“When are your volunteers getting here?” Beau asked his brother.
Michael shook his head. “It’s not my team. We just came here to give you a heads-up. Dylan’s bringing his hotshot crew over from Bozeman.”
“Fuck,” Beau clipped.
Michael winced. “Sorry. I know you don’t like the guy.”
“He’s a hothead and he’s going to get someone killed one of these days,” Beau grumbled and ran a hand over his beard.
“It wasn’t our call,” Nick said. “The wind is working against us and the Prescott FD volunteers is too small for this one.”
I tried to keep up with the conversation while remaining quiet, but it was difficult with my mind stuck on the fact that an unknown number of people would soon be descending on my super-secret hideout.
This was not good. My armpits were sweating and my hands clammy.
“Did we get a flyover to see how many acres we’re talking about?” Beau asked Michael.
“Yeah. It’s about twenty acres right now but you know that terrain up there is dense. That monster’s going to spread fast. We need a retardant drop because a foot crew alone isn’t going to keep it contained. Sorry, Beau, but we had to call Dylan. We couldn’t get ahold of you.”
Beau sighed and rubbed his beard. “It was the right call.”
Michael’s tense frame relaxed at his brother’s approval.
“How far behind you is Dylan?” Beau asked.
“An hour probably,” Michael said. “Figured you’d want to oversee this one. Since you were here, we decided it was as good a place as any for base camp. We told him to just meet us here.”
“Right.” Beau’s jaw was clamped so tight I worried the throbbing vein on his forehead was going to burst. “Did you bring my gear?”
Gear? Gear for what? I thought Beau ran the forest service office and did search and rescue. Did he put out fires too?
I swallowed my questions because as a fake pine-beetle scientist, I should probably know what they were talking about.
“Yeah, we brought your gear.” Michael nodded. “It’s in the truck.”
“Okay.” Beau pushed out a loud breath. “Let’s get it unloaded.”
While the men went back outside, I paced and brainstormed getaway options. Staying at the outpost wasn’t going to work. What if someone recognized me? The world was a much smaller place these days thanks to social media. I had no idea how far the news of my disappearance had traveled but it could have very well spread from Seattle to Montana. I couldn’t afford to be recognized.
And besides that, I couldn’t pretend I was studying some weird forest bug. Just saying the word “beetle” sent chills down my spine. People would see through that lie in a second.
Deciding my best course of action was to be prepared, I started packing my bag. If I needed to get out of here quickly, I didn’t want to leave anything behind, especially my laptop.
I was so stuck in my head, thinking about where on earth I could disappear to, I didn’t hear Beau approach.
“What are you doing?” he asked from the doorway.
I jumped, clutched my heart and then resumed my packing. “Warn a girl, will you? I’m packing.” I shoved a shirt in my bag, then peered around Beau to see if Michael or Nick were close by.
“They’re in the meadow seeing if they can spot the smoke from here.”
“Oh.” I relaxed and went back to my bag. Beau’s footsteps came closer but I kept working. One second I was folding up a pair of leggings and the next they were yanked out of my hands.
“Sit down,” he ordered. “Let’s talk this out.”
He sat on my cot and I obeyed, plopping down next to him.
“Fuck.” He started rubbing his jaw as my hand nervously twirled some hair. “What are the fucking chances? We never use this place. I can’t remember the last time there was a fire on this side of the ridge. The one year when I don’t want anyone up here and now it’s going to be crawling with people.”
The odds were not in my favor. This was the longest string of bad luck I could ever remember.
“And what a fucking time for me to take a vacation,” Beau said. “If I had been in town, I could have steered everyone somewhere else. We need a fucking telephone out here. It’s going to cost a fortune but I’m having one put in all the outposts in my jurisdiction. They should be able to run a line by the power poles.”
Beau was rambling, something I’d never seen him do, and his fretting was doing nothing to ease my worries. With every word, I just felt guiltier for putting him in this position to begin with.
Part of me wished he had been in town too, but at the same time, yesterday had been wonderful. That waterfall hike had soothed so many of my troubles. And our kiss this morning? I couldn’t regret that. Still, I just kept adding to Beau’s stress level.
“Sorry,” I said. “This is my fault.”
“It’s not your fault. Shit happens. Murphy’s Law, I guess.”
