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Lucky.
Hmmm? That was apparently the best I could do when it came to conversation.
Lucky.
I smiled to myself as strong fingers intertwined with mine. Leave it to Zach to never fail to get my attention.
Lucky, wake up, my love. It’s time to go.
I nodded in agreement but didn’t move. One more minute. I just needed one more—
Zach’s grip on my fingers lost their gentleness as he called my name again. This time, there was no softness in his voice, though. No endearments, either. His voice was harsh and thick and then he was coughing, gagging even.
The realization ripped me out of the dreamlike state I’d fallen into. It was just in time for me to hear Zach grate out my name again.
For real.
“Zach?” I shouted in disbelief as I scrambled upright. The smoke was so thick it was hard to make out all of his features. “Zach!” I croaked. His beautiful eyes fluttered open.
“Gggg…ggg—” he began before he was overcome with a coughing fit. My hands flew into action. I searched out my emergency pack and found the extra bottle of water I kept in it. I reached down to rip a couple of pieces of fabric from my shirt, doused them liberally with water and placed one over Zach’s mouth and the other over my own.
“Zach, can you get up? We have to go! The fire is moving down the mountain. It’s going to cut off our access to the trail leading back to the lodge!”
Zach shook his head, then took the fabric from his mouth and tried to add it to what I already had pressed to my own.
“Go,” he sputtered before he started coughing again.
“Yes, we need to go!” I agreed. “Keep this on!” I said as I pressed the fabric back to his mouth. As long as we stayed low, the smoke wasn’t quite as thick but I knew it would just be a matter of time before that wasn’t the case.
“Go!” Zach ground out again, this time his voice a little more clear. He once again thrust the makeshift mask against my mouth. “You have to go,” he growled. “Before it’s too late.”
You?
What the fuck was he talking about?
“Lucky, go!” he shouted and then he was shoving at me with one hand.
I actually looked down the ridge, then behind me as if the answer I was seeking was somewhere in the orange-red flames that were peeking through the cloud of smoke.
Did he really think I was going to leave him there just so I could save myself? When he pushed me again and literally ordered me to go, I was done.
Finally.
Fucking.
Done.
I leaned over him and pinned his arms to the ground so he couldn’t keep trying to shove me away. “You listen to me, you selfish son of a bitch,” I snapped. “You want me off this mountain, you’re damn well going to have to get me off it yourself, do you hear me? Because I. Am. Not. Leaving. You!”
I released his arms and grabbed his face. “You want to play hero, Army Man? Fine, you do that. But you’re going to be right next to me when I call my fathers to tell them I’m okay. And then you’re going to tell your brother that you’re coming home. Do you hear me, Zach? We are going home. Together or not at all!”
I loved the anger that sparked to life in his eyes. It brought my own body back to life. Zach hesitated for a microsecond before he nodded his head in agreement. I had no doubt that if he’d had the time, he would have ripped me a new one. Once we got to safety, I’d happily let him. But no way in hell would he be getting the last word.
I wasn’t gentle as I did my best to bodily lift Zach to his feet. Despite the noise around us, I could hear every grunt of pain as he bore his own weight on his injured leg. The only silver lining was that the injury was on the same leg as his bad knee. I put my arm around him to support him and wasn’t surprised when he did the same to me. My own knee screamed in protest, but the adrenaline pumping through my veins was a powerful thing. So was the memory of that perfect moment imagining myself lying in Zach’s arms in our bed.
I didn’t care how unrealistic it was. It was that image above anything else that sustained me as I took a step, then another.
Zach and I were going home, fire or no fire.
I would make sure of it.
Chapter 23
Zach
Fear drove me. Fear for myself but mostly fear for Lucky. I wanted to rage at him for not taking the chance to run when he’d had it. Even now as we slowly made our way to the trail that led down the mountain, I knew there was no way we'd beat the fire. Our only saving grace was that the winds seemed to have slowed a small amount, keeping the fire at our backs from overtaking us. But looking south, I could see the flames were within a few hundred yards of the trail that we'd need to use to get down to the lake and safety.
