Where There's Smoke: inspirational romantic suspense (Montana Fire Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

using his manners. “Ma’am.”
    Oh for crying out loud. “Call me Kate.”
    “CJ St. John.” He held out his hand, and she met his grip, found it chapped and worn from hard work.
    Pete cocked his head toward the open door to the ready room. “Shh. We’re listening to Conner and the boss have it out.”
    Sure enough, she heard voices.
    Loud, angry voices. Pete sat up, took his feet off the sofa, patting the cushion.
    Instead she held out her hands and he tossed her the football. She caught it. Rolled it in her grip.
    “I have twenty-four recruits out there all hoping to land a spot on a team that the Forest Service isn’t sure they want to continue. You know what will happen to this program if we have even one serious injury this summer?” Jed, his voice tight, dark.
    “It’s not if a jumper gets hurt—it’s when .” Conner’s quiet, brutal addition.
    She winced, knowing Conner’s words had to hurt.
    Silence.
    She glanced at Pete, who shrugged, then Reuben, his mouth set in a grim line. It was true, however—smokejumping was listed among the twenty-five most dangerous jobs in the world. If jumpers didn’t crash into trees, they could get blown into the fire, get injured by equipment, crushed by a falling snag, and, in the worst of scenarios, find themselves trapped by fire.
    Finally, “Jumpers get hurt—that’s to be expected. But we can’t lose another life to fire.”
    Almost on reflex Kate’s gaze went to the pictures of the seven, each memorialized in frames on the wall. Her dad’s visage—clean shaven, wearing his Forest Service uniform—grinned out at her, and she looked away before her throat tightened.
    But nothing braced her for Jed’s next words. “Kate is as reckless as they come. You’ve heard the stories—”
    “I have.” This from Pete. “They’re pretty amazing. I heard you outran a bear!”
    Every gaze landed on her.
    “It was a cub,” she muttered under the heated voices in the next room.
    “Sure, she takes risks, but she’s got a reputation for knowing how a fire behaves,” Conner was saying. “And for reacting fast. Pete’s not the first jumper she’s saved out of the sky—”
    “I’m a little brokenhearted,” Pete said frowning at her. “Already stepping out on me?”
    “What can I say?” Kate said, but Jed’s words overran her, left her shaken.
    “Believe me, I know every single one of Kate’s exploits.”
    He did? She swallowed, felt the blood drain from her face.
    But her eyes closed against his next words.
    “Taking risks doesn’t have to include being reckless. And Blazin’ Kate is the poster child for reckless. She’s going to get people hurt trying to prove she’s just as good as her father.”
    And that was her cue. “I’m outta here.”
    “He doesn’t mean it—” Pete started, but she held up her hand.
    “Oh, yes he does.” She tossed him the ball.
    Pete was on his feet, wearing a pained expression. “Kate—”
    She couldn’t take the way he was looking at her, Jed’s words adding pity to his expression. So, “Before you get ambitious, Pete, I don’t date smokejumpers.”
    A second, a beat, and then he rebounded, saving her. “There you go, breaking my heart again.” He even put his hands over his chest.
    She grinned and shook her head against the laughter of the team. But Jed’s words burned inside her.
    She’s going to get people hurt.
    Not this time.

    Jed should have known that Conner, former Green Beret and the team’s communication expert, would track him down, attempt to talk him out of the rash decision to fire the team’s new trainer.
    He just hadn’t expected it to happen in the middle of Overhead, around listening ears.
    “Jed, take a beat here. Think about this.”
    Conner didn’t do anything rash. Ever. And, frankly, neither did Jed.
    Unless, of course, Kate Burns walked into his airspace. Which was exactly why he’d had to fire her from the training crew. And why he didn’t even want her jumping.
    He