Page 1 of Up In Smoke

Chapter One

His breath was heavy in his ears, the sound rattling inside his face shield and through his SCBA gear. Luke moved by feel alone, unable to see through the heavy smoke, but he moved quickly. It was more than just his firefighter training that led him along the path.

Heknewthis house. And the guilt of it weighed heavier on him than the oxygen tank and all the gear.

Oily black smoke rolled down the hallway and was pouring out the windows when the trucks had pulled up. It was obvious the burn was bad at first glance. From inside, it was worse.

Visibility was zero.

Behind him, Jo Huston followed along, staying in constant contact through their comms. He answered her questions by rote, his brain staying focused on what he knew he would find. His heavily gloved hand hit the bump of a doorframe. It had taken far longer to walk the few short steps down the hallway than he'd expected.

Luke could only hope Ivy was still alive.

He quickly issued instructions to Jo to cross the hallway and clear the room opposite this one. It was a single bedroom, normally situated, he knew. Turning back to his own task, he found the doorknob and twisted it. As he entered, the smoke followed him in. That was maybe a good sign that the fire hadn’t yet begun to eat this room. Maybe Ivy could be here and be safe …

There was nosafeinside a burning house, but he prayed she would survive.

The fire wasn't in here. The question was,was Ivy?If she was smart, this was where she would come. And Ivy was smart.

He quickly traced the edge of the room, bumping into shelves and desks. It hadn't been his home for years. The furniture was hers. He didn’t know where it was or where it would stop him, and he couldn't see a damn thing now that the room had filled with the smoke he’d allowed in.

Locating the closet, and hoping that Ivy would be inside, he swung the door open and reached in almost completely blindly. The place where he'd hung his clothes as a kid and piled his stinky laundry in a heap on the floor was now completely built in with shelves.

As he waved his heavily covered hands through the space, he thought that it wasn’t fair that he was protected from the fire and Ivy might not be. But he continued through the check. He’d begged the chief to let him do the search but hadn’t said more.

His hands collided with all manner of things. Unidentified items fell off the shelves and tumbled to the floor as he bumbled his way through what seemed like boxes, maybe pens. He hunkered down, wondering if maybe she was curled in a ball, cowering at the bottom of the closet. When people got caught in house fires they hid and they often passed out, unable to call out to firefighters to aid in their own rescue. But the shelving went all the way to the floor. Large boxes were stuffed into place, and there was no room for Ivy Dean.

Quickly abandoning this search, he stood abruptly and returned to tracing the edges of the room. There was another door here. This is why he had chosen to come in here. At some point before even he had lived here, this once midsized second bedroom had been cut in half in an attempt to make two smaller rooms. In the worst possible design—a bedroom off of a bedroom—and Luke was willing to bet it had been someone’s home job that wasn’t up to code.

He hadn’t known it as a kid, and he hadn’t been back in this house since then, but even from his memory it had been a shoddy build. His hands touched the wall and sure enough, it still existed. With the heat and pressure, he could almost feel the cheap materials flex under his touch. If the fire touched it, it would burn fast and furious.

He had to find Ivy.

It was the only way to redeem himself.

In recent years, the neighborhood was just starting to gentrify. The local librarian had definitely taken a chance buying this place. Luke continued to feel along the wall, whispering prayers in his native tongue as he went.

As he finally felt the door and grabbed for the doorknob, he would have let out a sigh of relief if he weren’t so well trained. It was the only thing keeping him upright now. He pushed open the door and wandered into the space as the voice came through his comm system.

Jo Huston declared her room clear. There wasn't much more to do. He directed her to check the bathroom. Maybe Ivy was cowering in a cool tile tub. He could only hope.

Actually, he hoped the neighbors were wrong and Ivy wasn't really home for this nightmare, despite the fact that all signs indicated she was. If she was, she was here somewhere and he couldn’t live with himself if someone didn’t find her and save her.

Jo Huston probably shouldn't have been in here, looking for her best friend. But small towns were like that: It was nearly impossible to never run a rescue on someone you didn't already know … or maybe love. He’d seen it before and it was brutal.

The smoke followed him, black and oily, it supplanted the thin gray film that had already found its way in here. But maybe it had been safer to be in this room for a while. Luke felt his way around.

If Ivy were here, she would probably be low to the ground. The librarian was savvy and would have done everything correctly to save herself. But would it be enough?

A preliminary check showed no broken windows. She hadn’t escaped from this room.Shit.

He ran into a piece of furniture, and then another. Luke circled the room, alternately swearing and praying to a god he wasn’t sure he believed in. Then something bumped his leg.

Chapter Two

Ivy jolted awake at her first gulp of fresh air. She was jostled about, unable to control her movements. She could only hold on for dear life, but even that seemed to be beyond her.

She was held tightly in the arms of a firefighter running across her front lawn. Her brain swam with the sudden intake of usable oxygen and her thoughts circled like a choir singing too many songs at once as she worked to orient herself.

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