He turned to her and frowned. She looked better than she had a right to. Her color had returned. She’d pulled her brown hair into a ponytail. Dirt marred the knees of her jeans, but she’d tucked in her shirt and brushed off the leaves. No, she shouldn’t have looked so damn good. But she did, and the fact that he noticed ticked him off more than anything she could have said.
Without speaking, he pulled the radio from its case and summoned Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue Headquarters. “Homer One this is Tango Two Niner. Can you give me a stat on our lost boy?”
“Dispatch here, Buzz. We just heard from White River. No sign of the subject. Grid search in progress just north and east of you. Clear.”
“Where’s Eagle?” he asked, referring to the Bell 412 chopper.
“Eagle left at first light. Flyboy did a sweep of the area, but the Forest Service needed a swoop and scoop just north of you. It’s an emergency situation up there. A dozen homes burned this morning. Sixteen people had to be evaced.”
Buzz hadn’t wanted Kelly to hear that. They didn’t need yet another emergency piled on top of the one they were already dealing with. Without looking at her, he turned and walked a few paces away from her. “How bad is the fire?”
“It’s small right now. Only a couple thousand acres have burned. But it’s not controlled and another front is coming through this afternoon. Winds are going to be bad, Buzz. Fifty, sixty knots. Going to send the fire south fast. Things might get a little crazy.”
Buzz knew all too well what those kinds of winds would do to a fire in drought conditions. Even a light breeze could turn a relatively controlled fire into an out-of-control inferno if things were dry enough. He and Kelly and Eddie were directly south of the area Dispatch was referring to. For the first time, true fear gnawed at his stomach like a starving rodent. “Front going to be dry?”
“That’s affirm according to Weather Service.”
“Damn.” Buzz scrubbed a hand over the stubble of his beard. “Kel and I are on the east side of the campground. We found tracks last night, then again this morning. Let the base camp know, all right? I think we’re close, but we could use some volunteers up here.”
Dispatch hesitated. “Boulder One is working the fire.”
Buzz closed his eyes, caught himself, hoped Kelly didn’t see the reaction. “We lost all of our help?”
“That’s affirm.”
“How many people we got looking for the boy?”
“Jake Madigan is out with a few people on horseback just to the west of you. Dog team from Chaffee County is en route. John Maitland and Scully are in the ATV to the south.”
“Roger that, Dispatch. Clear.” Cursing, Buzz shoved the radio into its case and latched it to his belt. When he ran out of things to do, he turned to Kelly.
She was standing a few feet away, staring at him as if he’d just hung up with the executioner. Her eyes were large and dark and knowing in the pale oval of her face.
“Where’s the chopper?” she asked evenly.
“There’s a fire to the north. Forest Service asked Flyboy to evac some families.”
“They’re not going to help us?”
“The fire takes precedence, Kel.”
“How bad is the fire?”
He considered her for a moment, weighing his options, wondering how much he could tell her without setting her off.
“Don’t you dare hold out on me,” she snapped.
“I’ll level with you if you can keep a handle on it.”
“I can handle it. Just….” Her voice broke. “Damn it, Buzz. I deserve to know what we’re up against.”
“The fire’s to the north of us and burning out of control. There’s a front coming. Winds are expected to kick up to about fifty knots.”
“Rain?”
Buzz shook his head. “It’s a dry front.”
“It’s coming this way, isn’t it? South. Of course it is.”
He nodded, hefted his backpack and slipped his arms through the straps. “Let’s go.”
“How long do we have?” she asked.
“Kel, you know how unpredictable fires are.”
Her hands shook when she reached for her fanny pack and clipped it to her belt. “All right,” she said. “Let’s go find Eddie.”
To someone who didn’t know her, she might have looked like she was about to set off on a Saturday-morning hike. But Buzz knew her all too well, knew her intimately, remembered every detail about her because he still dreamed about her.
He saw clearly the pain and fear in her eyes. The tension in her shoulders when she moved. The unsteady hands. All of that punctuated by the determined set of her mouth. It was hard for him to watch her hurt, even harder not to do anything about it. Every cell in his body screamed for him to go to her, to hold her for a moment and tell her everything was going to be all right.
But he held his ground. He knew if he gave in to the need to touch her, to make everything all right—even if it wasn’t—he might open a door he’d worked very hard to close. A door he would be a fool to open now, no matter what lay on the other side of the threshold.
Chapter 6