Chapter Thirteen
What the hell? Peyton stared at the door for a moment, then, grateful she’d dressed, followed him out. He stood beside the truck, patting his pockets for the keys. She ignored the asphalt biting her bare feet as she grabbed his arm, twisted him toward her.
“Is this what you do? You open up to a woman and then push her away?”
“Yeah, what I do.” He tossed his pack in the back of the truck and turned to face her, hands on his hips.
“You think I didn’t know what I was saying. You think I don’t love you.” Surprise opened his expression, but she didn’t slow down. She couldn’t. “I wish to hell I didn’t, but I do. I know who you are and I love you anyway.”
His expression closed again, his eyes drilled into hers. “Just what every man wants to hear. ‘I don’t want to love you but I do.’”
Her mind reeling, she rocked back on her heels. “Surely you’re not ready to hear I want a happily ever after.”
“Maybe I am.” But it was said in defiance, pure Gabe contrariness.
She tucked her arms around herself, stepped away. “You have to understand how hard this is for me.”
“Jesus, Peyton.” He swiped his hand over his hair, the gesture she’d seen when he was at his wits’ end. “It’s not supposed to be easy.”
She blinked, needing to get it out in the open, something he didn’t like. Only when she understood his true feelings could she figure out what to do.
She already knew what she wanted. “Is this something you want?”
He stepped closer, catching her arm. His eyes cut to the open motel room door. “I don’t know what you think of me, but this is not what I do, sleeping with the women on my crew. I want something more now.”
“I know.” She saw the truth in his eyes. “That makes it harder.”
“Peyton.”
He took her face in both his hands, his expression a longing matching her own, then released her and stepped back. What was he thinking? What did he want from her?
What was she willing to give him?
“Get your shoes on. We have to get going.”
The Aerial Fire Depot, where the smokejumpers were based, was on the west end of the Missoula airport, long low white buildings with red roofs. Gabe’s gut clenched a moment as he remembered the time he’d spent here, before the inner ear problem had ended his jumping days.
Maybe no one from that time was left. His emotions were tumultuous enough. Peyton had had the foresight to call them last night, and arrange this ahead of time so they didn’t have to talk their way into camp. They were expected.
Peyton had ridden beside him in silence during the short trip. What was going through her mind? He couldn’t think about it now. Too many other things needed his attention, and they had a long trip ahead of them before he went back up the mountain.
He parked the truck and turned to her. “Got your reporter hat on?”
And then he saw the man who strode out of the barracks toward them. Ah, hell. Mike Gordon. He’d been an asshole as long as Gabe had known him, and time had not mellowed him.
At least Gabe could keep him occupied as Peyton scanned the depot.
“Gabe Cooper. Reduced to running a reporter around, huh?” When Peyton slid out on the passenger side, Gordon’s eyes widened, and he grinned. “Don’t blame you. You must be Peyton Michaels.”
He ignored Gabe and walked around to shake Peyton’s hands, his eyes everywhere but her face. Gabe tensed, but was unwilling to give Gordon ammunition.
“Thank you for seeing us,” Peyton said in a tone he hadn’t heard before, professional to the point of chilly. “I know with the Bounty fire you’re very busy.”
“Someone has to keep an eye on the place while the others are playing hero. Right, Cooper?”
Gabe didn’t answer, and Peyton didn’t react.
“What is it I can help you with?” Gordon asked her.
“We have some questions about Doug Sheridan.”
“Ah.” Gordon eased back and assessed Gabe. “Now I understand why you’re here. He’s married to the honey who left you. I remember how tight the two of you were. Looking for some dirt on him, are you?”
“Actually, just some background kind of information, how he does his job, how he gets along with other smokejumpers, what he does in his spare time,” Peyton replied, taking out the spiral she’d refused to use with Gabe. Like she needed a barrier now and hadn’t wanted one then.
“Happy to. Want to get some coffee?”
“Sounds good.” Peyton sent Gabe a glance. Okay, change in plans. She would keep Gordon busy and he would snoop around. He hated leaving her in Gordon’s company, but she could handle herself. Hell, she’d charmed her way into his life, hadn’t she? And he was almost as big of an asshole as Gordon.
