Wildfire on the Skagit (Firehawks Book 9) Read Online Free PDF

couldn’t see twenty feet in. To the other, flames were kicking up fifty, even a hundred feet into the sky. Even as he watched, smoke and ash from the active flank of the fire curled into the newly opened firebreak…and died.
    A black-and-fire painted Firehawk helo roared down into the valley. Pounding in a hundred feet above the thick, unburned forest, it unleashed a long shower of a thousand gallons of bright red retardant to further guarantee that the fire didn’t jump the new line. Little droplets of the retardant drifted over to land on him, tiny stings like bug bites everywhere it touched skin. Well, between the morning on the fire and the drop at least his gear wasn’t stand-out pristine any more.
    Once the helo peeled off, he could hear chainsaws chewing away at the trees above him, but they were out of sight in the smoke.
    Had another team jumped in while he was gone to get so much done?
    But as he trudged up the line, the crew slowly resolved into view. There were just four of them. Two sawyers, one swamper, and one who appeared to be everywhere at once.
    Clearly in her natural element, Krista moved about the fireline like a blond ballerina in a hardhat. One moment she was digging line, the next she was helping Ox catch up with the sawyers. She ran a gas can up the line when one of the saws sputtered to a stop and they had it running again before Evan had closed half the distance.
    Krista spotted him.
    “Took your time, Rook.”
    “Brought you a present,” Evan made a show of lifting the jerry can and the water cube though his arms wept when he did.
    “Whoo-ee!” She hooted out. “Better than a bouquet of roses. We just might keep you, Rook.” She hustled down the last of the slope and grabbed the jerry can.
    He was about to protest about the weight, when she turned and trotted back up to the sawyers with it as if it was as light as that rose bouquet.
    Roses for Krista? Evan was pretty sure he’d never given a woman other than Mom a bouquet of roses—and that had been for Mother’s Day at a girlfriend’s prompting. It wasn’t until the girlfriend was long gone that he understood he should have given her flowers once in a while too. He just never thought of it. And his mother didn’t deserve them. Neither of his parents had—ever.
    By the time he reached the other near-empty water cube to set down his full one, Krista was back beside him.
    “Take five, Rook. You earned it.”
    He wanted nothing more than to throw himself on the ground. Instead, he dug out a packet of electrolyte and dumped it into a dry water bottle. It was a challenge as his hands started shaking with the burn of lactic acid buildup in the muscles.
    Krista watched him for a moment as he filled it from the cube.
    “Nah,” he did his best to make it sound casual. He slugged back half the bottle, knowing that would help more than any rest.
    Clearly none of them had rested even a second of the time he’d been gone. It was the only way they could have gotten so much done. So resting wasn’t an option, but he bought himself a few moments for the shakes to stop by giving his report. It also let him keep Krista to himself for a few moments. That was a feeling he definitely liked.
    “The line below is clean. Only two small flare-ups and I buried them. Nick and Lee are moving well, though they need more hose dropped within the hour or they’ll be down to a single line.”
    She hopped on the radio with that and one of the helos promised to make a drop.
    He was as rested now as he was going to be on this fire. “Think I’ll give Ox a hand.” He took a step to go around Krista and she rested a hand on his shoulder.
    She squeezed it hard, hard enough to rub bones together if he hadn’t been muscled up for a fire season. “Thanks, Evan. You done good,” her voice was surprisingly soft and smooth.
    He flipped her a finger and grin just as she had done to him right after his jump into the Black.
    As Evan moved up the slope he felt