Dallas Fire & Rescue: Scorched (Kindle Worlds Novella) (The Eldridges Book 1) Read online

  Text copyright ©2017 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Paige Tyler. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Dallas Fire & Rescue remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Paige Tyler, or their affiliates or licensors.

  For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Scorched

  Melissa Schroeder

  Acknowledgments

  No book is every written on my own. Big thanks to Paige Tyler for including me in her Kindle World. Another round of admiration to Brandy Walker for my cover and Noel Varner for her hard work on edits. Thanks to Joy Harris for keeping me on my toes and for the support from my Harmless Addicts.

  Thank you Les and the girls for all your help.

  Edited by Noel Varner

  Cover Art by Brandy Walker

  Chapter One

  C ooper Murray made his way through the apartment building, the heat of the fire lapping at his back. From the moment the call had gone out, he knew it was going to be a bitch of a fire. A three-alarm is bad enough, but by the time Station 58 had arrived, they had sent another call out, making it a four-alarm fire. The original fire had started in one building, but thanks to the weather, it hadn’t been contained. The cold January wind had whipped up the flames, helping them dance down the block of apartment buildings. Most of them were abandoned, but one had been renovated into lofts. A good number of the lofts were currently empty, but they had to make sure the few people who had bought apartments in this building were safe—not to mention any homeless people who needed shelter from the cold weather.

  He passed Mike Anderson, who still had the bulk from his linebacker days at Texas Tech.

  “Find anyone else?” Cooper asked.

  The older fireman shook his head. “We need to get out of here. Word just went out that the structure isn’t stable now.”

  “I’ve got one more apartment down this side,” he said motioning with his hand. “There’s another at the end of the hall. I’ll meet you back here in two.”

  Mike nodded and headed down the hall in the opposite direction. Cooper fought his way through, the fire’s heat seemed to grow with each step that he took. Sweat trickled down his back, and he fought the need to scratch at it, wipe it away. He checked two rooms and thankfully found them empty. There was one more room and he could head back to Mike. He stepped into the room and found it engulfed in flames. There was a bed, but not much else in the apartment. Seeing that there were no bodies, living or dead, he turned to make his way back down the hall.

  The fire had grown more violent, and the temperature seemed to have increased tenfold. The walls were completely covered in flames. Carefully, he made his way down the hallway, gauging his footsteps cautiously. He didn’t want to fall through the floor. His forehead was covered in sweat, and a bit of it dripped into his eyes. He blinked it away, or tried to at least. He hadn’t thought it could get much hotter in the building, but he had been wrong.

  Mike appeared at the end of the hall and started toward Cooper. Relief filtered through him as he continued on his way. Three steps later, he heard what sounded like a crack behind him. He looked back over his shoulder and realized the wall was about to collapse on top of him. Turning back, he started to run. He made it three steps, but he wasn’t fast enough. The wall crashed down on him. Pain radiated from his leg, which took the brunt of the hit as Cooper lost his balance and fell to the ground. His head hit hard on the floor and left him dizzy.

  For what seemed like an hour, he lay there, trying to assess his injuries. When he was no longer seeing stars, he lifted up, or tried too. He braced his weight on his hands, but only got the top half of his body. His left leg wouldn’t move. He looked down his body. Damn, his left leg wouldn’t move. There was a good chance it was broken. He attempted to move again, but couldn’t. The effort and the heat of the fire left him breathless and dizzy, and his arms felt like rubber. After one more try, Cooper collapsed.

  Mike called out and Cooper could hear his hurried footsteps. He opened his mouth and attempted to answer Mike, but his stomach rolled over, and his world started to spin out of control. He heard Mike talking to him, but he couldn’t seem to grasp what he was saying.

  He was sure he was dying, and his only thought was that he should have called Misty. He should have made up with her before this.

  Then, his world faded to black.

  Cooper woke with a rush. Panic hit first as his head tried to grasp where he was and what was going on. Sucking in huge gulps of air, he attempted to get his brain to function. Pain and confusion swamped him. The first thing he saw was green drapes.

  Where the hell am I? He blinked, trying to focus on the green drapes. Mind-numbing pain filtered throughout his body. From a simple blink. What in all that was holy had he done to himself?

  “Mr. Murray,” a soft female voice said.

  He turned his head and instantly regretted it. His brain rattled inside his skull, and an ache shivered down his spine. If he had anything left in his stomach, he would have thrown it up.

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  “I think you need to watch your language, young man.”

  He looked at the woman berating him. She was small in stature, had to be about fifty years old, and wore blue scrubs. She had a head full of curly brown hair and blue eyes.

  “I’m sorry. Where am I?”

  She softened a bit and gave him a small smile. “Baylor Medical Center.”

  He looked down his body and saw the massive cast on his left leg. It covered his entire leg, from his toes to his hip. The memory of the night before came rushing back to him. The crack of the wood, the pain as the wall fell on him.

