Walk Through the Fire
Calle J Brookes
Lost River Lit Publishing, L.L.C.
Contents
Preface
About the Author
Also by Calle J Brookes
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 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Epilogue
Seeking the Sheriff
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
-ROBERT FROST
Calle J. Brookes is first and foremost a fiction writer. She enjoys crafting paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She reads almost every genre except horror. She spends most of her time juggling family life and writing while reminding herself that she can’t spend all of her time in the worlds found within books. CJ loves to be contacted by her readers via email and at www.CalleJBrookes.com. When not at home writing stories of adventure and wrangling with two border collies and a beagle puppy, CJ is off in her RV somewhere exploring the beautiful world we live in, along with her husband of she can’t remember how many years and their child.
FCI2020
WALK THROUGH THE FIRE
Copyright © 2020 by Calle J. Brookes
Also by Calle J Brookes
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
PAVAD: FBI ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Beginning (Prequel 1)
Waiting (Prequel 2)
Watching
Wanting
Second Chances
Hunting
Running
Redeeming
Revealing
Stalking
Ghosting
Burning
Gathering
Falling
Hiding
Seeking
FINLEY CREEK SERIES
TRILOGY ONE (TEXAS STATE POLICE)
Her Best Friend’s Keeper
Shelter from the Storm
The Price of Silence
TRILOGY TWO (FINLEY CREEK GENERAL)
If the Dark Wins
Wounds That Won’t Heal
Hope for Finley Creek (bonus novella)
As the Night Ends
TRILOGY THREE (FINLEY CREEK DISASTER)
Before the Rain Breaks
Lost in the Wind
Walk Through the Fire
MASTERSON COUNTY NOVELLA SERIES
Seeking the Sheriff
Discovering the Doctor
Ruining the Rancher
Denying the Devil
SMALL-TOWN SHERIFFS
Holding the Truth
SUSPENSE/THRILLER
PAVAD: FBI CASE FILES
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0001
“Knocked Out”
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0002
“Knocked Down”
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0003
“Knocked Around”
PAVAD: FBI Case Files #0004
“White Out”
Calle has several free reads available at
www.CalleJBrookesReads.com
For my grandfather, the best man I have ever known.
Oct. 2015
For my grandmother, who gave me the courage to try. Without you and your love of romance, I never would have made it this far.
Feb. 2016
For my papaw, whose children loved him deeply, and will always miss him.
Oct. 2017
Calle J. Brookes is first and foremost a fiction writer. She enjoys crafting paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She reads almost every genre except horror. She spends most of her time juggling family life and writing while reminding herself that she can’t spend all of her time in the worlds found within books. CJ loves to be contacted by her readers via email and at www.CalleJBrookes.com. When not at home writing stories of adventure and wrangling with two border collies and a beagle puppy, CJ is off in her RV somewhere exploring the beautiful world we live in, along with her husband of she can’t remember how many years and their child.
FCI2020
WALK THROUGH THE FIRE
Copyright © 2020 by Calle J. B
rookes
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For information contact:
www.callejbrookes.com
Book and Cover design by CALLE J. BROOKES
First Edition: FEB2020
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1
Someone had to stop the mayor of Finley Creek before he ruined everything.
Unfortunately, that someone was going to have to be Annie. Somehow, she had to go into the mayor’s office, appearing confident and knowledgeable. Like she knew what she was saying and meaning, and convince the mayor of Finley Creek not to destroy her neighborhood.
Somehow. Her.
Mayor Turner Barratt, and his special Clean Up Boethe Street initiative was about to send Annie and ninety-something neighbors to the streets. The money they were offering was not fair market value, and that hurt. It made her neighbors afraid, desperate, and confused.
Annie and her family would be ok, thanks to her job and careful financial planning for the last twelve years, but the rest of her friends and neighbors probably wouldn’t.
The city was about to rip them off. All in the name of progress.
Her neighbors, Frederick and Gabney Henderson, had lived in their home for sixty years. They didn’t deserve to have a bunch of city councilmen telling them they had to move and that the house they’d loved for most of their lives was in too poor shape to remain standing. Fred had built it with his own two hands.
Condemned.
Well, that was a load of crap. Annie’s house might not be in the best of conditions, but she was working to fix that. The Hendersons was in better shape than hers. She’d just had new energy-efficient windows installed two months ago. The roof was less than ten years old. It was sound, livable, and comfortable. It just wasn’t pretty—yet.
The city wanted her land to put another commercial center on it. Now she had a little over two months to convince the mayor that taking peoples’ homes was not something he wanted to do.
