Table Of ContentGrace sat down heavily on the bed, trying to still her racing heart.
Her hand still tingled where it had come into contact with his chest. Okay,
so she was just trying to show off. The man made her so damn mad.
He didn’t think she was capable. In fact, he thought she was going to lose it
any minute. Well, she aimed to prove him wrong.
She thought she was ready when he knocked on the door, but when she
opened it she had to catch her breath. Jordan was dressed in a tight black T-shirt
with the ATF logo embossed on the right-hand side, his biceps bulging just
below the hem of the short sleeves. His hair was mussed and he had a hint of
beard stubble lightly shadowing his jaw. But the coup de grâce was the sinfully
tight jeans that showed off the heavy, thick muscles in his thighs.
Somehow her life had turned into an action-adventure flick when she
wasn’t looking. And the leading man was Jordan Kelly.
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Dear Reader,
Lots of times things come full circle. I began my writing career with the
Intimate Moments line, now called Romantic Suspense. My first book was
published in 1997 and it was a thrill. Now after thirteen years, I’m back doing
what I love to do—writing heart-pounding suspense!
That’s what I have in store for you with Five-Alarm Encounter. Firefighter
Grace Addision has been both physically and emotionally scarred by an arsonist
who is stalking the people of La Rosa, California. She’s on disability and
recuperating when the mayor asks her to be part of the task force. She meets
Jordan Kelly, the hard-hitting ATF agent who is the current task-force leader.
Jordan knows she’s not one hundred percent fit for the job, but that doesn’t stop
the sparks from flying between them. They must work together to stop not only
the threat to the city, but the arsonist who has now targeted Grace. It’s a race
against time to keep both the city and her safe.
Full circle feels pretty darn good. I hope that you enjoy each intense and
romantic moment!
All the best,
Karen Anders
KAREN ANDERS
Five-Alarm Encounter
Books by Karen Anders
Harlequin Romantic Suspense
Five-Alarm Encounter #1658
KAREN ANDERS
is a three-time National Readers’ Choice Award finalist and RT Book
Reviews Reviewers’ Choice finalist, and has won the prestigious Holt Medallion.
Two of her novels made the Waldenbooks bestseller list in 2003. Published since
1997, she currently writes romantic suspense for Harlequin. To contact the
author, please write to her in care of Harlequin Books, 233 Broadway Suite
1001, New York, NY 10279, or visit www.karenanders.com.
To Pete for always getting what I’m talking about and making it better!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 1
She couldn’t breathe.
Grace Addison gasped for breath inside her mask. The explosion hit them
so hard they were thrown across the room, slamming into an already unsteady
staircase that had collapsed under their weight. They lay in the belly of the fire,
smoke so thick Grace could barely see her surroundings.
Her mind screamed at her to do something. It demanded action from her
like some cruel, unfeeling boss. Richard was dead. Grace knew it just by looking
at him. Her paramedic training shouted at her to go to him, but she couldn’t
move.
Mind reeling, she turned her eyes away from the scene, trying to keep
herself from weeping in horror. She focused on one thing. Sara, who was still
alive, needed her.
From where Grace lay, she could see Sara’s pleading eyes peering through
the clear, Plexiglas mask. Her best friend and fellow firefighter stared at Grace,
beseeching her to help. Grace tried to make her body move, but she recognized
the signs of shock. She cursed her weakness, her heart twisting with fresh pain,
the oath she took as a firefighter going sour, like wine left too long to ferment.
The smoke was a dark, oppressive thing, weighing her down as if it had
density. Mass.
Her lungs felt scorched. Orange and crimson flames crawled down the
brown paneling toward them, their unrelenting journey consuming everything in
their path.
She wanted to cry out. To scream for help, shout curses, anything. The
clothes on Richard’s body were starting to smoke. Grace struggled against panic.
Her slightest movement brought a searing pain across her back. She froze,
immobilized by the fierce sensations that racked her with shocking intensity.
Richard was burning!
The couch and shag carpet nearby were consumed in smoke. A wall
tapestry was wreathed in flames and hissed audibly as it melted away. She
coughed, tears flowing freely from eyes that stung excruciatingly.
They lay there as the fire encroached. Grace could hear the sound of
movement above her. She tried to call out, to scream for their rescue. But her
throat was parched. She could barely get a sound beyond the smothering mask.
A short, audible beep emitted from her Personal Alert Safety System. The
device was warning her that she’d been immobile for more than thirty seconds.
She was relieved at the warning and the 95-decibel tone that sounded shortly
afterward. Every part of her was riveted on Sara’s eyes, giving her friend that
small amount of comfort as she slowly suffocated.
The scorching heat on Grace’s back and shoulders intensified, telling her
the barrier of her turnout coat had been breached, but again, she couldn’t focus
on it. Just on Sara. Her world had narrowed down to Sara.
Frantically, Sara pulled off the mask, gasping in the tainted basement air.
She reached out for Grace’s hand and Grace grasped it tightly, their gazes
locked. Grace squeezed and Sara’s eyes welled with tears. It was almost like
Sara was trying to say something. Her hand contorted and jerked, then her eyes
went fixed and still, her mouth going slack.
A flood of genuine tears washed away some of the sting of the smoke as
Grace’s vision began to dim. Her lungs felt compressed with agony as she
struggled for oxygen. The red-hot pain increased along her back and shoulders,
the smell of charred skin thick in her nostrils.
She was going to die.
Grace woke up gasping and choking. She threw the covers off, feeling as
though her back and shoulders were on fire. She stumbled to the window and
jerked it open. The cool air from the La Rosa night wafted into the room, easing
some of Grace’s panic and soothing her hot shoulders and back. She braced
herself against the windowframe, breathing in the chill for a moment, as grateful
as if she’d just been saved from drowning.
There was no more burned flesh there, nothing but scars now. But the
internal scars from that day were fresh and oozing.
The serial arsonist had struck again, planted a slowly ticking time bomb in a
residential building. Only one of the many fires he had set, hoping to claim more
victims. This time the greedy flames had taken two of the department’s best.
Grace squeezed her eyes tightly together, trying to block out Sara’s
beautiful blue eyes fixed in death.
The memory was as fresh now as it had been two months ago. It haunted
her. Pursued her. Stalking. Accosting. No matter how hard she tried to block it
out, she couldn’t escape. She relived that horrible experience within the recesses
of her mind like a cruelly conducted interrogation.
At least she was alive, but that meant living with the memory. Guilt
assaulted her waking and sleeping. Her colleagues had gotten to her in time.
How could a residential fire in a three-story house have gone so bad? Their
station had been the first to respond, but more stations had been called in as the
