Spenser and Kansas smiled when Watts and Sugar both voiced their willingness to join. The rest of the hotshots peaced out.
We took the elevator to the second floor, then paused long enough for Zeke to unlock his door. Zeke’s room was clean before, but living with men all my life, the absence of any mess was a little suspicious.
“You cleaned a little before we came up, didn’t you?” I asked.
Zeke looked caught. “I told you I’m cleaner than most of the other guys.”
“It’s true,” Sugar said, pointing at him.
“But, yeah,” Zeke confessed.
Everyone took a seat, Spenser and Kansas at the table, Sugar on one queen bed, Watts on the other. Zeke offered me the desk chair.
“Anyone want a beer?” He bent over while simultaneously opening a cabinet under the television, revealing a mini fridge. He opened it, waiting for someone to speak up, which we all did. One by one, he beered us then sat on the floor next to me.
“So if your dads are brothers, how do y’all look so different?” Watts asked.
Spenser, Kansas, and I glanced at each other.
“You mean why are we so pale and she’s so dark?” Spenser asked. “Our mom is a full-on ginger. Her parents—our grandparents—are both gingers and both fifty percent Scottish. Our dads are third generation Armenian-American.”
They all looked ar me.
“Naomi looks like her dad. We look like our mom,” Kansas said with a smile.
“So how are you liking it here?” Watts asked.
“Uh … it’s good, I guess. I came here for a job,” I said.
“From where?” Sugar asked.
“Vegas.”
Like everyone did when I told them I lived in Vegas, they looked impressed, as if I lived on the strip and enjoyed the clubs every night. I worked night security for some high-profile clients and slept during the day. I kept just busy enough not to think about Matt when I was conscious. It wasn’t really a life at all.
“And where are y’all from?” Sugar asked my cousins.
“Arizona,” Spenser said.
“Desert life. They like it hot,” Watts said.
Kansas laughed. I tried not to roll my eyes.
“What kind of job?” Sugar asked.
“Contract security,” I said.
“She’s a Marine,” Zeke said. “She’s the biggest bad ass of us all.”
“Really?” Sugar asked.
I nodded.
“Explains a lot,” he said.
I smiled. “Why do people keep saying that?”
“Have you heard all the rumors about this town?” Watts asked. “The fire will be approaching the Cheyenne Mountain Complex if the winds don’t change. I wonder how they’re going to handle it. It’s a top-secret facility. The Air Force has a base there, but NORAD is there too. Tanks and Green Berets … what the hell are Green Berets doing at an Air Force Station? I heard President Bush went there for 9/11.”
“That’s a myth,” Kansas said.
“Don’t forget about all the science shit going in and out of there,” Zeke said. “A friend of ours who’s from here saw a wreck on NORAD Road involving a government truck. They unloaded a metal coffin with a window on top and some tech and piping connected to it. Put it in a new truck and zipped it away to Cheyenne Mountain.”
“A metal coffin,” I repeated. “He followed it all the way to the mountain?”
“As far as he could,” Sugar said. “If you go too far down the one road, soldiers’ll point rifles at you, and you’ll be escorted straight to prison.”
“What do you think was in it?” Spenser asked.
Watts smiled. “Some people say they’re doing experiments deep in the Complex. Aliens and stuff.”
Spenser and Kansas laughed.
“You can see it from the roof. Wanna go?” Sugar asked.
“To this roof?” Spenser asked, pointing up.
He nodded.
Spenser looked at her sister, and Kansas nodded.
“Naomi?” Kansas asked.
“I’ll pass.”
“I’ve seen it,” Zeke said.
The girls stood, and Watts and Sugar led them to the hall. When the door closed, the energy changed. Zeke and I had been alone before—we’d even shared a bed, but this was different.
“I’m surprised you didn’t take the smoke break,” Zeke said.
“I smoke the cigarettes, they don’t smoke me.”
“Naomi…” He touched my boot.
“Yeah?”
