A Flame To Bear (Fire Bear Shifters 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

just lost a good friend and colleague, and nearly lost my own life. I need some time to process what happened, and to think about what’s really important to me.”
    “Bailey, I’m sorry if you felt like I was pushing too hard. It’s just that the story is time sensitive. But you’re right; you’ve been through a lot. I should have been more sensitive to that. Why don’t you take a little time off, and I’ll find someone else to finish up this story. There’s no need to quit.”
    But Jim’s apology was too little, too late. For the first time in years, Bailey had allowed herself to imagine living for something other than Jim’s deadlines. She didn’t know what that something else would be, but she knew she had to try to find it.
    “I’m sorry, Jim,” Bailey said. “I’ve made up my mind. It’s time for me to live life on my own terms.”
    Before Jim could reply and try to change her mind, Bailey hung up the phone. Tomorrow, she might regret not having a job. But for the moment, she was going to enjoy finally being free.

Chapter Four
    Almost as soon as Bailey hung up on her boss, the phone started ringing again. Jim tried calling back several times in a row, but Bailey ignored him each time. He wasn’t her problem anymore.
    With no job to worry about, and no way to travel anywhere until her passport arrived, Bailey decided that now was as good a time as any to go looking for the firefighter who had saved her life. She threw on a cheap pair of tennis shoes that had been another clearance rack find at Wal-Mart, and made her way down to the hotel’s front desk.
    From the kind young man working at the front desk, she learned that there was a fire station less than two miles from the hotel. She decided to walk to the station in hopes that someone there would know who Trevor Hayes was. At the fire station, she met a burly blonde man who knew Trevor. The man told her that Trevor was actually a volunteer firefighter and lived on the outskirts of town at a base for a group of smokejumpers who fought wildfires. With no car, and no way to rent one, Bailey thought she would have to put her plans to go thank Trevor on hold. But the burly firefighter told her that he just happened to be heading that way, and that he would give her a ride there if she liked.
    Bailey agreed. She would have to figure out a way to get back to town, but she could worry about that when the time came. A half hour later, she climbed out of the fireman’s truck in front of a large airplane hangar. There were several vehicles parked out front, but not a single person in sight. Bailey timidly walked up to what appeared to be the front door and knocked.
    She waited several moments, and tried knocking again. Just as she raised her hand to try knocking one more time, the door opened. A tall man with chestnut brown hair and deep blue eyes crossed his arms and looked down at her with a scowl. Despite the cool February weather, the man wasn’t wearing a shirt. He had some of the biggest bicep muscles that Bailey had ever seen, and his blue jeans hung low on his hips, revealing a perfectly sculpted six pack. If it hadn’t been for the angry look on his face, Bailey would have considered him one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever seen.
    “Can I help you?” the man asked.
    “Um, hi. I’m looking for a man named Trevor Hayes, and I was told he lives here.”
    “What business do you have with Trevor,” the man asked, crossing his arms.
    Bailey frowned. Tempted to ask the man why he cared, she thought better of it and smiled sweetly up at him instead.
    “Trevor saved me from a hotel fire I was caught in two nights ago. I wanted to come thank him in person.”
    The man looked Bailey up and down, and must have decided that for some reason he didn’t like what he saw. “Well, I’ll pass the message along,” he said, and then started shutting the door.
    Before Bailey even realized what was happening or could protest, she found herself staring at