One fatal mistake. Two broken souls. A fire that refuses to go out. Kai Mercer was supposed to be the one in control. But on his first night as Captain, a single decision changed everything. Lured by the mechanical cry of a toy doll in a burning farmhouse, Kai stepped away from his crew for one heartbeat—and the floor collapsed. Now, his brothers are gone, and the weight of their deaths is a fire that consumes him from the inside out. Ariana Brooks, a trauma nurse battling the echoes of a haunting past, is the only one who sees the man behind the soot-stained uniform. She knows the heavy, hollow feeling of carrying a guilt that isn’t hers to bear. In the sterile, fluorescent chaos of the hospital, an unlikely connection sparks between them—a fragile tether to the present in a world that feels like it’s still burning. But as Kai struggles to lead a new crew and Ariana fights to silence the voices of her own history, they must decide if they are strong enough to hold onto each other. In the silence after the sirens fade, can two fractured people find a way to survive the smoke, or will the secrets they carry finally pull them under