He hesitated. “I was waiting to see if you’d punch me for touching you.”
“How about you just ask?”
“Because just thinking about saying the words makes me feel like a kid.”
I waited, and he rolled his eyes then focused on the floor. “If it’s all right with you, I’d like to hold your hand.”
“I’m married.”
He winced then looked up at me, half annoyed, half amused. “Now if you were just gonna shoot me down, why would you have me ask?”
I shrugged. “I wondered if you’d grow a pair and do it.”
“Well, I did. Now what?”
I looked around the room then took a swig of my beer before standing. “Smoke break.”
Zeke reached up, holding my hand, staring at my fingers encompassed in his. “They’re pretty soft for a Marine.”
I looked around, not knowing how to feel. When Peter touched my hand, I damn near had a meltdown. I waited for the pain to seep in, to stain my soul, to be reminded by the anger that Matt would never touch me again.
Seconds passed, but not one moment of rage or agony slithered from the dark corners of my heart to breach the surface.
Zeke’s hand was rough and warm, the acres of land he’d torn up to separate the living, breathing wilderness from the black death that followed the fires he fought evident in every scar and callous.
An unexpected urgency to feel his scuffed skin tighter commanded me to slide my fingers between his and squeeze. Zeke’s brows pulled together as he kept his gaze on our fingers intertwined. “I really like you.”
My cousins’ voices were just outside the door a second before they burst through, hugging themselves.
“Shit! It gets cold at night here!” Kansas said. She stopped the same time as Spenser, Watts, and Sugar, all of them noticing my hand in Zeke’s.
I pulled away. “I was just going out for a smoke. I think it’s time to head home anyway.”
Kansas looked over her shoulder at Watts, unable to hide her disappointment.
“Sure, yeah,” Spenser said.
“Come back anytime, please,” Sugar said, smiling at my oldest cousin.
Spenser tucked a few blonde strands behind one ear. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
“We cycle in and out from the fire, but we get R&R,” Watts said. “Maybe I could get your number and text you?”
Kansas lit up the room with her wide grin. “Yeah. We should do that.”
They switched phones, and I could tell Sugar was aching to do the same with Spenser but couldn’t quite say it. I thought she would initiate like she had in the past, but she seemed disappointed—or maybe she decided she didn’t like Sugar after all.
We said our goodbyes, then Spenser, Kansas, and I loaded up in the FJ and headed home. They wouldn’t shut up. It was like middle school all over again. Sugar’s muscles, Watts’ hair and eyes.
“He’s just so….” Kansas said from the back seat.
“Pretty,” I said.
“Yes! He is so pretty,” she said, as if it was a good thing.
“What about you?” Spenser asked. “Zeke’s nice.”
“Yes,” I said simply.
“And?” Kansas asked.
“That’s it,” I said. “He’s nice.”
“Naomi,” Spenser said. She made a show of turning in her seat to face me. “It’s okay to be happy.”
/> “I’m married,” I said.
“You’re a widow,” Kansas said.
I sighed. “I know.”
“Do you think he’d want you to move on? To be happy without him?”
“It doesn’t matter what he wants. He’s not here,” I said.
My cousins were quiet until I pulled into the drive and turned off the engine.
“Just…” Spenser said, grabbing my arm with her firm grip before I could reach for the handle. “Just think about it, okay?”
“I am,” I said. “I will.”
They both smiled, and we made our way inside.
chapter sixteen
someone left to tell
Zeke
W
ith the fire at our backs, we hiked higher up the Cheyenne Mountain. It was rockier, more unstable than our previous location and a bitch to navigate, but if the winds changed that facility would be consumed.
“So it’s like … top secret? Think if we save it they’ll let us inside to look around?” Runt asked.
“No, genius,” Watts said, hanging on to his Pulaski. “The government won’t give us top security clearance for doing our jobs.”
“Just askin’,” he said with a shrug.