How was she supposed to convince one of the Barratts of Finley Creek to do anything? She’d already circulated petitions, held protests—that only her two best friends had attended—and written countless letters. None of it had done a bit of good.
She was almost ready to give up and just accept the hand fate had dealt her.
There were other houses out there. Moving her entire life somewhere else would probably be easier than dealing with a Barratt.
The Barratts she knew were bold, forceful, and used to getting their own ways. Even her friend Fin, a second cousin of the Barratts, was more outspoken and better able to do this kind of thing than Annie.
Annie, who had done her best to blend in her entire life.
Having a decent home for herself, and now her three little boys, had been her dream since she’d been twelve. No Barratt had the right to take that away from her. She could do this. She could.
She just had to get in there and get through.
Annie hurried up the six blocks to city hall from the hospital where she worked, hoping she’d at least be able to beat the rain. Meeting the mayor while disheveled from a twelve-hour shift in the busiest hospital in the city was one thing—she didn’t want to be a little drowned rat, too. She’d carefully applied more makeup in the break room than she normally wore.
It was now or never.
Thunder cracked overhead.
The sky was darkening in a way she didn’t like.
She was an idiot. She shouldn’t be out here tonight.
She should be home with her boys. Where she was most needed. It was almost time for their dinner. Then they needed their baths, snuggles and playtime, and put to bed.
She was needed at home. Time with her boys was her most precious gift, and working twelve-hour shifts three days a week, plus a six-hour day on weekends, meant she didn’t see them nearly as much as she wanted.
That’s where she needed to be. Not taking advantage of a weak friend connection to the mayor of Finley Creek.
This was the only time the mayor had—it was all she was going to get.
Annie was going to make it work. She just had to convince him of her reasons and stubbornly outwait him. Just get through. She could do stubborn and just outwaiting people. Nothing she hadn’t done before.
Quiet stubbornness had gotten her this far.
Just get through had been Annie’s mantra since about the age of four, twenty years ago, when she’d realized her parents honestly didn’t care where she was or what she was doing, as long as she didn’t interfere with what they were doing. She could do this.
If she didn’t, she and her sons were going to be moving in less than two months. Whether she wanted to or not. Just as their final adoption hearing was approaching.
Any hitch could delay the adoption, could help her mother get her claws into the boys even stronger. Even once the adoption was final, the boys would have daily subsidies to help with any ongoing needs they might have. Her mother wanted that money.
Annie would most likely win a court battle—she’d been the primary caregiver for the boys since they’d been placed with them, and she’d been the primary provider. The boys already called her Mommy.
But her mother was manipulative and determined. She’d make trouble for Annie just for spite. Trouble Annie didn’t need right now, either.
Annie couldn’t afford to be without a home, a stable, secure, safe home, perfect for three little boys who had nowhere else to go. If her mother’s attorney wanted to, he could make it very difficult for Annie to prove she was the better parent for the boys. Annie and her mother were both listed as foster parents on the boys’ paperwork. But life was a bit different than what was written in black and white.
She could not lose her boys. The only way to make certain that didn’t happen was getting the adoption final as fast as was legally possible. Then she could worry about moving, if she had to.
That meant facing down the mayor first.
If he was the beast she had to face to keep her children, then Annie would face him down with nothing but a toothpick if she had to.
It almost felt like that.
Powerful men had always terrified her. Probably from having a powerful father who had liked to use his fists when his daughter didn’t behave exactly as he’d wanted. That had ended when she’d been twelve and he’d almost killed her in her front yard. A police officer with the TSP had saved her life that day.
She’d grown up fast that night.
Never would her three little babies face that kind of future.
Her friend, Jillian, had suggested going straight to the source of her problem. Jillian had insisted Turner Barratt was a good man. That the mayor would listen to her story and would help. If not...Jillian had threatened to sic the man’s cousin on him until there was a resolution. Jillian, a nurse in the same department as Annie, was sister to the cousin’s wife. Jillian had met the mayor many times, she’d said. And she’d promised he was reasonable. And a good person. Jillian trusted him.
Annie was reserving judgment.
Annie appreciated it, and she’d take Jillian up on the offer if it was needed, but she needed to solve this on her own first. Make sure it was strong and real and complete.
If she handled it herself, then she could control all the variables. If she’d learned anything in her life, it was that easy answers brought far too many conditions.
The receptionist was leaving when Annie stepped into the foyer. She gave a friendly smile. Annie felt herself relax a little. “Miss Gaines? Mayor Barratt is waiti
ng. Head on back. I’ve taken some water in there already. And cookies. He’s a sucker for cookies. Give him some chocolate chip cookies, and he’s putty in your hands for hours.”