Branded: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

even pulled into my driveway. When I got inside, his bedroom door was locked. I pounded and pounded, trying to get him to open it but he kept telling me to go away, that he was sorry, and I didn’t need to see him like that. I refused. I sat in the hallway because I wanted him to have to face me when he finally opened the door. Hours passed... and I guess I had fallen asleep because the ringing of the smoke alarms woke me up. Everything after that happened in a blur. My house was on fire. I remember feeling the heat from the flames and not being able to breathe the smoke was so thick. I pounded on his bedroom door, but he never responded. I never heard his voice again. I tried to use my body to break it down, but between the exhaustion and the amount of smoke in my lungs, I had no power left in me. I stumbled my way through the halls to try to find something to pry the door open, but I ended up falling, cracking my glasses and gashing my head open.”

It’s like a cold bucket of water has been poured over my entire body. Somewhere, deep inside, I know what she is going to say next and where this story is going to go, but I think I’m in denial.

There’s no fucking way.

“I was still trying to get him to respond or to get the door open when the firefighters got there. I kept screaming at them that my brother was in the room and he wasn’t answering. They kept trying to make me leave, but I couldn’t go without him. I couldn’t leave him there. Everything kept spinning and I couldn’t stand up anymore. Eventually they finally fucking listened to me and one of them started kicking in the door while the other dragged me down the stairs. I was kicking and screaming. I couldn’t leave him. I couldn’t. But when that door opened, the entire room flashed and went up in flames.... and that was it. I remember sitting on the front lawn for just a few seconds before EMTs were trying to take me. All I could do was tell the fireman how much I hated him. They just wouldn’t listen to me at first, and if they had, maybe they could have gotten to my brother.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

So many things flash in my eyes like a montage scene out of a goddamn movie, but I am doing anything in my power to discount or disprove everything that connects because there is no fucking way Sawyer Westbrook is the woman I saved from the LA Wildfire. There is no way.

“I found out later, once we were able to get his body, he was already dead when the ceiling caved in. Overdose, of course, but that didn’t seem to temper my anger. I tried to stay in LA for a while, working through insurance stuff on the house and looking for a way to move on, but I quickly realized I needed something new. A fresh start across the board. So I changed everything about myself. I had short blonde hair at the time, so I let it grow out long and colored it brown. I lost my glasses and had LASIK eye surgery so I’d never have to wear them again. I put on the weight I’d lost from the stress of helping Jason... then losing him. I found a job in Sunnyville, made the move, and the rest is history.”

I feel like I’m going to be sick. This has to be a joke from whatever higher being exists in this world, because otherwise, this is a fucked scenario I have stumbled my way into.

I’ve fallen for a woman who associates me with the reason her brother died.

But she doesn’t associate you. She doesn’t even know it was you. She couldn’t see your face.

My inner voice tries to make sense of it all, but comes up short every time. How is this possible?

“And I’m really glad I chose Sunnyville.” She tilts her face up so she can see mine, but her smile quickly falls. “Are you all right? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Yeah, yes.” I shake my head a bit and pull her closer. “Just thinking about all of that, it’s horrific. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“Now you know why I was so reluctant to go out with you,” she says then kisses my chest.

Does she remember me? Is that even possible?

“I just couldn’t be around someone who worked in the field you do without it bringing back awful memories. I didn’t want to put that on anyone else, but then you persisted.” She smiles. “And I am so happy you did. I’m finally starting to feel better, Isaac, like I can finally move forward, and it’s because of you.”

There she is, baring her soul to me for the second time in a handful of hours, and I’m just staring at her face. Staring at the scar in her eyebrow, no doubt from a cut, and the fact if I picture her with glasses and different hair... it’s her.

There is no doubt in my mind.

The girl who seared herself into my mind all those years ago and I always wondered about. The girl who never told me her name and only told me she hated me.

That girl, through some kind of twist of fate...is Sawyer.

What the fuck am I going to do? If I tell her, I’ll lose her. She won’t want to be with someone she associates with the death of her brother, but if I lie to her, that’s even worse.

She’s coming back to life because of me, and I have the ability and knowledge to strike that down instantly if I do the right thing... or I do the wrong thing and keep her, just as she is, happy and perfect in