Against the Fire Read Online Free

the lobby to the bank of elevators and pushed the button for the fifteenth floor. She couldn’t help thinking of the sullen teenager Angel had been when she had met him three years ago at the Family Recovery Center, a nonprofit organization that dealt with domestic violence.
    When she wasn’t working long hours as an architect at Dewalt, Greeley and Associates Design, a job she loved, Mattie spent her spare time volunteering at the center. Though she had been raised in a happy home, her friend, Tracy Spencer, had been a victim of family violence. Mattie had discovered her best friend’s secret, but Tracy had begged her to keep silent and ten-year-old Mattie had agreed.
    It was a mistake she had always regretted. Mattie’s work with the FRC was a way of making up for that mistake.
    She had been working at the center when Angel and his family had first come in for help. The next day, Angel had suffered another of his father’s vicious beatings. Setting fire to the old empty building was his way of fighting back.
    A year later, after Angel got out of juvenile detention, Mattie had been one of the volunteers assigned to his case. He was a sweet boy, and determined to turn his life around. He studied hard at school and volunteered to help other boys his age at the center.
    They wound up spending a good deal of time together at the center, and Mattie had even helped him get a part-time job that summer in the mail room at her office. He used the money he earned to help his family.
    There was a goodness in Angel Ramirez. Mattie didn’t believe the teenager had set the fire at the Towers and she was determined to prove it.
    The elevator opened with a ding. She walked out into the hallway. She pushed open the glass doors etched with the name Dewalt, Greeley and Associates Design, and made her way into the reception area of the busy architectural firm.
    “Mr. Brewer called about the gallery,” the pretty receptionist, Shirley Mack, said. “And your mother called.”
    Mattie took the messages from Shirley’s outstretched hand. “Thanks.”
    “How’s she doin’? Your mom, I mean. Didn’t she just get remarried?”
    “Believe it or not, it’s been nearly a year. She and Jack seem happy.” But her mother had been wary of a second marriage after the death of Mattie’s father and the hardships she had suffered. Mattie hoped this time would be different.
    “Well, I’m glad for them,” Shirley said.
    “Me, too.” Mattie made a mental note to return the call. They spoke on the phone at least twice a week, but her mother had moved to San Antonio to be with Jack, and Mattie missed her.
    Passing the receptionist’s desk, Mattie walked through an open area where busy draftsmen sat at their computers using sophisticated software programs to tackle the work of designing offices, schools, condos and luxury homes.
    She caught a wave from Aaron Kreski, a coworker and friend. Thanks to her innovative designs and the overtime she put in, she had recently been promoted to head designer and given an office of her own. She was on her way to becoming a vice president, a step up the ladder in the career she so determinedly pursued.
    Pushing open the tall walnut door, she walked over to the matching walnut desk. Polished to a glossy sheen, the desktop was bare, except for a sleek, twenty-inch computer monitor, a calendar, a brown felt desk pad, a black-and-gold pen-and-pencil set, and an old, cherished photo of her parents.
    Unconsciously, she reached out to touch the gilded frame. The picture reflected the good, happy years, the times she liked to remember. Then her dad had died in a car accident when she was twelve and everything had changed.
    With no life insurance and only a high school education, her mother had been forced to take a job at a local Kmart to support them. Through those difficult times, her mother became convinced that a woman could never truly count on a man, even one who loved her. The only person she could count on