Kade wasn’t Nash McCrae, and he could see it in Haddie’s eyes.

His heart nearly failed in his chest when she’d stepped up and kissed him. Struck him still for too long of a moment before his wild hope—a consuming fire of desire—kicked him into play.

And then he was all in, kissing her as if seven years had dropped away and he was a teenager with his heart pinned onto the outside of his body.

Until Nash had walked out of the bathroom and there they went again. Rewind. Repeat.

What was he thinking, walking right back into all the things he’d tried to escape? Nash’s grip on Haddie, the brisk and brutal memory of his mistakes.

They’d all moved on—Haddie to nursing school, Kade out west, and Nash...well, Nash had gotten married, become a father.

Although, by the look of him, Nash was still driven by impulse.

Clearly Kade had rewound time, back to his basic instincts, too, because here he was, sliding into the passenger side of Nash’s pickup. After all, he’d spent most of his life defending Nash’s blind side, watching his back.

“Where are we going?” Kade asked.

“Dillon Oil. We need weapons.”

“Weapons. Nash—”

Nash was backing out. “I’m not going to shoot anyone. But you don’t seriously think Cocoran won’t be armed, do you?”

“If you’re not going to shoot anyone—”

“I might shoot someone if they have Erica.”

Perfect. Kade blew out a breath. “Don’t you have a gun at home?”

“Erica hates guns.”

Interesting. “I can’t believe Cocoran found you.”

Nash had thrown the truck into drive, was gunning down Main Street. “It was that stupid article. I kept trying to tell that reporter that I’m no hero.” He stopped at a light, tapped his hand on the steering wheel, waiting. “I was just in the right place at the right time.” He glanced at Kade. “I was on my rounds—I’m working security now—when we heard the explosion. We’ve been having problems with the pressure gauges giving out—already had one scare a couple weeks ago when one of the rigs had a pressure burp. The software is supposed to alert us to pressure pockets, but it didn’t, and this one caused a flash fire. I got there in time to pull them away from the fire, but not soon enough to save them from the burns.”

“You could have been killed.”

“It’s my job—to make sure no one gets hurt.”

Huh. And here Kade thought that that was his job.

They drove in silence through the light, then toward the refinery security gates.

“Thanks, Kade.” Nash hung onto the steering wheel with both hands, as if steadying himself. “I need to apologize for...well, I know I left you in bad shape.”

“I screwed everything up between you and Haddie. I deserved it.”

“No, you didn’t. See, I was exactly the guy you said I was—and by the way, I did sleep with that girl from the bar.” He drew in a breath. “Later that night.”

Oh. Kade’s jaw tightened.

“I was a jerk, and I knew it. I...I was messed up, and I’m so grateful that Haddie walked away from me that day. Grateful that you stood in the way of her making the biggest mistake of her life.”

The words stilled Kade into silence.

They came up to the security booth, and Nash flashed his credentials. The gate opened.

“I was a pretty angry guy when you left Dawson. I took off, too, and headed to Williston. I had nothing—no job, no money.”

They drove through the complex, past the railroad yard, the soaring pipes and steam towers. “I remember Jay telling us to look up this friend of his if we ever got up there, and...turns out the guy was a pastor. And, get this—his dad. He was offering free lodging at his church for roustabouts until they could get settled.”

“His dad?”

“Yeah.” Nash pulled into a space toward the end of a long building and got out. “Believe me, I wanted to run. But I needed a place to crash, so...”

Kade followed him through an office, where Nash greeted a couple uniformed security guards, back into a locker room. Nash closed the door behind them.

“Listen, you stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Somehow that felt like a bad idea. “No—”

“I don’t want you implicated if I get caught.”

Kade raised an eyebrow. “Since when?”

Nash’s mouth tightened. “I’m not the guy I used to be, Kade. And frankly, I wish you weren’t even here. But the truth is, I need you, and I’m not so much changed to not recognize the dumb luck of having you here to watch my back, so...fine. Just keep up and do what I do.”

He walked over to a locker, dialed the combination, and opened it. Grabbed a shirt and shoved it at Kade. “It’s my extra.”

It fit, which told Kade just how much they’d both filled out, then Kade fell in behind Nash as he stepped out into the hallway, down the corridor, and opened a service door.

He wouldn’t exactly call it an armory, but along the wall, in a locked case, sat a row of Colt Carbine semi-automatic rifles.

“Seriously?”

