Page 213 of Her Reluctant Hero
Chapter Five
“We hike.” Gabe handed Peyton her pack.
She turned her head sharply, but not before he glimpsed tears in her eyes. Her attempt to hide them reassured him. As long as she was strong enough to hide her fear, she would keep up. Her pride outweighed her terror. She was going to have to be tough these next few hours.
“We have to get off these rocks. They’re heating up fast.” He hoisted his own pack on his shoulders. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
He’d already found their escape route on his first assessment, years of training kicking in. “Up the hill.”
She followed his gaze up the steep, rocky mountainside. “I thought fire moved fastest uphill,” she said, only the slightest quaver in her voice.
He blew a breath out through his nose. “Again with the questions. If we stay on this rocky face, we’ll eventually reach a spot where we can work around the fire and go back down to camp.”
“Why didn’t we do that with the campers?” Her words huffed out. But she pulled on her pack, buckled it over her breasts. “We could have been back by now.”
He considered a moment before deciding to tell her the truth. “It’s rough going. They wouldn’t have made it.”
“Oh God.”
The forest was at their back, on their left. The fire had burned through fast, not taking all the fuel, their biggest risk. To their right was a burned-out meadow, but Gabe couldn’t be confident that all fuels had been consumed, so they stayed on the rocks. Farther up, the forest veered west, the meadow east, leaving them a greater expanse of rock, a safer barrier. But a steeper climb.
The footing over the big, smooth rocks was tricky. He remembered her blistered feet, but they couldn’t stop. The fire moved like a living thing, snaking around rocks to nibble greedily at fresh fuel. The heat pounded at their backs, under their feet. When the mountain got steep enough for them to climb on all fours, the heat radiated from the rocks beneath their hands. At least the smoke was below them, and they didn’t have to fight it as well as altitude and exhaustion.
Peyton kept pace with him, so either he was slowing down or she was scared spitless. Determination tightened her face and he hid a grin. Who said pride was a sin? It was damned sure going to save her life.
“Break,” he croaked once the rocks started to feel cool to the touch. He swung his butt around to plop it on an outcropping. “Got water?”
She mimicked his movement, swayed a little when she stared back the way they’d come. The treetops were deceptively green, and every now and then a flicker of fire moved beneath them. On the far side of the trees was a stretch of black, probably the route his crew had taken back to camp. He’d asked when he called for the helitack—they’d arrived at camp safely.
He pulled his water out and tossed the pack behind him. “Looks harder than it was, right?”
She slid him an incredulous glare. Good, she hadn’t lost her sense of humor in her scramble up the mountain. She’d need it tonight. He grinned and offered her his bottle. She shook her head and reached for her own. He had to fight his growing admiration. Most rookies would be crying, complaining, but she did neither. That it gave him a sense of pride disturbed him. So he turned his thoughts away.
“At least you’re not climbing up through a tunnel.”
She grunted and raised her water to her lips.
It went against everything ingrained in him, but he had to know. “What was with that? You get lost in a cave as a kid?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Never been in a cave till today. I hope I’m never in one again.”
“So what happened?”
She glanced at him, then turned her attention downhill. So she’d decided to ignore him. It wouldn’t surprise him. She had stubborn down to an art form. “You know what a hope chest is?” she said at last.
“Hope chest?”
“A cedar chest, maybe four feet long, two and a half feet deep?” She pulled off her gloves, inspected her blistered hands, but she’d probably rather look at anything but him right now. “In my family, all the girls got one at a very young age, to store quilts and stuff for their house once they got married. Very old fashioned, but there you have it.”
“Okay, sure.” The image of young Peyton planning her wedding amused him.
“I got locked in mine when I was eight.” She shrugged a shoulder as if the words didn’t mean anything.
“What, were you playing hide and seek?”
She took off her hard hat and passed a dirty hand over dirty hair. He sensed her nervousness and wondered if it occurred to her not to answer the question. “No. I wanted to see what it was like to be dead.”
