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“Sheriff, Doc Wilde is trying to get a hold of you. Says it’s some kind of emergency with one of Bill and Shelby’s kids. Can I patch you through?”
My stomach dropped as I rubbed my face and glanced around for my clothes. “Yes, of course.”
“Seth, that you?”
“Doc, what’s going on?”
“Otto’s been sent to fight the Amarillo wildfire. Is there any way you can use your connections to find out if he’s okay? We can’t get a hold of him.”
I looked at my watch. It was after one in the morning. His words sank in, and I felt my vision go dark around the edges. “Jesus, Doc. What the hell is he doing up in Amarillo?”
After putting the phone on speaker, I quickly threw on some jeans, a T-shirt, and a hoodie before finding my running shoes.
Doc’s voice was ragged. “They needed extra hands and he volunteered. He sent us a text two days ago saying he was headed up there and might not be reachable while he’s fighting the fire. We haven’t heard from him since, and he’s not answering his phone. They’ve already announced fatalities, Seth. We’re beside ourselves.”
“Grab a pen, Doc, and let me give you my direct number,” I said, running down the stairs of the loft and grabbing my service weapon from the lockbox before finding my wallet and keys. “Better yet, you want me to pick you up? I’m gonna head to the station and see what I can find out.”
A beat of silence before a sigh of relief. “Yes. God, yes. We’ll meet you there.”
It took me only five minutes to get to the Hobie PD, but it took hours before we got news of Otto. The hospital called Doc’s cell phone to notify him Otto was in the emergency room with blunt force trauma. He’d been felled by a heavy dead branch they referred to as a “widow maker” and rushed to the hospital. Within minutes of getting the update, the three of us were on the road to Amarillo with our hearts in our throats and the emergency lights flashing the whole way.
Chapter 6
Otto
Wilde,
I think it’s best if we break this off. What we had was kind of a high school thing anyway, right? So it probably wouldn’t have lasted the way we always thought. I’ve met some great people here, and I think it’ll be easier for me if I concentrate on the here and now instead of some future dream plans that may or may not happen.
I guess what I’m saying is… things change, Wilde Man. And I need to move on.
I’m sorry.
Walker
It took me forever to remember how the hell I’d ended up in the hospital. When I woke up, I felt groggy and confused. My head was pounding and my shoulder felt like it was throbbing to the beat of my heart. The smell of woodsmoke permeated my nostrils, and when it registered in my brain, the memories flooded back.
The Amarillo wildfire.
God, I was an idiot for volunteering. What had I been thinking?
You know what you were thinking. Anything to keep your mind off Walker.
I coughed and felt my throat scream in response. Why was my throat roughed up? Hadn’t I had my SCBA on? My brain scrambled to remember what had happened.
There had been tons of volunteers and crews from several different Texas fire departments like ours. We’d been organized by the incident commander and sent in with one of the strike teams to manage one quadrant of the blaze. We’d been clearing debris with chainsaws and trying to create part of the fire line when it happened. One of the branches high up in a tree being cut hadn’t been attached to the trunk. So, instead of falling over with the tree, it fell straight down on top of me when the tree pulled away from another one nearby.
Fuck.
The flash of pain ignited in my memory as I recalled how the heavy branch had landed on my shoulder before knocking me over and pinning me down by my hip. Thank god it hadn’t been my head. No helmet in the world would have protected me from the concussion that would have caused. I tried to move my hurt shoulder and nearly passed out from the pain.
When I finally got up the nerve to open my eyes again, they stung.
My SCBA mask had come off when I fell. I remembered that part now too. The hot smoke had burned as I’d sucked in breaths against the pain. I noticed the throbbing pain in my hip and wondered what the damage to my body was from the stupid incident.
Totally preventable. If only the guy cutting the tree had fucking communicated to clear the area before the tree had come down.
After pressing the nursing call button, I closed my eyes against the pain.
