Backdraft

  Backdraft

  Book One in the Brant County Heroes Series

  Cher Carson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, including photocopying, graphic, electronic, mechanical, taping, recording, sharing, or by any information retrieval system without the express written permission of the author and / or publisher. Exceptions include brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Persons, places and other entities represented in this book are deemed to be fictitious. They are not intended to represent actual places or entities currently or previously in existence or any person living or dead. This work is the product of the author’s imagination.

  Any and all inquiries to the author of this book should be directed to:

  info@chercarsonbooks.com.

  Backdraft © 2012 Cher Carson

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  About the Author

  Coming Soon

  Chapter One

  “Are you sure you want to do this, Maya?” Craig asked for the tenth time in the past three months.

  She’d asked herself the same question at least a hundred times. Her plan was risky. Chances were good it would blow up in her face, but if she didn’t take the risk, she would spend the next ten years the same way she’d spent the past ten: asking herself what might have been.

  Would she still be with her high school sweetheart, Dave Briar? Would they have gotten married as they’d planned, before that fateful night turned her world upside down… the night that Dave walked in on his best friend, Craig, in bed with his girlfriend.

  For years she believed she was to blame, and that guilt prevented her from reaching out to the man she loved. She didn’t deserve him, or so she thought. But when Craig asked if they could meet for dinner one night a few months ago, explaining they needed to clear the air, the puzzle began to come together. At first, she was angry and devastated. She felt violated and cheated, but eventually she came to terms with the situation, accepting the fact that their old friend Craig was suffering from a serious drug addiction when he got her drunk that night and took advantage of her. He told her Dave’s name was on her lips when they had sex. In her inebriated state, she believed she was making love to her boyfriend, not his best friend.

  He claimed he wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. He’d developed feelings for her. He was envious of what she and Dave shared, and he wanted to be part of it. After he realized what he’d done, the damage his actions had caused, he’d gone into rehab and was clean ever since. But he never found the courage to tell his best friend the truth. He was too afraid of losing the only person in the world he considered family.

  Craig’s parents were killed in a fire when he was only five, and he was raised by his widowed grandmother, who had long since passed away. Dave’s large and boisterous family became the family Craig never had, and if he lost Dave, he would lose all of them. Craig apparently couldn’t face that prospect, so he lived with the secret of what he did that night, hoping that one day he would have the opportunity to make amends. When he reached out to Maya online, he told her it was because he was finally ready to admit his mistakes and ask her forgiveness.

  “I need to do this,” she said, taking a deep breath as she clenched the phone.

  When she and Craig re-connected on a social media site a few months back and began talking on the phone, those brief conversations planted a new seed of hope in her mind. She learned Dave was still single, had never married, and didn’t have children. He still lived the bachelor life, a pretty wild one at that, but according to his best friend, he was getting tired of the scene and might be ready to settle down.

  Both Craig and Dave were firefighters in their hometown, and their annual fireman’s masquerade ball was coming up that weekend. Both men got coerced into participating in the bachelor charity auction, and lucky ladies could bid on dates with them.

  The plan was in place. Maya would bid on and win dates with both Craig and Dave; she didn’t care about the cost. As an emergency room doctor, she earned enough money to outbid most of the locals, and even if she had to take out a second mortgage on her house, one more night with Dave would be worth it.

  A masquerade ball afforded her a certain amount of anonymity. She would arrive late, in full mask, sit in the back of the room, and speak to no one unless absolutely necessary. She could pull this off. She had no choice if she wanted her plan to work.

  “Okay,” Craig said. “So once you win the dates, I’ll tell Dave that the chick who bid on us wants to cash in tonight, up in her room, right?”

  The thought of Craig and Dave sharing women was distasteful to Maya, but apparently it became routine after Craig got out of rehab and the two men forged a new relationship. “Yeah, and once you lure him up there, I’ll be in hiding out in the bathroom. I’ll leave a note on the bed telling Dave I want him handcuffed to the bed and blindfolded when I come out.”

  “Got it.” Craig laughed. “I wish I could be there when he takes that blindfold off and sees you standing there in all your naked glory. The poor guy’s gonna have a coronary.”

  “But you won’t be there,” Maya reminded him. Seeing the two of them together again would undoubtedly remind Dave of what had happened that night all those years ago, and that was the last thing she wanted him to think about while she made love to him. She prayed that it would be as combustible as it always was between them, and she could take the opportunity to remind him that no one could make him feel the way she could. By the time he realized it was her, she hoped and prayed that his defenses would be lowered and he would be willing to listen to reason.

  “Right, because I’m going to get a text from a co-worker asking me to cover his shift and I’m going to bail, leaving the two of you alone.”

  “That’s right.” She had everything planned; now she just had to execute it flawlessly because she had no doubt that if Dave recognized her or someone tipped him off before the auction, he would bail and she would never see him again. There was no room for error. This had to work.

