“There’s a lot of dead space up there. Are you sure that he just didn’t have any cell service?” Pete asked.
“Even in dead space, texts usually come through,” Cade answered. “I thought we could go up and look around. Maybe by then Eric will have contacted his mother and there’s nothing to worry about. But if something has happened, hopefully we can get him out of there.”
“We, sir?” Pete asked.
“Yes, we. It will be you, me and a man by the name of Gabriel Simmons. I just hired him to train with Jack as the new field medic.”
Pete took that statement in. So, the restructuring of Rescue for Hire was officially starting. He thought it would be interesting to see how the dynamics of it all worked out. But now he had a more pressing problem.
Biting down on his lower lip, he took a second to figure out the best way to say what he needed to say. “Well, um, it could be done, but Damian owns the helicopter and I work for him. I would have to talk to him about it first.” Pete had a deep respect for Cade Miller and not being able to just agree to his plan made him very uncomfortable.
“I called Damian already, and he said he would be contacting you,” Cade said. “So, I’ll see you as soon as you can get here.”
Pete looked at his phone and saw that Cade had ended the call. Shaking his head he was sure glad that he was on the man’s good side. Cade Miller was one hell of a force to be reckoned with.
Just then the phone’s screen lit up and it started ringing. Damian’s name appeared.
“Hey, Damian,” he answered. Pete was thankful every day for Damian offering him a place to stay about five years ago, after he had seen Pete’s face swollen and bruised from his latest run in with his father and uncle.
“Did Cade get ahold of you?” Damian asked. In the background Pete could hear shouting.
“Yeah, he wants me to take the helicopter up and look for a kid that might be lost,” Pete answered.
“Look, I’m in the middle of getting a family out of a flooded house. The high waters here are unbelievable. Just go over to Cade’s house and get the coordinates and file the proper papers. You’ve done it a million times,” Damian said. “Oh, and Pete.”
“Yeah?”
“Cade’s leg is still messed up. Bret might be having a lot to say about Cade going on any kind of mission,” Damian warned.
“Okay.” Pete wasn’t sure what Damian was getting at.
“Pete, it might get physical.” Damian continued, “But don’t worry, if you just watch there won’t be any violence and it may turn out to be quite a fun show to watch.”
“Thanks, Damian. Safe trip,” Pete said. He still wasn’t sure what Damian was getting at, but if he said not to worry, Pete wouldn’t.
“You too, Pete,” Damian responded.
* * * *
The helicopter landed with a gentle bump as Pete settled it onto the landing pad behind Cade’s house. He always loved the feel of freedom and control flying gave him. There hadn’t been a lot of that in his childhood. Now he probably took control to a whole new level. But it worked for him.
Flipping the switches in a precise order to shut down the helicopter, Pete took a moment to admire the beautiful log home in front of him, while he waited for the sharp blades to stop turning. It wasn’t an overly big house that Cade and Bret lived in, and was the Rescue for Hire’s headquarters. But if Pete could own a house someday of his own choosing, it would be like this warm and inviting log home.
Stepping out of the helicopter, he shut the door securely and ducked down to get out from under the now stationary blades. At five-nine he wasn’t small like Bret, Cade’s partner, or tiny, like Jack’s partner Pip. He always thought he was pretty much average, except he was rail thin. Nothing he tried would put any weight or muscle on his frame. Finally he accepted that he was who he was.
Lightly climbing the wooden steps and crossing the wide pine boards of the porch, Pete respectfully knocked on the door. Turning the knob, he stepped into the entryway and took a left, immediately finding himself at the open office door.
Before him was the handsome Bret James, standing in the middle of the room, his hands on his hips, drawing Pete’s eyes to his fine tight ass encased in formfitting paper-thin jeans. Turning toward Pete, Bret’s beautiful brown eyes were blazing with anger, making Pete take a step back.
Bret lifted his hand and shook his finger at Pete, making his curly blond hair dance. “Cade is not going anywhere with you. Take that helicopter out of here and leave,” he ordered.
