Chapter 41
I’m too old for this shit.
We’re a town over from Sky Ridge helping the local fire department contain a blaze that jumped from a barn fire to the surrounding wildland. We were quick on the scene and there isn’t much damage, but goddamn, this was not the way I wanted to end my night.
No, I wanted to end my night buried balls deep in my beautiful woman, wrapped up in her bed like we have been for the last several weeks.
I’m a wreck. Utterly and hopelessly enamored with Teddy and her kids. For the first time in my life, I hated leaving to head into a fire. Even knowing it’s a simple job and I’ll be back home to her within a few hours, considering we can keep this from spreading. Which my crew is doing pretty fucking well.
I’m on a quad, the small headlights showing my way through the forested area as I scout. The boys are working fast and hard to head this thing off so we can all go the fuck home.
Picking my way carefully over dead logs, rocks, and up a steep embankment, I’m able to find a good spot to watch the blaze. I breathe a sigh of relief seeing that my team has it covered. Only one small section still blooms red in the dark.
So, down I head, back toward the action.
I find a narrow strip of mostly flat land with little to no obstructions running along a long line of fencing and hit the throttle, the headlight beams bouncing in the night and illuminating the smoke that’s drifting everywhere.
I can hear my crew on the other side of the tree line as I get closer, and then I’m airborne as the back end of the quad flips up on the right front wheel. I have a heartbeat to register what’s happening before I’m tossed into the fencing that I’ve been zipping along.
And as the bite of the razor wire registers as it catches my fall, I know this isn’t going to be pretty.