  Dave tossed his tablet down on the couch beside him. He was tired of playing games, both in the bedroom and on the small screen. Closing his eyes, he tipped his head back on the couch and re-played the latest erotic scene in his mind. He and Craig went to a bar in a neighboring town last month and hooked up with twin sisters who were looking for a good time. Lord, they were wild in the sack, but by the time he left that night, he knew that his days of playing with toys were numbered.

  He hadn’t had a real relationship in years, and according to his well-meaning mother and sisters, the clock was ticking if he wanted to start a family. He knew he had plenty of time. At thirty-two, he was hardly an old man, but he was ready to settle down and find the one. Too bad all the girls in their small town were more like sisters than potential life mates. He’d known most of them since grade school. Those who had pursued him in high school knew they didn’t stand a chance because he spent those years committed to one girl: Maya.

  His hands clenched when he thought of her. The pain of her betrayal still gnawed at him, as though it were ten days instead of ten years since it happened. He knew it was unfair to harbor so much resentment toward her when he was able to forgive his friend, but Craig was sick at the time, under the influence of a cocktail of drugs. She had no excuse for going to bed with his best friend, aside from the fact that she was drunk and horny and Craig had obviously made himself available to satisfy her needs.<
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  He hadn’t allowed himself to get lost in the memories of that night in a long time. The sight of his woman, tangled up in the sheets with his best friend riding her. She was clearly under the influence, so much so that she barely responded when he walked in to the room. He’d arrived at the campus to surprise Maya, and when he couldn’t find her, he came looking for Craig. He sure as hell didn’t expect to find them in bed together.

  He would never forget that long drive home. He’d been shaking, sweating, unable to find an outlet for his rage. He pulled over to the side of the road, wretched, kicked dents in his pick-up truck, and sank to his knees in the dirt, crying and shouting like a maniac.

  In the weeks that followed, Maya tried to reach out to him, begging for forgiveness, but he told her he never wanted to see her again. He could never forgive her. They’d planned a life together. They, and everyone around them, assumed they would get married and have a couple of kids. He would be the local fire chief; she would be the emergency room doctor at their local hospital. They would grow old together on the wrap-around porch of that old Victorian they both loved on the corner of Wells street. He’d bought that house two years ago and invested months restoring it to its former glory when the previous owners allowed it to fall into disrepair after they fell ill. No one knew that was their dream home, but with each stroke of the sander, each swipe of the paint brush, he remembered.

  The house was down the road from where they both grew up, and they would walk by it, hand in hand, when they were young, seventeen or eighteen, and talk about what it would be like to raise a family in a house with so much history. It was close to both of their parents’ houses, so their mothers could babysit the grandchildren while they worked. They had it all figured out, or so he thought.

  “Hey, Captain,” Craig said, walking into the room. He opened the refrigerator and snagged a bottle of water.

  Captain. He’d worked hard for the title, and next year, when his father, the chief, retired, he would be awarded the top spot. The youngest chief in the history of Brant County, but everyone knew he was ready for the job. His father had groomed him since he was a little boy and he’d first shown an interest in donning the uniform and visiting the fire station. He took pride in his job and was honored and humbled to save lives and make a difference in the community he loved.

  “What’s up, man?”

  “Not much, you?” Craig claimed the couch across from him, twisting the cap on his water bottle. “Hey, didn’t you get my text last night? Shana was in town.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “She was lookin’ for a good time.”

  Smirking, Dave said, “What’s wrong? You weren’t man enough to show her a good time all by yourself?”

  Craig fired the plastic cap at his head, but Dave caught it in mid-air, laughing. “Nah, I thought I’d let you in on the action, seein’ as you’re having a dry spell.”

  That night with the twins was almost a month ago, and his friend was right; that was the longest dry spell he’d experienced in a long-time. He’d done a lot of soul searching lately, and the bed-warmers he cozied up to just left him feeling cold and lonely. Maybe it was time to try and find someone he could have a real, one-on-one relationship with again. “I’m getting too old for this shit,” Dave said, scrubbing his hands over his face.

  Laughing, Craig said, “You could always try Viagra.”

  “Fuck off,” Dave said, launching a throw cushion at him. “I mean, I’m thinking maybe it’s time to look for a woman who’s more than just a pin cushion.” Dave loved women, respected them, but he found it difficult to consider a woman who would take him and his buddy on at the same time potential wife material.

  “Got anybody in mind?” Craig asked, tipping the bottle to his lips.

  “Nah, that’s the problem. Nobody around here does it for me.”

  Craig shrugged. “Who says it has to be a hometown girl? You know hot women exist outside Brant Country, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, but who says she’d be willing to pick up stakes and move here? Besides, you know long-distance relationships never work.” He found that out the hard way when Maya went off to school.

  “Are you saying you wouldn’t be able to trust a woman if you couldn’t keep an eye on her 24/7?”

