SummaryGathering storm clouds bruise a perfect summer sky.;
Thunder rumbles in the distance as daylight surrenders to
darkness. As temperatures drop and the wind begins to
howl, a jagged bolt of lightning streaks toward the earth.
In the heart of the forest, a young juniper tree explodes,
spewing forth a giant fireball.
The dragon is born.
It's the devil's breath, the locals say, referring to the
hot, unseasonably gusting winds that spur the blaze on.
The dragon feeds on its drought-ravaged surroundings,
snapping 80-foot ponderosa pines like twigs. As it roars
through acres of dense forest, an elite group of
firefighters called hotshots converge to save a nearby town.
In the Arizona wilderness, her five years serving as a
lieutenant on a Tennessee fire department mean nothing.
Here, she's just another rookie hotshot coming to fight
against an enemy she can barely comprehend. But the first
time Nika faces the two hundred foot flames, she knows this
is what she was born to do.
Nika has always dreamed of becoming a smokejumper and all
smokejumpers must serve one season on the ground. It's
hot, grueling work, but Nika is determined that nothing is
going to stop her: not a smokejumper ex-husband in the
same camp, not a crew boss who thinks women don't belong in
fire service and most certainly not the wacko who's started
leaving her notes at camp. She just wants to do her job and
it seems everyone is conspiring to keep her from it.
The only woman on a twenty man crew, Nika takes her share
of abuse. But they don't know how much she can give, or
how much she can take. When she gets the first series of
love notes, she assumes this is another of their pranks.
One letter begs her to meet with her admirer and Nika
decides to play a little prank of her own. An innocent
joke sparks a madman's rage and now the gifts he leaves her
are deadly, like a rattlesnake in her sleeping bag.
To add to her troubles, she finds herself insanely
attracted to one of the members of the prison crew. All
hell breaks loose when a prisoner starts a disastrous blaze
in the wilderness to aid his escape. Nika learns the
prisoner she's attracted to is an undercover FBI agent sent
to find a stolen fortune buried in the woods. J.T. was
supposed to have gained the prisoner's trust and let him
escape to lead the feds to the money, but something went
wrong. Now he has to recapture the prisoner or find the
money first.
He and Nika share a spontaneous, burning attraction that is
repeatedly thwarted by their dedication to their careers.
The woods are crawling with crazies and it will take all
their resources just to survive the summer.
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