Price tightened his arms around the woman who held his future in her strong hands. He'd searched for her for years, and Fate, the cruel bitch, dropped Tara in his path, then threatened to take her away. He wanted to shake his fist and rail at the choices fate presented, but such actions and words were futile—and they'd dishonor the courage of this woman who was willing to fight the very thing that threatened their future.
"Fuck, just fuck." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then blew it out. "We'll talk to Ren. We'll talk to the guys on the SSI firefighting crew and the Grangeville crews." He opened his eyes and looked into hers. "First thing in the morning. But right now, I'm going to make love to you again. You're going to scream my name, and you'll do that while wearing this ring."
He pulled out the small blue box from under the pillow. He opened it up and placed the large yellow diamond solitaire on her ring finger.
"We're getting married. As soon as possible—and to hell with Miller. That's my price for allowing you to continue to risk your neck." His voice was a low growl and not at all romantic, but the thought of Tara luring Miller out of hiding made him feral.
"Yes to all of that." She pushed up from his chest and peppered kisses over his chin and jaw. "As soon as we can get our families here." She nipped his lower lip then suckled it. "I love you. And you're right—to hell with Miller."
Price pulled her more fully on top of him and held her hips. He smiled as she held her hand up and made the ring glitter. "You like the ring? You can always—"
Tara leaned down and kissed him. "I love the ring. It's gorgeous."
"Not as gorgeous as your eyes. But it was the closest I could get to match them."
"Thank you, píítaa. That makes it even more special." She brushed her lips over his. "Make love to me, please?"
"Always." Price rolled them over, then slid his cock into her tight warmth. And knew as he made love to his woman that he'd do anything and everything to make sure he could make love to her for years and years to come.
Chapter 20
Saturday, July 18th
Tara stood on a ledge, looking at the western sky filled with dark clouds of smoke and the orange glow of flames. The fire had started two days ago in an isolated area of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest. The fire spotter called it in as soon as he noted the smoke, but by then the fire had quickly spread along the ground, feeding off the high grasses and bushes that were dry as a bone. As the fire ate up acreage on the ground, it also climbed the trees in its path. Since most of trees were pines, they went up quickly. The flames then spread through the crowns of the dense, dry forest. The intense heat of the fire created its own winds, convection winds, which were made worse by even more gusts coming in ahead of a frontal system.
With no road access, the Grangeville smokejumpers were dropped on the mountain for the initial attack. They quickly radioed that more boots-on-the-ground were needed to contain the fire. Almost immediately, the Grangeville hotshot crew and the SSI crew had been called in and ferried to the remote site where they were to establish a fire perimeter.
The crews were doing a good job and had cut a lot of line, but the fire was a ravenous beast and was spreading a mile in all directions every five minutes. At the current rate of burn, it would reach this part of the forest in approximately two hours.
It was Tara's job as SSI's Fire Safety Officer to stay on top of the conditions and know when to move her crews back to safety. A current factor in the firefighters' favor was it would soon be dark. The cooler and more humid night air would lay down the fire, slowing its race toward them. But with the morning sun, the heat of the day would once again help feed the fire.
With the fire perimeter still in progress, the Grangeville Fire Manager was also considering a backfire which would destroy fuel ahead of the advancing fire.
The mantra was: No fuel. No fire. Pray the winds died down.
In addition to the planned burnout, the fire line the hotshot crews were creating below Tara's position and ten miles to each side of that position would be the fire’s ultimate Maginot Line—the last line of defense to keep the inferno from spreading up the slopes to even more densely populated forests to the east. Tara only hoped the blaze wouldn't outflank their line as the Germans had the French's during WWII.
She wouldn't bet against the fire. Mother Nature had a way of doing her own thing.
At the end of the day, the fire crews could only do what they could do, and they were doing a masterful job of establishing a perimeter in such a short amount of time. Unfortunately, the west wind had gotten worse since this morning and was sending sparks swirling into the air to set grass and trees on fire miles away from the main fire. No fire line could defeat the wind.