Runt was talented, but in so many ways he was still a kid. He had brown hair and brown eyes like me, but he was whiter than white and had a splash of freckles over his nose. One of his talents was his youth—he was quick and fearless, having no knowledge of his own mortality. I was sad for the impending loss because guys were injured or killed often in our line of work, and the one known element of our days was that we would all at some point suffer loss or be lost.
Chief divided us, hoping to meet in the middle. He warned us the winds could change at any moment. The first was jumping from tree to tree like a monkey running for its life. Reaching and then igniting, the fire sizzled and roared, the tenor and bass creating a song of destruction that was also the first step to rebirth.
“Cat, you’re on lookout,” Jubal pointed to the top of the first ridge.
Cat nodded and climbed the steep incline to where he’d watch our bags. I made sure Ragnar wasn’t thirsty then ripped the cord, letting his metal teeth gnaw through a large tree. It was a shame that I either had to slit its throat or let it burn to a crisp. The forest was just fuel to most wild land firefighters, but I’d been intimately acquainted with life or death decisions, and most times the only alternative to salvation was to end the misery. Thankfully for me, Brad and Jenn were experts at salvation.
We dug and sawed for an hour before Cat signaled the fire had changed direction. He radioed for us to come to him, but by the time we made it, the fire had already cut off the other half of our crew.
“Just go! Go!” Chief yelled over the radio. “Meet at C-three rendezvous point!”
With tools in hand, the Maddox twins, Fish, Runt, Smitty, Watts, Cat and I set out for the predetermined Plan B. It was never a good feeling to get separated from the group, but it happened from time to time.
Tyler Maddox yelled at us to keep up. “Let’s go, guys! Double time!”
We picked up the pace, everyone looking over their shoulder and hoping the winds would change again. The hills were rocky, but there was still enough fuel to lead the fire right to us. It was growing and picking up speed. The smoke caught up to us, and I could feel the heat nipping at my back.
“Wait!” Tyler yelled. “Wait.” He pulled out his map.
“Whatever you’re doing, do it fast,” Smitty said, looking over his shoulder.
“If that bitch keeps burning this direction, it will eat that facility whole,” Tyler said.
I peered over the tree line, seeing the top of an antenna in the distance. “Let’s get to work.”
“We stay here and we’ll be toast within the hour,” Fish said.
I looked around at my brothers. We were all beat up, dirty, and exhausted, and we were discussing whether or not to stretch ourselves to our physical limit. “There are thousands of people in that facility. This is what we signed up for, isn’t it?”
Fish thought about it then nodded. Everyone else readied their tools, and Tyler barked orders.
The sawyer downed trees, the swampers cleared the brush, and the diggers created a three-foot fire line, hoping to God the fire wouldn’t jump. We were a crew cut down by half and shorting ourselves time to evacuate.
An hour passed, then another twenty minutes. My arms were shaking, screaming for a break, sweat poured into my eyes, but none of us stopped until Tyler called it.
“All right, we’ve done what we could. We’re out of time, let’s go!”
The group moved slower and clumsier.
“We didn’t do the math on being too exhausted to evacuate,” I said to Tyler. “Rookie mistake that could cost us.”
“I’m the one who didn’t do the math,” he said, guilt and frustration weighing down his face. “But we’re not dying today.” He put one hand to the side of his mouth so his voice would go further. “Pick it up, guys. Day isn’t done!”
Every part of my body screamed to stop, to rest, and every third beat of my heart felt like it was rattling my rib cage. Multi-colored sparkles filled my eyes, and I leaned over to grab my knees.
“Don’t stop now, Zeke,” Tyler said, pulling me along.
“I’m dizzy as fuck,” I said.
Tyler knew we didn’t have time for that shit. “You stop, and you won’t start again. Keep! Going!”
In the same moment, Fish made a misstep and tumbled over the ridge. Runt fell to his knees and tried to catch him, but Fish’s sleeve slipped through his fingers.
Fish fell six feet, then caught himself with the fingertips of one hand on a small rock jutting out, his knees and feet crashing into the side. He looked up; his eyes wide. The small rock wasn’t enough to help his fingers offset the weight of his body, and his grasp began to slip away.
