Some Cowboys Brave the Flames (Keagans of Copper Creek #10)

Chapter 21

21

Ash

S moke filled the air, thick and unyielding. The mask Ash wore almost felt more suffocating because he could barely see anything around him. His chest heaved. He needed oxygen. It didn’t matter that he was getting what his lungs needed; it was his brain that was playing tricks on him.

He’d been in this position before. He’d fought fires worse than this one.

Except this wasn’t the same.

Something was wrong. The heat was getting to him. His muscles ached. And the man he dragged behind him wasn’t moving. An enormous tree had buckled and come crashing down onto the group of men who were fighting to keep the flames at bay. It had crashed down and knocked two of his fellow smoke jumpers to the ground.

Ash spent too much time trying to move the tree from Marcus. He’d taken the brunt of it. Something deep inside Ash told him he wouldn’t be waking up. Cooper was the one who Ash was currently dragging toward the scorched clearing where the fire had already ravaged the earth. Marcus was already there, waiting, lifeless.

He’d already sent out his distress call, but with the smoke, he wasn’t sure they’d find him. He couldn’t see any sign of the helicopter that would be picking them up.

His lungs burned with each breath.

Something was wrong.

Ash stumbled, nearly losing his footing altogether, but he kept pushing forward. He wasn’t going to leave either of these men behind. They deserved to be brought back, dead or alive.

Sweat poured from his face. His heart raced painfully. His vision swam. Then the ground rose up to meet him, and everything went dark.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

The darkness continued to swirl around Ash in every direction he looked.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Where was that incessant sound coming from?

Every muscle in his body ached. He couldn’t move. Hushed voices echoed in the darkness, but he couldn’t decipher any of the words that were spoken.

The beeping continued. Something soft and cool brushed against his brow, but he couldn’t open his eyes to see what it was. Footsteps shuffled, moving farther away. The screech of metal against linoleum made him flinch. Where was he?

Then everything came rushing back with a vengeance.

The fire.

Marcus and Cooper.

He groaned, forcing himself to open his eyes despite how much his body protested. The main lights in the room were off. The only light in the room came from a tubular fluorescent bulb overhead. It flickered and buzzed, and he grimaced even though it wasn’t at full brightness. Ash shut his eyes again. This time he was slower in opening them and taking in his surroundings.

The hospital room wasn’t large by any means, but there weren’t any other patients he had to share it with. The obnoxious beeping sound came from the monitor to his left, and he knew if he lifted the blankets covering him, he’d find a cable connected to his body somewhere.

It was the person seated in the chair to his right that he hadn’t expected.

Mason was asleep, his chin resting on his chest at an awkward angle.

Ash attempted to sit upright, but pain sliced through his muscles again. Dizziness made it impossible to do anything more than lay back on his pillow. It was the middle of the night, based on the dark window.

He turned his head again toward Mason and flinched when he found his friend’s eyes open and staring at him. “Geez,” Ash croaked. “What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me ?” Fury laced each and every word Mason spoke. “What’s wrong with you ?” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his legs and dropping his head. His hair was mussed, and it looked as though he hadn’t slept in days. “Do you have any idea…” His voice trailed off, and he shot to his feet.

With one hand on his hip and the other one dragging down his face, Mason paced the small hospital room.

Ash watched him, the trepidation in his body only growing. If Mason was here—the one guy in Ash’s life who likely despised him—then what did that mean for Charlie? Had she been here? Did she know?

Of course she knew. Mason wouldn’t not tell her.

His chest heaved and his pulse accelerated, causing the machine to do the same. “Where’s Charlie?” He didn’t think Mason was capable of sabotaging his relationship with his sister, but he wouldn’t put it past his old friend to nudge Charlie into a position where she wouldn’t be able to cope with what had happened.

Mason froze and glowered at Ash. “She’s at home. Hopefully sleeping. I made Daniel take her back.”

So she’d been here. That thought filled him with joy and worry at the same time. Ash instinctively shrunk back from Mason’s stare. The anger that was carved into his features was from more than simply dating his sister. There was an anguish in them that Ash hadn’t expected to see.

“Do you have any idea how worried we were?” Mason rasped.

Ash couldn’t bring himself to maintain that stare. He looked down at his hands on the white hospital bedding. “I could guess,” he said.

“Apparently you saved someone’s life.”

His head snapped up so hard that a sharp pain erupted in the back of his skull. “Marcus?”

By the look on Mason’s face, Ash knew. His head dropped back on his pillow, and he shut his eyes as he pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. He’d known Marcus’s condition was bad. Cooper was going to be okay; the tree had only landed on his leg. But Marcus had taken the brunt of it.

Mason’s footsteps approached, but Ash couldn’t look at him, not with the tears slipping from his eyes. He felt his friend’s hand on his shoulder, but Mason didn’t say anything. Marcus was gone. While Ash had been telling the truth that casualties were rare, that didn’t mean they were impossible.

His throat was too raw for him to let out an anguished cry, so he just let the tears slide down his cheeks. Time slipped away until a faint light filtered into the room. At some point, Mason had moved his chair a little closer. Their stilted conversation about the fire and how Mason had found out where Ash had been admitted could only last so long.