“I could go back to town,” I suggested. “Maybe hide out at the ranch with Felicity and Silas.”
“Not an option. I wouldn’t put it past Ivan to come back. Right now, I don’t want you anywhere near town.”
I smiled at his protectiveness and fell into his side. He threw an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer.
“Why didn’t you tell Michael and Nick who I was?” I asked.
“The fewer people who know about your situation, the better. I trust them both but let’s not drag them into our trouble if we don’t have to. If we have to tell them, we can, but for now, let’s go with the fake story.”
“What if someone on the crew recognizes me? Or talks about me when they get back to town?”
He sighed. “I don’t know what else to do. We’re going to have to take a chance and go with the fake story. Fingers crossed people buy it.”
“There’s no way I can pull it off, Beau. Why did you have to make my pretend job about bugs? I hate bugs. I don’t even know what a pine beetle looks like.”
He chuckled. “Sorry, it was the first thing that came to me. Just do your best to be vague and avoid the subject completely. Stick close to me and we’ll keep people off that topic. With any luck, the crew will get the fire contained in a day or two and everyone will clear out.”
“I have a bad feeling about all this.”
He sighed again. “Me too.”
We sat quietly for a few minutes. As the trees rustled outside, my mind swam through all of the things that could happen in the next hour. Would someone on the firefighting crew recognize me? If I did need to escape the outpost, where would I go? I had come to feel safe and secure here.
I liked it here.
“Come on.” Beau unwrapped me and stood. “Let’s go outside.”
He didn’t hold my hand as we walked, which didn’t surprise me. We needed to have a long conversation about that kiss and how quickly things between us had escalated, but now wasn’t the time. Right now, he was Beau Holt, mountain-man hero. I was Sabrina MacKenzie, beetle lover. Yuck.
As we emerged from the trees and into the meadow, I noticed a change in the air. The normal bright-blue sky had a filmy overlay and the fresh smell was now tainted with smoke. My eyes immediately started burning. From the meadow, I couldn’t see a plume of smoke but there was enough of it in the air to determine the direction from which it came.
“So, how did the fireworks show go?” Beau asked Michael.
Michael blushed but just said, “Good.”
“It was awesome,” Nick said, patting Michael’s back. “Best year yet.”
“Congrats. What kind of stuff did you light up?”
The men started talking about the fireworks as I stared at them dumbly. How was this fire business not driving them crazy? It was driving me crazy! How could they be so calm? Of course, they were all used to this and none of them were on the lam from a dangerous criminal family. I had a few more problems on my mind. But still, fireworks? Couldn’t that conversation wait until later?
“Have you ever been around a fire crew before, Sabrina?” Nick asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m, uh, new to this line of work.” I wasn’t sure if that was the right answer or not but I didn’t dare lie and risk being asked a specific question. I had no idea how a forest fire was managed.
“Some of the guys on their way here are a little rough around the edges,” Nick warned. “The hotshots are adrenaline junkies.”
“Good to know.” I had never heard of a hotshot crew before so when I looked up to Beau, he grinned before I even had to ask my question.
“Hotshots are special firefighters for forest fires. They get trained differently than Michael’s volunteer firefighters in town. The hotshots program is harder and they get pushed to the max physically. We send them into some rugged country and they’ve got to be able to hike at a fairly fast clip.”
“The fires themselves are different too,” Michael added.
“How so?” My curiosity was running rampant and I wanted to know more, but I also wanted to keep the conversation off of me and my “job” here at the outpost.
“They can be a lot more dangerous,” Beau said. “A forest fire is always changing directions. There aren’t walls to keep it in and the wind plays a huge role in how fast it grows. The firefighters get up close and personal with a burn. If they aren’t paying attention, a fire can overtake them in an instant.”
“That sounds . . . terrifying.” Why any person would want to be around a wildfire was beyond me, adrenaline junkie or not.
“Hopefully, this one won’t be too hard to manage,” Beau added. “I’ll know when I get a closer look.”
“How exactly are you going to get a closer look? You’re not going up there, are you?” I asked him, ignoring the smirk Nick threw Michael.
“Maybe. The fire is in my jurisdiction so I might go up to make sure the crew doesn’t get lost. I was a hotshot for years so I know the drill. We’ll see what happens when they get here.” I did not like Beau’s answer. He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “This is an easy one. It’s small and the crew should be able to get it under wraps pretty quickly.”
