TONY: Slow Burn (Raging Fire Book 1) by Kallypso Masters (the false prince TXT) 📕

Tony glanced at Rafe’s door every now and then, wondering if he should knock and remind him dinner was ready. Rafe didn’t usually give him the silent treatment like this. Then again, Tony hadn’t messed up this bad before, either. Still, how long would his big brother stay pissed?

Well, Rafe sure hadn’t cornered the market on being angry or frustrated at Tony. The youngest Giardano brother wasn’t happy with his own job performance today, either. It would have all been worth it if they’d had a positive result, but…

I never lost a kid on my watch before.

He hoped someone downriver would succeed where he’d failed. Unable to finish his minestrone, he dumped the rest down the garbage disposal and turned around as Rafe came out to join them.

“Can I fix you a bowl?” Tony hoped to get the two of them talking again.

“I’ll get my own.” Rafe replied, picking up a bowl and turning away from Tony. “You need to go home and forget about this. Don’t go back down to the river tonight. I’ll see you when I come in for my shift Wednesday morning. The BC wants to do an AAR at shift change while everyone involved in today’s rescue run is present.”

Tony nodded as he rinsed his bowl in the sink. The last thing he was in the mood for was an After Action Review to rehash the event and figure out what worked and what didn’t.

Tony never should have been in that ladder truck on that call. That’s why it all went bad.

“You know I’ll be there.” Because it would be right after his shift ended, and he had no excuse to miss the mandatory meeting. Placing his rinsed bowl in the dishwasher, he left the station without another word to anyone.

Inside the cab of his truck, a glance at the dashboard clock told him it was way too early to head home and stare at the walls. He’d only get lost in his thoughts about everything that had gone wrong.

He needed to do something.

Regardless of Rafe’s orders, Tony texted Luke Denton to find out where the Fairchance SAR teams had been assigned to search. If Tony’s own lieutenant had said the same thing as Rafe had, Tony probably would have obeyed him. But Rafe was just being overprotective of his baby brother. Well, Tony was a grown-ass man who didn’t have to do what his big brother said anymore.

When the text came in with the info he needed, he put his F-150 in gear and sped off to the spot just north of town.

Chapter Five

Over a working dinner with Sandro Sunday evening, Carm discussed the coming week’s resort activities to be sure all their bases would be covered while she was climbing Capitol Peak with Nick London’s group from New York. The resort had become a well-oiled machine, capable of running with one or the other of them absent.

With business talk behind them and just a few minutes to kill before she headed to bed, Carm brought up the idea of each of them taking some time away from work.

“You mean other than your outdoor excursions and my attending trade shows?” Sandro asked.

She rolled her eyes. “As much as we enjoy those things, they’re still work.”

“True. I don’t remember the last time I went somewhere for no reason other than to have fun.” He looked away a moment as if picturing where he’d like to go before meeting her gaze again. “Where would you go?”

She took a deep breath, not wanting to appear to have her mind set on any specific place yet. “Sara mentioned a place in the Caribbean that she’s been to a few times.”

Using her phone to display Sara’s Facebook timeline, she showed him some pictures of her friend’s last visit to the islands this past January.

“You planning to get in some scuba diving?”

“You know it. I’m probably rusty now after not going for the last two years, but hope I’ll be able to get some dive time in.” She’d missed the pure serenity she felt while underwater and exploring the ocean in the past, before life became consumed by work.

Both siblings agreed that mid-August would be the perfect time for Carm’s chance to escape and recharge before the fall foliage season hit in September. And that would be followed all too soon by the five-month ski season.

“How long would you want to take off?” he asked.

“Maybe a week.”

He shook his head, and she was ready to settle for four days when he said, “Hell, take two weeks and really recharge your batteries.”

She smiled. “Thanks, but I don’t have more than a ten-day stretch of time on the resort calendar that’s not booked by excursion guests this summer.”

“Then ten days it is,” Sandro announced, wiping his mouth and setting his napkin aside before sitting back in his chair. “Sure you don’t want to take me with you?”

Carm laughed. “If I were going to take a man with me, I assure you it wouldn’t be my brother.”

Sandro scrutinized her a moment. “So are you thinking of going with a guy?”

Her eyes opened wider. “Hell, no! I guess that was just my poor attempt at banter.”

Sandro shrugged nonchalantly. “I wondered, that’s all, after the way you and Tony Giardano got into that garter reversal last night.”

“Puh-leez,” she said, averting her gaze. “I’d like to purge that episode from my memory banks.” Which I’ve been trying to do without much success ever since saying goodbye to him this morning. Heat infused her cheeks. She hoped her brother attributed it to her after-dinner Disaronno and took another sip. “No, this will definitely be me time. Lazing around the pool or at the beach. Diving. A day at the spa. Catching up on books by my favorite authors.”

And deciding what I want out of the rest of my life.

Carm took a bite of her tiramisu and let it melt in her mouth. At some point,