  “The fire. The wall.”

  “Yes. Collapsed right on you. Broke your leg in four places, and you have a concussion.”

  “That’s why I feel like my head has been used for a bowling ball.”

  She started to take his vitals. “There are a few friends of yours littering the halls.”

  “Friends?”

  She smiled. “Firefighters. Several are here waiting on you. Unfortunately, we can’t let anyone back into ICU you aren’t related to.”

  Well, that left him shit out of luck. He didn’t have family outside of the firehouse.

  “The doctor is going to be in here soon. I have a feeling he’ll move you to a regular room so your friends will be able to see you then. You were put in here just as a precaution. He’s talking to your wife and then I’m sure he’ll be in.”

  For a long moment, he thought he’d heard her wrong. He didn’t have a wife. He didn’t live with anyone either. “My…wife?”

  “Yes. She arrived about ten minutes ago. The doctor is speaking to her about your recovery.”

  “Recovery? My wife?” Then, it hit him in a rush who she was talking about. Oh, hell, things had just gone from bad to worse.

  The nurse paused and studied him. “You do know your name and that you’ve been hurt, right?”

  “Yes. Leg’s broken, concussion. But, who called my wife?”
/>   “Hmm, someone at work, I suppose. Either way, she’s here and getting all the particulars. It isn’t going to be fun, but you’re young. You’ll have to rest for a few weeks and have a lot of PT, but you should be able to tough it out. Would you like some ice chips? You can’t eat or drink anything until the doc gives you permission, but ice chips are allowed.”

  “Yeah,” he said absentmindedly.

  “Be right back.”

  When he was alone, he looked around the area. He knew there were other beds, mainly because he could hear the machines beeping, but he couldn’t see much since curtains shielded his view. He couldn’t even fathom what lay ahead of him. Without being able to work, even if he would get disability pay, Coop was afraid he might just go crazy.

  And his wife. Misty. The previous night was still a blur, but he knew his last thought before he had passed out was about her. The one woman who would always be the bane of his existence…and his reason to live.

  “You low down, dirty mongrel,” a low, husky voice muttered. It was the voice that haunted his dreams and always sent his heart pounding. He turned and saw Misty standing at the opening in the curtain.

  She had pulled the mass of golden brown curls that usually dripped over her shoulders into a loose bun on top of her head. She had no makeup on, and she looked like she’d dressed in a hurry. Hell, if she stepped outside of her house without makeup, he knew she had been rushed, let alone showing up in public with a pair of old jeans and a Dallas Cowboy t-shirt on.

  Knowing her the way he did, Cooper knew she probably thought she looked like a mess. He thought she was beautiful.

  “Misty.”

  She was frowning at him, and dammit, it made his heart sing. The woman had left him battered and bruised, without any hope for happiness, and she was standing there fuming at him—and all he wanted to do was kiss the bejesus out of her. He had the urge knowing full well she would probably break his nose if he tried.

  He was one sick individual. Sad also. Sad and sick.

  He cleared his throat, trying to come up with something to say. “So…they called you?”

  She nodded without taking her gaze from his.

  “And you came.”

  Again, she nodded.

  What did he say to the woman who had left his heart broken and bleeding on the floor?

  “So…” he said, not knowing what else to say.

  There was a long moment of silence, then she stepped closer to the bed, narrowed those gorgeous whiskey-colored eyes of hers, and said, “Give me one good reason not to kill you.”

  Chapter Two

  M isty Dawn Eldridge Murray stared at the one man who had ever been able to break her heart, and she fought back the urge to scream. And throw things. And then scream some more.

  The call in the middle of the night had left her panicked to get to him. Why, she had no idea. She’d been waiting months for him to sign their divorce papers, and he had yet to even acknowledge that she had sent them to him. Still, she had raced from her family ranch in the Texas hill country to be by his side. Now that the initial fear had subsided, the anger and pain he had caused came rushing back at the sight of him.

  “Well?” she asked, as she fought her first instinct, which was to rush to his bedside. She wanted to soothe him, make him feel better. But it always ended badly. Well, first it would be good…really good. The man did have some fine seduction skills, and he knew how to make a woman go crazy in bed. Then, the stranger would return. She couldn’t deal with that side of him.

  “Well what?”

  “I asked why I shouldn’t kill you.”

  He smiled and her heart turned over. Dammit. It wasn’t even a good smile. It was crooked, and it showed off the scar just above his upper lip, but it got to her every damned time. There was no denying that when he showed her his dimples and had a certain sparkle in his eyes, that she would do anything for him.

  “They worked really hard to put me back together again. It would be rude to mess up their handiwork.”

  She rolled her eyes and walked closer. Not too close, but close enough to examine him. He looked like hell, which just made him more attractive. Damn him. Life was not fair.

  Fair isn’t what life is all about.