So he wandered. The camp was dead, most of the jumpers out on the fire, and he itched to be fighting it, too. Guilt that he wasn’t ate at him. Just a matter of hours and he’d be back.
Bringing his friends down the mountain for the last time.
He had to find out who set this fire, who killed those people.
He moved from the common room, through the room where unpacked parachutes hung from the rafters, into the area where a red-haired smokejumper sat at an industrial sewing machine, repairing a chute. Gabe relaxed marginally and smiled at Kim’s brother, Kevin.
“Hey, O’Doul.”
The young man glanced up, brows drawn together in suspicion, but smiled when he recognized Gabe.
“Hey, Cooper.”
He shut off the machine and stood, reached across to shake Gabe’s hand. He wasn’t much bigger than Kim, but like her, pure muscle.
“What are you doing here all by your lonesome? Everyone else out on a fire?”
A grimace twisted the boy’s face, and he reached down to tug up a pants leg, showing a nasty third-degree burn. Gabe sucked his breath in through his teeth in sympathy.
“I’m on medical leave for another week, then I can get out there and fight this monster.” “Where’d it happen?”
“Out in California two weeks ago. Branch fell right where I was punching line. Didn’t even hear it.”
Gabe hitched a hip on the edge of the table. “Kim didn’t say anything about it.” Of course, he hadn’t exactly been listening to her these days.
The boy looked down. “No, I didn’t tell her, didn’t want her to worry. Don’t tell her, all right?”
Gabe considered a moment, then nodded. Weird. Kim had a burn on her palm about the same age, not severe enough to bench her, but bad enough to blister. Burns were common enough in this line of work, even with their protective gear. Odd thing was, the Bear Claws hadn’t been on a fire at the time. She’d said it was a baking accident at her mom’s, the hot oven door or something. She’d laughed that she emerged most summers unscathed, but couldn’t survive an hour in the kitchen.
“I’m not exactly one of her favorite people right now.”
Kevin grunted in agreement, as if he’d heard it from the source. “She said something about some reporter horning in on your crew and y’all being sidelined. Although I got the feeling she was more pissed about the reporter than the time off.”
“You know Kim, always standing up for me.”
“You could do worse.”
Gabe didn’t know how well he hid his surprise at Kevin’s suggestion. “Christ, she’s young enough to be my daughter.” If he’d started very young, but still.
Kevin leaned back, lifting a shoulder. “Doesn’t matter. You both love fighting the dragon, you work well together. She’d do anything for you.”
Okay, that was alarming. “That may sound good to young guys, but believe me. The last thing a man needs is a woman who does whatever he wants. He wants a woman who can challenge him.” His gaze drifted toward Peyton in the next room. He hadn’t realized quite how true it was.
“Kim can be quite the challenge, believe me.” Kevin laughed.
Gabe took advantage of the humor to laugh along, then change the subject. “We came”—he turned to indicate Peyton, still visible through the doorway to the common room—“to see what we could find out about Doug.”
O’Doul’s face twisted in distaste. “The asshole.”
“You think he did it?” Gabe was surprised by the vehemence. He’d expected to find support for Doug here.
“They arrested him, didn’t they?”
Just like a young guy to believe what he saw on the news. “They’ve arrested innocent people before, and they don’t have too much against him.”
“No? What would they need besides what they got?”
Gabe wove his fingers together, stretched them in front of him. “Motive. No one can figure out why he would do it.”
“Lots of reasons. He’s a firebug, he needed the money, he wanted to get his wife in command.”
Gabe shook his head. “None of those play for me.”
O’Doul’s eyebrows lifted. “You hate the guy.”
“Doesn’t mean I think he’s a killer.”
“What do you mean?”
“Four firefighters died yesterday. Whoever set this fire is a killer now.”
O’Doul swore and looked down.
“You hadn’t heard?” Gabe asked.
The young man shook his head. Gabe put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You might not have known them. They were based out of California.”
“Doesn’t matter,” the boy said in a choked voice. “They’re on our team.”
“So is Doug. Tell me what you know about Doug.”
*****
“What did Gordon tell you?” Gabe asked as he pulled the truck onto the highway toward Bounty.