For now, the fire raged on, gobbling up square miles like a bunny on speed, and the firefighters were losing daylight and would have to stop their work. Felling trees in pitch-black darkness on sharply inclined slopes wasn't safe, so they'd shut down for the night and start back up at the crack of dawn.
Ever since DJ had flown the SSI crew into the spike camp, which had been set up in a meadow by a river tributary—an area considered safe as it was surrounded by rock and water—Tara'd had a bad feeling about this fire.
The fire hadn't been deliberately set. She'd checked with the spotter who'd called it in and he said there had been lots of dry lightning in the area. But Tara was staying hyper-alert just in case Miller discovered her presence on the fire crew.
Tara and the SSI team had done all they could to plan for just such a possibility. She had an SSI tracker injected under her skin and the SSI headset designed by Tweeter and Keely. She could switch to a secure channel used only by SSI to report any suspicious activity to her crew. Price had also added a demand that she check in with him every fifteen minutes; she'd bargained that to every thirty minutes, and her wrist unit was set to remind her to do so.
The compromise wasn’t as safe as her staying in hiding on Sanctuary, but it was the best concession she could negotiate in the circumstances and still allow her to do her job as SSI's FSO.
Assured she knew where the fire was at that moment, she hiked down to where the SSI and other crews were felling trees, both live and dead ones, and laying the fire line.
While the SSI crew was fairly new to wildland firefighting, they'd been trained alongside the Grangeville hotshots and had excelled. She was proud of her guys who were laying fire line at a decent rate of eighteen chains an hour. The best hotshot crews laid down fire line at the rate of twenty chains an hour or about a quarter mile an hour.
Tara found her team easily since they wore fire-retardant Nomex pants in the SSI colors of blue and reflective white and yellow fire shirts with the blue-and-white SSI logo on the back. She checked in with each man, made sure they were hydrating and eating energy bars, had their fire shelters close at hand, and knew their safety zone was a lateral move to a completely rocky area near a waterfall, which also happened to be contiguous to the spike camp where the crews would eat and bed down for the night.
When she approached Price, he and Trey were felling pine trees on the sharply inclined slope.
Tara was happy to see her fiancé.
She still got a warm, gooey feeling inside when she recalled the night he'd slipped the yellow diamond set in platinum on her finger. They'd called both sets of parents the next morning and a decision had been made to have a small wedding, immediate family and their SSI family, at the Lodge before the end of July.
Price refused to wait any longer than that, and Tara sided with him. Price's mother was going to be a pain since Fee and Trey had gotten married in the County Clerk's office and Price's older sisters, Alanna and Regan, were both single. But since the groom's family really had no say in the actual wedding or the reception, Tara would smile and accept the probably over-the-top rehearsal dinner Price's mother would plan. Her parents were thrilled and would do whatever Tara wanted.
She rubbed her ring finger with her thumb, missing t
he weight of the ring even though she’d worn it only for three days. For safety reasons, and the fear of losing it, the ring was back at Sanctuary.
Not wanting to startle Price while he was wielding the chain saw, Tara clicked her headset to the SSI private channel.
"Píítaa, take a break. Drink some water." She pulled an energy bar from her pack. "You, too, Trey.”
After Price put his saw down, he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his long-sleeved shirt, leaving a grimy streak, and then gave her a smile. "Is that for me?"
"Yes." She handed him the bar and pulled out another one for Trey who smiled his thanks as he took it. "Can't have you two fainting from low blood sugar."
"Men don't faint," Price drawled.
"Uh huh, sure." She leaned in to give him a kiss. He smelled like pine, smoke, and healthy male sweat. He smelled like hers. "It'll be dark in about an hour. We'll finish up here best we can and then head to the spike camp for the night."
Since they'd started at the farthest point of the section of perimeter they'd been assigned to cut and then worked their way back toward the safety area, they were only about a half mile from the camp, and they could follow the creek for most of that.
