Dragon's Flame Read Online Free PDF Page B

charms, a belief that was reinforced by the death of their father.
    Saffron breathed deeply against the ache spasming through her chest. Twelve years later and it was like yesterday. It didn’t do any good to fight the feelings that came at remembering finding the charm on the floor of the family car after he’d deployed to the Middle East for a fourth tour.
    The chain had broken while they’d all been at the beach, the three kids roughhousing with their father in the water. He’d put the charm on the center console, said he’d get the chain fixed, but must have forgotten after it’d somehow gotten knocked onto the floor.
    Out of sight. Out of mind.
    She reached up, touched the keep safe from harm charm at her neck. The day they’d gotten the news, Sabra and Dashon had been hanging out with friends somewhere else while she’d been in the front yard, watching their mother water the flowers she took such pride in. They’d been swapping stories, the drama of ninth grade feeling every bit as much a life or death situation as the nine-one-one calls her mother dealt with while on duty.
    A car pulled up in front of the house. The two men wearing Marine Corps full dress uniforms had gotten out and her throat had closed with a sob.
    She’d known . She and her mother had both known.
    Tears had streamed down her mother’s face. But her mother had stood straight and solid, like a soldier. Heard what the men said without breaking.
    Master Sergeant Antwan Dashon Greene, aged thirty-five, was dead. KIA—Killed in Action while serving his country.
    Saffron clasped the charm. Didn’t let herself go down the maybe if he’d been wearing his, he’d be alive road.
    Her brother Dashon had refused to wear the charm Sabra had given him when he joined the Army. Had refused again when he got out and joined the police force.
    He’d called it superstitious. And it wasn’t lack of some kind of supernatural protection that’d killed him. It was love.
    She wasn’t going to make that mistake. Wasn’t going to leave a lover behind to grieve when her time was up. And she sure as hell wasn’t going to allow herself to get into a position where what was going on with a lover distracted her in a firefight.
    Her brother and his girlfriend were fighting the day he’d pulled a motorist over on a routine traffic stop and was killed. The images of his death had been captured on his patrol car’s video cam and cycled on the news, over and over and over again.
    She’d never know for sure that he was distracted, thinking about Shelby, but… Hard not to believe that love had killed him as surely as the bullets that’d pierced Dashon’s body and torn up his insides.
    Saffron released the charm, tucked her hand into a front pocket. At least she didn’t have to worry about screwing up and falling in love with Taine. When it came to surrendering her heart to someone in law enforcement, she had full immunity, even if she did have a bad case of lust for a certain IRE agent.
    Behind her, the pissed-off mother who’d been yelling at her son became a terrified woman shrieking, “Help!”
    Saffron spun, scanned and saw the cheap float but no boy. She charged forward, was mid-thigh in water when the kid flailed to the surface then went under.
    She dived and swam.
    Stroke. Kick.
    Stroke. Kick.
    She knifed toward the spot where he’d come up, matched a word with an action.
    Hurry. Kick.
    Breathe. Stroke.
    Hurry. Kick
    Breathe. Stroke.
    She didn’t second guess herself. It was too late to run down the beach, get closer before going it.
    Kick. Breathe. Stroke.
    She checked her direction and kept going.
    The boy came up for air again.
    She closed the distance.
    The dangerous part came with reaching him. Saving him instead of being drowned by him.
    She dived close to where he’d come up last. Looked, the salt burning her eyes.
    The water was too dark to see anything. But somewhere close there was movement, sound.
    She kicked and lanced forward.
    The boy