Fighting the Flames(5)

 

Maddox fired up his saw and started cutting, throwing looks back at the cabin to ensure Sydney hadn't come outside. His biggest fear was her getting her cocky firefighter's hat on and attempting to help them. Without the right tools or gear, she would only put herself in danger. He'd never be able to work knowing she wasn't protected.

 

"Dammit." His curse was lost in the sound of a tree striking the earth. The fire roared. And inside him, a new fire kindled.

 

One that he needed to fight with everything in his being.

 

Because he could not-ever-let his attraction to Sydney show.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Two

 

 

Sydney paced back and forth along the windows, throwing looks outside. The smoke was too thick to see the firefighters out there working to save her and her cabin.

 

 

 

        

          

        

         

 

Maddox. Her chest grew tight just thinking about the man. Whether she was just relieved to have someone come to her rescue and was experiencing a reverse Florence Nightingale syndrome or she'd genuinely missed seeing his face, it didn't matter. Her heart had turned over when he'd looked into her eyes.

 

Why? Was it because he had seen her pain so plainly at the funeral-and it had been echoed in his own eyes? They'd both lost someone they loved that day.

 

But Rob wasn't here, and now that she remembered how these guys felt like part of her family, she didn't want to let them go again.

 

She stopped and pressed her nose to the window, trying to see anybody out there. But the smoke was too thick and the sound of their saws was moving farther away. She jumped at the sound of every tree falling. She and Rob had cut plenty to keep their cabin protected from just such an occurrence, and they'd been attached to the trees left on their property.

 

She swallowed hard. "I can't stay in here any longer," she murmured to herself, fogging the glass.

 

Then she whirled away and whipped open the front door. Smoke poured in. She coughed and breathed more shallowly as she stepped onto the porch.

 

Looking around, she got her bearings. She was safe-the flames seemed to be held away from the cabin. The drone of saws that would have been in the special cargo drop shipment sounded on the west edge of the property.

 

She closed the door and took off for the sound.

 

With each step she took, her heart raced faster. She hadn't felt this adrenaline rush since her last day on the job. A house fire with two victims trapped. She and her team had blasted in, found the people, and gotten them out without incident. They'd all been on a high after that, celebrating back at the station.

 

Later that night she'd gotten the news about Rob.

 

She strode faster, determined to not sit this out alone. She needed to be helping-needed to be in the thick of it with people she cared about.

 

And judging by the expression on Maddox's face, people who cared about her too.

 

She spotted him first, hunched over a limb, busy cutting it off so he could shift it into the fire and not let it catch in the yard.

 

The hot wind whipped at her hair, and she wished she'd tied it back this morning. She swiped it off her face and approached Maddox slowly. Waiting for him to see her.

 

God, he was beautiful, silhouetted against the fog of smoke, his gear bulking him up, but she knew he was a big guy anyway. Broad shoulders, thick arms. His dark hair and eyes had caught the attention of plenty of girls, and she'd met several. Was he seeing any of them now?

 

It had been three years. He could be married with kids by now. She'd let herself get so out of touch.  

 

She reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder.

 

He jerked and straightened, cutting the saw at the same time. The screen on his mask let her see his eyes, which widened in shock-and then narrowed in anger.

 

He knocked his helmet back and glared at her. "I told you to stay inside."

 

"I'm going nuts. I need to help."

 

"You don't have any gear. Dammit, Sydney. I'm trying to keep you safe here."

 

"There's always extra gear in the drop shipment. Don't you have anything on you?"

 

"No, Blaze and Lincoln carried a bunch in. I left before they opened the crate."

 

That had her mind rushing forward. He'd set off to battle the fire before he was totally equipped?

 

"Why would you do that?" She had to raise her voice above the noise of thousands of acres of woods being consumed by flames and the buzz of saws.

 

"Because I made the mistake of stopping to think, and I had to get to the cabin."

 

They stared at each other for a long second, and then he issued a low growling noise.