Mark tried to throw the dog to the ground. Her ex-husband was too furious to see Clint and Tony behind him.
She could hardly breathe. She barely managed to call Stryker off. The dog reluctantly obeyed, and Tony and Clint grabbed Mark as blood dripped down his arm.
The pain came, but every second of it was worth it. Mark was being trundled off in handcuffs.
Clint kneeled beside her, his hands running over her body. “You could have a cracked rib.”
“Good,” she said with satisfaction, although she winced as she said the word. “But I don’t think so. I...think he just...knocked the breath out of me.”
Open-mouthed, he stared at her. Then he said, “That was the dumbest, most idiotic, foolhardy thing...”
“It was...the only way to get him,” she said. “I hope that...Marilyn got a good photo.”
Clint turned around. Marilyn was a neighbor of his, as well as a reporter for the local weekly and a cousin of Bill Evans. She stood fifteen feet away still snapping photos.
“I...called her and told her something interesting might happen at the park,” Stephanie said. She tried to sit up and pet Stryker, but the pain was growing by the second.
“Dammit, be still,” Clint ordered. “And remind me never to make you mad,” he added.
Two officers from the police department arrived with a rolling stretcher and eased her onto it.
“Poor...Dr. Bradley,” she said, then she looked up at Clint. “Can you take Stryker home? Give him a reward?”
He nodded. “I’ll give him two. Maybe five. I’ll meet you at the doctor’s office.”
Then he leaned down, and in front of a growing crowd, kissed her.
* * *
THE PHOTO OF Mark striking her was on the front page of the local paper and was picked up by the Denver paper. Marilyn then sold it to the Boston papers. One displayed it on the front of the local news page along with the story, via David Matthews, of Mark’s divorce problems and missing money. It was considered news because of his political contributions to a number of prominent politicians.
Susan emailed Stephanie the story and then snail-mailed a copy of the paper.
Her ribs had not been cracked or broken. The breath had been knocked out of her and she had a huge bruise—and some pain—but it was worth it. Tony had been mad as hell, as had been Josh, that she hadn’t told them what she had planned to do.
After his initial outrage, Clint understood. He got her.
He realized it was something she had to do for herself before she could leave the past behind her.
A week after the incident, Mark had been moved to the county seat where he was charged with criminal assault. In the initial hearing, he was denied bond because he wasn’t a resident of Colorado and could be a flight risk.
Stephanie knew the next few weeks would be nasty, but a lot of Mark’s influence vanished with his arrest. Politicians were giving his contributions back and he was kicked off several boards. The Boston papers were all over it now, going back over coverage of his divorces.
Despite the lingering pain of a bruised rib, Stephanie’s week was much better when Susan called. She’d won temporary custody of her daughter, and David was convinced it would be permanent. Mark was in jail, denied bail since he was from out of state. Stephanie had finally defeated him. She was falling in love, and now she no longer feared it. Clint had given her a precious gift. He’d known her well enough not to interfere. He’d realized she had to fight her own battle to free herself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
WILDFIRE!
Stephanie received the call at 6:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, one week after her encounter with Mark. Her volunteer firefighter unit was called up.
The fire was just twenty-five miles northwest of Covenant Falls. Their unit was the closest one, although other teams were being flown in.
No one knew the exact cause of the fire, although there had been heat lightning during the night and a second wildfire flared up fifty miles north.
Stephanie called Dr. Langford and asked him to cover the clinic for the day, possibly for several days depending on the fire. Having once been a member of the unit himself, he readily agreed. Then she called Beth and told her that Dr. Langford would be taking over.
She also called Clint since they’d planned to have dinner that night. He answered immediately. She should have known. He never seemed to sleep.
He was already aware, having heard news of the fire via the Covenant Falls grapevine.
“Are you well enough?” he asked.
“No pain for the last two days,” she said. She neglected to tell him, though, that there were still sore places. “I have to go,” she said and hung up. She dressed quickly in her uniform and pulled on the heavy boots that were always within reach of her bed. She then grabbed the rest of her gear: fire-retardant coat, protective helmet, gloves, radio harness, wildland pack, hydration bottle, her tools. Reggie, the mechanic at the local garage, called and offered to pick her up. He was also picking up Calvin Wilson, who was also a volunteer.
Five minutes later, they were at the park. Two helicopters, one a Black Hawk, the other a Chinook, sat in the cleared parking lot. Most of the members of the team were already there. Several cars screeched into the parking lot. She noticed Nate approaching.
And saw Clint. He stood next to the Black Hawk, a wistful expression on his face as he talked to the pilot. When he saw her, he hurried over. “Damn, but you look good in all that paraphernalia.”
She couldn’t help but smile. He always made her smile. “No, I don’t,” she said. “I look like a creature from outer space.”
“Buy me a ticket, then,” he said. Then the smile disappeared. “Be careful.”
She was glad he didn’t ask her not to go. Of course he wouldn’t. He knew her too well. She could tell, though, that the fact he couldn’t go was slowly killing him.
“We’re really well trained,” she said. “Josh would be here, but he hasn’t finished training yet.”