Peyton folded her spiral shut and tucked it in her pack. “It would have been incredibly easy for someone with access to the base to set him up. But I don’t know who would. He doesn’t seem to have any enemies, according to Gordon.”
“If there was something bad to say about Doug, Gordon would say it,” Gabe said.
He wanted to ask what Gordon had said about him, but he did have his pride. Pride hadn’t stopped him from opening Peyton’s car door, putting his hand on her waist proprietarily with a glance over his shoulder at Gordon. Yeah, primitive, so what?
“So someone could have set up Doug, but we don’t know who.” She took a deep breath. “Gordon did say only smokejumpers are allowed to go back into the ready room where the equipment is, though.”
“And reporters.”
“I thought of that,” Peyton said, not upset as he expected. “There haven’t been any reporters back there this season. I think the T-shirt and jeans got me special privileges.”
“Yeah, he was staring pretty hard down your shirt. I wanted to break his nose.”
“I hear that’s your MO.”
Ah. Here it came. “I’m sure Gordon had a good time telling you about me.”
She waved a dismissive hand. “He’s just jealous.”
“What?” He damn near drove off the road at her assessment. “What does he have to be jealous about?”
“He’s a lonely, bitter man, and from what I can see, he doesn’t have the respect of his men. You’re both about the job, but he’s had to bully his way to get where he is. You worked. He wouldn’t be in his position without being an asshole.”
“How accurate are you, usually, with these analyses?” he asked, amused.
“Pretty damn.”
He grinned at the confidence in her voice.
“Who was the boy?” she asked.
“Kim’s brother Kevin. According to him, Doug could have done it.”
She sobered. “Did he change your mind?”
“Not—I don’t know.” He swiped his hand over his mouth, leaned his elbow on the window. “I don’t want to think he did, and Kevin knows about our history, so he may have been telling me what he thought I wanted to hear.”
“But he put doubts there.”
“Yeah.”
She settled back in the seat. “You’re one to trust your instincts, Gabe. And since you do, so do I.”
They rode in silence a bit before she asked the question he’d waited to hear. “So, why did you leave smokejumping?”
“No romantic reason. I had an inner ear problem that upset my balance, screwed up my jumps. I had to quit.”
“Did that bother you?”
“Not really. I mean, Hot Shots do the same job, they just get there in a less insane manner. At that point, flying was making me so sick, I didn’t do it anymore.”
“And when you made your last jump?”
Okay, he didn’t mind talking about the dizziness thing, or even the puking the imbalance caused. The stupidness thing was another matter. He didn’t answer. But he should have known by now she wouldn’t let it go.
“How did you jump if you weren’t on a smokejumping crew?”
“A buddy helped me out. I wanted to prove that I was as good as Doug, see. All I did was seriously screw up my leg when I smashed into a tree, then got caught in it. At least it wasn’t Doug who had to get me down.”
“So you really don’t like to fly.”
That wasn’t the point he thought she’d latch on to. Fine with him. “Nope.”
“I don’t blame you.” She tucked her pack between her body and the door.
She must really love him, if she could believe him to be a good man. He had to make her see he wasn’t all she made him out to be. He wanted her to see the man he was before this went any further.
“I talked to Jen yesterday,” he said, and while Peyton didn’t stiffen, he sensed her wariness. “She’s leaving the Forest Service.”
“What?” The wariness became outrage. “They aren’t firing her because of Doug, are they?”
“Hell no. If they were, I’d sic you on that story instead of giving you an interview.” He flashed her a smile to take the sting out. “No, she’s leaving on her own. She and Doug are having a baby.”
“Oh. Ow.” She sucked in her breath in sympathy. “I’m sorry. Had you ever—?”
“Wanted kids?” That he knew what she meant seemed to surprise her, if the lifted eyebrows were any indication. “No. I mean, not seriously. But then, nothing about our marriage was serious.”
“You loved her.”
He compared his memories to how he felt with Peyton, the power of his emotions around her. It could just be the newness, he was no fool, and Jen had destroyed most of their happy memories, so to compare the two relationships was foolish. Still. “I wonder if I did.”