The room grew quiet with an awkward sort of heaviness, and Ash knew what was coming next.

Mason sighed and raked a hand through his disheveled hair. “I don’t like what you did, Ash.”

He flinched. Yep. Here it came.

“I will always think it was wrong. There’s no way to rationalize it.”

“I know,” Ash muttered. He felt the same, but that likely didn’t matter to Mason at all.

“But that being said…”

Ash lifted his head to look at Mason with a question in his eyes—and maybe a degree of hope.

Mason shrugged. “You’re always going to be my brother.”

The tightness in Ash’s chest stole the oxygen from his lungs. Even with the tube running to his nose and around his ears, Ash found it hard to breathe. “Thank you,” Ash croaked.

His friend gave him a sharp nod. For a moment it felt like the conversation was over, and then Mason shifted in his seat again. “I will beat you into an early grave if you hurt her, you know.”

A smile tugged at Ash’s lips unbidden. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.” He waited for Mason to look at him again. “How is she?”

Mason’s expression faltered. The peace they’d felt in the quiet room immediately dissipated. He blew out a long breath and fidgeted in his seat, no longer able to get comfortable. “She’s been beside herself.”

A pit opened up in his stomach—like a black hole that threatened to suck everything into it. “Was she mad?”

“I don’t think I’ve seen her cry this much in her whole life.” He raked a hand through his hair again. “You don’t know how hard it was to get her to agree to walk out to the truck with Daniel. I thought I was going to have to get a nurse to sedate her so Daniel didn’t have to throw her over his shoulder and take her out kicking and screaming.”

That didn’t sound good at all. “How long have I been here?”

Mason didn’t miss a beat. “You’ve been out for two days.”

“Two days!” Ash didn’t know what he was thinking as he moved to toss aside the blankets and climb out of his bed. He ignored the sharp pain behind his eyes as he tore the oxygen tube from his nose. “I can’t?—”

Mason’s hands were at Ash’s shoulders almost immediately. “ Don’t .”

Ash stared up at him with what was probably a wild look in his eyes. “I need to see her.”

“I’m sure she’ll be back later today.” Mason gave him a gentle shove just as a nurse entered the room.

Surprise, relief, then irritation moved across her features. “Mr. Ashton, you can’t remove the oxygen. You’ve sustained some injuries, and your lungs aren’t working as well as we’d like them to. If you don’t put the oxygen back on, the oxygen level in your blood is going to drop too low.”

“I have to leave. I need to?—”

Mason’s hand squeezed his shoulder, putting an end to his statement.

Ash didn’t miss the grateful look that passed between them. She righted all the equipment, then typed something into the computer near his bed before slipping out.

Mason didn’t return to his seat. It was as if he expected Ash to make another escape attempt. Ash scowled at him. “I’m sure you know as well as I do that Charlie isn’t in a good place.”

“Yeah? And who’s fault is that?” Mason demanded, his voice sharp. “You’re supposed to take care of yourself. I heard the fire chief talking. The only way you got both of those men to the clearing was by breaking protocol.”

Ash flinched. “Does Charlie?—”

“No. She wasn’t there when they were talking about it. But that doesn’t mean a dang thing. You might not want to accept it, but you’re part of our family whether or not you and Charlie work through this.”

Ash stiffened. Was Mason saying what he thought he was saying? Was there a chance that the two of them wouldn’t weather this storm?

“You have to make a decision.” Mason sighed, shaking his head. “I would never ask you to do this if it wasn’t important.”

The room was spinning, and it wasn’t because Ash had tried to get up too quickly. His thoughts had shifted to Charlie. She was his whole world. She was the bright spot in an otherwise dreary existence. And Mason wanted him to choose. Before Mason even uttered the words, Ash knew what he was going to say.

“As much as I care about you and understand what this job means for you—how much it’s made you happy… I can’t help but think about Charlie.” Mason gave him a firm stare. “She’s my sister. I have to look out for her. I don’t think she’d survive it if she found out that you didn’t survive the next one.”

“That’s not fair?—”

“No, it’s not,” Mason interrupted. “But is it fair to ask her to trust the job? To ask her to sit at home with your future children, not knowing if you’re going to come home? Do you think it’s going to be healthy for her to live her life sitting in front of the television watching the news for any indication that everything is okay? Because I don’t.”

Ash turned his scowl to his lap. He could feel his resistance to Mason’s words even as he said them. Charlie was overreacting.

“She’s lost too much already,” Mason said quietly.

Slowly, Ash lifted his gaze to his friend.

“I know it’s not the same, but when our parents left…” Mason shrugged, letting his words hang in the air unfinished.

“I don’t know if I can do what you’re asking,” Ash finally admitted. “I love her, Mason. I really do. But this job? It’s… it’s my life .” He didn’t miss the disappointment in Mason’s gaze. His friend didn’t understand. He never would—at least not until he was asked to give up something that he’d worked his whole life to attain.

“Then maybe…” Mason’s jaw tightened, and he turned away as if he couldn’t look Ash in the eye while he finished his statement. “If you love her as you say, maybe you should let her go.”