Page 5 of Burning Escape (Chasing Fire: Alaska #3)

For a moment he lay there, his own ragged breath all he could hear. He tried opening his eyes. His vision blurred. Excruciating pain radiated from his shoulder and across his forehead.

That couldn’t be good.

He waited for the sky and trees to stop spinning. Gingerly pushed up to a sitting position.

A groan escaped. The agony from his shoulder and the pounding in his head sent a wave of nausea through him.

“Orion!” Tori slid down into the ravine on her bottom, holding on to tree trunks and limbs to keep from barreling down like he had. “Are you okay?”

She was there, kneeling in front of him, concern in her gaze.

If it weren’t for his shoulder being on fire and the probable skull fracture he had—given the way his head hurt—he’d be tempted to joke with her.

“Oooh, that doesn’t look good. I think you dislocated it,” she said as she assessed his shoulder.

Teeth clenched tight against the pain, he could only grunt in response. He felt along his clavicle and left shoulder. “It’s still in joint.” But it wouldn’t surprise him if he’d pulled or torn something in there.

“And you’re bleeding.” Her lips thinned and brow pinched as she leaned in, studying his forehead. She searched her pockets, found a bandanna, and wrapped it around his head. “Hopefully this will stop it.” She tied a knot. He tried not to wince as it tightened around his wound.

He hated being helpless like this, especially in front of her. But he was in too much pain to put up pretenses.

“Help me up.” He leaned on her to stand, another bout of nausea almost taking him out again. He powered through and stood. He tried one step. Didn’t keel over. Another.

“I’ve got this,” he told Tori. She looked reluctant but stepped away.

Orion stepped up to a black spruce, rested his good hand on the ragged bark.

He closed his eyes, focusing the next few breaths to go deep.

Better.

But not great.

“Are you okay?” Tori rested a light hand on his arm.

He nodded and immediately regretted it as dizziness hit him.

“Maybe you should sit again,” Tori said.

He didn’t fight it. He gingerly sat and leaned his back and head against the tree. Took a moment to listen. “I don’t hear the ATVs.”

“I guess that’s one benefit to falling down a mountain. There’s no way they could get those vehicles down here.”

“There are better ways to find a good hiding spot.” He bit back the groan building inside. Better to focus on her. “How’s the ankle?”

“I’ll live.” She released a short breath, blowing a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes.

Orion looked around them. It wasn’t bad as far as hiding spots went, and as dizzy as he was, he needed the rest, as much as he hated to admit it.

“Can you call the team?” Tori asked him. “We need to see where they are.”

She probably meant to see if Neil and Saxon had made it as they’d tried to pilot a plane with a fuel leak. Smoking. Going down. It would be a miracle if they’d survived.

“I lost my phone in the jump. Where’s yours? I can make the call if you give it to me.” She held out a hand.

He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out his phone. The screen had shattered, the back cracked and broken. “Guess this isn’t going to help us much.”

“What about the tracking rings Jade gave us?” Tori looked at her hand. “Mine is cracked. Will it still work?”

“I don’t know. I left mine on base since this wasn’t a fire call.”

Tori swallowed. For the first time since he’d met her, he saw a hint of vulnerability in her eyes as they shifted and took in her surroundings. “We’re on our own.”

* * *

Sure, Tori and Orion had gone head-to-head more than once this season, trying to prove each was worthy of the smokejumper badge.

And maybe as he’d beaten her across the finish line on their daily run or gotten a faster time on their drills, she’d had a moment of weakness and wished he’d developed a sudden fear of heights or an allergy to wildfire smoke.

But she didn’t really want to see him hurt.

And he was definitely hurting now. But just as she thought they might be out of danger, the faraway engine sounds came from the ridge above.

Her breath caught. “We have to move. They’re back.”

Her ankle hurt more than she let on, but she still grabbed Orion’s good arm. She draped it around her shoulders and hooked her own arm around his waist. “Let’s go, Montana.”

He grunted as they moved. “You haven’t called me that since?—”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s not go there.”

The pain must be bad. He didn’t say anything and simply leaned on her as they took tentative steps around boulders and tree roots. They followed the ravine away from the place he’d landed.

Heading east from what she could tell. “Once we lose these guys, we can head south, back to base camp.” She hit her ankle on a rock and sucked in a short breath. Man, that hurt!

