Darlene Scalera - Hard Rain

E-mail from: Mitch Kannon, fire chief, Turning Point, Texas

To: Dan Egan, fire chief, Courage Bay, California

I felt it in my bones all along, but now I know for sure. Hurricane Damon is headed straight for us. This is the last message I can get to you until this demon storm blows through. We’re looking for a hit sometime around midnight.

Amy Sherwood, the doctor you sent down to help us, is worth her weight in gold. She’s been out on rescues with Sheriff Jesse Boone, and I’m hoping she’ll be back to deal with any injuries in case those damn meterologists are right and this hurricane is as powerful as they’ve predicted.

Trouble is, I don’t know where Amy is right now. Turns out she and Jesse set off to find Jesse’s nephew. He and his fool teenage friends headed down to surf the giant waves in the Gulf.

The lights are flickering now, and the wind is so loud I can’t hear myself think. Damon is only a few miles away. I may have lost contact with the brave emergency personnel you sent to help us—Nate, Dana, Cheryl and Amy—but I know as sure as my name is Mitch Kannon that they’re all okay. Trust me on this, Dan. And as soon as the storm is over, I’ll track them down, and you’ll be the first to know they’re safe.

DARLENE SCALERA

made her publishing debut with A Man for Megan in February 1999 for the Harlequin American Romance line. Since that time, she has continued to sell to Harlequin Books, celebrating her tenth sale in 2003, and has been published throughout North and South America, Europe and the Far East. Her May 2002 release, Help Wanted: Husband? was a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Finalist for Best Harlequin American 2002. In 2004, Darlene ventured into the realm of mystery, murder, mayhem and, of course, romance with her first Harlequin Intrigue, Unmarked Man. A native New Yorker, Darlene graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University with a degree in public communications. Darlene lives happily ever after in upstate New York with her husband and their two teenage children. Visit her at www.darlenescalera.com.

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Dear Reader,

Not all angels have wings. We call them doctors, nurses, firefighters, EMTs, officers of the law—people who day in and day out serve and safeguard society. Some have devoted their professional lives; others volunteer their personal time. Many of you reading this now are members of these selfless ranks. You are the inspiration behind the Code Red series.

I was honored to work with so many talented Harlequin authors and editors to bring you these stories of angels on earth. In Hard Rain, a dedicated single-mom doctor and a courageous small-town sheriff battle not only disaster but also their own hearts as they face their greatest professional and personal challenges. I hope you enjoy their journey as they learn that some forces of nature can’t be fought.

I’d love to hear from you. Simply log on to my Web site at www.darlenescalera.com to leave me an e-mail, check out my news, enjoy an excerpt from my latest release or get a sneak preview of what’s coming up.

All my best,

Darlene

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

EPILOGUE

THE DAY began gray and cloudy. The birds still sang. The grasslands bowed to the breeze. Seven hundred National Guard troops had been put on alert by the end of yesterday. The governor had already proclaimed a state of emergency.

Sheriff Jesse Boone turned onto a side road, then another, avoiding the main road through Turning Point.

Bulletin. Advisory Number Eighteen. National Weather Service Miami Florida… The center of the tropical storm was located near latitude 27.4 north…longitude 98.1 west.

Coastal and low-country residents had begun evacuating yesterday. The interstate was bumper to bumper. Forty miles inland, Turning Point was part of the evacuation route. In twenty-four hours, the town’s population had swelled.

The system is moving toward the northeast near six miles per hour…nine kilometers per hour…

The storm was crossing the Gulf leisurely, gathering strength.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles from the center…maximum wind speeds reaching 125 miles per hour.

The fury was small but ferocious. Its name was Damon.

The voice of Fire Chief Mitch Kannon came over the radio, cutting short the advisory. Like the majority of Turning Point’s emergency services, Mitch was a volunteer.

“Dan’s crew from California got here. Flew into Corpus Christi around dawn. Damn lucky. Last commercial flight to come in. Others are being cancelled or rerouted because of the watch.”

Doc Holland, the town’s only doctor, had suffered a heart attack and was recovering in a Houston hospital. The fire department’s one paid EMT had recently married and moved to North Dakota. Even before the hurricane warning was issued, Turning Point’s emergency services had been stretched thin. When the hurricane watch became a warning and coastal residents began heading inland, Mitch had contacted Dan Egan. Dan was fire chief in Courage Bay, a small coastal city in southern California, but he’d been born and raised in Turning Point.

“Took us a while to get here from Christi with all the traffic,” Mitch grumbled. “I hadn’t even finished briefing them before the calls started coming in. Lily Browning went into labor. Never fails when the pressure drops. Of course, Gabe’s out of town. Jolene had just come in and was manning the radio until Ruth got here. Minute she heard the news about her neighbor she jumped on the call. I made her take the paramedic that came in from California with her up to the Rock-a-Bye Ranch.”

Jesse half smiled as he scanned the road. “Not without a fight I’ll bet.” Jolene was Mitch’s daughter and as headstrong as she was fearless and loyal.

“She was none too happy about it. Afraid the poor paramedic—Nate Kellison—will bear the brunt of it, but Jolene’s along five months herself now. I don’t like the idea of sending anyone out on a call alone if I can help it, and especially my pregnant daughter. But with all these people coming into town, the calls are starting to follow.”

“Don’t you worry about Jolene. She can take care of herself.” As she’d proved to everyone in Turning Point after the tragic death of her husband almost five months before—only days before she learned about her own pregnancy. “So, everyone’s out on calls already?”