Cade sat behind his desk, his face expressionless as he watched his red-faced partner, who was practically shaking with anger. And that anger was currently directed right at Pete. Helplessly Pete looked at Cade, not exactly sure what to do.
Not waiting for Pete to respond, Bret pivoted back to Cade. “Your leg isn’t healed, Bear. You could mess it up even more than it is,” he said. “You can’t go.” Bret crossed his long-sleeved T-shirt-covered arms over his chest and jutted his chin out stubbornly at Cade.
Pete held his breath. Cade was so much bigger than Bret and it was going to hurt when Pete had to jump in between Cade’s fists, when he started beating Bret for trying to tell him what to do. Crap, he never wanted to feel knuckles pounding into his body ever again. But he would never be able to stand by and watch while another person was being abused.
Cade lifted his hand, huge palm up. “Come over here, baby, now.”
Pete couldn’t believe his eyes when Bret dropped his arms in defeat. He swore there was a string attached to Bret’s body as he immediately walked around the desk and placed his smaller hand into Cade’s.
Before Pete could launch himself across the room to save Bret, Cade gently pulled Bret onto his lap and encircled him with huge muscled arms. Bret snuggled his face up into Cade’s neck, and one large hand came up and Cade sifted his fingers through Bret’s beautiful blond curls.
“All I’m going to do is sit in the back of the helicopter on the bench and run the winch, pup,” Cade assured his partner.
“That’s it?” Bret asked.
“That’s it,” Cade answered. “You know we have to find Eric. Loraine would be devastated if something has happened to him.”
Bret sat up and looked right into Cade’s blue eyes. “Pete’s good, but the rest of the team isn’t here.”
Cade smiled. “You’ve read Gabriel’s resume, baby. He’s more than capable of handling any situation. Jack’s only going to have to show him our procedures, otherwise, you know as well as I do, he can step right in.”
“No heroics. I couldn’t stand it if you were hurt again.” Bret leaned his face against Cades. Pete had never seen two people more connected.
“No heroics, baby. I’ll leave that to Gabriel and Pete.” Pete watched as the two men’s lips met. A hollow pain of loneliness filled him. How he wished he could trust someone enough to not hurt him and have the chance to find the special gift that Cade and Bret had.
“Okay, I’m ready. I saw that the helicopter is here. Let’s rock and roll.”
Pete was so startled by the newcomer’s exuberant entrance behind him that his feet became tangled up as he turned toward the door. Pitching backward, Eric winced as his butt connected with the hard wooden floor.
Chapter Two
Gabriel Simmons was stoked. Not only had his interview for the new medic position gone well, but a rescue call had come in and he was going on it. He was at a point in his life that he was ready for a steady job, doing what he was good at. And now he had his chance.
Having followed Cade’s instructions, he had gone into the equipment shed and found an orange flight suit, along with a harness that fit through his legs, around his waist and over his shoulders. If they found this lost kid, he was now ready to be lowered from the helicopter to help him.
He also gathered up medical supplies and stuck them into the deep pockets of the suit. Even though he would take the huge first-aid kit along, he knew from experience that sometimes conditi
ons became too gnarly to lug along the kit while he was descending from the helicopter.
As he stepped into the office, an attractive blond man turned toward him, with alarm covering his handsome face, and proceeded to trip and land on his ass. Gabriel set the helmet with its built-in radio on the floor and knelt down next to the man whose blue flight suit had a tag with the name Pete sewed onto it.
“Are you okay? Are you in pain?” Automatically his medical training kicked in. Sometimes Gabriel wondered how many times he had said those words on the combat fields of Iraq. Pushing those gruesome thoughts away, he instead concentrated on the pretty blond, slim man in front of him.
“I’m fine,” the blond said.
Gabriel felt himself being drawn into the depths of a pair of beautiful blue eyes as he reached out to the man. He noticed the man hesitated before taking his hand, but once their skin touched, Gabriel felt an instant connection.
