The Firefighter Became a Billionaire... and He’s Had Enough!

Chapter 008

Erin followed the address Kitty had sent her and drove as if the road belonged to no one else.

The navigation app said the trip would take an hour. She arrived in forty minutes.

For most of the drive, she kept telling herself that she was overreacting.

Derek was a firefighter. Disappearing during an emergency did not mean he was dead. His phone could have been damaged. He might have been working without rest. He might simply have been somewhere with no signal.

There were dozens of reasonable explanations. But the closer she came to the wildfire zone, the harder they became to believe.

Blackened trees stood along the highway like charred bones. Entire stretches of ground had been burned bare. Road signs had warped from the heat, and the remains of abandoned vehicles sat along the shoulder, their windows blown out.

Erin tightened both hands around the steering wheel.

By the time she reached the coordinates Kitty had given her, the road ahead had been blocked by emergency vehicles and temporary barriers.

Erin pulled over, shoved the door open, and climbed out.

Several fire engines were parked beyond the barricade. Rows of canvas tents had been erected beside them, forming a temporary command and medical camp. Firefighters hurried between the tents carrying equipment, water, and medical supplies.

Hope flared in her chest. She had found them.

“This has to be it.” Erin hurried toward the camp.

Then she heard the crying.

It was faint at first, almost lost beneath the rumble of generators and the shouted orders of emergency crews.

But with every step, it grew clearer.

Not one person crying. Many.

Beyond the first line of tents, several families had gathered in small clusters. Some clung to one another. Others knelt on the ground, their shoulders shaking.

At the center of each group lay a body covered by a white sheet.

Erin stopped. For several seconds, she could not understand what she was looking at.

Then she noticed a heavy black boot protruding from beneath one of the sheets.

Another had slipped just enough to reveal the sleeve of a firefighter’s coat.

The sight crushed the air from her lungs. Her gaze darted from one white sheet to the next, searching desperately for anything familiar—a hand, a uniform, even the outline of a face beneath the cloth.

What if Derek was already here? What if she had driven all this way only to identify his body?

The thought struck so hard that her legs nearly folded beneath her.

She forced herself forward.

One of the bodies lay apart from the grieving families, unattended for the moment. Erin crouched beside it, her fingers hovering over the edge of the sheet.

She hesitated. Then she lifted it.

A stranger’s face stared back at her.

Relief surged through her so violently that she almost sobbed. It was not Derek.

She covered the man again and moved to the next body.

Not him.

The third. The fourth. The fifth.

Each time she saw an unfamiliar face, Erin felt a sick rush of gratitude.

And each time, shame followed.

Every man she was relieved to see was dead was still someone else’s husband. Someone else’s father. Someone else’s son.

But she could not stop.

“What are you doing?”

Erin looked up.

A middle-aged woman stood over her, her face swollen from crying. Two other relatives turned toward Erin, grief hardening instantly into fury.

“Don’t touch him!”

“I’m sorry,” Erin said quickly. “I’m looking for my husband. He’s a firefighter. I thought—”

“You thought you could uncover everyone’s dead family?”

“I didn’t mean—”

“Get away from him!” Several people began shouting.

A volunteer rushed over, caught Erin by the arm, and pulled her away before the confrontation could worsen.

“You can’t be here,” he told her. “Identification is being handled through command. Go back to the public area.”

Erin barely heard him. She stumbled back toward her car under the weight of the families’ angry voices.

By the time she climbed into the driver’s seat, she was shaking so badly that she could not insert the key.

Tears poured down her face as she gripped the steering wheel.

“Derek, you bastard…” Her voice came out small and broken. “How could you just disappear?”

She had spent days furious with him. But in there, she was terrified more than ever.

Terrified that she would never find him.

And even more terrified that she would.

Erin lowered her forehead onto the steering wheel.

For years, she had prided herself on her self-control, but now she cried until her chest hurt.

Suddenly, her phone rang.

Erin shot upright. Her heart slammed against her ribs.

Derek.

It had to be him.

She fumbled through her bag, nearly dropping the phone in her haste.

A dozen explanations formed in her mind before she even looked at the screen.

Maybe his phone had died. Maybe he had been injured. Maybe he had been stranded in the mountains without power or signal. Maybe he had only just woken up.

Then she saw the caller’s name.

Nick.

There had been a time when seeing Derek’s name on her screen only irritated her, while seeing Nick’s always made her smile.

Until now.

Now she would have given anything for the caller to be Derek.

Erin looked through the windshield at the ruined hills.

Slowly, she wiped the tears from her face. Whatever was happening here, Nick did not need to know.

She took a breath, answered the call, and started the engine.

“Hi, Nick.”

“Erin, finally.” His voice carried the familiar blend of concern and teasing. “You’ve ignored me all day. Is work holding you hostage?”

“Yes,” she said, forcing a smile. “The company has been chaotic today.”

“I’m at that new restaurant I told you about,” Nick said. “You’d love it here. The first thing I thought when I walked in was that I should’ve brought you.”

Despite herself, Erin slipped into the version of herself Nick expected.

“You say that about every expensive restaurant.”

“Only the ones worth taking you to.”

A few minutes earlier, Erin had been tearing white sheets away from dead men, desperate to find her husband.

Now she drove away smiling softly into the phone.

However, she never noticed the man standing between two medical tents, watching her leave.

It's Derek.