Page 9 of Light My Fire

Crazily, tears slicked her eyes. What? Then, “Yeah.” And she was horrified by the fracture in her voice.

Get ahold of yourself, Stevie.

He lifted his hand, as if to touch her, then must have thought better because he put it back in his lap. “I am right.”

“Maybe. Except not everyone thinks like you do, and I got blamed. And…well, it only got worse from there.” And nope, she couldn’t tell him the rest.

Still could hardly believe it herself.

“So I left town and joined the Anchorage police department and became a federal marshal.”

“You’re a US marshal?”

She nodded at the hint of surprise in his voice. “I’m here to pick up a fugitive sitting in the Copper County Correctional Facility.”

Tucker raised an eyebrow. “Okay, maybe youdidn’tneed my help.”

She grinned. “But Iwashungry.”

He laughed and oh, if…well, what-ifs wouldn’t erase her regrets. Wouldn’t help her crawl out of her shame.

Wouldn’t free her father from prison for involuntary manslaughter.

Voices spilled out as a cadre of men emerged from the saloon. Tucker glanced over his shoulder. “Shoot. Those are my guys. And I’m their ride.” He pulled out a key and nodded to the passenger van adorned with the Sky King logo.

He eased off the end of the tailgate. Stood in front of her, and for an unbridled moment, she had the strangest urge to reach out and pull him to herself. To sink into his arms…

And that would be a hardNo. Because yeah, he had a devastating smile. Eyes that unraveled her. And an aura about him that made her want to trust him.

And oh, how she needed someone she could trust.

But she didn’t have any room for more disaster in her life. And falling for a short-term hero only meant trouble and heartache for both of them.

So maybe Vic was right.

“Thanks, Tucker. Nice to meet you.” She held out her hand.

He took it, his grip warm and strong and roughened by callouses and chips. But he clasped his other hand over hers. “You going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Don’t worry about me.” He couldn’t fix anything, not really.

“Okay. Stay out of trouble, Stevie.” He winked, then walked away, swinging his keys around his finger.

She watched the team load up, all guys except for one gal, who glanced at Stevie. Interesting.

Then the van pulled out and headed west, into the lingering sunset. And Stevie closed her tailgate and climbed into her truck.

She still needed to find someplace to sleep tonight.

Two

“The scout base is located here. About three miles south of the fire.”

Tucker leaned over the massive terrain map spread out across the long, rough-hewn table in the kitchen of Sky King ranch, listening as Barry Kingston drew an area on the map that encompassed the fire. Don Trotter from the BLM worked the same map on the other end of the phone set on speaker in the middle of the table.

A massive window looked out toward Denali National Park, the glorious infamous peak rising into the clouds in the distant horizon. All blue sky, save for the tiniest chimney of new, black smoke in the distance, something so faint it could hardly be called a threat.

Except, of course, to the handful of lodges and private homes along the outskirts of the park, not to mention, well, the Boy Scout camp.

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