With their hands still joined, Gabriel helped the man to his feet. Facing him, Gabriel now saw that at six-two, he was just a little less than a half of a foot taller than the other man. And while he didn’t have Cade’s massive muscles, Gabriel was no slouch in the muscle department, making it seem like he was totally dominating the other man with his size.
“Hi, I’m Gabriel.” Gabriel smiled, finding that he was becoming completely spellbound by clear blue eyes, surrounded with think black lashes. His heart beat a little faster as he took in the slim nose that was turned up just a tiny bit at the end, and pouty lips with the bottom lip being thick, full and totally kissable. Add in blond hair that was short on the sides and longer on top with bangs that fell over his forehead and Gabriel was captivated.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Pete Kenyon. I hope things go well for you at Rescue for Hire,” Pete responded.
Whoa! Gabriel took a step back and let Pete tug his hand away. Here he was drowning in an instant connection that hit him like a mac truck and in return he got a polite, professional greeting.
Then Gabriel looked a little closer at Pete. That was when he saw the trembling lip, the eyes darting from him to Cade and then back to him again. Gabriel frowned, not liking it that the guy seemed very nervous and even a little scared.
Gabriel instinctively lifted his hand to touch Pete’s face in comfort. The man reacted by jerking his head back and raising his arm as if to ward off Gabriel’s attack.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” Gabriel put both his hands at shoulder level, palms out. He took a small step back even though he really wanted to enfold Pete in his arms and protect him from whatever had him reacting this way.
“We really need to get going, guys,” Cade interrupted.
Pete looked away from Gabriel, much to his irritation, and turned to Cade. “If you could give me the coordinates, I can file the flight plan.”
“That sounds good. While you’re making the arrangements, Gabriel and I will get the helicopter loaded. I think we should take the rescue basket, just in case.”
Gabriel watched Pete’s sandy-brown eyebrows lifted in surprise. Looking at Gabriel, he asked. “Do you know how to rescue victims from a helicopter?”
“I’ve done it a time or two,” he answered. Gabriel wasn’t going to get into how he had spent the last eight years doing everything he could to save the men desperately fighting for their lives defending their country. Being on the front line of a war zone had him doing a lot more than just jumping out of helicopters.
* * * *
Pete tried to keep the helicopter steady in the growing winds. The rains that were wreaking havoc in Minnesota were causing swirling winds over the national forest a state away. The meteorologists were issuing storm warnings for later in the afternoon. Pete feared they only had a short amount of time before it became too dangerous and he would have to call off the search using the helicopter.
“I’m coming to the area that the mother thought her son was, Cade,” Pete announced into the microphone at his mouth. Cade was in the back of the helicopter sitting on a bench near the open door, next to the controls that would lower Gabriel to the boy if they managed to locate him. If the victim was too weak or injured in any way to be lifted on his own, or strapped to Gabriel, then they would bring him into the helicopter secured in the rescue basket. The basket was made of thick metal wire and was long enough for a victim to lay in it. After the victim was safely strapped in with belts, they were raised by a winch to the helicopter.
“Sounds good, Pete.” Cade’s voice came over the speaker of the headset Pete was wearing.
Pete scanned the thick forest looking for anything out of the ordinary and tried not to think about the man in back, with wild wavy jet-black hair and green eyes that Pete was sure could see into his soul. His lips were full and surrounded by a very short black beard that Pete wished he could touch. But as the saying went, “If wishes were fishes, we’d all get a bite.” And Pete was too afraid to let anyone, especially a man, close.
An hour later the three men hadn’t found any sign of Eric Thompson. The winds had picked up even more and Pete was starting to become concerned with not only the weather, but finding the boy. He wasn’t sure how they were supposed to see anyone in the thick trees and underbrush, which were at their peak green summer growth.
“We’ve gone over the area the mother thought he might be. I’ve also flown south and east of the designated area,” Pete said into the mike. “If I remember right there’s another parking lot just a little north and west of here, with multiple hiking trails off of it. I think we should head over there.”
“It’s worth a try,” Cade responded.
