Wildfire Griffin (Fire & Rescue Shifters: Wildfire Crew #1)(74)
Edith had sidled out of sight behind him. Rory clasped the other man’s hand firmly, looking him straight in the eye.
“We’ll clear the way for you,” he said. “Hope you can keep up.”
“Oh, my squad are good. Strong men, real men, one and all.” His gaze flicked over Rory’s crew t-shirt. “Hey, Thunder Mountain! You’re out of Montana, right?”
“That’s right.”
“We’re from there too.” The man hesitated. “Say…you guys hiring?”
“Not mid-season,” Rory said. “Maybe next year. Why?”
“Always wanted to be a hotshot.” The man glanced back at his own crew, his voice dropping. He tapped his wallet pocket meaningfully. “If there’s anything I can do to, you know, get you to put in a good word for me with your chief…you get my drift?”
“You can put in an application like anyone else,” Rory said coolly. “But I have to warn you, we only take the best.”
Deliberately, he moved to one side, turning.
“Edith,” he said in a loud voice that carried across the clearing. “You’re on saw today.”
Since it was a big, multi-crew assignment, they’d all labeled their helmets. STONE stood out stark and clear as she raised her head proudly.
“Sure thing, Rory,” she said, without so much as a glance at her old boss or crew. “I’ll go sort out the gear.”
The other man’s jaw had dropped. “E-Edith?” he stuttered. “Edith Stone?”
She gave him a cheery, dismissive wave. Her fingers rippled with silent laughter as she strode off, hips swinging.
Her old boss stared after her, eyes round with shock. “That—that was Edith Stone. You, uh…you do know what she is, right?”
“Yes.” Rory settled his own helmet onto his head. “The best firefighter on my squad.”
*
“His face,” Blaise said yet again. She giggled, clinking water bottles with Edith as if making a toast. “Oh man. I wish I’d been in time to get a picture. That was epic.”
Edith grinned. “Was he very jealous?”
“Sick as a dog,” Blaise assured her. “Uh, no offence, Fenrir.”
The hellhound, who was flopped in the shade with his tongue hanging out, waved his tail in a lazy wag.
“And we left them in the dust,” Wystan said with deep satisfaction. He shaded his eyes, looking back down the hill. “They’re still a good half mile back, by my reckoning.”
Callum shrugged. “Only human.”
“Hey!” Edith tossed a twig at him in playful mock-outrage. “What do you think I am?”
Callum’s mouth curled up fractionally. “One of us.”
They all looked up as Rory’s shadow fell over them. He clipped his radio back to his belt, frowning.
“Break time’s over, team,” he said. “That was Buck. Control needs us to split here. There are two teams already working east and west over here. We’re going to go reinforce one of them, and Tanner will take B and C squads to help the other.”
“So which way are we going?” Blaise asked.
“Up to us. Tanner says he doesn’t mind, so the choice is ours.” Rory rubbed the back of his neck, scanning the dry, scrubby forest around them. “Anyone got a preference?”
Edith shook her head along with the others. Or, she realized, most of the others. Joe, who’d been splashing water over his head to cool down, had gone still. He stared intently down into his cupped palm.
“Joe?” she asked. “Something up?”
He jerked as though she’d startled him. “No. Nothing. West. We should go west.”
Blaise huffed, shaking her head. “Of course you want the path that goes downhill.”
“Yeah.” Joe flicked water from his hand, his customary grin reappearing. “You know me. Anything for an easy life.”
“West it is then.” Rory shouldered his Pulaski. “Let’s go.”
They fell into line, hiking through the bone-dry undergrowth. Dust puffed up under Edith’s boots. Her legs fell into easy, enjoyable rhythm, following Rory.
In no more than five miles, they heard saws working ahead. The ever-present smoke grew thicker. Ominous crackles undercut the roar of the chainsaws. Orange light flickered through the trees.
A full crew was already working on extending a fireline, racing the oncoming fire. The woman at the front looked up as they approached, powering down her chainsaw.
“Are we ever glad to see you,” she said, pushing her safety helmet up her sweaty forehead. “We need all the help we can get to beat this thing.”
Rory smacked palms with her, nodding. “Glad to be here. Where do you want us?”
She pointed. “There’s a hellish tangle that way. If you could get through it, I’d be grateful. Which one of you is Animal Rescue?”
They all exchanged puzzled glances.
“Uh, none of us,” Rory said, blinking. “Why?”
The woman swore colorfully. “There’s a baby deer or something hiding in there. I think it’s hurt. None of us have been able to coax it out. I called it in two hours ago. Those incompetent idiots at Control promised they were sending someone.”