Well then why did he need to go and help? I didn’t ask. I knew the answer. Beau always helped. It wasn’t in his makeup to stand by the wayside.
“What will they do?” I asked him. If he was going up there, I wanted to know exactly what he’d be doing. Not that it would keep me from worrying.
“The crew’s job is containment,” he said. “For a fire like this, we’ll send a plane or a helicopter up to drop a load of retardant around the border. Then the crew will hike up and start digging trenches, lighting backfires and putting out spot fires before they grow. Anything we can do to keep it from moving down the mountain.”
“Yeah, like toward me.”
All the men chuckled but I was serious. I had no desire to be anywhere near a fire and this one was already too close.
Question and answer time was cut short when the sound of vehicles echoed off the trees. Our huddle quickly disbanded as we all walked briskly across the meadow, anxious to greet the approaching crew.
Three oddly shaped trucks squeezed themselves into the open space by the outpost. The front of each sea-foam-green vehicle was shaped like a large truck, but instead of a bed behind the cab, there was a large rectangular box fitted with small windows. They reminded me of beefed-up armored cars, but instead of cash in the back, they were carrying people.
Beau hadn’t been kidding about the physical requirements. Every man that jumped out from the backs of the trucks looked like he could take first place in an Ironman race. I was suddenly conscious of my lack of muscle tone. Everywhere I looked there were ripped biceps, washboard abs and buns of steel.
“Holt!” the driver of one of the trucks called.
Beau stepped away from my side to shake the man’s hand. “Dylan. How are you?” Beau’s tone was as distant and unfriendly as I’d ever heard.
“First fire of the season. We’re pumped!” Dylan clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth. The grin on his face was borderline crazy. “Isn’t that right, boys?”
The crowd around the outpost hollered and cheered. Nick had called these guys adrenaline junkies but that may have been an understatement.
“Holt, are you coming up with us?” one of the younger men called.
“Yeah! We could use your help.”
Cheers filled the air as the men begged Beau to go.
He wasn’t going up, was he? It was dangerous and he wasn’t part of this firefighting crew. Didn’t they already have Dylan as a leader?
As the cheers got louder and louder, Beau’s shoulders fell. He held up his hands to quiet the crowd and said, “We’ll see.”
That meant he was going.
And while the hotshots were excited and anxious to get going, Beau’s posture deflated a bit. He’d just added another heavy load to his already burdened shoulders. He didn’t want to go up to fight the fire, but he would. He would because everyone had asked for his help.
Everyone except Dylan.
“We got this, Holt,” Dylan snapped. “You can stay.”
Beau’s face hardened. “Like I said, we’ll see. Show me your plan.”
Dylan marched back to a truck and Beau followed. Spreading out a map on its hood, they hashed out a plan as the twenty-man crew unpacked supplies.
And with everyone busy, I slunk further away from the group. On top of worrying that one of these men would recognize me, now I was worried that Beau would go with them up the mountain.
Nick must have sensed my unease because he backed away too. “Your boy is one of the best there is. If he goes up with Dylan’s crew, they’ll all be coming back.”
“He’s, um, not my ‘boy,’ ” I corrected, though his statement did loosen the knot in my stomach a bit.
“Right,” Nick said dryly. “Next you’re going to tell me that you two weren’t going at it right as we pulled up.”
Curses.
Nick chuckled. “If I were going for a man, Beau would be my number one. Good thing for you, I’m married.” He nudged my shoulder and I realized there was no use pretending he hadn’t caught me.
I grinned. “Good thing for me.”
“Seriously, though, Beau is one of the best. When it comes to navigating the woods, there’s no one better in this part of Montana. The search and rescue team he’s built in Jamison County is legendary. He gets pulled all over the state to help with tough cases. If he goes up with Dylan, everyone will come back safe.”
I believed him. “Thanks, Nick.”
“You’re welcome.” He bent low to speak quietly. “When things settle down, maybe you can tell me what you’re really doing up here.”
Caught again. “Okay,” I whispered. Nick hadn’t bought our fake story but I hoped that everyone else would be easier to convince. I didn’t need a bunch of strangers trying to figure out my real identify.
