“Maybe you’re planning to tell him Quelhorn is his daddy. That his daddy is a goddamn pencil-necked—”
Chin jutting out angrily, she stalked closer until her face was less than a foot away from his. “What do you think I should tell him, Buzz? That his father is an adrenaline freak and spends his days trying to get himself killed?”
“That’s crap and you know it.”
“That you think you’re some kind of superhero? Maybe I could tell him about the night you got shot. The night some kid put a bullet in your spine. Another millimeter or two and it would have severed the cord. Maybe I could tell him how you almost died that night.”
“I was a cop, Kel. It’s part of the job. I accepted that.”
“I didn’t.”
“Cops get hurt. You knew that going in.”
“That’s not going to happen to my son.”
“He’s my son, too.”
“In that case, maybe I’ll tell him you turned down a decent corporate security job because you’re addicted to adrenaline. All the people who love you can go straight to hell because you don’t give a damn what they think or how much they suffer or who you leave behind if you get yourself killed. Maybe I’ll tell him you chose Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue over our marriage because it chafes your ego to sit behind a desk.”
“I did not choose RMSAR over our marriage. You gave me an ultimatum.”
“And you made your choice.”
“I did what I had to do!” he shouted. “What I do has nothing to do with ego. It has to do with who I am, and with the fact that you never got over losing your father and brother.”
She paled at the mention of her father. Buzz knew he’d hit a nerve. They’d never discussed the details of the chopper crash that had killed her father, Jack McKee, and her older brother Kyle. But Buzz had heard the rumors, heard the stories. He knew it must have been tough for her; she’d only been a kid. But he also knew he couldn’t change who he was simply because she couldn’t live with it.
“Don’t bring my father or brother into this,” she said in a quivering voice. “This is between you and me.”
“I think we both know your father and brother are at the heart of the matter,” he said quietly.
“You’re forty years old, Buzz. When are you going to grow up? You can’t spend the rest of your life jumping out of choppers and rappelling down cliffs!”
“You can’t spend the rest of your life being afraid.”
“I’m not the one who’s afraid. You are.”
Buzz couldn’t remember the last time he was so angry he shook. But he was now. That it was Kelly who’d gotten him to this point irked him to no end. She’d always known which buttons to push and he could clearly see that the time away from him hadn’t changed anything.
Grinding his teeth, he turned away from her, stalked over to his backpack and scooped it up. “We’re burning daylight,” he said.
“Fine.” She hurled the water bottle at him.
Buzz caught it with one hand, tucked it into his backpack then slung the backpack over his shoulders. His heart was still pounding when he started down the trail.
“The sky looks funny, Bunky Bear.”
Eddie Malone huddled against the rocks and hugged the stuffed animal, trying not to think about how scared he was. He’d drunk the last of his juice when he first woke up, and already he was thirsty. He’d eaten his peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, and now he only had one cracker left. He wanted to save it for later, but he was hungry, too.
What was he going to eat when he ran out of crackers?
The thought made him want to cry, but he didn’t. He’d cried a lot already and all it did was make his cheeks burn. His eyes and throat were burning, too. He didn’t think that was from crying, though, but because of the smoke. The air smelled like it did when he and Mommy had a fire in the fireplace.
Thinking of his mommy made him whimper. Oh, he wished he could find her. All he wanted to do was go home.
“Mommy!” he called out. “I’m scared! Where are you?”
He’d had a bloody nose earlier when he was crossing the creek. He hadn’t even noticed until he looked down and saw blood on his shirt. Mommy always told him to pinch the end of his nose and tilt his head back, so he’d sat down with Bunky Bear and done just that until it stopped.
A screech drew his attention to the sky. Eddie looked up to see a big bird wheeling overhead. He wondered if it was an eagle. He’d never seen an eagle before.
Even though the sun was still out, the sky was darker than it had been the day before. Maybe there was a storm coming. He thought about thunder and almost started crying again. He didn’t like storms, so he hugged Bunky Bear tighter and started to hum the song Mommy had taught him when they’d driven on that really far drive to the mountains where she was going to be working in a really cool place.