Page 173 of Controlled Burn
***
Outside, Dean Maddox didn’t know what pulled him to the scene.
Maybe it was the smoke blooming black over the skyline. Perhaps it was the radio chatter he still hadn’t quit listening to. Or maybe it was her voice—Talia’s—cutting through the static.
“Primary incomplete. We’ve got kids. And I’ve got a missing firefighter.”
He knew that tone.
He was already in his truck before she finished the address.
At the fireground, a captain he didn’t recognize stepped in his path.
“I’m off-duty, but I’m going in,” Dean growled.
“Sir, that’s not—”
Dean brushed past. “Write me up later.”
He found her by the stairwell collapse, masked and crawling, trying to drag Watts by her turnout coat.
Talia looked up, soot-streaked and shaking. “I’m fine,” she snapped, not taking her mask off. “Get her out.”
Dean blinked.
She was standing. Under her power. Commanding the chaos.
He’d never wanted her more.
But she didn’t look back.
And something in him fractured.
He knew now—she wasn’t his to protect. She never had been.
***
The fire was out by dawn. Overhaul dragged into daylight. Kids were reunited with their parents. The media swarmed. Cameras caught Talia giving orders—no tears, just grit.
McKenna approached, coat half-zipped, hair wet with sweat, holding something in a gloved hand—her helmet camera.
“My helmet camera caught Brooks bailing out.”
Talia exhaled. “That’s enough.”
“HR’s on their way,” McKenna replied, voice dark with promise.
***
Talia found Brooks in the watch office, alone, like he’d been waiting for her.
He didn’t stand.
“Congratulations. Another fire. Another save. You must be getting good at playing hero.”
“Not playing,” she said. “Just surviving. Which is more than you can say.”
His eyes flickered. “You want to humiliate me? Make a scene?”
