The smoke swallowed me up and I might as well have not been wearing a mask for all the good it did. I coughed and wheezed, squinting my eyes since visibility was reduced to where I could only see about two feet in front of me. Beyond that was a blurry haze of shadows. A loud popping noise caught my attention and I hurried towards it only to encounter a smoldering carpet. The ground undulated with low lying flames; the popping came from dry twigs being devoured.
Whoever those people were, they were gone. As much as I hated to return to Eric without proof of their existence, I turned and started to run back, but tripped over a large piece of rusted metal. I landed with a whoomp, my teeth clamped down on my tongue, my eyes opened wide with the sudden pain. They were immediately assaulted with smoke and dust. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t breathe and was aware of the approaching fire as my feet grew increasingly hotter inside my boots.
Chapter Forty-Five
I was floating on my back, yet there was pressure under my neck and behind my knees. I couldn’t make sense of what was going on. I opened my eyes and realized the man I saw earlier was carrying me. I tried to say something, but started coughing instead.
I must have passed out again for I woke up on the ground, at the base of the embankment.
“She’s coming around!” an EMT, kneeling next to me administering oxygen, said. I turned my head to see who he was talking to and saw Eric standing a few feet away. “Help me move her. We need to get out of here!”
Eric leapt into action and helped hoist me on to a stretcher and then he grabbed the handles by my feet. They lifted me and began to climb up the steep incline. Once the EMT’s footing slipped and we slid backwards. I gritted my teeth and braced for a fall, but none came. When I opened my eyes, I could see behind us and how close we had been to the wildfire. Less than twenty feet remained between the flames and where I had just been laying. If that man hadn’t rescued me, I would certainly be dead. This thought sent a chill down my spine.
Our progress was slow and bumpy. Embers blew past us on the hot wind. Both Eric and the EMT were drenched in sweat; Eric’s brown uniform almost black from moisture. My eyes stayed fixed on the approaching blaze. We finally reached the top where another EMT was waiting. He relieved Eric and they loaded me into an ambulance. The chaotic scene from earlier was gone as the ambulance was the only vehicle left.
“It jumped and we had to evacuate,” Eric explained.
“That fast?” My question muffled because of the oxygen mask. I pulled it off of my face. “What about the man who saved me, did he get evacuated too?”
“What man?
“The one who carried me to safety? He has on a blue shirt, early to mid-thirties.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about, Elena,” Eric said, but he didn’t look me directly in the eyes when he did. Instead, he focused on a spot just above my shoulder. During the brief three years Eric and I were together, I learned to read him pretty well.
He was lying.
I started to call him on it, but the EMT shooed him out before climbing in and shutting the doors. Eric’s face appeared in the rear window where he waved once and was gone. That was all right; I’d talk to him later and make him spill.
Turns out I didn’t have to wait very long. Not even an hour after being wheeled into the hospital Eric came strolling into my room.
“Hey Sunshine, how are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve smoked three packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day since birth.”
Eric laughed and sat down on the edge of my bed. “Yeah, the nurses said you have severe smoke inhalation.”
“Since when did my condition become public knowledge?” I asked.
“Well, I told them I’m your husband.”
“Ex-husband.” I reminded him.
“A minor detail. Plus, I think I won them over with my good looks,” he said this with a smile, which reinforced his statement. His teeth were brighter than the sun streaming in through the window.
“Whatever,” I grumbled and tried to roll onto my side away from him, but the wires and tubes from the various machines hooked up to my body prevented this. I gave up and stayed on my back.
“How long are they keeping you here?” Eric asked.
“Your new friends didn’t tell you?”
He smiled again and shook his head. “My looks can only get me so far.”
I started to laugh which turned into a gigantic wheezing and coughing fit. With every heave of my chest, it felt like my lungs were being forced through a paper shredder. Damn his charm. That always managed to get me to forgive him for being an asshole. Well, almost always.
“Hey easy.” Eric grabbed my hand.
It took a few minutes for the spasm to calm down. When it did, he handed me a plastic cup full of water.
“Why are you being so nice?” I asked.
“You could have died.”
“I didn’t.”
“Still…” he gazed at my face, the usual hardness in his blue eyes softened.
I broke eye contact to fiddle with my hospital bracelet. “I called your parents. They’ll be here soon.”
“Thanks. Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“What did you see? I know you lied back there, you saw something.” I watched him closely and saw the hardness returning to his eyes. “I almost died,” I reminded him. “But some man saved me.”
He didn’t answer right away and a vein throbbed in his temple when he clenched his jaw. “I’m not sure…it’s going to sound crazy.”
“You accused me of the very same thing not too long ago; I think I can handle it.”
He glared at me and sighed. “Fine, but I warned you.” Eric paused first before beginning. “You ran down the slope and disappeared so quickly. I kept looking for you, but saw nothing. The EMT’s who went down behind you came back up with the two firefighters, but there was still no sign of you. Did you hear me calling?”
“No, the popping was so loud and there was even like a dull roar in the background.”