“Suit up!” Dylan called out to his men. “We’re going to hike up from here. The trail will be longer but it’s an easier first mile.”
A rumble of agreement sounded before bags were opened and the men began donning special clothing and boots with practiced ease. From the trucks, one man unloaded a variety of pickaxes and hand shovels. Beau folded up the map he’d been reviewing with Dylan before both men came my way.
“Sabrina,” Beau said, “this is Dylan Prosser. He’s the lead off the Big Sky Hotshots.”
I held out my hand and greeted Dylan, but before Beau could explain who I was, Michael called him and Nick over to his truck, leaving me alone with Dylan, who still hadn’t let go of my hand.
“What’s a sexy gal like you doing up here?” Dylan asked with a smug grin.
“Working.” I wiggled my fingers free and tucked my hand in my back pocket.
I kept my answer short and vague. This guy’s cocky arrogance was seeping from his pores. I’d dealt with enough of his kind to know that the less you said, the better. He’d take even the slightest bit of kindness as a green light to hit on me relentlessly.
In college, Felicity and I had deemed men like him a Creepy Carl.
Dylan didn’t get my hint and stepped too close into my personal space. “Working? Maybe later you can tell me what you like to do for fun.”
I didn’t have to tell him to back off. One of his crew members came over and interrupted his advance. “Would you mind if I filled my CamelBak with fresh water?” the man asked.
“Not at all.” I smiled at the welcome escape and stepped around Dylan, giving him a wide berth as I went inside the outpost. I sensed his eyes on my ass the entire time.
The man that I had led inside wasn’t the only visitor to my temporary home. Soon a line formed at the sink as the entire crew filled canteens and water packs. I slunk back into the corner and listened to their banter, grateful for an excuse to stay inside and away from Dylan.
Most of the hotshots were young men, I guessed in their twenties, and though a few of them had that roughness Nick had warned me about, for the most part they all behaved like gentlemen in my presence. Though, with as tightly as I was hugging the wall, I think most of them didn’t even notice I was there.
“Holt said he was coming with us,” a guy at the sink said to the man behind him.
“Maybe he can keep Dylan in line,” another man muttered.
“Holt outranks Dylan and has more experience,” a man third-deep in line said.
“Well, if Dylan keeps pushing the limits, I’m transferring teams,” the guy at the sink announced. “Holt isn’t going to be around all season.”
“Dylan needs to pull his head out.”
A couple of men nodded. “Fuck, yeah. I’m done taking stupid risks.”
From the sounds of the team’s dissension, Beau wasn’t the only one who thought Dylan was reckless. Adrenaline junkies maybe, but these guys knew they were being pushed to the extreme. And though I didn’t care for the idea of Beau out fighting forest fires, I was glad that he’d be going along to make sure this young group made it back safely.
“Sabrina.” Beau was hovering in the doorway. I followed him outside and around the corner of the outpost where no one could hear us.
“You’re going up,” I said, knowing his answer. He nodded. “Be careful, Goliath.”
“I will, Shortcake.”
“How long do you think it will take?”
“It’s hard to say. If things go our way, a day or two. If they don’t, then it’ll be longer.”
“Okay.” I’d be back to pacing until he was back safely. I doubted even writing would keep my anxiety at bay.
“Listen, Michael’s going to stay here just in case. I didn’t tell him anything. I just said that with the fire so close, I didn’t want you here alone.”
“Okay. But I’m not going to be able to lie to him this whole time, Beau. Nick already knows something is off.”
“Do what you think is best. I trust my brother to keep quiet. But—”
“I get it. You’re protecting your little brother.”
He nodded.
“I won’t lie to him but I’ll do my best to keep us off the subject of me.” Though I had no idea how that was going to work. We’d be sharing close quarters for the next day or two at a minimum. The story of Sabrina MacKenzie was bound to come up.
“We need to talk about what happened in the kitchen,” Beau said softly. “Are you okay?”
He was worried about my feelings at a time like this? Beau Holt was one of a kind. “Don’t worry about me. Go. Save the forest. We can talk later.”
“You’re good with that?”
I smiled. “I’m good.” I had a lot of questions about our kiss and what had suddenly caused Beau to change his mind but they could all wait. He needed to focus on getting himself and these young men back without harm.
“The gun is on the fridge,” he reminded me. “I know you won’t use it but Michael will.”
