CHRISTMAS AT THUNDER HORSE RANCH by Elle James

promised you wouldn’t even know I was here. That kiss was uncalled for.”
    “That’s okay.” She wanted to tell him that she’d liked it, but didn’t want to sound too naive or desperate. Though every ounce of her being wanted him to pull her back into his arms and kiss her again.
    Dante’s hands fell to his sides and he stuffed them into his pockets.
    Emma couldn’t move away, afraid her wobbly knees wouldn’t hold her up. Instead, her gaze followed his to the parking lot below where backup lights blinked bright and a truck eased out of the parking space beside Dante’s SUV.
    Emma tensed. The driver was turning too sharp and his tires didn’t seem to be getting enough traction to straighten the vehicle.
    “He’s going to hit your Jeep,” Emma said, diving for the door. She flung it open and started to shout to the driver to stop.
    Before she could get a word out, the world seemed to explode in front of her.
    * * *
    E MMA WAS BLOWN backward, hitting Dante square in the chest, knocking him onto the floor of her apartment. He fell flat on his back and Emma landed on top of him. With the wind knocked out of him and his ears ringing, he lay for a moment trying to comprehend what had just happened.
    Then he was scrambling to his feet and racing down the steps to the parking lot below. His Jeep was a blackened hulk with a hole blown through the driver’s side.
    The truck that had been backing out of the space next to his was drifting backward across the icy surface of the pavement, the hood had been blown upright and the driver was slumped at the wheel. Smoke billowed out of the engine.
    Dante ran to the truck and yanked at the door. It was locked. He banged on the window and shouted to get the driver’s attention, but he wasn’t waking up no matter how hard Dante banged or how loud he shouted.
    The truck slid back into a car and stopped, but smoke billowed from the engine compartment and then flames sprang from the source of the smoke.
    Desperate to get the man out of the truck, he glanced around for something to break the window with. The ground and the sidewalks were covered in snow from the night before and nothing jumped out that would be strong enough to break the glass.
    Behind him, he heard footsteps clambering down the stairs and Emma slid to a stop beside him. “Use this,” she said and slapped a hammer in his palm.
    Dante gave a brief grin. Emma was smart and resourceful.
    He rounded to the passenger side of the vehicle and slammed the hammer into the glass. It took several attempts before he broke all the way through and could reach his hand in to hit the automatic door-lock release.
    As soon as he did, Emma pulled open the driver’s door and reached inside to unbuckle the seat belt.
    The flame surged, the heat making Dante’s face burn. “Get back!” he shouted, racing around the other side of the truck.
    Emma ignored his entreaty and tugged at the driver’s arm. “We have to get him out.”
    Dante arrived at her side. As soon as she backed away, he grabbed the man and pulled him out, draping his limp body over his shoulder. He turned and nearly ran into Emma. “Move, move, move!”
    With the burden of the man weighing him down and the ice-covered pavement slowing his steps, Dante ran after Emma, barely making it to the apartment building before the flame found the truck’s gas tank. The second explosion in less than ten minutes rocked the earth beneath them and he crashed to his knees on the concrete.
    Emma appeared in front of him and soon other apartment dwellers emerged from their rooms to see what all the commotion was.
    Emma pointed to a woman who stood in the doorway of her apartment with her hair up in a towel and yelled, “Lisa, call 9-1-1!”
    The woman’s eyes widened and she spun back into her apartment and reappeared with her cell phone pressed to her ear, talking rapidly to the dispatcher on the other end.
    “Here, lean on me. Let me help you up.” Emma slipped one of