Page 36 of Bronx

"Can't work on a team where everyone hates me, can I?" I looked down at him. "It's not what I want but if people can't get past this, then I think it's the best thing to do."

"Well fuck them. What about me? We joined together. Crew mates for life, remember?"

"It's not what I want, King—"

Chuck sounded the bell to let us know it was time to meet outside.

Kingston shook his head. Unfortunately I wasn't entirely sure what to say to him. He'd stood by my side and here I was planning to abandon him. That was about as fucked up as things could be.

Chuck was standing outside with a stack of equipment, shovels, chainsaws and axes. We'd already done an equipment cleaning and inspection. Something told me we weren't going to love what was coming next.

"It's come to my attention that our own beloved base camp needs mitigation. It would be pretty fucking embarrassing to have the base camp for the Fire Warriors of the West burn down due to wildfire." Chuck squinted up into the semi-cloudy sky. "Thunder showers are expected later this afternoon which means you people need to move your asses." He lifted his clipboard. "Kilmer, Devlin and McCabe, you take the east slope that runs along the entrance. And I want it clipped as short as Bristow's buzz cut."

Kaos and Angus glanced my direction with scowls. I ignored them. Normally, we would have been just fine together on a project but they were still holding sticks up their asses. The three of us trudged up to the tool supply and took what we needed to remove weeds and unruly brush from the east slope. King ended up with Topper and Helix on the west slope. Hopefully Helix wouldn't give him too hard of a time.

Angus and Kaos marched ahead of me. Mitigation wasn't new to any of us and we didn't need much communication to get the job done. They got to work with chainsaws on some of the taller shrubs near the entrance and I grabbed a shovel and ax to chop out the tall weeds.

We were chewing up the brittle landscape like termites in an old wood house. A breeze was letting us know that the light overhead clouds were being pushed aside for those late afternoon thunderstorms. The wind was just cool enough to dry the sweat from my brow and back. I hacked out a particularly stubborn weed that was the size of a beach ball when I felt a large shadow fall over me.

I peered up as Kaos glared down at me. He'd dropped the chainsaw over his shoulder like it was a mere golf club. "So Angus and I were talking."

They'd been such assholes for the last few days, it was hard not to return the attitude. "Well, I'm happy for the both of you."

Kaos shifted the chainsaw to rest tip first on the ground. He'd swung it just wide enough to make me flinch. His booming laugh scared birds out of a nearby tree. "What'd you think I was going to go all chainsaw massacre on you or something? Jeez, you just dated another guy's wife. You didn't kill my dog or anything like that." Angus had heard the laugh and joined us.

Kaos had to first relay the story of my flinching which gave Angus a good laugh too.

"So glad I could entertain you both but when Big Foot here is swinging motorized blades my way, I flinch. What do you two want anyhow? Can't take back what happened so if you two can't deal with it, then fuck off."

"Shit, Bronx, you idiot—" Angus reached out to slap my head but I ducked out of the way. "We're over here to let you know that neither of us wants you to transfer out of base camp. We're a team, all of us and we've already lost one—we don't need to lose another."

I stuck my shovel in the ground and leaned an elbow on it. "If that's the Kaos and Angus version of an apology then I'll take it."

"Never said anything about an apology," Kaos picked up his chainsaw. "What you did was wrong. Just don't want you to leave."

"Gosh how can I possibly go with such warm sentiments from two guys who I thought were my friends. I didn't do anything wrong, just for the record."

Kaos turned to leave but Angus stuck around. "Look, Bronx, you've broken it off with Layla and I'm sorry if you're torn up about it. But it was the right thing to do. And don't worry, eventually everyone else will come around too. We've all got history together, good history and some bad, but it's what holds us together. It makes us a team."

Fifteen yards away, Kaos started up the chainsaw. I turned to Angus and had to speak louder to be heard over the buzz of the saw.

"Yeah, I get all that but you guys brush this thing off like it was a fling, like one of your one-night-stands. It was more than that. I just need you to know that. Layla and I are going our separate ways, because apparently it just wasn't in the fucking stars for us, but I'm wrecked about it. Just thought you should know that."

Angus adjusted his hat to shade his eyes more. "Got it. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry you're hurting. Now I've got to return to the shrubs before Big Foot takes out the entire landscape with his chainsaw."

"He does love that chainsaw," I quipped as I yanked my shovel from the ground.

29

"Here's to Thursday nights." Kingston lifted his mug of beer. I couldn't just leave him hanging, so I joined in the inane toast and clinked my mug against his. "Don't know about you but I'm just as glad to be done with this week of training. Nothing more boring than hearing about new protocols and safety procedures. Still can't believe Chuck made us run that fucking hill every morning. Guess we have you to thank for that. He said he thought we were paying better attention after that first run and decided to make it a regular thing. Hopefully, he'll forget about the regular thing next year when we return to base camp."

I laughed. "That had to be the longest damn toast I've ever had to listen to." I took a swig of beer and Kingston followed. He looked pointedly over the rim of his cup and had hardly swallowed when he jumped right into talking.

"Well, look who just walked in behind Angus and Kaos."

I glanced toward the entrance. Angus had already veered off to talk to a couple of women at the bar. Kaos blocked everything else behind him, but when he followed Angus to the bar, it was hard to miss Helix strolling in. It had taken a long week of work but, in the end, the rest of the crew had come around. Slowly, things got back to normal. I was no longer being scowled at or refused a seat at a table. There had only been one holdout on normalcy, and that was Helix. It seemed he was going to hold a grudge no matter what I did. He was alone, no best buddy with him like me.

In that respect, I felt sorry for the guy. "He's out drinking without the wife again," I noted. "Nothing worse than being judged by someone who needs some serious judging himself."

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