Best Friend's Little Sister

by Riley Rollins

  “It’s my job to outwit it,” he said. “And I’m fucking good at what I do. The men who haven’t gotten out will be waiting it out where there’s damned little left to burn. But even so, if it gets too close, the heat alone can be deadly. That’s the truth, Em. All of it. It’s risky, but I might be the only hope those men have left.”

  I nodded, willing myself to face the images in my head. I’d been so afraid for so long. And it was that fear, more than anything, that had cost us our relationship and our future the last time. I smiled up at him, terrified, but grateful for the truth. He was trusting me, just like I was trusting him. And nothing, nothing in the world felt stronger than that.

  “There’s still a chance we’ll find Reilly on the road to Copperton,” I said. “What the hell are we waiting for?”

  41

  Jason

  But we weren’t a mile down the road before I slammed on the brakes and the truck skidded, shuddering hard as the engine died. Smoke billowed into the sky, over the tall, mountainous ridge ahead. Even from a distance, the heat was unmistakable… and when brilliant flames reached up and licked the sky, I knew.

  “Oh… my… g…” Ember gasped, holding on as I wrenched the truck around. “That’s the road out of here… Jason, it’s the only road out…”

  “Not anymore,” I shot back. I picked up my fire jacket from the floor of the truck and put it on her, zipping it to her chin. I reached across her and pulled the shoulder harness across her body. “Put this on, keep it on and pull it as tight as you can…” For a fleeting second, she seemed so tiny, so fragile…

  “There’s no other choice,” I said, checking the strap, snugging it on her hip. “We’ll stay on the road for as long as we can, but after that, we’ll just have to plow one of our own. This rig’s strong, but it’s gonna get pretty rough. You hold on,” I demanded, pulling my helmet down over her wild, coppery hair, “and so help me god, I promise I’ll get you out.”

  I kissed her pale lips and floored the gas, racing back over the road, back into the valley. The rising winds fanned the fire, but pulled the smoke up in thick, black plumes. The fires were visible and raged along the length of the valley’s eastern border. All that was left to burn now was the southernmost end… and Cradle Creek. “I should have gotten you the hell out of here days ago,” I growled.

  “This is where I belong, Jason.” She gripped my thigh with strong fingers. “I’m your woman and I belong beside you,” she said over the rising wail of the wind outside. “I’m not a child anymore. And I’m not afraid. I’m never losing anyone or anything I love to fear ever again. I trust you…

  “Whatever happens now, all that matters is that we’re facing it together…”

  “Fucking useless…” I tossed the radio onto the dashboard and focused on the wheel. Com was down… there wasn’t any way now to find out if anyone was still alive. There was nothing but static on every channel… and no way to know if we had support from the air. I’d heard Frank say my name, but nothing more. Winds were sweeping down the center of the valley, carrying burning debris along with them. Behind us, it looked like the whole valley was on fire… And somewhere… somewhere in all this… I’d failed to find Reilly; our one last link to the life we had before…

  I drove through the swirling smoke on instinct, following the contours of the land from memory, trying to find level ground. But I didn’t dare slow down, and the truck jolted and bucked viciously. Spot fires burned and swirled in the distance on either side. And the fast-approaching horizon glowed high; ominous and malignant…

  Ember’s hand tightened in mine. “It’s all around us…” she said, looking across me out my window, spinning in her seat to look behind us, “...there sure as hell isn’t any going back.” She turned to watch the horizon ahead grow brighter and brighter by the minute. “But how can we keep going forward? We can’t possibly drive into that…”

  “Not into it, sweetheart…” I answered, pulling her into the shelter of my arm. “We‘ve got to outrace it. The crew should be on the other side, on land that’s already burned off. We’ve got to head parallel to the front line and get on the other side of it before we’re cut off from the men completely.” I let off the gas long enough to kiss her, taking her lips with passion and need, desire honed to a desperate edge. I took her chin in my hand and saw strength reflected in her eyes.

