. In addition to his duties at a fire, he also helped Braden with personnel issues.
Did they have a problem with him—with his work?
Sure, he was a smart-ass most of the time. But he was also damn serious about his job. It meant everything to him; he had nothing else.
“Let’s go to the Filling Station,” Zimmer suggested.
Did his boss think he would need a drink to swallow whatever they had to tell him? Or that it was better to tell him in a public place so that he wouldn’t make a scene?
“It’s too early to drink,” Cody said. He really wasn’t the wild guy he pretended to be. Didn’t they realize that? That was the drawback to never letting anyone get too close, though. But he would prefer that they not really know him rather than know him too well. He didn’t need their pity.
Zimmer chuckled again. “They serve coffee, too, you know. You look like you could use some.”
He hadn’t been out the night before. “I’m not hungover,” he protested.
Wyatt snorted now—derisively. “So you look like hell for no reason.”
“He looks like hell because he’s been crashing here since his cabin burned down,” Braden said. “These bunks are miserable to sleep on.”
“Maybe the firehouse superintendent should order some new ones,” Cody suggested.
Braden mock-glared at him. “You need to find a real bed.”
“You need a place to stay,” Wyatt said. “You can’t stay here.”
Cody chuckled, albeit a little nervously. “What is this? An intervention?”
“Sort of,” Braden admitted. “The US Forest Service has decided not to rebuild your cabin, at least not until we’ve caught the arsonist.”
“Of course.” The son of a bitch kept restarting fires on the scorched ground he’d already burned. The only good thing about this was that there wasn’t enough fuel left to keep the fire burning. Usually the hay bales he poured gasoline over burned out quickly, and the fire didn’t spread. But occasionally the guy started new areas of the forest on fire—like he had when he’d torched the woods where Cody’s cabin had been.
“You need to relocate,” Wyatt said.
He could have laughed again, but it would have had a bitter ring to it. He’d been told so many times that he needed to move—that he wasn’t welcome anymore.
“You kicking me off the team?” he asked. And he was surprised that his voice didn’t crack with the emotion that overwhelmed him. But he wasn’t a kid anymore. He could take care of himself; he had for years.
“Of course not,” Braden said. “We’re kicking you off the cot.”
“We all offered you a bed,” Wyatt reminded him. “You can crash at any one of our places.”
Until he inevitably wore out his welcome.
“You don’t get enough of me now?” he teased.
“I’m usually not there,” Wyatt said. “I stay at Fiona’s.”
Or she stayed at his place. Despite Cody’s teasing, he didn’t want to interfere in his friend’s relationship. The Hotshots were sometimes gone for weeks at a time, so they needed to spend as much time as they could with their loved ones when they were in town. That was why he had also refused to stay with Dawson Hess, Zimmer’s other assistant. Cody hadn’t wanted to put a crimp in his new relationship with the hot reporter, Avery Kincaid.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “Last night was my last night here. I found a place.” He actually didn’t want to stay there, but now he had no choice. He just hoped like hell he was better at avoiding temptation than his teammates.
* * *
HER HAND SHAKING, Serena Beaumont set the court order on her desk next to her mother’s portrait. She blinked back tears, so that she could focus on the picture. She had been told—many times—that she looked like her mother. Sure, she had the same long black hair and dark eyes. But she felt the resemblance ended there. She didn’t have Priscilla’s delicate features or the inner beauty that radiated from the portrait. Nor did she have her mother’s strength.
She was about to lose the family home that her mother had fought so hard to keep—so hard that it had probably led to the heart attack that had taken her too soon a year ago.
Serena drew in a deep, albeit shaky, breath and lifted her chin. She wasn’t giving up yet. Sure, it was a lot of money. But she didn’t have to sell the house. She only had to come up with half the value of it.
A year ago she’d been turned down for a loan. But that had been before she’d gotten more boarders in the house. Now she could show that the property could support itself. Or it would...
If she could rent out the rest of the rooms...
Only four of the eight bedrooms were rented. In order to show any kind of profit, she needed to fill the house—like it had been filled when she was little.
When the sweet-talking man who had gotten her pregnant abandoned her, Priscilla Beaumont had become a single mom to her twin daughters. But she hadn’t raised Serena and Courtney alone. She’d had Grandma’s help. They had lived in this house with their grandmother, an aunt, an uncle and some cousins. Serena was the only member of the Beaumont family left in the house now. She was the only one who cared about her heritage—about how her great-great-grandfather, a French trapper, had settled down near the village of Northern Lakes and built this house for his Native American bride.
Two and a half stories with a double-decker wraparound porch, the plantation-style house had also served as a stagecoach stop, although coaches hadn’t often passed through this remote area of Michigan. Adjoining the Huron National Forest, the house was still miles from the village of Northern Lakes. Maybe that was why it was hard for her to find boarders. Most people would rather live in town.
Serena loved the house and the property. She’d already come close to losing it, but the local Hotshot crew had stopped the fire before it had consumed more than the acres of forest that were now just scorched black earth.
She