“I heard that too. Anyway, about the time the EMT’s loaded up the ambulance with the firemen; the fire jumped the highway - about a quarter mile from where I was standing. That’s when the evacuation began and when the media showed up.”
“The media?”
“Yup, the Channel 3 news van just pulled right on in and parked next to Lieutenant Adams’ Tahoe.”
“No way. I bet he loved that,” I said with a smile, picturing his face turning four hundred shades of red and him nervously blurting out “no comment” whenever the camera swung in his direction.
“Yeah, he let you and I have it for not securing the highway. When I explained to him where I had last seen you, he was almost speechless with anger. He told me you were my problem and I needed to figure out where you were. I managed to convince him to leave an ambulance and crew behind just in case.”
I shrugged my shoulders, not surprised at my boss’ reaction. He wasn’t exactly a favorite with Human Resources. Well, Eric and I weren’t either.
“I was beginning to get worried, knowing you can be impulsive, and hoped you wouldn’t deliberately endanger yourself. So, I told the EMT’s I’d radio for them if their services were needed and climbed down the hill to find you.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t have to go very far. I reached the bottom and started to head in the direction where I last saw you, when you appeared.”
“You did see the man who helped me?”
“No, Elena, I didn’t. You were being carried, that was obvious, but I couldn’t see by whom or what. You were suspended in mid-air and nothing supported you.”
“What? That doesn’t make sense.”
Eric looked at me, really looked at me and I could tell he was being sincere. “I know, but it’s what I saw.”
I didn’t know what to say. A man carried me, this I know, but why couldn’t Eric see him?
I was very aware of Eric hol
ding my hand and found the soft pressure of his grip reassuring. When we were married and had quiet moments like this, it was easy to picture us growing old together. A wave of regret washed over me and I blinked back tears, remembering exactly where we went wrong.
****
I met Eric my first day on the job and I went on ride-alongs with him. Having moved to Prescott from Phoenix, I needed to become familiarized with the territory.
He was sweet, funny, charming and needed to come with a warning label. So, yeah, I fell for him, but didn’t let on right away.
After a few weeks of getting acclimated, Eric asked me out for a beer after work.
“Purely business, right?” I asked before accepting. Getting ahead at work was a goal of mine, but I planned to come by it honestly.
“Yes, of course.”
So I met him at a bar off of the main square in Prescott. We sat on stools, a comfortable distance apart and each ordered a beer; which we sipped in silence for the first few minutes. This is when I first noticed that our silences weren’t awkward. We probably didn’t have to a say word that evening, but we eventually did talk.
Eric asked me why I wanted a career in law enforcement and not the fluff answer I gave him in the beginning about keeping people safe and making a difference.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Because that reason is so generic. Here, I’ll go first.” He signaled the bartender for a refill and began. “The serve and protect thing, I get that, but honestly, I like the power. All my life I heard about situations where there’s something illegal going down and an officer steps in. His presence alone, the authority the badge represents, tips the balance of power away from the criminal.”
“So you have a hero complex?”
“No...That’s not what I meant.”
I sneaked a peek at him out of the corner of my eye as I tipped my glass back. “Control, then. You like asserting control,” I said after taking a sip. He didn’t say anything, but by the way he smirked, I knew I hit the nail on the head.
“Okay, I’ll play,” I said. “Where do you think I was born?”
Eric straightened up in his stool and gave me his full attention. “Um, Mexico?”
“Wrong! U.S. born and raised. That assumption is one of the reasons I wanted to become a cop…to prove that not every Hispanic looking person is an immigrant. We are put in a box and labeled. I’m determined to break the stereotype.”
“Relax; I was just fucking with you. Seriously though, you’re harboring a serious grudge. What happened?”
“You’re going to be sorry you asked.” I emptied my glass and gestured for another round.
“As long as you’re buying this round,” Eric said with a grin and finished his beer.
“There have been at least four occasions where I have been pulled over and I know, but can’t prove, it’s because of profiling.”
“How do you know?”
“Ever since high school I’ve wanted to be a police officer, so I stayed out of trouble, studied state law, memorized the driver’s manual like my nana did the Bible and adhered to it in practice, yet I’d still get pulled over.”
“You could have had a brake light out or something.”
“Nope, I’m convinced I’m a victim of racial profiling and it’s so frustrating not being able to prove it.”
“Are you working on an internal investigation?” Eric asked me, his face expressionless except for his blue eyes which were narrowed as he glared at me. “That’s a quick way to not make friends in the department.” At first I thought he was messing with me again, but he even moved incrementally away from me to physically distance himself. Our previous lighthearted banter all but evaporated and was replaced with tension.
“What? No! Why do you say that?”
“Because the sheriff’s office has been investigated for profiling in the past and here you are all fired up and ready to prove there’s corruption in the system. Six months ago we had a sergeant and a captain resign as a result of an internal investigation. That wasn’t about profiling, but it wouldn’t surprise me that you’re plying me with some drinks trying to get information to support your case.” He drained the rest of his beer and slammed the glass down on the counter then stood up. His stool scraped across the wooden floor. “No thanks, I’m not risking my reputation or career.”