  The familiar adage from her grandmother rang in her head. She had been dead for over three years, and Misty couldn’t escape the life lessons Grandma had repeated day in and day out. And wouldn’t Grace Eldridge get a kick out of Misty’s predicament. Grandma had never been shy about saying I told you so.

  “Still, I get a call in the middle of the night telling me that my husband is in the hospital. Mind you, I thought maybe they had mistaken me for someone else, seeing that I haven’t heard from you for the past eight months.”

  At least he had the good grace to blush, but that made him even cuter. Oh, she wanted to ring his neck, just as much as she wanted to kiss him silly. She really had issues, and Cooper Murray seemed to tap into most of them.

  Before he could comment, the nurse and doctor came back into his area.

  “Good morning, Mr. Murray. You’re looking pretty good, thanks to me.”

  Dr. Wilbur was an older man, one with that kindly grandfather air about him, but he wasn’t a doddering fool. Sharp blue eyes missed nothing from what she had observed. She had peppered him with questions when she’d arrived, and he had answered them without problem. He had even taken the time to comfort her.

  “I was just telling Nurse Mary that you will be moved down to a regular room today. All your vitals look good. We should be able to release you tomorrow, Friday at the latest.”

  “Sounds good,” Cooper said.

  “I’ll leave you two alone. I left orders for them to feed you dinner tonight, but it will be very light. Don’t want to risk it.”

  Cooper nodded, then winced. She knew he would rather die than admit to pain. Stubborn goat. When they were finally alone, she settled her hands on her hips. She had to do something with them or she wouldn’t be able to fight those wifely urges.

  “So, do you want to explain why I ended up being dragged down here to see to your recovery? Because, it was damned hard to explain to…”

  She trailed off when she realized what she had almost said. Dammit, he already had her making mistakes…again. She didn’t need her family to know about her mistake of a marriage, any more than they needed to know she was, in fact, still married. And she didn’t need Cooper to find out just who her family was. Especially when he wasn’t going to stick around.

  His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “Who? Who are you trying to hide this from?”

  She heard the twinge of jealousy in his voice. At one time that would have given her hope. Now it just made her madder. And sad. It made her very, very sad.

  “No one. Work. I had to take off work to make my way down here.”

  The expression on his face told her he didn’t believe her. She didn’t care. The days of answering to Cooper Murray were over.

  “I’m sorry to have taken up so much of your time.”

  The tone in his voice shamed her enough to soften. “They say you might be able to get out of here soon. It won’t be a long hospital stay.”

  He snorted. “Yeah, more like my insurance will only cover so many days.”

  “Probably.”

  He closed his eyes. “You don’t have to stay. I didn’t know they called you.”

  Oh, no. She felt herself softening. Something about Cooper had always called to her. “I was kind of surprised I was still on your contact list.”

  “Who else would be there?”

  The loneliness in his voice tugged at her heart. It was always like this with him. The short time they had been together, she had always seen this side of him. Other people didn’t see it. They thought Cooper was the life of the party. Misty knew otherwise. There were dark spaces in his life that most others didn’t know about. That was their main problem. She wanted to help him out of those dark places, and he would rather not talk about it.
She should be mad at him, but Misty knew better than anyone else that she would always love Cooper no matter what.

  “Well, I had to do some fancy talking. And let me tell you, the guys in the hall…well they all gave me dirty looks. What did you tell them about me?

  He opened one eye. “I doubt they were giving you dirty looks.”

  “Well, maybe not dirty, but confused.”

  “Most of them had no idea I’m married.”

  The need to ask him why danced on the tip of her tongue. She didn’t care. She shouldn’t care. She would not ask him if he had been dating. She did have her pride.

  “For the record, one huge guy with a black eye asked me who I was. It was rather rude.”

  Truly, she had found them very sweet. They all patiently waited to hear about him, the big lug who had approached her told her, in detail, what had happened.

  “That would be Mike.”

  “Yes. The one who saved you.”

  He opened his eyes again. “Saved me?”

  “Yeah. From what they told me, he carried you out.”

  “So he’s alright?”

  The obvious concern in his voice softened her further. “Yeah. He’s fine. He’s waiting out there to see you. A lot of them are, as I said.”

  He sighed and nodded as his eyes slid closed. Soon, his breathing evened out and she knew he was asleep. She watched him, so still, something she wasn’t used to. Cooper never seemed to settled, ever. Even in sleep, he was always moving, snuggling against her or stealing the covers. It scared her a little to see him this way, but she knew he needed the rest.

  Her phone vibrated in the pocket of her jeans and she pulled it out. Six missed calls. All from her brothers. Chet, Ryan, and Smith had each called twice. Hell, they were always so damned predictable.

  She ignored the messages and slipped the phone back into her pocket. She had taken the coward’s way out and texted them all before leaving the ranch. Truth was, she still hadn’t told them she had a husband, and they were never going to find out.