“They have long-range scopes, for starters.” Nash unlocked the case with a keypad code and handed him a rifle.

“I’m not shooting anyone,” Kade said.

“I hope not.” Nash locked the case, and Kade followed him out the back, feeling like they’d sneaked out of school.

“You’re so getting in trouble for this,” Kade said as he slid the weapon behind the seat and climbed into the truck.

“I only care about Erica and my baby girl.” Nash pulled out. “I met Erica at the church.”

“Where Jay’s dad worked.”

“Yeah. His dad, Thomas, made it mandatory for everyone who stayed there to attend services. And it was rough. I’d sit there, trying not to listen, but everything he said...” He shook his head. “It didn’t take me long to realize that I was a sinner. And I’d messed everyone’s lives up good—Haddie’s and yours...mine. Jay’s.”

Kade drew in a breath. Nash waved—like they might be going out for burgers—to the guards near the station.

“I’d failed so much—my scholarship, and then I got mixed up with The Family, and finally Jay’s death. It wrecked me, and I tried to bury all that fury, that guilt, into stuff that would make me forget it. Haddie, and then hard partying, and...girls. Lots of girls.” He shook his head. “I was sick of myself and hadn’t a clue how to fix me. Fix...the past.”

He had pulled away, south. “I saw one of the guys who jumped me in town—Case Miller. He works for Dillon. We’ll start with him.”

Kade didn’t ask what he meant.

“Then I met Erica,” Nash continued. “I’d gotten a job, stopped drinking, and started hanging around the church, and she roped me into helping in the kitchen.”

“Peeling potatoes?”

“Sometimes. She was in charge, so I washed dishes and listened to her sing hymns and treat these guys—you know who I’m talking about, these guys who show up with nothing, running from a record, looking for a fresh start—with respect. Dignity. And I fell in love with her. She’s amazing. Beautiful, kind, compassionate, smart...I tried my best stuff on her, but she wouldn’t budge.”

Kade couldn’t help a smile. “You said smart.”

“And a woman of faith, because she knew I was only looking for a way to fill this terrible hole inside me. So she started praying for me, and one day I found a Bible on the cot in my room, with marked passages. Second Corinthians 5:21. ‘For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.’”

“Did you just quote the Bible to me?”

One side of Nash’s mouth jigged up. “Yep. There’s more where that came from. Because I finally got it. I realized then that Jay had given us a second chance. He stood in the crossfire, took my place...just like Jesus. And man—that about slayed me. Erica found me kneeling by my cot, crying like a second grader. But she prayed with me...that Nash died that day, and the new guy showed up. This guy. And I’m a long ways from being a saint, but God changed me. He rescued me. Gave me a new life.”

They’d left Dawson behind, smaller in the side mirror.

Nash’s hands tightened around the steering wheel. He took a breath, let it shudder out. “I’m not the guy who let you take the hits for me. The guy who disrespected the girl who trusted him. Not the guy who tried everything he could to punish himself. And right now, I’m doing everything I can to remember that.”

Kade heard the undercurrent in his statement and nodded.

“I want Erica back, and I’m starting to not care what it takes.”

“If Cocoran has her, we’ll get her back,” Kade said quietly. He was watching behind them when the first explosion lit the sky.

A blast of bright yellow flames billowing out and up, ballooning across the horizon, one giant tongue lapping at the blue. On its heels, the earth trembled, and desolation reverberated through the air.

“What the—” Nash hit the brakes, and the truck shuttered into the ditch.

“It’s the refinery!” Kade whipped around in his seat, watching out the back window. A cloud of smoke rose, black and lethal, wrapping through and around the flames, the roar of the fire deafening even ten miles away, as if a hundred fighter jets flew overhead.

“Oh, God, help them.” Nash swallowed hard.

“That fire’s big enough to destroy the entire town of Dawson.” Kade’s voice thinned.

Nash nodded. “The hospital is two blocks away.”

The horizon was thickening with black pitch. Good thing Kade had told Haddie to go home.

“Gimme your phone,” Nash said.

Right. Kade handed it over and Nash dialed. “C’mon, Erica, pick up!”

And, miraculously, she did.

Nash gripped the phone so hard Kade thought he might break it. “Where are you? I’ve been calling for hours!”

Whatever she said caused his expression to change from desperation to full-out white. “Get out, Erica. Right now. Get out! I’m on my way.”

He threw the phone on the dash and hit the gas, turning the truck in a one-eighty.