  Dave was jealous, possessive, and he definitely had trust issues. The few times he tried to have a relationship, they were colossal failures. “Can you blame me?” he asked, glaring at his friend.

  They had one unspoken rule. They never talked about Maya or that night. If they did, he feared it would re-open wounds that may never stop bleeding.

  Craig looked at him a long time before asking, “How do you expect to have a relationship if you can’t trust your woman?”

  Leaning forward, barely able to contain the rage bubbling up inside of him, he said, “I did trust a woman once. Wholeheartedly. You remember how that turned out, don’t you?”

  “Hey, boys,” Ted Briar said, walking into the room. He walked directly to the coffeepot, pouring himself a tall mug of the steaming brew. “Y’all ready for the auction this weekend?”

  After tearing his eyes away from his friend, Dave forced himself to draw a few deep breaths. He hadn’t allowed himself to consider confronting Craig about that night in years. He knew once he did, it would result in an explosion that neither one of them could contain.

  “I can’t believe you’re making us do this. How would you like to get up there and parade around while women heckled you?”

  Chuckling, Ted patted his round mid-section. “We’re trying to raise money for the hospital, boy. The only woman willing to pay money to date me would be your mother.”

  Rolling his eyes, Dave said, “You’d be damn lucky if she would kick in. If she had to choose between spending her money on you or bingo, you know she’d play the game every time.”

  Pointing his finger at his son, Ted said, “Don’t backtalk me, kid. I may be your father, but that wouldn’t stop me from firing your lazy ass if you give me reason.”

  Dave laughed at the empty threat. He and his father had an easy banter born of years spent fishing on the lake when he was growing up and another decade learning the ropes at the fire station under the chief’s watchful eye.

  “Whatever. You know you’d be lost without me.”

  Grinning, Craig rose. “He may not enjoy being treated like a piece of meat, Ted, but I happen to get off on it.”

  Slapping Craig on the back as he walked by, Ted laughed. “That’s the spirit, son.” Suddenly, the smile died when he looked Dave in the eye. “You got a minute? We need to talk.”

  Dave knew that look. He’d done something to disappoint the old man and he was going to hear about it, whether he liked it or not. Pointing to the couch across from him, he said, “Sure, take a load off, boss.”

  After claiming the seat Craig had just vacated, he sighed. “It’s come to my attention that you and Craig have been engaging in some pretty questionable behavior. I’m going to talk to him about it later, but I needed to hear your side of the story first.”

  Shit. Busted. He had no interest in talking to his father about his sex life, and knowing his parents were clean-living, church-going people didn’t make it any easier. He would never understand. “What have you heard?”

  “I know I don’t have to spell it out for you.” He paused, looking him in the eye. “Your mother was the one who brought it to my attention.”

  “Goddamn it,” he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. He should have known this would happen sooner or later. They tried to be discreet and usually propositioned women who were just passing through town, but apparently they weren’t careful enough. Once the local busybodies got wind of this, it would be all over the county by sundown. “How’d she hear about it?”

  “One of the teachers at the school had a niece staying with her, Linda Morrow. Do you remember her?”

  Damn it. That was a couple of months ago. They hooked up with her at the local watering hole. When she said she was in
town visiting her aunt, Dave was already half in the bag and hadn’t thought to ask for her aunt’s name. Figured her aunt was one of the teachers who worked for his mother at the elementary school. “Listen, I’m sorry if you and Mom were embarrassed, but I’m a grown man. You can’t tell me who I can and can’t sleep with, Dad.”

  He set his coffee down on the table between them and pointed his finger, his face getting flushed. “You listen to me, boy. Your mama and I have worked hard to become respected members of this community. As principal of that school, she’s responsible for instilling some values in those young people. How would it look to the parents if they found out her son was engaging in orgies?”

  “For Christ sakes, Dad, would you keep your voice down? We’re in the middle of the fire station. Any of the guys could walk in.”

  He leaned back, folding his arms across his chest. “At least you have the good sense to be ashamed of yourself.”

  “Did I say I was ashamed of myself? I don’t think so.” But just the thought of his mother hearing about his antics from one of her co-workers had him squirming in his seat. He had no doubt she would slap him upside the head the next time she got her hands on him. The woman who had made thousands of pre-teens nearly wet their pants still had the ability to set him, a grown man, on edge. “What did Mom say?” He was almost afraid to ask.

  “She wants to see you over at the house when you get off today.”

  He wasn’t going to avoid her wrath. He would just have to man up and take it. “Fine, I’ll head over there now. Anything else?”

  “Yeah, I want to know why.”

  “Why, what?” Dave asked. Pretending he had no idea what his dad was talking about would buy him a few more seconds to come up with a plausible excuse, he hoped.

  “Don’t be a smartass. Why would you share your woman with another man? That’s just sick.”