Bad Boy's Kiss (Firemen in Love Book 2) (12 page)

About six other trucks were there. One of them was a tanker loaded with water for us to use. This far out, there weren't any hydrant hookups, so this was our only choice.

The scene was a flurry of activity. Guys ran around grabbing supplies and then rushing off to attack the blaze from whatever angle they could. Chris handed me an extinguisher and a backpack tank.

“Go get that thing filled up with water. Then we'll take ATVs out to where they need us most.”

We got our tanks loaded, then met with the guy in charge of this operation, Buck. The dude had more muscles than me and looked as if he'd been a pro wrestler in a past life.

Buck had a map of the area pulled up on his laptop. He waved for us to come see.

“There y'all are. We sure could use the extra help.” He gave a grim smile. “My boys got the north quadrant covered, but the wind's blowing east now. Slowly but surely, the flames are spreading that way.”

East was toward Bastrop. Toward Anna, Trey, and Rachael. I refused to let anything happen to them.

The three of us followed his directions, hoping to cut the fire's path off before it advanced beyond what we could handle. Already, the blaze had charred a line of bushes, fallen branches, and other plants. Luckily, the area around here was pretty rocky, so it didn't have a lot of places to go otherwise.

“We got this, boys,” Chris yelled over the wind. “Split up. I'll take center, Jake will do west. You're on east.”

A few other firefighters joined us. We set to work hosing down the flames fast as we could, which involved dousing the grass and brush with a flame retardant so embers wouldn't have a chance to start the whole thing over again.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I raced toward a burning patch of shrubs. It felt good to spray them down with water and feel the heat slowly disappear. I wasn't sure what it was, but something about this job always made me feel so
alive.

“Looking good, Max!” Jake gave me a wave. “You show that fire who's boss.”

I wiped the sweat off my brow and waved back. No time for jokes, though. That could come after we'd finished the job.

Then a loud cracking noise made us all jump. It was as if thunder had struck right there in the valley with us. Didn't take long to figure out what had gone wrong.

Somehow, the flames had leaped to a dry, dead tree without us noticing it. In seconds, the whole thing had been engulfed from the bottom of the trunk all the way up to the branches.

In these dense woods, the trees were so close that the tops touched, which made it easy for the fire to continue its path of destruction. One of the branches, weakened by the heat, broke off and nearly landed on a man as it hit the ground.

“Holy shit,” Jake shouted. “This is getting out of hand fast.”

Chris called Buck and demanded he contact someone for assistance. This was turning out to be way more than a dozen redneck firemen could handle.

“We're gonna need a chopper. I'm serious! We got big problems down this way, and they're getting bigger quick.”

I shook my tank, which was running low on water. I used what I had left to douse the tree, but it did nothing to put a dent in the blaze.

“I'm out, Chris. I'll take the ATV back and get some more water.”

He nodded his approval. I hopped on an ATV and roared off down the dirt path in the way we'd come.

The path led around a ravine of sorts. Below, there was a sheer drop down a near-vertical rocky wall, ending in an empty creek bed full of sharp, jagged stones. In the rainy season, this would be full of water.

“Would've been handy to have when we actually need it,” I muttered to myself.

I noticed the fire ahead of me too late. The grass was blanketed in orange and yellow heat, and I nearly drove right into it.

“Damn it.” I spun the ATV around. “Guess I'll take that side path back there.”

Just as I did a one eighty, there was that familiar cracking noise. A dead pine had erupted into a fireball – and I knew from putting out Christmas tree fires how flammable those things could be. The fire took mere seconds to engulf the tree, and before I could react, it toppled to the ground.

I swerved to avoid it, but that was a mistake. A heavy branch came down and connected with my head. Pounding pain radiated through my skull, and for a moment the world turned white.

Everything happened so quickly. The blow to my head disoriented me so much that I lost control of the vehicle. The ATV and I flipped upside-down, throwing me over the side of the ravine. Moments later, it smashed into the rocks below and burst into flame.

I was lucky to hit a slope instead of plummeting to my doom down there. I landed on my back, knocking the breath out of me, then rolled down the hill so fast I nearly threw up. My injured head throbbed; blood trickled from the wound down my face.

I came to a stop just before tumbling over the edge again. A pointy cactus broke my fall, but I hardly noticed the pain of thorns piercing my skin.

Above, the fire roared. It had somehow just gotten ten times worse, and here I was, stuck and injured, in the middle of it.

“Gotta call for help. C'mon, Max. Don't be a sissy.”

I called Chris on the radio, but he didn't answer. Jake didn't, either. I got nothing but static.

“What's wrong with this damn thing?” I shook the radio. Something rattled inside. “Just great.”

The whir of a chopper's blades made me look up. A helicopter was coming, but I couldn't tell if it was the news crew or someone who could actually help us. It zoomed low overhead, kicking up mighty clouds of dust that got in my eyes.

It was getting hotter and hotter as the inferno surrounded me, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it. The slope I fell down was too steep to climb up, and besides, the only thing waiting for me at the top was the fire. No way could I dodge it now.

I'd been in bad situations before, but there was always someone from my team there to help. Now, I was alone. Nobody knew I'd fallen. They thought I went to get water. And the odds of them cutting a path through the burning woods to search for me? Not so good.

Then another tree fell. I saw it in slow motion, really. Its wide trunk swayed and then toppled right in my direction. A branch, sharp and pointed enough to penetrate a man's flesh, came at me like the executioner's ax.

If I didn't move –
now –
that thing was going straight through my chest. I would die, no question.

So I did the only thing I could. I dropped to the ground and tried to roll away.

