Page 279 of Her Reluctant Hero
“We have to get you back to safety,” he countered.
“No.” Tears filled her eyes. “We can’t go back until we’re sure they’re all right.”
He dusted off some of the soot from her face, cupped her cheek in his hand. The indecision in his eyes was so out of character. “I can’t risk you.”
She reached up and clutched his hand, determined to make him understand. “If you take me to camp, then try to come back up, it will be too late for them.”
Gabe weighed his options, not taking his eyes off her. He felt like hell after the jump, after the time in the shelter. But she was staring at him like he was a hero, like he was invincible. As far as she was concerned, he was.
He reached for his radio, then snatched his hand away from the super-heated plastic that burned through his glove. The flames raced up the mountain, and the other firefighters were on the other side of those flames. He had to find out how much longer until they could expect the slurry. They’d been under the shelter for some time, waiting for the air to cool, so it shouldn’t be long before it arrived.
If it was longer than fifteen minutes, they might as well forget it. Jen would be a widow. He had to find Doug for her.
“Come on.” He let go of Peyton, trusting she’d follow him. With renewed energy he charged up the hill. He unhooked his radio from his belt and tossed it from hand to hand until he could bear to press the button. Since they were higher on the mountain, he should be able to reach camp.
“Jen! Damn it, Jen!” he shouted into the radio, the button scorching his thumb.
“Gabe, did you find them?” she asked through the interference. Either their position or the damage to his radio created poor reception. “I can’t get through to Doug.”
Oh damn. Not a good sign. But he had to tell her. “Found Peyton, lost Doug.”
“What do you mean?”
“Peyton and I deployed. When we got out of the shelter we didn’t see the rest of the crew.”
Silence. Long, painful silence. Gabe’s gut cramped, knowing what she was thinking, what she was feeling. He’d been there just a few hours before, helpless, so far away.
“Gabe, you can’t let him—”
“I’m going after him, but we’re going to need the slurry,” he said, not wanting to hear his ex-wife express fear for her husband. The father of her child.
“ETA’s forty-five minutes. Where do you want it?”
Gabe clenched his jaw. Forty-five minutes would be too late. She was better off not knowing. “Just get him up here as quick as you can. Have him go up the ridge, drop maybe two hundred and fifty feet below that. He’ll see the fire, no doubt about it.”
“What are we going to do?” Peyton asked, panting along behind him as he clipped the radio back to his belt and strode uphill. “That’s not going to be fast enough, is it?”
He glanced at her. “Nope.”
“So we can’t do anything?”
“We don’t have tools, Peyton,” he said, exasperated. “What do you want me to do?”
“We can’t leave without knowing.”
Damn, had she always been this stubborn, or was he just too tired to deal?
“It’s safe now, the fire has moved past us.”
“Haven’t I taught you anything? It’s never safe out here.”
“You know what I mean.” She shook her hands out to her sides as if eager to get moving. “We have to find them.”
Everything hurt, inside and out. She had to be suffering too, but here she stood in front of him demanding he be her hero. Goddamnit. Of course, if he had an uncooked brain cell in his head, he’d tell her she was nuts. They had to get back to camp and recuperate from their ordeal, not put themselves at more risk running all over the mountainside searching for a handful of smokejumpers who could be burned to a crisp. He couldn’t breathe exactly right, and the muscles in his legs felt weak. He couldn’t run from another fire.
But he was not in any shape for another recovery mission. So he took her arm and headed up the slope. “Stay with me.”
This was a mistake, Peyton realized. Gabe wasn’t up for this. He was struggling to stay on his feet as they hiked, and now and then he swerved into her path, bumping into her. She suspected his grip on her arm was not entirely for her benefit. She hadn’t seen him slouch before. He must be exhausted. Coughs racked his body. He bent double and spat. They were alone up here. What would she do if he collapsed? Yes, she had trained as an EMT, but they had nothing up here. Nothing.