“Okay.”
He pulled me into his chest for a tight but brief hug before kissing the top of my hair and letting me go. As he finished gearing up, I stood with Nick and Michael, watching as the hotshots strapped on their heavy packs and tools. Then, like a line of ants, they started up into the mountains with Beau leading the way. The second he disappeared from my sight, a lead weight settled in my stomach.
“Beau’s fought a lot of fires, Sabrina,” Michael said. “He was a hotshot in college and then a team leader for a few years. He’d still be running a crew if he had the time.”
“Thanks.” I gave him a weak smile and bent down to rub Boone’s ears. This dog had given me more comfort in the last three months than I could have ever imagined.
“Well, I’d better get back to town,” Nick said. “Everyone’s going to want an update. I’ll park your truck at the station,” he told Michael. “You’re good to go back with Beau?”
“Yep,” Michael said.
“It was nice to meet you,” I said, standing up from Boone to shake Nick’s hand.
“You too. When you get done working here with your beetles,” he smirked at the way my shoulders shivered, “make Beau bring you to town. My wife, Emmy, and I will have you two over for dinner.”
“Thank you.” I waved good-bye.
Dinner with Beau’s friends would never be an option. In all likelihood, I’d never see Nick again or meet his wife, Emmy. It was a harsh reminder that Beau and I didn’t have a future and that the kiss we’d shared this morning was courting nothing but trouble.
Something we would need to talk about later once the forest around my outpost wasn’t on fire.
Two days later, Michael and I were walking through the meadow alone.
Though I was still anxious for Beau’s return, Michael had been a godsend these last couple of days. When I’d start to get worried, he’d assure me everything would be fine. When I’d start to panic that the smoke in the air wasn’t clearing, he’d distract me with a new topic.
But best of all, he hadn’t pried into my reasons for being at the outpost. He had asked me once and I’d told him that my situation was complicated. With one nod, he’d dropped the subject and hadn’t brought it up again. Instead, we’d spent the majority of the last couple of days talking about him.
Michael Holt, much like his older brother, was an incredibly good man and he wanted nothing more than to make Beau proud.
“You really think I shouldn’t worry?” he asked.
I laughed. “Yes, for the hundredth time. You have nothing to worry about. Beau is not going to care that you want to get a dog just like Boone.”
“Mom and Dad are always telling stories about how I was Beau’s shadow. I don’t want him to think that I’m still that little kid, copying everything he does. I just really like his dog.”
I could relate to that. If I ever got a pet, it would have to be Boone’s long-lost twin. “Michael,” I said, “trust me when I say that he will be flattered.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
He sighed. “He’s my hero. Some guys look up to pro athletes. I’ve always looked up to my dad and Beau.”
I swallowed an aww and patted his arm. “That’s sweet. Buy the dog. Beau will see it as a compliment.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’m gonna do it.”
“Now on to a more important topic, what are you going to name it?” I asked.
Michael smiled and started rattling off both male and female dog names. None were as great as Boone but I kept that opinion to myself. We were in the middle of a debate between Zoey and Sadie when a loud, thumping noise rang in the distance.
Michael immediately stopped talking and grabbed my elbow, turning me around and pulling me to the far edge of the meadow opposite the outpost. His long legs were moving so quickly, I had to run to keep up.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when he slowed.
“Chopper.” His arm reached up and pointed to the source of the noise, a helicopter coming right toward us. With every passing second, it grew bigger and louder in the sky. When it reached the airspace above us, the pounding of its blades reverberated against my chest.
My hair whipped around my face as the enormous machine hovered in the center of the meadow. The tall grasses flattened to the ground in a near perfect circle as it set down, and though the blades were starting to slow, the engine noise was still deafening.
“I’ll be right back!” Michael yelled.
I nodded and covered my ears as he jogged the distance to the bright red helicopter. Ducking low when he reached the blades, he went to the passenger door, pulling it open and revealing the words Fire & Rescue painted on the side. Michael talked to the pilot for a few minutes, and when their conversation was finished, he waved, ducked again and ran back to me.
My heart was hammering in my chest, hoping that this unexpected visit was not to deliver bad news. When Michael grinned, my entire body sagged in relief.
“The fire is under control,” he said. “They’re on their way back.”