When the Smoke Clears (Interracial Firefighter Romance) by Kenya Wright Read Free Book Online Page A

out, and we’d even saved someone. I turned around and calmed my chest.
    For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Forever and ever.
    People dealt with things every year. Maybe each month, week, or day. Some lost loved ones. Others killed. Many attacked, maimed, or hurt another and walked away as the victims lay bloodied on the ground, destroyed, and broken.
    Shit happened to everyone.
    But I believed in something greater than myself. A power that hovered above, watching and stepping in to save me, when it was necessary. Or maybe it was a force that had a plan I could never understand. Things occurred right on schedule as we all stumbled around and tried to make sense of our lives. That power. That being. That energy that couldn’t be explained. It had saved all of our asses one more night, and for that, I would gladly go on my knees in front of everyone and praise its name.
    Thank you.
    I hadn’t expected a real fire this week. This fall had been uneventful, but tourist season had come and things were starting to happen.
    Many things.
    Kassie came to mind, again. Her snappy remarks had kept me on my toes. Those curves incited nasty things in my head.
    Even after a fire and I’ve saved someone, I’m fucking picturing her face.

Chapter 5
    Kassie
    T he next day, my phone’s buzzing woke me up.
    I checked the screen.
    Ellis: Have Rich call me, when he gets home from school.
    Really? I don’t hear from you in several months and now you demand me to have my son call you? How about you call him after school, douche bag.
    Regardless, I made a note to make sure I gave Rich the phone. In the end, it was more important for him to have some relationship with his dad, even if the man was the scum of the earth.
    Later that morning, a knock came at my door. Yawning, I headed that way. I’d just returned home from dropping Rich off at school and hadn’t even made my large cup of coffee, yet.
    Whoever it is, they had better make it quick. I haven’t had my coffee, so my filter is nonexistent!
    I peered through an eyehole.
    Who the hell is this?
    An old black woman stood on the other side. She was a short thing with a tiny frame. She had dreadlocks like me, but hers lay in long gray ropes that covered her tiny shoulders and reached her knees. She must’ve been growing those since birth. She wore all black with a huge, midnight colored shawl. Her sandals were the shade of coal and even her long nails glowed like the night. However, the eyes held my attention, most.
    They were bright gray and big. She had cat eyes, minus the slits. The gray moved between her lids in a haunting way. Cold slithered up my spine. I turned away from her eyes and checked out the rest of her. Wrinkles graced a kind face, but the heavy wooden cane that she leaned upon appeared more like a weapon than her support.
    “Who is it?” I asked through the door.
    As if she could see me through the wood, she stared right at me. Her voice was a throaty boom. “I’m Mama Ganga. Open up the door, child. We don’t have all day.”
    Samantha, I’m going to kick your ass. You were fucking serious! You sent a weird lady to my house!
    “Unbelievable,” I muttered under my breath and opened the door. “Hello.”
    Instead of reaching her hand out to me or waving, she studied my face and then, moved on to the rest of me. Her eyes looked from my feet to my head and then back down to my feet. An odd fragrance came from her. It reminded me of a high-end brand of cloves—earthy, spicy, yet slightly sweet.
    The moment gave me time to check out her cane. With a closer look, I realized that the rest of the cane was wood, but the handle was silver. That’s beautiful. As it shined and glittered in the sunlight, I noticed odd figures carved into the mahogany wood. Demons roared at the tip, as if they’d been battling for their life to get out. Some of their claws tore out of the wood in onyx sharp points. Their beastly arms entangled with legs and other screaming