It was in vain. The tree, hundreds of pounds of wood, fell square on my leg. Before I could even scream from the pain, the old oak rolled over the ledge and took me with it.

Down I plummeted, like a stone sinking in the water. It must have been only a couple seconds, but in my mind, I felt it as an eternity.

In that moment, a vision of Anna came to me. Her sweet, pretty face. Her smile. I could see it now.

“
Fuck!”

I landed on my knees some thirty feet below. Every bone in my leg felt like it had shattered; every muscle torn. The pain in my head was nothing compared to this agony. It was so awful I couldn't move, couldn't even breathe.

This was it. I was gonna die here, and nobody would ever find me 'cause my body was burned to ashes by the flames. Trey would lose his brother, just when we were starting to be friends again.

And Anna... How would she react when she heard the news? Would it bother her? Did I matter to her at all?

Used to think I knew what I wanted in life. Laying in a pit, delirious from pain and about to burn to death, sure changed a man's perspective on things.

What surprised me most was the regret. Where did it come from so suddenly? Why did it make me so sad?

My consciousness waned; my vision blurred. I was bleeding from more than one place now. Getting woozy from blood loss. If I didn't do something, anything, I was doomed.

I felt for the phone in my pocket. Managed to pull it out and turn it on, but it died before I had a chance to even dial 911.

Something white sticking out of my leg caught my eye. Took me a moment to realize it was my own bone.

I threw up, closed my eyes, and said a prayer to the God I stopped talking to years ago. It didn't help, and I knew why.

God didn't save bastards like me.

Chapter 9 - Anna

I was just about to slip into bed when the phone rang. Trey gave me the message that made my stomach sick.

There had been a terrible accident in the woods. They'd gotten the fire under control, but Max...

“Damn it, Max.” I cursed as I sped through the stop sign. “I told you to be careful. You always were a reckless idiot.”

He'd been hurt bad, Trey said. Real bad.

Soon as I heard that, I threw a jacket over my night shirt and sped off to the hospital. Why? What exactly was I going there for? I didn't understand it, but I had a powerful urge to see him, to make sure he would be okay.

He could be a dimwit who spoke without thinking sometimes, yeah. And he was a selfish jerk who clearly only cared about his own needs in life.

But he was the only one who knew my secret – and had thus far managed to keep his trap shut about it. He tried to help me, even if his “help” was the misguided sort. I felt that somehow, I had to pay him back.

The hospital was about twenty minutes from my place. When I got there, it was so late I had no trouble finding a parking spot right in front.

Inside, a lone nurse sat at the front desk, boredly swiping through her phone. She barely glanced up when I came to her.

“I'm here to see Max McLaren.”

She sighed and clicked something on the computer. “Visiting hours are between nine and eight unless you're family.” She gazed up at me, the end of her pen in her mouth. “You're not family, are you?”

No, I wasn't – but I wouldn't let that stop me. I
had
to see him. Wouldn't be able to sleep tonight unless I talked to him and saw him with my own eyes.

“Actually, yeah.” I rubbed my somewhat rounded belly. “I'm, uh... his wife.”

It was the biggest, dumbest lie I ever told. I don't know what I was thinking. How could she believe that? I had no ring on my finger, for starters.

The nurse's eyes widened. “Gee, I didn't know Max had a wife. I went to high school with the guy. Figured a playboy like that would never get married; no offense.”

I laughed weakly. “None taken. Can I go to him now?”

“Room three eleven.” She waved her pen at the elevator. “But don't stay too long, okay? He's very weak and exhausted from the operation. The sooner he gets some rest, the better.”

I thanked her and, feeling pretty darn proud of myself, slipped into the elevator.

“Guess I'm still good at convincing people of things that aren't true,” I murmured. “No wonder dad always said I'd make a fine lawyer.”

On floor three, I found Trey pacing around in the hallway. He sighed with relief when I hurried over to him.

“Oh, Anna.” He gave me a tight hug. “This is all my fault.”

“What? How could you say that?”

His eyes were red, his face blotchy where tears had fallen. “I'm the one who practically begged the guy to come down here. If it weren't for me...”

I shushed him. “The only thing you're guilty of is wanting to see your brother. I'm sure he doesn't blame you for this.”

“The doctors said he might never walk again. They aren't really sure yet. Depends if he's done any lasting damage to his spine.”

My God. This was worse than I thought – way worse.

“I still don't understand what happened. I watched the coverage of the fire on the news. Max texted me early this morning, and then that's the last I heard of him all day long.” I glanced the other way. “I was... worried. Suppose I had a right to be.”

Trey sank into one of the hard plastic chairs, his shoulders slumped. “He took off to refill his water tank, but never came back. About that time, his team realized the fire had gotten too big for them alone to handle. They retreated to a safe place, then soon realized Max wasn't there.”

I gazed at the door to his room. It was quiet in there, though I could faintly hear the murmur of the television. If he could watch TV, maybe things weren't as bad as Trey made them sound.

“Everyone in the area dropped what they were doing to search. Thanks to a chopper flying overhead, they found him lying in a ditch, unconscious. He apparently had an accident and drove his ATV into the ravine, which is about a thirty five-foot drop.”

“Sounds like a miracle he's even alive.”

He nodded. “It truly is. So many worse things could have happened to him. I hate to say he should be grateful for 'only' ninety nine stitches, though.”

“You said something about his legs on the phone.”

“Yeah. You'll have to see for yourself how nasty it is.”

I could handle chicken poop, helping a cow give birth, and other unpleasant stuff like that. When it came to blood and gore, though, I was admittedly squeamish.