"Smells like a good morning to go fight a fire."

"Avoiding the question, Mickey. Tell me, was the bride hot?"

"My sister, Gordon. Get a grip."

"Right, sorry."

Vern, one of the Firehawk pilots moseyed up looking about as awake as Mickey felt.

"Hey Mickey. So, was the bride hot?"

Mickey sighed. "Yeah, she was..." and he left the guys hanging for several very long seconds. "But not as hot as the Number Two bridesmaid."

"Yes!" Gordon pumped a fist. "Details, Mickey. We want details."

Mickey scanned the crowd gathering. MHA's pilots, smokejumpers, and support personal were all hustling up. The team's leaders, Mark and a spectacularly pregnant Emily, and Carly, their genius fire behavior a.n.a.lyst were all conferring on the platform landing one story up the control tower stairs. But they didn't look ready to announce anything, so he turned back to his audience, which now included Steve the drone pilot and Cal the photographer.

"Suzanna Rose. Went to high school together, but we never hooked up. Saw her at rehearsal dinner and let's just say I saw a whole lot of her after that."

"It's those blue eyes of yours."

"Nah, it's because he looks like an ex-Marine."

"Which I'm not." Mickey had started flying helicopters before he started driving cars. Actually, he'd flown his first helicopter on his tenth birthday and never looked back. It had been a ten-inch-long, radio-controlled wonder with red-white-and-blue racing stripes that he'd crashed and rebuilt a hundred times. He'd been fifteen before his first real bird. Had been with MHA for eight years since graduation, all of it flying to fight wildfires.

"Women don't care."

"It's because you're so pretty." Gordon tried to pat his cheeks until Mickey fisted him lightly in the gut.

"Let's just say it was an awesome wedding."

"Seeing her again?" Vern, the cowboy tall pilot from Washington State.

"Nah." Mickey tried to sound casual about it. A part of him-a past part-should have been pleased by how neatly it all worked out, but another part of him-one he didn't know well-was disappointed. "She's leaving for a job in Europe next week. Be gone at least a year."

"Perfect!" was Gordon's response, but Vern looked a little sad for him only reinforcing the feeling of disappointment that Mickey didn't understand.

Of course Vern was biased. He'd gone and fallen in love with the gorgeous and diminutive MHA chief mechanic over the winter. Oddest looking couple, but it was working for them which was...good? There'd been a whole lot of weddings lately among the MHA top staff and it was...odd. He sighed, but kept it to himself.

"Oh, hey. You gotta see the new pilot. Emily's replacement. She's amazing!"

So she'd finally found a replacement? Flying without Emily Beale in the lead this season was going to be like having one of your arms amputated and no one telling you. You just kept reaching out and getting nothing but air. Of course one look at her huge belly as she stood there next to Mark up on the first-story landing of the tower and he wondered how she'd even fit between in the pilot's seat for the candidate-interview flights.

They'd gone on for weeks. Hopefuls-all guys-showing up, sometimes several a day, trooping into the Oregon wilderness and driving up to the high Mount Hood Aviation base camp. To subst.i.tute for Emily, someone was going to have to be seriously good. She was the best heli-pilot Mickey had seen in a decade of flying and eight years on fires.

After nearly a decade of fighting fire, Mickey could see the failures almost as fast as Beale had them back out of the sky. Military-quality control, but no feel for a fire-not even the flaming steel drums set up mid-field. Weekend aviation jocks who thought that flying fire was just about taking the certification course-MHA wasn't a place heli-aviation firefighters started, it was where they strove to end up.

And then she'd hired a female pilot. If it was anyone else than Emily Beale, you could claim gender bias, but not her. Emily only cared about finding the very best. She set an amazing standard.

"So..." Mickey turned back to the other guys as Betsy the cook worked her way through the crowd with a stack of Styrofoam and a pitcher of coffee. Everything stopped while they all loaded up, then reconvened gripping cups of Betsy's best brew. "So, what's the new recruit like other than hot?"

Order M. L. Buchman's next book.

in the Firehawks series.

Flash of Fire.

On sale May 2016.

Click here!.

About the Author.

M. L. Buchman has over thirty-five novels and an ever-expanding flock of short stories in print. His military romantic suspense books have been named in Barnes & n.o.ble and NPR "Top 5 of the Year," Booklist "Top 10 of the Year," and RT Book Review "Top 10 Romantic Suspense of the Year." In addition to romantic suspense, he also writes contemporaries, thrillers, and fantasy and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world.

He is now a full-time writer, living on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife. He is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in geophysics. You may keep up with his writing at www.mlbuchman.com.

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Also by M. L. Buchman.

The Night Stalkers.

The Night Is Mine.

I Own the Dawn.

Wait Until Dark.

Take Over at Midnight.

Light Up the Night.

Bring On the Dusk.

NSDQ, a Night Stalkers novella in the Way of the Warrior anthology.

The Firehawks.

Pure Heat.

Full Blaze.

Hot Point.

Delta Force.

Target Engaged.