“You know I’m falling in love with you.” The angst in his voice reminded her of the dangers in going to a fire line. The change of wind, a flying spark, so many things could go wrong. She’d been at several funerals of firefighters killed in wildfires.
“Me, too,” she admitted as the one paid member of the Covenant Falls Volunteer Fire Department, Sandy Kiper, cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.
“We have twenty members here,” he said. “I don’t have to tell you to be careful and look out for each other. You know the procedures. If I give the sign to go, you run like hell, but stay together as much as possible. Keep your radios on.
“Now gather around.” He showed them the map and the area that was their responsibility. “Other units will be joining us soon. We’ll be digging a fire line and telling the choppers where to drop water. Down the hill is a stream. If there’s any trouble, head for it. Other units will join us.
“We’ll be flying in the Black Hawk. The Chinook will be using the Bambi buckets to dump water on the area where we will be working and will make continuous runs. The Black Hawk will join him after delivering us so we should have good coverage.”
She could barely hear as the helicopters started their engines. Dust flew everywhere. She started for the chopper when Clint held up his hand to stop her and climbed into the cockpit.
“What the hell?” said Sandy, running over to confer with the pilot and Clint.
He returned to the team. “Mr. Morgan heard something in the engine that shouldn’t be there. The pilot, after listening, agreed. The tank will have to be refueled, but we’re going in with the Chinook. It’ll drop the water, then deliver us. We’ll have to rappel down because of the bucket.”
Had Clint raised a false alarm to keep her from going in? She dismissed the thought
nearly as fast as it had developed. The one quality that had won her over was his acceptance of her, and who she was.
She climbed into the chopper with the others and they took off, leaving the Black Hawk behind. She leaned back, keeping her thoughts and fears at bay. Fire did frighten her. It was one of the few things that did. It was possible to stop people like her ex-husband. It was damned hard to stop a fire hell-bent on burning an entire forest.
She pulled on a face mask and fire hood as they approached the fire. The air was filled with smoke. She dreaded having to rappel with all the equipment she was carrying. There was also a large bag to get down with them. Shovels, picks, other tools.
“Listen, all,” Sandy said. “The pilot will land us at our anchor point. The anchor point is a rock slide. It’s pretty much barren, so we don’t have to worry about a fire outflanking us. Our job is to clear as much brush as we can between the fire and anchor to starve it.”
They stayed belted in their seats as the chopper delivered the water over the encroaching fire, then hovered near the ground as the firefighters rappelled down. The bag of equipment came next, and the chopper lifted back into the air. “Okay, we’re going to move as quickly as we can to this spot,” Sandy said, pointing to a spot about a fourth of a mile from the rock slide.
* * *
CLINT SAT WITH the Black Hawk pilot as the fuel lines were cleansed and the chopper refueled.
When the pilot had started the engine earlier, Clint recognized a barely noticeable skipping sound. When he had mentioned it to the pilot, he had asked about the earlier refueling. The pilot said it had not come from the normal refueling station. Apparently, there wasn’t an adequate mixture of the gasoline with the oil. It could be harmless. Or not. It could certainly damage the engine.
The pilot swore, but he had called in, and it had been decided the chopper’s fuel tank would need to be emptied, cleaned and refueled. He would have to fly to a refueling station. They were lucky one was close.
“How in the hell did you catch that?” the pilot asked.
“I’m an old chopper hand. Army. God knows how many engines we ruined by flying with bad fuel. I learned real fast how to detect it.”
“How many years?”
“Seventeen.”
The pilot was quiet after that, and Clint kept looking at his watch. He’d delayed aid coming to Stephanie, but a choked engine wouldn’t help, either.
It was two hours before the copter was refueled and they returned to the staging area at the lake.
Tony was there. “What’s happening?” Clint asked anxiously.
“The fire has intensified and is moving toward the trench,” Tony said. “The Black Hawk arrived just in time. We need more water out there.”
Clint watched as the Bambi bucket was attached to the chopper. The pilot scooped it full of water and took off. The Chinook was on its way back for refueling.
The sun had turned downward and smoke, with its astringent odor, drifted over Covenant Falls. Then came the steady voice of the leader of Stephanie’s unit. “We have to pull out of here,” he said. “The fire’s skipping over the trench. We’re heading for the rock slide. Now!”
Tony contacted the Black Hawk, which was still in sight. “Return to base to drop the bucket. We must evacuate the team. Repeat. Return as quickly as possible.”
“They might need help,” Clint said. “I want to go back with the chopper.” He’d already decided he was going, permission or not.
Tony nodded. “With all the smoke, the pilot will probably need his copilot in front with him. If it’s good with him, it’s good with me.”
As the Black Hawk landed, ground members ran to help release the bucket. Tony signaled the pilot to land. Both he and Clint ran over to the cockpit.
“Okay if Clint Morgan goes with you?” Tony said.
“Sure, jump in,” The pilot lifted off as Clint balanced himself behind the pilot’s seat. “You help the crew chief,” the pilot said. “I’ve seen that terrain. They’ll have to come up the rope, one at a time using the winch and rescue basket.”
