Let Me Burn (Angel Sands 1)

And yet she was afraid, scared of what he must think about her. She’d practically collapsed after Richard made Will’s announcement. Although Ally’s explanation of her reaction made sense, she wasn’t sure how to explain it to him.

He must think she still loved Will when the fact was she didn’t care for him at all, not the way she felt about Lucas. She just didn’t want to tell him the real reasons she’d been taken by surprise. She didn’t want him to know how easily she could be hurt, and she definitely didn’t want to tell him about the baby – or lack of it. What would he think of her?

Pulling her eyes away from her phone, she looked first at Ally, then at Brooke. She felt blessed to have them in her life. How many times had they run to help her when she needed them?

But right now, she was desperate to be alone. She didn’t want to talk about Will or Lucas anymore. She wanted to curl up, close her eyes, and submit herself to the sweet nothingness of sleep.

“I think I’m going to go to bed.” She gave the smallest of smiles. “My dad always said things looked better in the morning light, I’m going to see if he’s right.”

“Would you like one of us to stay?” Brooke asked. “I could sleep on the sofa.”

Ember shook her head. “No. I’ll be fine, I promise. I’m so tired I’ll fall asleep right away.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I’m sure,” Ember told them, her voice firm. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this exhausted, her whole body was dog tired. She wasn’t sure she’d even make it to the bed without collapsing. “Thank you both for being here. I’ll call you in the morning to let you know how I’m doing.”

They stood and Ally hugged her, followed by Brooke. They still looked reluctant to leave. “Go,” Ember told them, making shooing movements with the last of her energy. “Let’s all get some sleep, okay?”

When they left, she changed into her sleep shorts and cleaned her teeth slowly, every movement of her arm feeling leaden. She climbed into bed and let her head sink back into the softness of her pillow, and tried not to look at the space where Lucas sometimes slept.

Lucas. Agh, what a mess she’d made of things. The thought of trying to explain it to him made her feel sick. She sighed again, turning on her side so she didn’t have to look at the empty space beside her, and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

She didn’t want to think about it anymore. Her messed-up non-relationship would have to wait until morning.

25

The loud ring of his phone woke him up. Lucas turned onto his side, reaching his hand out in the darkness of the room, moving it around until he located his cell on the table next to his bed. Frowning, he lifted it to look at the display.

Chief Simons.

Well that got his attention like nothing else. He immediately sat up, sliding his finger across the screen to accept the call, and lifted his phone to his ear, trying not to worry about why she was calling this early in the morning.

“Hello?” His voice still held the heaviness of sleep. “Chief Simons?”

“Thanks for answering. Did I wake you up?”

A glance at the clock beside his bed which told him it was just after two a.m. No point in lying about it. “Yeah, but that’s okay. What’s up?”

“A fire’s broken out in the Santa Maria Forest.” The chief’s voice was low as she spoke down the line. “The dryness of the trees and the constant wind is making it spread fast. We’re sending every wildfire-trained crew we’ve got down there. If you’re available, I need you, too. Can you get to White City station within an hour?”

“Yes ma’am.” Lucas jumped out of bed, the soles of his feet hitting the wooden floor hard.

He was completely awake now, his mind on high alert. He’d been called out to wildfires before – they were no joke. “You want me to lead a crew?”

“Yes. I know you’re not due back until Monday, but if you can start a day early I’d be really grateful.” She took a deep breath. “I need my best men out there, Lucas. You’re one of them. I know I can rely on you.”

Lucas pulled a t-shirt over his head and grabbed his pants, sliding his legs into them while still holding the phone. “Yes you can, ma’am,” he told Chief Simons, his thoughts already on the location of the fire and the direction of the dry wind. “I’ll be with you shortly.”

* * *

Wildfires were common at this time of the year in Southern California, and Lucas had been involved in fighting a number of them during his time with the White City Fire Department. He knew how unpredictable they could be, how long they could last, and how much they were at the mercy of nature when they tried to fight back the flames.

As the crew climbed out of their truck and joined the other firefighters on the ground, he could feel the heat of the inferno as it carried through the wind. Black dust surrounded him as he put his breathing equipment on, making sure it was snug against his skin. One thing he’d learned from experience – you didn’t take any risks when it came to wildfires.

It was a little known fact that you didn’t only fight wildfires with water. Oh yeah, there was plenty of the stuff used, both on the ground and in the air, but there wasn’t enough water in the whole of California to effectively put out a fire this big. Containing and putting out fires like this was similar to running a military operation – with the Chief coordinating her staff on both land and in the air, switching tactics as the weather changed, directing the crews to create a fire line – a barrier between the encroaching wildfire and the land that hadn’t yet been affected by the flames.

“Lucas, thanks for coming,” Chief Simons nodded at him, her face grim. “I need you and your crew to join the others in the forest. We have a bulldozer out there bringing down trees, we’re going to need to burn them all before the fire gets here. According to the forecasts, the wind is going to get worse in the morning. I want us to get this under control before that happens.”