She looked at the western sky. "A storm's coming. I can smell the moisture. If we're lucky, we'll get a nice downpour which will help a bunch."
"Or we'll get wind and lightning with no rain. And even more pines will go up like torches and we'll be behind," Trey interjected.
"Such an optimist, Trey. I'm gonna tell Fee," Tara teased.
"She knows what I'm like, but she married me anyway." Trey winked.
Tara laughed, gave Price another kiss—which was so not in her duties, but she wanted one—then walked to check in with two of the other SSI crew, before going back to her chain saw and taking down at least one more tree.
* * * *
Price watched as Tara spoke to Trent and Ben, two of the newer SSI operatives. Even though he had Tara living in his house with his ring on her finger, Trent’s flirting still pissed him the fuck off.
"You should have a word with Trent," Trey suggested. "The man’s persistent. I overheard him talking to one of Tara’s brothers on his cell. He told whichever one it was that you'd put a diamond on her finger."
"So?" Price picked up his chain saw and walked over to where they'd set the gas can and filled the saw’s tank. "They were going to find out eventually. We told her parents the morning after she finally agreed to set the date. They should be happy about it. Now they won't see me as taking advantage of their baby sister."
"It didn’t sound to me as if Trent saw it as a done deal."
Price growled. "Fucking asshole." He shot a glare at Trent, happy to see Tara had moved off to her saw and was expertly taking a pine down. "We'll see about that."
"If it’s any help, Trent didn't look happy after he ended the call." Trey chuckled. "I got the impression he didn't get the support he wanted from his buddies."
"I'll ask Tara if she’s talked to her brothers since we talked to her parents. From what she told me they've been jumping fire all over the Four Corners area." Price started his chain saw with a vicious pull. Speaking loudly enough to be heard above the roar of the saw, he added, "If she hasn't, I'll ask her to call them after we rotate out to the fire camp for the mandatory rest period. Then I can assess what support I have from the three of them."
"Might be a good idea," Trey shouted back. "Gives you firmer ground when explaining to Trent why he needs to stay the fuck away from your woman."
Price gave Trey a thumbs up and then took out his lingering anger and resentment of the too-cocky Trent on the hapless pine.
Two hours later, at the camp, Price sat next to Tara, away from the others, next to the tent he’d set up for them. He finished his can of Pepsi and sighed with satisfaction. "It was nice of DJ and Tweeter to fly in cold soft drinks for the crews along with Scotty’s BBQ pulled pork sandwiches."
Water and energy drinks got boring after drinking them all day to stay hydrated. Sometimes only cold caffeine and sugar would satisfy a thirst.
"The ice cream treats were welcome also." Tara polished off the last bite of a Drumstick. She nudged him with her shoulder. "You're pissed about something. What?"
God, she read him far too well. He'd never be able to hide anything from her, not that he planned on doing so deliberately, but there would be times he'd be coming off a classified mission and he couldn't talk about it. But what was bothering him now wasn't classified and it involved them as a couple.
"Have you told your brothers we're getting married?" he asked.
"Yes. I caught them yesterday afternoon, between jumping fires. Mom and Dad had already told them. All three are very happy for us, especially since it means we aren't living in sin as Flynn said." She angled his face with the tips of her fingers and then kissed him.
Tara tasted like the chocolate and ice cream she'd eaten and something essentially Tara. He deepened the kiss and groaned since this couldn’t lead to anything other than cuddling her for what little sleep they might get.
When he reluctantly ended the kiss, she said, “Mmmm, love you.” She leaned into him. “Now, tell me, why the pissed look?"
Which she'd kissed right off his face.
"Trent." Price grimaced.
"You've nothing to worry about." She laid her head on his shoulder. "I love you. I think flirting is in his DNA. Ignore him. I am."
Price snorted. If it were only that easy. Trent was a Marine through and through, and Marines didn’t quit until they achieved their objective. He still planned to keep a wary eye on the younger man.