Kade slammed his hand forward, just hanging on. “What—”

“Cassie had an asthma attack on the way to the cabin.” Nash looked at him, shook his head. “They turned around—they’re at the hospital.”

Haddie needed to get home and get some sleep—her tired brain was no match for the tumult of feelings in her chest. Once she got some sleep, some clarity, she’d stop trying to conjure up a future for her and Kade that didn’t exist.

Because the man had just walked out of her life, again.

Except, she’d been the one who pushed him away, twice actually.

Still, Go home, Haddie.

Maybe she was just dreaming the way he’d kissed her, as if he needed her. Longed for her. Missed her.

The memory of the way he’d protected her at the cabin, his body hovering over hers, his lean legs, his solid chest, and behind it all, that oh-so-familiar sense that he’d do anything for her. Even if the world careened out of control, Kade would be there to set it right.

But maybe, despite his kiss, he simply didn’t feel that way about her anymore.

I’m thinking of buying a house...

In fact, maybe he never had. Because if Kade Logan truly loved her, he would have pursued her. Fought for her.

Even if she pushed him away.

Haddie walked out of Harrison and Adam’s room—both men seemed to be stable—and took the back stairs down to the main floor, heading through the ER on her way to the parking lot.

She spotted a little girl, no more than three, lying on a gurney, her pretty brunette mother holding her hand as a nurse administered medicine through a nebulizer.

The little girl’s luminous amber-brown eyes, wide and frightened, peered over the mask as Haddie walked past. She was fighting the medicine, crying, coughing, and Haddie was helpless to stop herself from moving over to the bed.

“Did you put flavoring inside the mask?” She stepped up to the nurse—one of the new interns—and took the mask from her.

“No...”

“I got this, Lauren.” She offered her a smile, and Lauren backed away.

“We were on our way out of town when she started to wheeze,” the mother said. Petite, with dark brown hair, chocolate eyes, the kind of face a person might trust. “I gave her a treatment in the car, but by the time we got here, she was struggling. She’s been fighting the mask...”

“Aw, we’ll see about that.” Haddie opened the drawers on the cart and pulled out a spray. “Do you like bubble gum or grape?”

Magnetic eyes, freckles over her tiny button nose, tiny pink lips. Raven black hair, tied up in pigtails. She wore a polka-dotted pink and white dress, grimy white leggings. “Gwape.”

“Perfect. Me too.” Haddie took out a Lipsmacker and wiped it inside the mask. “This makes is smell just yummy. And when you’re done, we have Popsicles at the desk.” She winked, then held the mask over the little girl’s nose without pressing it on. “Smell that?”

She nodded.

“Yum, right?” She looked up at her mother. “What’s her name?”

“Cassie.”

“Cassie, let’s just try it, okay?” She pressed the mask over Cassie’s nose. Her big eyes filled, watering, her lip trembling.

Ho-kay. “Mom, I have an idea,” Haddie said. “Cassie, I’m going to scoot you up, and, Mom, I want you to climb on the bed here. Cassie is going to lay back against your chest, all safe and snuggly.” She turned off the machine and put the mask down, then helped hold Cassie as her mom slipped off her shoes and climbed onto the gurney.

“Perfect. Mom, what’s your name?”

“Erica McRae.”

Aw shoot, she should have cast bets, because she would’ve come out a millionaire.

Pretty, petite, and sweet, wouldn’t you know it. Haddie liked her, Nash’s wife. “Okay, Cassie, just lean back against Mom. Mom, put your arms around her. See, Cassie. You’re fine. Safe. Nothing is going to happen to you.”

Haddie turned on the nebulizer, sat on the gurney, tried the mask on herself. “See? Nothing to be afraid of, okay?”

Cassie nodded, barely, but she let Haddie put the mask over her nose. Haddie took her hand. “You help me, okay? Just hold it right here.”

With Cassie holding the mask, her mom behind her, the grape smell fragrancing the air, Cassie relaxed.

“That’s right, honey. Just breathe. You’ll feel better in a bit.”

Cassie began to breathe, and Haddie glanced at Erica. “You okay?”

Her reddened eyes suggested she’d been holding back tears. She nodded. “I...I can’t get hold of my husband. We were...” She bit her lip. “I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer. And then my phone died.”

“That’s because he lost his phone,” Haddie said.

Erica stared at her.

“He’s fine, but let’s get yours charged because he’s out looking for you.”

