It Had To Be You (33 page)

After The Fire

After being trapped in a fire, the Malvaso brothers
and sister decide to make changes in their lives. Follow Mitch
Malvaso as he struggles to get closer to his kids and out of a
doomed marriage. Jenn, his sister, wants to have a baby and asks
Grady O’Connor, her best friend, to be the father.
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On the Line

Fire Chief Noah Callahan and Albany Fire Investigator
Eve Woodward butt heads while she investigates the cause of
accidents at Hidden Cove fire scenes. Who knew they’d fall in love?
And watch Zach Malvaso become the kind of man he wants to be with
feisty firefighter Casey Brennan.
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Nothing More to Lose

Injured 9/11 firefighter, Ian Woodward (Eve’s twin),
and a disgraced cop, Rick Ruscio, struggle to salvage their lives
with the help of the women who love them.
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America’s Bravest—Six Novellas

The men and women on another Rescue Squad in the
Hidden Cove Fire Department have complicated personal relationships
due to the nature of their jobs. Each of the six novellas details
the love and work of one firefighter, but the stories are tied
together with an arson case and a blogger out to discredit them.
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It Had to Be You

Beckett Sloan is an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who
comes home with PTSD. He joins the fire department and finds the
love of his life in army nurse Lela Allen, but his demons keep them
apart.
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Chasing the Fire—Three Novellas

In another set of novellas, CHASING THE FIRE, the
past catches up with three brave firefighters and they must wrestle
with it to find love and contentment.
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And you might want to read
COP OF THE YEAR
,
Kathryn Shay’s novel written in the nineties, about a Vietnam Vet.
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To browse Kathryn’s impressive list of titles go
to
http://www.kathrynshay.com/books/
.

“
Hey, Gallagher, I hear your cutie’s
subbing on the Rescue Squad tonight. You gonna bunk with
her?”

Riley looked up from a copy of
The Heart
of Hidden Cove
, a magazine produced by the husband of a
firefighter he liked. “Say one word against Jane and I’ll deck you,
Decarlo.”

“
Ha! You and whose army?”

The retort was accurate. He’d need a
battalion to subdue Rocky Decarlo,
the Rock,
a hulk of a
guy, with hands like baseball mitts and a body as big as the trunk
of a tree.

Riley snorted back. He liked Rocky and knew
the guy was wholly supportive of the women in the department.
Besides, Jane Phillips could take care of herself. That trait was
one of the many things he loved about her. Really, he’d been crazy
about his childhood friend, turned high school sweetheart, turned
fiancé for literally half their lives.

The magazine article on Hale’s Haven, a camp
for the kids of firefighters and police officers that was held
every summer, kept his attention until she walked into the
kitchen.

Rocky greeted her with a big hug. “Wish you
were on this shift more often, Phillips. We’d rather look at your
beautiful face than Gallagher’s ugly mug.”

“
Yeah, I can understand
that.”

Janie wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous and they both
knew Riley was, but they joked about it. He dug her dark, short,
sassy hair, chocolate-brown eyes and her five-foot-eight sturdy
build. Also, Jane possessed an inner beauty, which he’d seen when
she was a gawky nerd in high school and he was a star football
player. He’d fallen hard in that tenth-grade science lab and was
still madly in love with the woman.

She glanced over and winked at him. “Hi,
hotshot.”

“
Sweetie.” He smiled, grateful all over
again that she was part of his life’s work.

The only thing he cared about as much as
Janie, his mother and a sister who’d given him two beautiful
nephews was firefighting. He scowled. Too bad one of the boys was
named after Riley’s degenerate father who’d once been his
idol.

The captain of the Rescue Squad, Nick Evans,
walked in. “Gallagher, your fan club’s outside. They came right
from school.”

“
Oh, fun. I love those
kids.”

“
Yeah, that’s why they keep bugging
us.”

Ever since House 7 had gone on a call at an
elementary school to put out a simple fire, the kids had rallied
around Riley because he’d found a couple of little ones hiding in a
closet and carried them out. He’d told them to stop by the fire
station anytime—and they did.

A staticky voice crackled out from the PA.
“Fire on First and Liberty. Rescue Squad 7 and Quint and Midi 7 go
into service.”

It was as if somebody had turned on a switch.
All teasing evaporated and the men and women assigned to the three
trucks in the house bolted up from wherever they were and met in
the bay; the smell of gasoline and smoke was strong.

Three feet from the rigs, eleven sets of
turnout boots and pants waited for them on the concrete. Riley
kicked off his shoes, tugged on his boots and pulled up the bulky,
blue pants, securing them with yellow suspenders. Just before he
hopped on the truck, he caught a glimpse of Janie heading toward
the Rescue rig.
Be careful,
she mouthed.

He nodded to her.
You, too.

They were lucky that way, having vowed not to
worry about each other on the line. But it was easier to dismiss
the danger she put herself in when she worked at her home firehouse
and out of his sight.

A shiver skittered through him, a feeling
something bad was going to happen today. Shaking if off, he noticed
the kids out on the pavement. “Sorry, guys,” he called out. “Next
time.”

Openmouthed, they watched him climb on the
truck, where his turnout coat and self-contained breathing
apparatus, commonly called SCBA, awaited.

Adam Langston, another firefighter on the
Quint, drove the truck from the bay at high speed on the mild April
night.

Lt. Tony Ramirez, seated next to him, warned,
“Careful, Langston, we wanna get there.”

Sirens blared and horns blew as they rumbled
through the April night, the streets crowded with traffic. And
Riley did what he always did on the ride to a call. He closed his
eyes. Centered himself. Focused on the task ahead. It was one of
the many things his father had taught him.
Be prepared. Get into
the zone. You need all your wits about you to fight a fire.

In minutes, they arrived at the abandoned
clothing store in the center of Hidden Cove. Since it was a
one-alarm blaze, Company Seven was the only one called. The Rescue
Squad would search the building, the Quint would gain entry and
slap water on the fire, and the small Midi’s job was to deal with
medical issues. It had recently been replaced with a truck that had
a bed area in the back so the paramedics could drive victims to the
hospital.

Their battalion chief was also on scene.
Mitch Malvaso was the town hero, a top-notch firefighter, and an
all-around great guy. He made his way to them from his setup of
Incident Command on his department Jeep. “One-floor building.
Fire’s contained to the front, we think. Smoke color says no
chemicals are in there, which makes sense, because the building was
a clothing store. But be on your toes. You never know what the Red
Devil’s gonna do.”

Another shiver ran through Riley. He ignored
it and focused on the instructions shouted by the officers.

Captain Evans gestured to his crew. “Once the
fire’s contained, the five of us will head inside and scour the
back.” To the Quint, he added, “The rest of you’ll search the
front.”

Though the building was abandoned, Riley knew
that every section needed to be thoroughly searched. Since the
structure was in the center of town, homeless people might have
taken shelter inside. Hell, the fire could have been started by
druggies freebasing in there. Even the idyllic town of Hidden Cove,
an hour outside of New York City, had its share of social
problems.

While the Rescue Squad circled around back,
Ramirez huddled with his crew. “Gallagher, follow me with the
rabbit tool. Decarlo, take the hose in behind him and the rest of
you follow
them
.
”
Langston, the driver, would stay
with the truck. Even the paramedics went inside, as they were fully
certified firefighters.