  “Keep your head down on my lap,” I said, loosening her shoulder strap. “The rig is built to keep most of the smoke out, but use the oxygen mask if you need to.” I was running through the orders fast. “There’s a chance… a small chance we’ll get caught in the flames, but for seconds only. Keep your eyes shut and stay covered.” I pulled my oversized fire jacket around her legs. “We have to do this now, right now while the wind’s still blowing in our favor.”

  “But what about you…?” she argued, looking up at me, her dark eyes warm, radiant. “I’m wearing all your gear. You don’t have anything keeping you safe…”

  I smiled as I hit the gas, gritting my teeth in determination and leaning into the wheel to hold us steady. I wrapped one arm around Ember and our baby.

  “The hell I don’t.”

  We had less than a quarter of a mile to go and the fire line was moving fast. It was hot and getting hotter by the second. Winds whipped all around us and I pushed the engine harder. It was a contest now, a test of wits and will. In a few more minutes, we’d be directly in its path, the entire left side of the truck exposed. It was a race now, all about speed. And we had to make it out the other side before the heat grew too intense, before the fire could overtake us. My heart twisted in my chest at the thought and my stomach churned, knowing that the fire was headed straight for Ember’s cabin. There was no reason to tell her… I didn’t have the heart.

  “Boy or girl?” I shouted as we tore across the valley floor, determined to keep her focused, to fend off fear. The truck lurched and I held her tight against me.

  “...a boy…” she said, “named Ray… for my dad.”

  “What does your dress look like? I want you to tell me exactly what I’ll see, when you’re walking down the aisle…”

  “No aisle,” she shouted back. “The wedding’s in the glade… behind the cabin. White silk,” she called over the screaming engine. “And a cape lined with velvet… God, Jason, it’s so hot, too hot…”

  “Just a few more minutes, baby,” I cried out. “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be out of it. Keep your eyes shut… Tell me how the glade looks. Is it cold or sunny and warm?”

  “...snow,” she said, as I felt the skin on my arm start to blister. Sweat was pouring down my neck, soaking my shirt. Flames licked all too close to the side of the truck as we raced. “A field of pure white snow and the trees heavy and shining with ice…

  “God… Jason… I love you…”

  I closed my eyes and imagined her; the perfect winter bride. Her copper hair, her deep brown eyes, the only warm spot of brilliant color in a world blanketed in icy white. “And I love you,” I said, holding her to me, leaning on the gas and using my body to shield her, “now and forever.”

  Let the fire burn, I thought to myself. It destroys simply because it can… and eventually it will destroy even itself. It burns with intent and cruelty, with utter disregard. It’s savage, intelligent… relentless.

  But unlike us, it has nothing to fight for.

  “That’s why we’re going to make it, sweetheart,” I said through gritted teeth. “Because no matter what else happens in the end,

  “Love always wins.”

  42

  Ember

  I was panting, gasping by the time Jason stopped the truck and pulled me into his arms. He unzipped the heavy jacket and pulled it off me. I was drenched in sweat, and weak with relief. He’d done it. He’d outrun the fire.

  “Wind’s to the south and as long as it holds, the fire’ll stay behind us. Goddamn, Ember… I’ve never seen a sight more beautiful…”

  He kissed me, cradli
ng me in his arms like a child, but devouring me with the burning passion of man for his woman. I tangled my hands in his hair, and all the fear and desperation inside me turned to hot, liquid need. Adrenaline and desire knocked the air from my lungs. I never felt so alive as I did in his arms, his body hard against mine, his hands sweeping, cupping, possessing me. He pulled back to look down at me, as if only his eyes could reassure him.

  “You… the baby…? You’re both all right?” he ran his fingers over me lightly down my neck, my belly.

  “We’re fine,” I nodded. “We’re both fine. You got us through…” I put my hand on the side of his face.

