Char And Clutch

There are only two honest things in this world: fire and the person who stays to watch it burn.

Environmental compliance inspector Seneca Vance expects a routine citation when she investigates an illegal charcoal burning operation on Burnt Holler Ridge. Instead, a catastrophic mudslide destroys the access road, trapping her at the summit with Thatcher Greer, a solitary exile covered in carbon who keeps his grandfather's kilns burning as penance. Forced to survive together through a relentless heatwave, the strict boundaries between investigator and target dissolve as they work side by side. But when Seneca discovers Thatcher has been hiding a working satellite phone all along, she realizes this airless trap was built on a manufactured dependency, forcing her to choose between enforcing the law or surrendering to the man making her want to stay.