“It’s in my bag.” She gestured to a messenger bag on the floor.

Erica held the nebulizer as Haddie retrieved the bag, dug through, found the cell phone and the cord. She plugged it into the wall.

It came on, powering up.

“But...how do you know he’s okay?”

Haddie sighed. “I’m an RN, and...actually, no, I’m Haddie Brown, and my friend Kade—

“Kade Logan is here? With Nash?” The way she said it told Haddie that yes, Erica knew…well, at least the highlights.

“Kade’s mother broke her ankle, and he came to help her. He was at home this morning when Nash showed up.” Haddie glanced at Cassie. “He’s fine. Just...”

“Cocoran found him,” Erica said, whisper thin. “Did he hurt him?”

“Yeah. But he’s okay.”

Erica took a breath, pressed a kiss to Cassie’s head. “So, you’re Haddie.” She offered a wan smile. “Nash told me a lot about you.”

Oh, uh...

“He said you and Kade were his best friends growing up.”

Did he mention that we’d also been engaged? Maybe that wasn’t a conversation for right now.

“He sent me and Kade to your cabin to find you.”

“Oh no. Because we were here.”

“And he was upstairs.”

Erica’s eyes widened. “Is he still—”

“We thought Cocoran took you,” Haddie said. “And when Nash found out—”

“No.” Erica said it on a wisp of breath. “Oh no.”

And for the first time since this crazy day started, even with the shooting at the hunting cabin, Haddie felt her gorge rise.

“Cocoran wants him dead,” Erica whispered, her hands over Cassie’s ears.

Haddie took a long breath. “He’ll be okay.”

“No, he won’t. Cocoran is an evil man. I don’t know how much he told you, but he runs The Family—a drug, weapons, and sex-trafficking ring known for their brutality.” She flinched. “Tell me the truth—how badly did they hurt him?”

“A couple cracked ribs, pretty nasty bruiser to the eye. They did a CT scan—but nothing that won’t mend.”

Erica bit her lip.

“He says he’s going to testify against Cocoran,” Haddie said.

Erica nodded. “Yes. It’s the right thing to do.” But she closed her eyes, her jaw tight.

Haddie had the strangest urge to pull her into an embrace, so she reached out for both Erica and Cassie—

The front windows of the waiting room shattered as an explosion rocked through the hospital. Nurses screamed, waiting patients were knocked to the floor, and the roar of what sounded like a locomotive tore through the corridor.

“Stay here!” Haddie yelled and ran to the waiting room. Jagged glass glinted, sharp and bright orange, and she stood paralyzed as, through the parking lot and two blocks away, flames hurtled to the sky, consuming the oil refinery.

Oh. She pressed her hand to her chest to remind herself to breathe.

Then the screams descended, filling her brain, inciting her to action. “Everyone get away from the window!” She grabbed gloves and ran into the debris field, found a woman bleeding from a lacerated shoulder. “I need help here!”

A white-faced Lauren ran over with pads, and Haddie slapped one onto the woman. “Hold this in place—get her into the ER bay.”

She scooped up a toddler who had glass in his knee and the palms of his hands from a fall. He screamed as she clutched him to herself and followed Lauren.

Setting him on a gurney, she handed him off to another nurse.

Erica held Cassie in a death grip. “What happened?”

Fully powered up, Erica’s phone rang.

Haddie scooped it up and handed it to her.

“Hello?” A moment, and Erica found Haddie’s gaze. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere—Cassie had an asthma attack!” It’s Nash, she mouthed.

Oh, thank you. Because for a wild, pained second, Haddie feared they’d gone to the refinery. Clearly, she still had a vivid imagination when it came to those two.

“What—why?” Erica asked, then caught Haddie’s eyes again. “He hung up on me. Told me to get out of the hospital.”

Out of the... “He’s right—we need to evacuate. Starting with you and Cassie.” Haddie checked the nebulizer supply. “Nearly done, baby. I think we’re good.” She removed the mask and picked up the little girl while Erica climbed off the bed. “You need to get clear of the hospital.” She handed Cassie back to Erica. “Run!”

Erica turned and did just that.

Haddie spied her phone on the gurney and grabbed it, pocketing it to give to her later. After they evacuated.

Which meant they needed a plan. Haddie hadn’t a clue where to start—except maybe—she ran to the front desk. “Call Dr. Lilligren. We need to evacuate the hospital right now. The fire is headed this direction.”