“You okay?” Orion asked.

“Mm-hmm.” She bit down on her back molars, hard. The pain didn’t pass though. She hobbled another step. Great. She’d injured it more, could hardly put any weight on it. Orion dropped his arm and took a few steps without leaning on her.

He found a sturdy branch and handed it to her to use as a crutch. “We’re quite the pair. Your ankle. My shoulder and head.”

She stared at the makeshift crutch a moment. Did she give in to pain, or pride?

Pain won. She took the branch. “Who are these militia guys anyway, and why are they trying to kill us when they were only after Jamie and Logan?” Maybe she could direct her anger and ire toward the bad guys to push through.

“From what Logan said, Jamie’s brother Tristan infiltrated the group that was using that burnt compound we searched a few days ago.

I guess she downloaded some financial information or something when they had her captured earlier.

And now we just helped Jamie and Tristan escape them.

They’re probably trying to cut loose ends or think we know something. ”

“So they shoot down our plane and are now hunting us like prey. Great. Like I didn’t have enough creeps making my life miserable—” She clamped her lips tight. It wasn’t Orion’s problem. Why was she even bringing this up?

“What creeps? You mean me?” he asked.

“No! I was—it doesn’t matter. But no. I mean, sure, you’re incredibly annoying, but I would never call you a creep.”

“At least, not to my face?” Even through the ash and grime covering his face, the handsome smile he gave as they hobbled along loosened some of the tension in her neck.

That was better. He was still pale, obviously in pain the way he held his one arm tight across his chest, but a teasing Orion she could handle.

Because the moment he’d tumbled down that slope, she’d realized maybe she’d made a mistake walking away from him that night, the one when they’d danced under the stars. Maybe she’d made the wrong choice walking away, not seeing if their time together could’ve been the start of something.

It was too late now to find out. But she could dial down the rivalry a bit. They were teammates. Probably time to start acting like it.

“So really. Who’s bothering you back home?” he asked.

She glanced over again. He stopped, held back a low branch so she could walk ahead of him.

If nothing else, talking would help assess if he had a concussion or brain injury.

“I’m not sure. Probably just my dumb ex. But someone is leaving notes. Smashed my windshield. That sort of thing.”

“They smashed your windshield?”

“Yeah. That’s why I was late that first day of training. I had to file a police report and was trying to line up someone to fix it, and let’s just say it was an awful way to start the day. I was hoping to make a much better first impression.”

“But that was the morning after we met.”

“Yeah, it was while we were at the park that night. When I reached my car after we…went our separate ways, I had a note and a busted windshield waiting for me.”

Orion stood straight, clenched a fist, almost like he would go to battle for her. “Why didn’t you come after me? I would’ve?—”

“There was nothing you could do.” And she really shouldn’t be so touched that he was so upset by this, like he really cared about her. Probably he couldn’t help the desire for justice, and it had nothing to do with her.

“What about that guy on the dance floor? He wasn’t happy when you turned him down. It could’ve been him.”

“Maybe, but I don’t know him. How would he know which car was mine? My guess is still my ex. Though I haven’t seen him around town. Still, I feel like someone is watching me all the time. But it’s probably just paranoia.”

“Anything else happen since then?”

“No. But we’ve been pretty swamped with training and fires. Not like we’ve had much downtime.”

“Did the police say anything?”

“No leads last I checked.”

He stopped then. Leaned on a tree, his face ashen.

“Ry? You all ri?—”

He spun and emptied his lunch onto the ground.

That wasn’t good. Nausea and vomiting were signs of a possible concussion.

Now that they’d stopped, the stillness of the forest surrounded them. Birds and chipmunks chattered in the canopy above. The ATV engines were still audible in the distance.

“They’re still looking for us,” she said.

He glanced up at her and nodded.

And who knew where the rest of their team was?

She studied Orion—the sweat beading on his nose and above his lip. Right now it was the two of them alone in the Alaskan wilderness, miles from civilization. “We have to push on. Maybe find shelter for the night.”

“Do you think we should try to find the others?”

“That means heading toward the militia guys. And farther away from camp.”

“Yeah, let’s keep moving. It’s cooling off.” He pushed himself off the tree and stood again. “You’re probably right. We need shelter. The temps will drop overnight.” They started hiking once more. “We’ll share what I have in my pack. If we can find a source of water, I have purification tablets.”