  “God, Jason… you’re burned…” I sat up, my heart suddenly racing. The side of his face was darkly red, rough… his neck and arm were worse. A line of tiny blisters ran down his skin. Because he was protecting me, I thought, as my breath caught and a hundred old fears came raging back. He saved me, by stripping himself of all his protective clothing. He could have been killed and it would have been my fault…

  “It’s not as bad as it looks, Em,” he said easily, taking my face in his strong, warm hands as if he was reading my thoughts. “I’m not that easy to kill, sweetheart. And this isn’t the first fire that’s tried.” He stroked the sides of my mouth with the rough, wide pads of his thumbs and I felt something release inside me. I twisted my hands in the fabric of his shirt and held on. I leaned my forehead into the heat of his chest and shivered.

  “But we need to get moving again,” he said. “The crew might not be so lucky. And even once we’ve found them… we still need to find a way to get them all out.”

  The valley looked like a scene out of Dante’s Inferno.

  Burnt remains were all that were left. Thin plumes of twisting smoke rose from the glowing ashes that covered the valley. The sky was a thick, gray blanket that hovered low in the sky. The sun was nothing but a dirty, yellowed haze in the sky. We passed groves of trees in silence as their crowns still smoldered, the fire kept alive by the relentless wind.

  This valley was our home… and yet nothing familiar was left. Tangled, blackened timbers and heaps of brick and rubble marked the places a dozen families had called home.

  “It’s unimaginable,” I breathed. “This should have been blanketed in snow… clean and white.” I looked out over the dark and blackened landscape and my heart sank. “So many people lost so much…”

  Jason drove on, his huge, capable hands knuckled on the wheel. He let go long enough to tuck me against his side as the truck fought its way over the steep terrain. We were climbing now, up a narrow pass that led to the rim. If the crew was still alive, they’d be waiting on the other side. The tires slipped, and a shower of rocks and debris battered the underside of the truck. He shifted and the engine whined as we fought for traction and the rig bounded and rocked forward. I held his hand in mine, and closed my eyes in a silent prayer. Too much was already gone…

  At first, the sound was lost as the truck lurched, cracking and splintering charcoal remains under its tires. But it grew clearer, louder… the unmistakable sound of static coming over the radio…

  “Air Seven…” it crackled. “...Jas… .... it’s Frank…”

  “Fucking shit!” Jason reached forward and grabbed the radio off the dash. “Frank? Goddammit, Frank…”

  “Where the hell you been, Jace? Jesus Christ, when I saw that funnel I thought you’d finally bought it.”

  Jason let out a loud, rattling breath and laughed out loud with relief. “Fuck you did,” he shot back. “Where the hell are you?”

  “North end of… rim. Winds were too strong to… … smoke too thick…”

  Just as the radio crackled and Frank’s voice died away, we reached the summit, the tires tearing the burned earth, scattering rock down the ridge behind us. Suddenly they caught, and the traction launched us forward onto level ground. Jason grabbed binoculars from behind the seatback and handed them to me. “Sweep the horizon,” he ordered. “The crew’s here… somewhere. They have to be…”

  My heart was pounding its way out of my chest. I strained through the glass, feeling my temples throb, mouth as dry as cotton. My poor, sweet little Reilly… The ground was burned off, blackened, abandoned… lifeless…

  “Something moved…” I said, my gasp breaking the silence. “Goddamn, Jason… somebody, something out there moved.”

  He slammed on the brakes and I shoved the binoculars into his hand. He threw the door open and I pointed. “There… Just on the other side of the rocks.”

  I watched his face, his strong, beautiful face, as he looked and his chest rose and expanded with a single deep breath. When he looked at me, I knew. He grabbed the radio off the seat.

  “Frank,” he yelled. “Get the hell back here. Go west to avoid the wind and come around. The rocks form a horseshoe about a half mile south of the gorge. You fucking meet us there. Frank…?”

  “...low on fuel…” his reply came back. “...have to head back over the fire… right through the center of the valley…”

  “Then we’ll take our fucking chances,” Jason said. “And we might have a snowball’s chance of getting these men the hell out of here.”