Turning the helicopter Pete slowly headed toward the new area. With a jerk the helicopter pitched to the side. Gritting his teeth Pete compensated even more for the winds that were starting to play rough. In the back he heard a few thuds and metal against metal. Pete could feel himself starting to stiffen up as the need to find the boy as quickly as possible grew. He’d give it ten more minutes and then they were done.
Up ahead looking like a dark island in a sea of rich green was the parking lot Pete was looking for. Multiple cars of every color were parked between the white lines on the black asphalt. Spreading off the lot like spider’s legs, Pete could see various gray gravel covered trails branching out into the lush green landscape.
Pete tried to think like a young man who thought most things he saw on reality television were cool and completely real. At once he realized that there was no way Eric would take one of those manmade hiking trails. This was all about man versus nature.
Turning the helicopter in a circle he saw what he was looking for. Through the trees was a faint trail that Pete knew was probably made by bears taking advantage of the garbage hikers left behind.
Carefully trying to follow it in the growing swirl of winds, Pete’s suspicions were confirmed when he saw a large black bear making its way down the trail toward the lot. Pete could see from the bear’s movements that the trail was very wet and viciously rugged.
“I’m going to make a pass up to that small clearing and then go back down again,” Pete said.
“Okay, were watching.” Cade’s deep voice of authority flowed over Pete, immediately his breathing slowed, and his hands remained steady and precise over the controls.
Minutes later Pete was circling a small mat of pale grass ready to make another pass along the bear trail.
Something shiny caught his eye.
“Cade, check out that opening.” Later he would cringe at the way he had ordered Cade around.
Pete hovered, still not sure what had caught his eye.
“There’s something down there with reflective tape on it,” Gabriel said.
Pete had to suppress a shiver as the whiskey smooth voice rolled into his ear and seemed to caress the skin at the nape of his neck, right down his back.
“Hey, boss, I think I see the kid. Can you go lower, Pete?” Gabriel asked. Pete noted that Gabriel had taken to calling Cade, Boss, just as t
he rest of his employees did. He, himself wasn’t employed by Cade, so he didn’t have the right to call him by that title.
Pete turned the helicopter around and made a slow sweep across the clearing, fighting the wind all the way. Checking his instrument panel, the gauges were telling him that time was running out. Digging deep, he reached for every ounce of training that Damian had taught him. Shifting and maneuvering the copter around, he found a lull in the swirling winds.
“Is he there?” he asked. Pete’s voice cracked with the knowledge that if there wasn’t any sign of the kid down there, they would have to leave and try again when the winds calmed down.
“Shit. Yeah, I see him. He’s hurt,” Cade said. “Preparing to lower Gabriel down to victim.”
With that sentence, Cade had started the rescue procedure.
Pete flipped a few switches. “Adjustments made. Lower when ready,” Pete responded.
“Lowering man down,” Cade said.
“Affirmative,” Pete replied. He watched as Gabriel was slowly lowered on the end of a steel cable. With the shift of weight, Pete adjusted the helicopter, not wanting Gabriel to start swinging like a pendulum.
“Gabriel is on the ground and is released,” Cade said.
“Affirmative, man is on ground. Cable released,” Pete said.
“Raising cable,” Cade said. Pete watched the cable, looking like a snake being pulled back into the helicopter. If the situation warranted it Cade would hook the rescue basket on and lower it to Gabriel. Cade may not have full use of his leg, but Pete was impressed with the way Cade took charge and expertly operated the winch in the back of the helicopter.
* * * *
Gabriel pushed the clear plastic face shield of his helmet up as he watched the cable ascend back to the helicopter. With how hard the wind was blowing, he knew the helicopter would make a couple of passes before coming back when he needed it. Quickly he opened the top flap of one of the deep pockets of his flight suit. Most of the pockets contained first-aid supplies, but there were a few other surprises mixed in. In war he’d had to always watch out for the enemy to ambush him. Right now he had to worry about bears and other predators that might smell the blood that covered the kid and the grass all around him.
Gabriel's Pretty [Rescue for Hire 6](Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 2