“It’s hard to remember, because you have all the pain blocking your way, but you did. I can see it when you look at her.”
The sadness in her voice made him glance over. “He loved you, Peyton.”
“You don’t know that.” She was fighting tears, damn it.
He reached for her this time, took her hand to fold it in his, barely resisted lifting it to his lips. The action would reveal too much. “I know you. He’d be a damn fool not to love you.”
*****
“I don’t want you to go,” Peyton said.
She sat on the tailgate of the truck and watched Gabe gear up, fighting the tearing sense of fear in her chest. While part of her was worried for Gabe’s physical safety, more of her worried about his mental state. Would he be the same man when he came down the mountain to her?
“I don’t want to go.” He kept his eyes averted while checking the straps on his pack.
“Then don’t. Someone else can do it.”
He lifted his head then and smiled, almost a real smile, before pulling her against the line of his body. “Knowing you’re here waiting for me will get me through.” He slipped his hand under her hair, curved his hand around the back of her head so she’d look at him. “You’re still waiting, right?”
Emotion threatened to strangle her, longing, terror, love, as she gazed into his eyes and prayed this wouldn’t be the last time she’d see him. “I’ll be waiting.”
He kissed her hard, igniting an ache in her, and strode off toward the waiting National Guard Humvee with half his crew.
Peyton went on alert when Kim stepped up beside her. The younger woman hadn’t exactly been friendly, and after she realized Peyton and Gabe were lovers, she’d been hostile. So why was she approaching her? Still, Peyton had to make peace if she wanted to be part of Gabe’s life.
“Why aren’t you going?”
“He didn’t want the whole crew. He chose not to take me.” Kim’s words were clipped.
“He didn’t want you to see it,” Peyton mused, understanding his desire to protect her. “It haunts him, Angel Ridge.”
“I know.”
Peyton wondered if she did. Kim probably saw him leaving her behind as rejection. If she understood, she’d see Gabe cared for her. Just not in the way Kim would like.
Uncomfortable discussing Gabe with the young woman who so clearly loved him, Peyton changed the subject, sitting again on the tailgate. If she was going to break down barriers with Kim, she might be here awhile. “I met your brother.”
Kim snapped her attention to Peyton. “Yeah?”
“In Missoula. I didn’t know he was a smokejumper. Is that why you became a Hot Shot?”
Kim smiled, but her eyes were flat. “He’s my little brother. I’m the reason he became a smokejumper.”
“So why did you become a Hot Shot?” Peyton drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them.
Kim blinked, apparently surprised by the interest. “I don’t know. I’ve always been interested in the forest service, in the mountains. And fire behavior intrigued me, so I got on a summer crew. Then I met Gabe, got on his crew, and he made me the best I can be. I couldn’t walk away now for a million dollars.”
*****
It had been awhile since Gabe rode to a site. He was grateful for it today, not wanting the extra time to think about what he was going to find up there.
Instead he’d think about what he learned in Missoula.
Peyton loved him.
Okay, not that. Not now. He’d need it for later, when he could savor it. His focus was on Doug, on how he could help the man who’d been his friend.
Alternate suspects. Smokejumpers, Peyton said. Gabe was going to have to block out the idea that a firefighter couldn’t have done it, though he couldn’t fathom how one could.
Missoula had the largest crew of smokejumpers in the fire service. That made a lot of suspects. He wished he could have talked to more of them, seen if any had anything against Doug. Gordon had insisted no one did, Kevin insisted some hated Doug.
Who was he supposed to believe? His gut told him Doug was innocent, but those seeds of doubt Kevin planted were sprouting fast.
So he’d make a mental list. And when he got back from hell, he’d work through it.
*****
“God, I’m going crazy waiting to go out on the line.” Kim joined Peyton at a table in the mess tent.
Peyton was surprised by the girl’s second approach in a matter of hours. Maybe she figured she and Peyton shared a concern, and it made her feel closer to Gabe. Peyton smiled at her, toying with the crumbs of the cookie she’d wanted when she went through the line. “You sound like Gabe.”
The young woman scowled. “Yeah, well, he’s there, isn’t he?”
Jen approached. “Peyton, I have to talk to you.” She sent Kim a meaningful glance.
