Page 1 of Through the Fire
Prologue
The match flipped end over end, the spinning flame creating a small pocket of light in the dim house. It landed in a pool of lighter fluid, and flames rippled outward with such speed that Alex took a startled step back, away from the quickly spreading fire. Arson was one of the few crimes she’d never had to commit, but the lure was understandable. The dancing flames were mesmerizing, and the potential damage significant. Lighting a fire was a powerful feeling—one she could get addicted to.
A little reluctant to leave and not see the end result of that one lit match, she slowly opened the back door, never looking away from the growing fire as it licked around the blanket-wrapped corpse.
“Sorry, sweetie.” A flicker of guilt sparked and died just as quickly. “It was nothing personal. You just had what I needed.” She patted the messenger bag looped over her shoulder, making the newly stolen car keys rattle lightly against the folder of documents. This moment had been a long time coming. She’d sacrificed so much to get here, and she was finally, finally close to getting her revenge. “I’ll make a much better Elena Dahl than you ever would have, anyway.”
With a final glance back, Alex stepped outside, blinking at the bright early-morning light reflecting off the snow. She walked with confidence, cutting through the secluded backyard. Long ago, she’d discovered that acting like she was supposed to be somewhere was the easiest way to get away with anything. The coming weeks would be the ultimate test of that.
This time it almost didn’t matter. There was no one in this godforsaken semi–ghost town to see her slip away from the gradually growing light and into the waiting tree line. A deep satisfaction flowed through her, and she smiled. This was it. She was in the final stretch of her plan, and she could almost taste victory. Finally.
She quickly caught herself. It wasn’t time for congratulations yet. First, she had to become Elena Dahl. The rest would come with time and patience.
Silently, she made her way through the snowy forest toward her new home.
Chapter 1
Kit hated being late.
The thought of being late to her very first day of work was especially horrifying, and her muscles tensed as she shot another glance at her SUV’s dashboard clock. She only had seventeen—sixteen, she mentally corrected as the digital numbers changed—minutes to find her new house, unhitch the rental trailer containing all her worldly possessions, and get to the police station on time. She swore under her breath as the pickup in front of her slowed to inch around a curve.
It wasn’t looking promising.
Justice shifted in the back seat, giving a low groan as he settled into a new position. Flicking a look at the bloodhound in her rearview mirror, Kit couldn’t keep from smiling. With his long ears and floppy jowls, Justice always looked adorably rumpled.
Quickly turning her attention back to the twisting road, she saw the achingly slow truck’s signal light begin to flash.
“Hallelujah,” she muttered, easing to a crawl as the pickup turned. For the past twenty miles, she’d been stuck behind the wheezing old vehicle, which had only sped up from its painfully slow pace whenever a passing lane appeared. She’d left the Denver hotel before five that morning, assuming that would give her plenty of time to get to work before seven, but she hadn’t anticipated congested traffic on the snow-glazed roads.
At least the turtle-like speed allowed her to take in the views. This was only her second time in Colorado; the first was when she’d come to Monroe for her interview in late summer. The scenery was beautiful in a terrifying way, with shoulder-less roads edged by sheer drops and hairpin turns slicked with ice. A thick layer of snow covered everything except the road, piled off to the sides in dramatic, towering walls that narrowed the highway into claustrophobic corridors. The feeling surprised her. She’d figured being in such a small wilderness town would seem open and freeing, but the mountains and snow piles and even the twists and turns in the road pressed in on her, heavy and oddly menacing.
“It’s just different from what we’re used to,” she told Justice, needing to hear a reassuring voice, even if it was her own. Her SUV topped a rise, and Monroe appeared before her, nestled in a valley and looking cozy enough to be the centerpiece of a snow globe. The sight of the adorable hamlet settled her nerves a little. How could anything bad ever happen in such a picture-perfect postcard of a place? Working here was going to be relaxing to the point of boredom. “This’ll be good…much better than Wisconsin. We just have to get used to it. Right, Justice?”
Justice grunted, and Kit chose to take that as agreement.
Just as she passed a small sign reading WELCOME TO MONROE, ELEVATION 7,888 FEET, her GPS spoke up, telling her to turn right in half a mile. She obeyed, swinging her SUV wide so the trailer didn’t cut the turn and catch on a curb. She shouldn’t have worried. There was no curb. There was barely a street. Under the layer of packed snow, the road was painfully narrow and either gravel or so worn that most of the asphalt had given up, leaving only a potholed mess. She felt a pang for the townhome she’d left behind.
“Stop it,” she ordered herself before she could jump into a full-fledged pity party. “This will be better. Justice will have a yard, and there won’t be any shared walls, so you won’t have to listen to the neighbors fighting over who put the empty milk carton back in the fridge. You’re going to love it here.”
As she rounded a bend in the road, the house came into view. She pulled up in front of the cedar-sided cabin and let out a long, relieved breath. It was perfect. She’d seen pictures, but photos could hide a lot of flaws. Tidy and well maintained, the small house looked exactly as she’d hoped it would. The drive and walkway to the front porch had even been cleared. There were a few other homes around, but they were definitely far enough away that she wouldn’t hear any neighbors arguing unless they made a point of being heard.
“See, Justice? There’s that big fenced yard I was telling you about.”
Her relief didn’t last long when she caught another glimpse of the clock. Even if she was extremely speedy, she was definitely going to be late on her first day. She muttered various creative swear words under her breath as she pulled her SUV and the trailer past the end of the narrow driveway.
As she started backing up, turning the trailer into the drive, she noticed another vehicle in the street behind her and quickly slammed on her brakes. Craning her head out of her open window, Kit spotted a dark-haired, bearded man behind the wheel of an elderly pickup. Her swearing was less muffled that time. It was hard enough backing such a small, wiggly trailer without an audience—an audience most likely impatient for her to get out of the way so he could squeeze past her SUV and get wherever he was going. If she rushed, she’d just end up sending the trailer cockeyed and getting it stuck in her new yard.
She looked at the snow mounded on either side of the skinny road. There was no way the pickup could go around, not without getting caught in the four-foot drifts. With a resigned sigh, she started backing up again. The pickup was far enough away that she wasn’t in any danger of hitting him with the trailer. The only danger was humiliation if it took her a half hour to get the trailer into the driveway.
Turning the steering wheel, she watched as the back of the trailer lined up with the driveway entrance. Slowly, she started backing it in.
“It couldn’t be this easy, could it?” she asked Justice, hope blooming in her chest, marveling at the way the trailer was obediently rolling up the lane. Even as she spoke, the trailer turned too far and headed for a snowbank. Kit hit the brake before she got the trailer stuck in the drifts lining the yard. “Of course it can’t. This is my life, after all. Everything has to be as painfully embarrassing as possible.”
With a sigh, she shifted her SUV into Park and got out, heading for the driver’s side of the waiting pickup. Might as well get this over with. The man rolled down his window as she neared, and Kit did a stutter step when she got her first up-close view.
He was the most beautiful person she’d ever seen.