  Twenty minutes later, we had the last of the crew onboard and were flying toward home. We were packed in tight, the fire raged on below us, and I could see the strain on Jason’s face. He hadn’t told me what was wrong, but I knew that something was.

  “Randy came back for us,” one man shouted over the sound of the blades and the wind. “Once the doc told him Carl was going to make it, he brought the helicopter back and flew out the other half of the crew. No fatalities… all accounted for. We had a couple of injuries, more suffering from smoke inhalation and dehydration. Randy took them first… The rest of us decided to wait it out. But there wasn’t any more water… Thank god you got to us when you did.”

  Jason’s arms tightened around me. “Ember,” he said slowly. He took my face in his hands and used his thumbs to wipe grit from my face. “It won’t be much longer… and I need to tell you before you see the truth for yourself…”

  I felt my heart flutter inside my chest and for a second, everything around me seemed to swim. The helicopter bucked suddenly and dropped in altitude, leaving my stomach in the air above. I could see his face and the ache in his eyes… and knew what it was costing him to tell me…

  “The valley is mostly gone,” he began, stroking my cheeks with his fingers, “the fire swept through fast and hot… It’s reached the southern end by now, Em. The groves.”

  “And the cabin…” I gasped, clutching his shoulders. “Our home…”

  I tore my eyes away from his and felt his hand, warm on the back of my neck. Out the window, I could see thick, black smoke roiling up from the fire below. Flames were tearing across the grass, swallowing it in its fury. A burst of wind shrieked and we dropped again. I could hear Frank’s voice, loud and stringent, yelling orders from the cockpit. I blinked back the hot tears that blurred my vision and recognized the burning line of trees.

  “Goddamn…. it can’t be… It isn’t possible…” Jason said behind me. For a second, he gripped me hard and I could feel his heartbeat, fast and pounding against my back as he tightened my seatbelt and slipped an oxygen mask over my face. The next thing I knew, he was on his feet, reaching for a harness and strapping it on. “Forty feet,” he shouted to Frank. “Drop me down forty goddamn more feet. I’ll cut the rope if I have to, but you’ve gotta get me closer to the ground.”

  “And you’ve got to be crazy,” Frank shouted back. “I wouldn’t be this goddamn low except the winds are starting to rotate and it’s fucking with the stick. I think this bitch isn’t finished with us yet.”

  “And I’m not finished with her,” Jason shot back. He slid the door open and hot air rushed in, stopping my breath. The tiny hairs on my skin curled and crisped. I watched, disbelieving, unable to blink.

  “Give me one minute,” he shouted. “Not a second longer and then you get the he
ll out of here,” he cried. He wrapped one thick, muscled arm around the rope as I felt us drop lower. He stood, leaning out, his boots balancing on the edge of the doorframe. Words wouldn’t form, but everything inside me was screaming out to make him stop. Flames were swirling behind him on the ground. I leaned forward, fighting against the straps that held me.

  “It’s Reilly,” he said simply, with a smile. “And I love you forever…”

  The next second, he was gone.

  43

  Jason

  In a single flash, I knew that she understood. I saw the light in her eyes, the perfect light of hope. She nodded her head in one tiny movement and I kicked off into midair, dangling on the line, surrounded on all sides by flames that danced and rolled, twisted and climbed. Reilly was barking frantically on the ground below me, jumping and dodging. I knew I’d only get one chance and it would take every last ounce of strength I had left. He’d managed to survive somehow, against all odds, and there was no way in hell I would leave him.

  “Rye!” I cried out. I dragged the respirator off and called again. I was a dozen feet off the ground and the rope was swinging hard. I leaned forward, letting the leather harness take my weight. The chopper above me was thrashing the air and the sound of crashing timber filled the air. The grove was fully engulfed and I caught a glimpse of the cabin roof in flames.

  “Come on, boy,” I yelled, “one good fucking jump…

  “Do it for Ember! Now! Reilly… NOW!”