Runt took another swing, reaching down and nearly falling over himself before Jubal grabbed his ankle. “Fish!” Runt cried. “Grab my hand!”
Their shaking, dirty fingers were just inches away.
Before any of us could react, Fish slipped away. Rocks and ledges broke his fall for mere seconds at a time, thuds and grunts the only sounds. We watched helplessly as he incurred injury after injury as he fell to the bottom, his helmet hitting a large rock at the bottom with a crack.
“Fish!” Runt yelled, falling to his knees.
Tyler and I stared at each other in horror, and then we descended the side of the mountain to get to our friend.
Fish was still yelling when we reached him, holding his ankle.
“Is it broken?” I asked, taking a look.
“I don’t think so,” he said, breathing through the pain as he stared at his injury. “I tried to get up… I ain’t walking out of here.”
“Make a sled, we’re dragging him out!” Taylor yelled, already pulling a tarp and rope from his pack. “We’ve got no time! Let’s move!”
“I’m going to scout a path out,” Smitty said. He jogged ahead in the narrow base of the ravine, disappearing around a corner.
Watts fashioned a make-shift wrap for Fish’s ankle while the Maddoxes, Cat, Runt and I built a sled to carry Fish out. We tied the last knots, lifted Fish carefully, then picked up the edges of the tarp.
“Just keep going until we see Smitty,” I said.
We had to carry Fish over the rockier areas and dragged him over what we could. We moved even slower than before, and the fire had gained ground behind us.
Smitty appeared, breathing hard, his hands on his hips. He shook his head.
“Dead end. Almost straight up on both sides. We’ll have to fashion some kind of a hoist.”
“Then let’s get started,” Taylor said. We picked up Fish to save time, but when we arrived at the dead end, it was more daunting than I’d imagined. The climb was at least a hundred yards.
We lay Fish ag
ainst a tree and took five minutes to discuss a plan.
“We don’t have time,” Smitty said. “The fire is ten minutes out.”
“I’ll strap him to my back,” Cat said. He was the second biggest only to Sugar, but he was also the most tired. His whole body shook with exhaustion.
Tyler shook his head. “We’d have to hoist you both up, and it’s too much weight.”
“Me then,” Runt said.
Tyler shook his head. “You can’t climb that with him on you. You fall and we’ll have two injured. Can’t risk it.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Smitty asked. “We can’t just leave him here.”
“I can deploy my fire shelter,” Fish said. “Come back for me once it blows over.”
“No,” Smitty said. “Those things give you maybe a 50/50 chance. No fucking way, Fish.”
I thought about the tree and how I’d given it an easier death than by fire. Fish wouldn’t get that luxury.
Tyler tried to call in that we were trapped, but we were too dug in, and the radio had no signal. “God damn it!” he said, throwing his Pulaski to the ground.
“We’re not leaving you behind,” I said to Fish. “No one gets left behind.”
“You guys aren’t dying down here,” Fish said, his face pale. “Not for me.”
“You’re not either,” I said. I dropped my pack and took a running start for the cliff wall.
“You can do it, Zeke!” Runt said as I pulled myself up to the next protruding rock.
I anchored a foot on some roots, but ultimately slid down, losing my grip at the halfway point.
“Fuck!” I yelled, punching the wall.
“We’ve got five minutes,” Smitty said, his voice somber. “Maybe we should all deploy our shelters.”
Tyler looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t … I don’t know. Zeke?”
“We’re out of options,” I said. There wasn’t a worse answer I could give, but we had to make a decision. So many things ran through my head… Brad, Jenn, my siblings, and what would happen if I didn’t make it. I kept coming back to Naomi and how in the fuck she could run into another guy who risked his life every day. I thought about the things we wouldn’t do, the places we wouldn’t walk, and I’d never regretted anything so much in my life.
The Edge of Us (Crash and Burn Book 2) Page 13