Clint’s heart beat faster. It wasn’t just Stephanie, the heart of the town was down there. People who weren’t paid to put their lives at risk. He thought of Calvin Wilson who had left his store to help build the dock, and two of the veterans he’d met at the community center, and Nate.
After what seemed like hours, the pilot said, “We should be there in two minutes.”
Clint felt the heat on his face. He could barely breathe for the smoke. He searched down below and saw the huddled group. They had drawn a circle and were protecting themselves with the fire shield as flames whipped toward them, feeding on the small pieces of growth. It was the wind that was the problem, and the wind was affecting the helicopter, too.
The pilot was right. No place to land. The copilot and a third crew member hooked the basket to the rope and lowered it. The first person came up. He had burns on his arms from flying embers, but he brushed them aside. “Get the others.”
Each time Clint prayed, and he didn’t do that often, that the next person would be Stephanie. But the injured came up first, then the most exhausted, then there was an argument when there were only two below. The flames were almost to them. He and the crew chief were lifting the basket as fast as they could, but he knew, and the pilot knew, the flames were too close. If they reached the chopper it would explode.
Then Stephanie came, having lost the battle to the team leader, and she was up. He wanted to hug her, to kiss her, to never let her do any goddamn stupid thing again.
“Hey, he’s not getting into the basket,” the pilot said, “and we gotta get the hell out of here.”
“I’ll get him,” Clint said, and before anyone could stop him, he slid down the rope, heedless of the burns on his fingers. The man had lost consciousness. Clint piled him in the basket and signaled the copilot to take it up.
He felt the heat from the fire, the first burn on his leg, then the basket was back and he was hanging on to it as the helicopter lifted from the flames. He was pulled up to the chopper by helping hands from every direction.
* * *
BOTH HE AND SANDY were admitted to the hospital in Pueblo, having been flown there. Stephanie had escaped the more serious burns and was treated by Doc Bradley, but she had immediately driven to Pueblo and taken up residence in Clint’s room. He had more serious burns on his legs.
The nurses allowed Bart into the room in the second week, after Stephanie lied and said he was a certified service dog. Cody’s grandmother had even made a coat for him saying as much.
Stephanie’s arm still hurt from the burns, but her heart hurt even more so as she saw the joy in Bart when he spied Clint in bed. He seemed reassured just to see Clint and sensed he couldn’t touch him after a word from Stephanie. “Maybe tomorrow,” she said, “but only while the nurse is gone.”
“I heard that,” the nurse said as she entered to refill Clint’s IV. “But I’ll pretend I didn’t. I have two little guys myself. But don’t let the head nurse see him, or you and the dog will be out of here.”
Stephanie nodded. “Understood.”
The nurse left.
Bart took the opportunity to sneak a big swipe on Clint’s hand. His eyes opened. Slow at first. Then jerked wide open when he saw her a few feet away and Bart eagerly trying to kiss him again.
“Now, that’s plain pitiful,” he said. “I woke to what I thought was a kiss from a beautiful lady, and what do I get?” But his hand went down and fondled Bart’s ears. The dog made a low moaning noise of ecstasy.
“Now, that is disgusting,” she said.
He held out his hand and she took it. Both legs were bandaged. She was sure there was a high level of morphine in the IV. His legs had burns worse than her superficial ones. But the doctor said that while there wou
ld be some scarring, no nerves or muscles had been involved. He’d been lucky.
And still he made light of it.
She wondered if he would always make her laugh. She had been worried sick about him. Him, apparently, not so much.
“By the way,” she said, “you have a job offer.”
“I do?”
“The pilot of that chopper apparently told his boss that he should grab you. That you heard something even he had not, and how efficiently you handled the rescue effort. The owner wants to offer you a job as a crew chief.”
“Where?”
“Denver.” She paused, then continued, “And you have another offer.”
“I’m speechless.”
“You’re going to be even more speechless. Eve, Tony and Tom want you as police chief. Tony has to leave, and you would work with Tom for several months as chief deputy, take some courses, but then if it all works out, the job would be yours. Money wouldn’t be as good as the other job. In fact, it’s downright insulting, but costs are cheap in Covenant Falls, and the job includes free vet care.”
“What more can anyone ask?” he said, but she knew the morphine or whatever was in the IV was working. He was fighting to keep his eyes open.
She leaned over and kissed him. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for me and for Sandy and for Bart.”
“I love you,” he replied sleepily and closed his eyes.
* * *
STEPHANIE DROVE CLINT back to the cabin ten days later. He rode in her van with Bart at his feet.
He recalled his first ride from Pueblo more than a month ago. A lifetime ago. Aeons ago. And he still liked looking at Stephanie. She wore a clean shirt today, and clean jeans. He missed the cow stains.
They had not talked of love again. Or the future. He sensed she didn’t want to push him and he didn’t want to push her. They might go this way until eternity. Someone would have to take a stand.
When he arrived at the cabin, he was shocked to see the entire street filled with cars. “What’s going on?” he asked.
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