Lynda Carpenter

Fire and Smoke Lynda Carpenter

Molly studied the clear blue eyes boring through her when they looked her way, but the locked gaze only lasted a few seconds before he turned his attention to his food. Ash Pentell was a troubled man. After Molly Carr's psychotic ex-husband kidnaps her five-year-old daughter, she discovers that he is hiding-out in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. Terrified that he will abuse her daughter as he had abused her, Molly knows she has little time to waste. Ash Pentell, a reclusive ex-detective wanted for the murder of his partner, lives in an old shack in the mountains nearby. When Molly discovers that Ash is the only man familiar enough with the area to help her find her daughter, she cautiously approaches him. After convincing Ash that she was not sent by the police to smoke him out, the two traipse across the mountains in search of the child. They soon realize that it's not as easy as they thought, especially when the Santa Carlos police department is tipped off to Ash's location. Molly also has to contend with the unexpected passion that flares between her and Ash, threatening her fragile heart. But when a deadly fire endangers everyone on the mountain, can the little girl's life-and her mother's heart-be saved?