Changing the subject, he asked, "What's your take on the progress in containing the fire?"
"It's about thirty percent contained, but that’s only because the southeastern area of the fire hit a previous burnout, so other than some spot fires where the wind shot some sparks, that part of the fire is contained.”
Price nodded. Someone had said the fire had destroyed hundreds of acres before hitting the area she'd described.
She continued, “The backfire set for tomorrow morning in this sector should bump that to maybe sixty percent." She sat up and arched her back. He massaged her spine and she moaned. “That feels so good.” She kissed his cheek. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Considering the firefighters have only been on this fire for two days, that's damn good, especially after the winds began at midday. My gut says Mother Nature is going to fuck us. Trey’s pessimism has a good basis in reality. While I smell moisture, I checked my super-duper SSI sat phone slash handheld computer for the weather service reports. Those tell me the coming storm is mostly lightning, wind, and little rain. We'll just have to get some sleep and see what morning brings."
"You're sharing my tent," he said.
"Yes, I am. But only for sleeping." She gave him a slumberous look. "We'll have to save sex for when we get home. Shower sex then hot tub sex sounds good. By the time we're done with this fire, I'll need to soak my aches away."
"I'll give you a massage when we get home," Price promised.
"Well, that's inspiration to get this fire knocked down." She brushed a kiss over his ear. "And I'll return the favor and give you a happy ending."
"The fire has no chance now," Price growled, "because I like happy endings."
* * * *
Sunday, July 19th, o500
After four hours of sleep, Tara and Price stood in the chow line. Breakfast looked to be oatmeal, scrambled eggs, bacon or ham, fried potatoes, and a variety of muffins, plus orange juice, energy drinks, coffee, and cold sodas. Once they'd gotten their plates they joined the rest of the SSI crew sitting around a firepit. No rain had fallen, but the air was chilly at this altitude and the wind was brisk. The heat of the small fire was welcome.
"What's the news on the fire, Tara?" Trey asked.
"It jumped the perimeter on the northeast side, but the Missoula crew is on it." Ta
ra sipped her juice. "The backburn has been delayed since the winds could blow sparks eastward onto the slope where we’re trying to establish a perimeter. So we need to finish up the stretch of slope we worked yesterday."
"Maybe we should start at the top of the ridge and work down," Trent said.
Tara looked around the circle. “What’s the rule about fighting fire in the mountains?”
“Don’t get caught above the fire,” Price said.
She gave him a smile. "Exactly. Fighting fire on mountain slopes sets up a blowup or a firestorm situation. A classic feedback loop of fire reinforcing itself with its own heat and flame. The fire superheats the fuel above it and dries it out making the fire burn even harder and faster, so fast you can’t outrun it, and then it blows." She looked each man in the eye. "Never be above an approaching fire. Always have a safe exit in mind. And if there is no exit, deploy your fire shelter and pray. That's why I check in with you and point out the best way to evacuate as the fire conditions change."
The men stared at her for a second, probably wondering why they'd volunteered to be on the SSI fire crew.
"I've worked fires as a volunteer since I was thirteen, doing mop up, then later trained as a hotshot in the Missoula area because it was the family business when we weren't in the military." She paused. "I've been in a firestorm, and obviously survived. I'll make sure you all get out. That's my job."
The men nodded, then focused on shoveling in their own fuel. Once everyone was done eating, they picked up their gear, all eighty pounds of it per person, then headed out for what Tara considered her battlefield, her line to hold against the enemy fire. She had a good crew. They were surrounded by other capable firefighters. So why was her gut roiling?
She took a deep breath, readjusted her pack to a more comfortable position, and blamed her upset stomach on one too many blueberry muffins. Walking by Price's side, she checked in with the on-site Fire Manager and reported that the SSI crew was back on duty.
Chapter 21
Firestorm (Security Specialists International Book 6) Page 29