“I know why Peyton and Gabe went to Missoula, Jen.” Kim didn’t bother to hide the contempt in her voice.
Jen let her shoulders down, as if she couldn’t bear to wait on the news anymore, not even as long as it took to get rid of Kim. “What did you find out?”
Peyton waited for her to sit, then looked into Gabe’s ex’s exhausted eyes. Why did she feel compelled to help this woman? Because Gabe asked? Or just to stay close to him? Huh. She understood Kim more than she realized.
It wouldn’t do to examine motivation right now. “Once I saw the place, I realized it wouldn’t have been hard for someone at the base to frame Doug. Gabe doesn’t want to believe it’s a firefighter, but it’s got to be. No one else goes in the ready room, no one else would have access to Doug’s supplies.”
“But who?”
“That’s the thing. Gordon doesn’t think anyone has anything against Doug.”
“Gordon’s an idiot,” both women said together.
Peyton couldn’t stop a grin. “There’s that. But I’d hoped he’d have more information. Worse than Doug not having a motive is no one has a motive to hurt Doug.”
“Why is that worse?” Kim reached for a chunk of the cookie Peyton had abandoned.
“The FBI won’t consider another suspect if no one has a reason to set Doug up.”
“So now what?” Jen asked.
Peyton shook her head. “I wish I could talk to some of the other smokejumpers, but only Kim’s brother was there, and he told Gabe a whole different tale.”
Jen narrowed her eyes at Kim. “Kevin thinks Doug could have done this?”
“We aren’t all on the Doug bandwagon,” Kim retorted. “Some of us actually believe he did Gabe dirty.”
“That doesn’t mean he started the fire,” Peyton said. “Even Gabe doesn’t think he did.”
“Yeah, well, maybe Gabe’s trying to get back in Jen’s good graces.”
Ouch. That hurt more than it should, mostly because Peyton had considered it herself. “Or maybe he doesn’t want to see an innocent man go to prison,” she replied evenly. “Perhaps if I could talk to some other smokejumpers, get their take—”
“Everyone’s out on this fire,” Jen said, dejected.
“We could go to the point of origin,” Kim suggested.
Both women turned to her in surprise. “You know where it is?” Jen asked.
“I heard some firefighters talking about it. I could find it.”
Excitement fluttered in Peyton’s belly. She wished her photographer had gotten his clearance and could go with them. “When can we go?”
Jen appeared unconvinced. “I’m not sending just the two of you out. But I can’t spare anyone.”
“It isn’t a problem,” Kim said. “It’s the point of origin, it should be fuel-free. We’ll be fine.”
“That’s not true,” Jen argued. “It was undamaged enough to leave the drip torch and fibers behind. I don’t think it’s safe. Besides,” she told Peyton, “Gabe wanted you to wait for him.”
“We’ll be back before he is.” Peyton stood, adrenaline surging, glad to be able to do something. “Should we walk, or can we drive it?”
*****
They’d deployed too late. Before he reached the site, Gabe could see the silver shelters fluttering open on the ground. What had gone wrong that they didn’t get in the shelters on time, or was the fire that hot? Had they let in some of the superheated air and suffocated?
The fire that had almost killed him and Peyton twice had killed these people. His friends. Jon, who’d been such an asshole when they’d been training, but who’d come through for Gabe more than once when he needed a favor. And Bev with that great dimpled smile, the disposition that held even on the longest days, the toughest fires.
He had to push the thoughts out of his mind or he couldn’t do this.
Over the scent of the truck’s exhaust, he could smell it, the indescribable scent of burned hair and flesh. Howard turned and vomited out the open window. Oh hell. He should have brought more seasoned people instead of people he was familiar with, should have considered their comfort instead of his.
At least Peyton wasn’t up here.
The first step was to assess what happened, then get out the body bags. He opened the door and got to work.
It was easy to see what had happened. The fire had left the trees, hit the open grass, and the rocky terrain had been too much for the firefighters. Worse, they’d deployed in the fuel. They should have known better. They must have panicked. Only one, a rookie, was mostly inside his shelter and had died from suffocation. Gabe supposed he was lucky.
