Donna Grant: Fire Rising

Thanks so much to my amazing editor Monique Patterson, and everyone at SMP who was involved in getting this book ready. Y’all rock!

To my agent, Louise Fury, who keeps me on my toes. Hats off to my team—Melissa Bradley, Stephanie Dalvit, and Leah Suttle. Words can’t say how much I adore y’all.

A special thanks to my family for the never-ending support.

And to my husband, Steve. For everything! I love you, Sexy!

May 2014

The Rose and Crown pub

Oban, Scotland

Sammi wiped the last part of the highly polished bar as the front door opened and Daniel came rushing into the pub. She wondered at his harried expression and the sweat beading his face. When he locked the door and turned to her with wild eyes filled with sorrow and remorse, she knew something was dreadfully wrong.

“What is it?” she asked cautiously.

Daniel meandered through the tables as if he couldn’t decide whether to hurry or wait and made his way to the back of the bar. His eyes darted about and his face was flushed. “We need to leave. Now.”

“I just shut down for the night.” Sammi reached for a glass before she tilted a lever and watched the dark ale fill half the glass before she shut it off and lifted the glass to her lips. She drank several swallows as she thought about her ex-lover and his peculiar actions.

Their affair had been wild—and short. She knew Daniel wasn’t the type to stick around forever, nor was he the guy she would settle down with. Not that there was such a guy.

Or that she would even let anyone get that close.

But he had a keen business sense. Even as their quick affair died down, their friendship grew until he was a part of her business. His connections to distributors and suppliers cut her costs by a third, saving her a lot more than she thought possible.

“Sammi, I mean it,” he said, ire deepening his voice as he reached for her arm.

She dodged him to prop an elbow on the bar, her look daring him to try and force her. Her ears still rang from the noise of the night, and her mouth watered for the lobster sandwich waiting for her in the pub’s small kitchen.

“Tell me what’s going on first.”

“Dammit. We doona have time.” He raked a hand through his thinning, dark hair and let out a string of curses. “We need to leave now.”

“I’ve still got the floors to clean, which was your job tonight if you’ll remember the schedule. You know. The schedule I put up last week? The one you agreed to. You might see it if you spent more time here. What’s up with that, by the way? You’ve scarcely been around lately.”

He swallowed and nervously glanced at the door. “I’ll tell you everything once we’re on the road. Go pack a bag as quick as you can.”

Sammi nearly snorted her ale through her nose at his absurd request. “What?” she asked incredulously after she stopped coughing. “Why do I need to pack a bag?”

“They’re coming, Sammi. We’ve got to leave!” Daniel shouted violently. “Now!”

A tingle of apprehension ran down her spine. “Who is coming? I’m not moving until you tell me, so you might as well spit it out.”

He put both hands on the bar and hung his head as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. “I was an idiot. I … I got in with some bad people when I was a lad. Had no choice really. Everyone in my family does some sort of job for them. I kept working with them because the money was so good. And easy.”

“What people?” she asked hesitantly, unsure if she really wanted to know. Sammi set down her glass and glanced at the door Daniel had locked as apprehension began to grow.

“Their name doesna matter. They’re organized crime.”

Her blood ran cold at his words. “What did you do for them?”

“Laundered money. Through the pub.”

“ My pub?” It was like she had been kicked in the stomach. The man she’d trusted to share the accounting of her business had laundered money for the Mob. It was too surreal to even grasp.

Daniel lifted his head, his blue eyes filled with guilt. “We both made money off it. I made sure of it.”

“Oh, God.” This was going from bad to worse. She knew it, yet she still found herself asking, “What have you done?”

Daniel pushed off the bar and took her hands in his. “I skimmed some of their money. Just a little, Sammi, but I wanted to make sure you were set. You struggled with the pub after your mum’s death, not to mention me using the pub for the money laundering. It’s the least I could do for you.”

She didn’t know what to say. The man before her, the man she had shared her bed and her business with, was a stranger. However, the fact he was scared put her on high alert.

“They found out you took the money, didn’t they?”

He nodded woodenly. “I was supposed to meet them two hours ago.”

“Supposed to? You mean you didn’t?” She could only stare in complete shock.

“Do you know what these people do to those who steal from them?”

Sammi looked around her pub as realization sank in. She had scraped together money, and with a little help from her mother, she had managed to acquire the pub five years ago. It was her life. The dark, smooth wood of the bar, the bottles of liquor lining the shelves, and the smell of food cooking in the back were the only things she looked forward to every day.

She was going to lose it all. Because of an idiot she had trusted. “I’ve seen enough movies to know.”

“They’ll come for me. You can’t be here when they do. They’ll … you don’t want to know what they will do to you.”

No, she really didn’t. But she also didn’t want to walk away from her pub. It was hers, and she would fight for it. First, she had to stay alive. “How long will we be gone?”

Daniel frowned, his dark brows lowering over his eyes. “We won’t ever come back. Their reach is long. If we remain in one place too long they’ll catch us. No credit cards, no mobile phones. We need to disappear and find new identities.”

The room began to spin, just as her life was doing. She had woken that morning thinking about going down to the docks tomorrow to get first pick of the freshest seafood in all of Scotland.

“All of my money is in the bank.”

“We can no’ chance it,” Daniel said. “Take what you have here. We’ll improvise. I’ve got some money stashed in the warehouse. You know the one I bought under that fake name.”

She did know, but she couldn’t see how they would get there without the Mob finding them first. And how was she supposed to survive without her credit cards, bank, or her mobile? The thought of being on the run left her shaken, unsettled.

Dazed.

“Move,” Daniel said as he shoved her to the swinging door that separated the pub from the back.

Sammi glanced into the brightly lit kitchen and the lobster sandwich waiting for her on a white plate atop the stainless steel counter. Instead, she turned to the right and passed the door to her office and started up the stairs that led to her flat.

There was no need to turn on any lights. The streetlamps shining in shed enough for her to see her way clearly to her bedroom.

At three in the morning, Oban was the quietest. How many nights had she fallen asleep listening to the sound of the water as it lapped against the docks? How many times had she woken to the squawks from the gulls as a ship docked? How many drinks had she served the people of Oban?

All of that was going to be left behind. It didn’t seem fair. Maybe she wouldn’t go. Daniel was the one who had stolen the money. He was the one they would be after.