“But, you’re the one who asked me out!” I stammered. This turn of events had caught me completely off guard.
“Whatever and I’m paying for this, I don’t want it to appear that you bought me drinks for info either.” He slapped a twenty dollar bill down and left without saying another word to me.
I watched him walk out, my mouth hanging open in shock.
The sound of the bartender chuckling caught my attention and I twisted around on my stool to face him. He stood behind the bar in front of me drying a glass and was obviously amused at what had just happened.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Seems as though Eric’s getting a chance at some retribution.”
“You know him?”
“Yeah, he’s in here at least once a week. Plus, I went to high school with his older brother.”
“Has he always been such a paranoid prick?”
The bartender laughed again and swung the towel over his shoulder. “It wasn’t too long ago when that officer was a rookie and had to earn trust from the other officers.”
“But, I didn’t do anything. He’s being ridiculous!”
“You’ll just have to prove yourself then, like he did.”
Turned out, proving myself was a bitch. When I reported to duty the next day, rumor of my alleged “investigation” had spread faster than wildfire. Hushed whispers and sideways glances in the break room reminded me of high school and put me in one of my darkest, foulest moods ever.
So, when I saw Eric over by the coffee station, laughing it up with some other officers, I marched in his direction. He glanced up, saw me coming and smirked. This smirk was quickly wiped off his face when I shoved him against the wall. His coffee splashed all over his arm and down the front of his uniform.
“What the fuck Hernandez?” he yelled and pushed me away.
“You know what the fuck, Wilcox. You had to go spreading fucking lies about me? I am not a mole.” I emphasized each word with a poke to his chest, backing him up against the wall again. “You’re such an asshole!”
The two other officers Eric had been talking to were laughing at the spectacle I was making, so I narrowed my eyes and gave them a look that silenced them. Lieutenant Adams appeared in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “Hernandez!” he yelled, his bushy eyebrows gathered together in a scowl. “What the hell is going on?”
“Sir, Wilcox is telling everyone I’m working on an internal investigation. Can you please tell him the truth?”
“Jesus Christ you two…you’re supposed to trust each other and have each other’s backs. None of this fighting like preschoolers! Wilcox, I doubt they’d plant someone so green, but Hernandez, I wouldn’t have knowledge if we were under investigation anyway, would I? I suggest you get over this shit and get to work!”
“Sir,” Eric and I said in unison. I took a step back so Eric could move away from the wall.
“Maybe you need to kiss and make up,” one of the other officers joked.
“Shut it, Thompson!” Adams ordered before storming out and slamming the door behind him.
“Sorry,” I said and extended my hand out to Eric. “My temper can get the best of me sometimes.”
“Sure, okay. I’m sorry too.” We shook hands. “If you are a mole, I don’t have anything to hide anyway.”
“I heard you were in my shoes before?”
“Where’d you hear that? Oh, Wally at the bar, right?” I nodded and handed him a napkin which he used to dab at the coffee stains. “Remind me not to piss you off again. You’re pretty tough…for a girl.” He said this with a wink and I couldn’t help but lau
gh.
Honestly, a flash of his blue eyes and quick smile from him were enough to make me forgive and forget. Once he discovered this, he learned to use it to his advantage when we became a couple, which happened not too long after this miscommunication.
Chapter Forty-Six
Near death experiences are aphrodisiacs. I’d heard this before, but doubted its validity, until I experienced it first-hand.
About six weeks into training, Eric and I responded to a call for an officer involved shooting. When we pulled up to the scene, bullets were flying. One shattered the back passenger window behind me and I shrieked, leaning forward away from the explosion.
Eric slammed on the brakes, put the cruiser in park and hopped out, using his door as a shield. I followed suit. Adrenaline pumped through my veins making it difficult to differentiate between the thud of guns discharging and my heart beat. I took a few deep, calming breaths and located one of the shooters; a big biker with a Viking like beard. He was wearing a beat up black leather cut covered in patches. His attention was turned towards Eric and I took full advantage, firing off one round which hit my intended target. The biker let out a grunt then fell backwards from the impact and his gun skittered across the ground out of reach.
“Nice work, Hernandez!” Eric shouted just as his window burst into a million pieces and glass rained down on top of his head. Then the night went silent. The remaining shooter was barricaded in what appeared to be an abandoned house. I used the lull to catch my breath.
“Do you see him?” Eric whispered across the front seats of the cruiser.
“No, hold on.” I stood up for a better view when a shot rang out. Pain flared in my right shoulder and I sat down hard on the dirt.
Eric saw where the shot had come from and he started firing. I heard a yell and then a man fell forward out of one of the windows. His top half draped over the sill.
Eric ran around the car to my side. “Are you okay? Where are you hit?”
End of the Road (Ghost Stories Trilogy #1) Page 18