Howard was still green when he helped Gabe wrap the rookie’s body, and Gabe determined he would use Ray or one of the others to get the bodies in worse condition.
And he would see to Bev, and not think it could have been Peyton.
He forced his thoughts to Doug, to who could have framed him. Yeah, he’d had a moment of doubt, but Doug wouldn’t do anything to endanger others. He’d be like Howard over there, puking his guts up.
The trip to Missoula convinced him that it was a firefighter, a smokejumper. He wanted to believe it was Gordon, but the son of a bitch didn’t have the courage, not that arson took much. Still, he had an alibi. Peyton said he’d been on a fire in California when the Bounty fire started.
That’s what they had to do, if they couldn’t talk to all the smokejumpers. Find out who’d been in the area when the fire started, and work from there.
It was good to have a plan.
But again and again he remembered Kevin O’Doul and his reaction to Doug. He hadn’t known anyone—aside from himself—to have such a strong reaction to the man. It could be jealousy the young man held for the veteran, but it was so—acid. It just sat wrong in Gabe’s stomach. He’d never been wrong when trusting his instincts.
But O’Doul had no more motive to set up Doug than anyone else. So who did?
He decided not to wait on the list. He pulled out his radio—his third this fire, not a good sign—and called Jen.
“What is it?”
Over the radio he could hear her exhaustion. “I want to know all the smokejumpers who were in Montana two weeks ago.”
“Two weeks ago? I don’t have time for this, Gabe.”
“It could help Doug.”
“You don’t think—”
“I didn’t want to think. But I know, Jen.”
She was silent a long time. “Bev? The others?”
“It’s bad. They deployed in grass. We’re bringing them home.”
She paused. “I’ll have the list ready for you.”
*****
This was hell. The ground before them was gray ash, and Peyton kicked at it every few steps, looking for anything beneath that might catch fire. She’d seen Gabe do the same on the way down the mountain, trying to keep them out of another dangerous situation.
God, would she ever escape him, even a thousand miles away? Was she certain she wanted to?
She’d tied a bandana around her mouth and nose to keep the wind-whipped ash from her lungs, but it still burned her eyes so they teared constantly. She used another bandana to wipe the sweat from her face.
Though the threat of fire was minimal on the burned-out area, she and Kim wore full fire gear as a precaution. Gabe had trained them both to err on the side of caution. It was a hot, miserable hike to a place she wasn’t sure she could find.
“Did I tell you I’d like to be an arson investigator?” Kim asked conversationally.
“Really?” Peyton perked up, an idea for another story brewing. Both sides of the fire. Not exactly life threatening, but interesting. And, an idea for a story meant another day as a reporter. Another step toward commitment. “How would you go about doing something like that?”
“Well, I’m thinking about applying this winter. I have a degree in Fire Behavior, and I should have enough experience. I could still work for the Forest Service, and just consult with the FBI on suspected arson cases.”
“Seems tedious.”
Kim shot her a grin. “Like being a ground pounder isn’t?”
Peyton shuddered as she recalled the fire that chased them out of the scout camp. “Not in my experience.”
“It looks like the fire started here,” Kim said, traipsing through the ash on the mountain.
Peyton could see what she meant—the black spread in a fan up the mountain. The weird thing was that this area was so isolated, so remote, on Forest Service land. Who would come out here to start it? Maybe it had been a smokejumper.
“The FBI has already been here, right?” she asked.
Kim glanced over her shoulder. “They got the can, didn’t they?”
“I just don’t want to be messing up a crime scene.” Peyton watched Kim drag her feet through the ash. She hadn’t seen Kim walk that way before. “What are you doing? Making sure the fire is out?” She indicated Kim’s feet.
Kim’s face reddened a bit. “Yeah. You never know. And the FBI may have missed something.”
Peyton doubted it. She’d seen photos of arson crime scenes where the investigators had been on their hands and knees sifting through the ash. Had they done the same here? Or had they found the can and figured they had what they needed.
She stumbled over a burned clump of grass, and an object popped loose. Peyton crouched to lift a scrap of something manmade that had been blackened and bunched up against the roots.
A glove, asbestos, partially burned. And way too small for Doug Sheridan.