Page 24 of The Barn: Frost and Q

Nineteen

“ I ’m gonna need you leading the jump team.” Cap glanced up from the piles of paperwork on his desk—maps and notes and flight plans.

Frost blinked, totally taken aback. He’d just landed and was coming in for a nap and a long shower. “Wait, you what?”

He hadn’t been on the jump team in two years. He didn’t mind it being in the thick of it, but he tended to fly, drop the guys in. He was a fucking amazing pilot, and he knew it. “Are you sure about this, Cap? Jeffrey’s bringing his guys in. I know they’ve been picked up.”

“Jeffrey’s hurt. So were Fredericks and Piland.

I gotta do something. I don’t even think Fredericks is going to make it through the night, man.

I need you down on the ground. You’re the most experienced jumper I’ve got.

This team is full of hot shots right now.

Solid guys, they know their shit, and thank God for it, but… ”

He knew. Hot shots were amazing at fighting on the ground.

It wasn’t even the jumping into the fires that was a challenge here.

He could teach anybody how to jump out of a plane.

No, it was the getting down there and having to survive until either you got your asses picked up or you got back to civilization.

You never knew what the exact situation was either.

There was no way to be sure if these were a bunch of little fires popping up, or hiding a huge blaze.

Or if there was a crazed asshole out there just waiting to set another fire.

It seemed hard to believe that these were things people did.

Some of the places were just so remote that it was hard to believe that there were any people there at all.

“When do we leave?”

“We lock and load at zero six hundred. Try to get some sleep tonight.” Cap nodded to him, the older man’s lips in framed in a white mustache. “Thanks, man.”

“Yeah. I got some phone calls to make.”

Frost headed to the barracks, the fresh guys—his new team—were hyped up and ribbing each other.

The teasing stopped when he walked in, the guys all staring like he’d grown a second head. Taking over an existing team, even for a couple jumps, was hell. These guys were hard, fueled, and loyal to death, but that made it a challenge to lead that snake around.

“I heard you are here to lead the team,” one of the younger kids asked, and he nodded.

“I am.”

“You sure you’re strong enough to?”

He considered answering by hitting the guy as hard as he could and just laying him out and seeing what would happen. Monologuing was never a good thing, and so it was nice to think about, but team morale and all that.

“Keep your dick in your pants, man. I got phone calls to make. I got plans.” He yawned, proving his boredom. “I don’t need this, not from you, not today. Deal?”

The kid opened his mouth, but Chauncey, one of his friends and a jumper with over a decade of experience, bodychecked the kid a little bit. “Drop it, Peters. Drop it like it’s hot.” Then he got a warm grin. “Good to work with you always, my friend.”

“Yeah.” He yawned again, stretched, and then headed back away from the guys.

“I heard about Quentin. I’m real sorry.”

It took a second to follow what Chauncey was saying. Sorry? Sorry for what? Then he got it, and that confusion actually felt amazing. “He’s doing really good. He’s staying busy; he’s doing his PT. You know I can’t complain.”

“He keeping an eye on us when we’re on the ground?”

Frost nodded. “Can you imagine him not?”

His lover was nosy as hell.

“No, not really. You know, I don’t mind it at all. That kid had a knack.”

“Still does. The only thing wrong with him right now is that he can’t keep his balance for shit. The bullet didn’t hurt his legs, just his balance, and I figure if that’s the worst, if that’s the entire takeaway from this, I can live with that.”

Chauncey nodded. “No shit. How’s your resort thing that you’re working on the side?”

“Good, good. Making money. I do all this—” He waved his hand dramatically. “—for fun.”

“You mean you’re not in it for the cash?”

“Nope. What about you? Everything going well?”

Chauncey shrugged. “As well as can be expected. I’m thinking about retiring.”

“Yeah? That means you’re going to get hurt, you know that, right?”

“No shit on that. I tell you. It’s not the firefighting; it’s not anything on the ground.

It’s hell, just trying to keep up with my damn PT.

” Chauncey patted his belly, which was like stone.

“Every so often I’d like to just have a day where there were no crunches and a piece of cheesecake in my future. ”

“I had cheesecake just the other day, and it was damn good.”

“Fucking flyboy.”

“Uh-huh. Of course I wasn’t expecting to be jumping. I was expecting to be flying your skanky asses out there.”

“Yeah, I know. I wasn’t expecting it either.

” Chauncey shook his head. “Fredericks got it bad. He was going down into a ravine, and I swear to you, that fire chased him all the way up the chute. By the time we pulled him out, it was bad. You know how it is. Reminded me a lot of that time outside the Albuquerque area, down there by the Sandias and things got hairy. They dropped us off into the fucking desert on the backside of that big fire.”

Frost nodded. That’s where they’d lost Ed Yazee.

He didn’t know what to say about Fredericks.

What did they say every time somebody got really badly hurt?

Every time you lost somebody? They just had to suck it up and do their jobs.

“Is there a place that we can send money for his family? I know he’s got kids. ”

“Yeah, there’s a collection going up, and she’s on her way. She wanted to get someone else to watch the babies, and I don’t blame her. That’s some deep-core horror movie shit right there.”

Suddenly, all he wanted to do in the world was to talk to Quentin. “All right, man, I’ll deal with that. I’m going to go talk to Q, tell him what’s up.”

Chauncey nodded. “Give him my best. And tell him to keep his eye on us. We can use all the help we can get.” Chauncey leaned forward, expression so serious. “And everybody knows about his gut.”

Frost waited to call until all his gear was set and everything was ready for his early-morning drop. Then he dialed.

Q picked up immediately. “Hey, how’s it going? I miss you.”

“I hear you. I’m leading A-Team tomorrow on the ground.” There was no reason to sugarcoat it. Q knew what was what.

“Somebody get hurt?”

“Yeah, Fredericks. Couple other guys too. His was the worst.”

Q sighed softly. “So you’ll need to send me all your information where you’re going with this, and I’ll keep you informed. I’m not loving the way the wind patterns are doing this, but when I know exactly where you are, I can keep things tight. What happened with Fredericks?”

“Got caught in the saddle, everything went to hell.”

“Damn it.”

“Yeah, I know.” Frost sat on his bunk. “How you doing? You’ve been sleeping, eating?”

“I can’t sleep without you, you know that, but yeah, I’m fine. Doing all my stuff, keeping busy, ready for you to come home.”

“Soon. Soon they’ll have to trade us out, and I’ll come home—love on you, get some rest, you know, the good stuff.”

“I do know.” Q chuckled. “I’ve seen the coffee. I have tasted the horrors that is the coffee where you are. I have the espresso maker.”

Frost chuckled. “I’m serious. Are you okay? You’re doing good?”

He worried.

“You’re the one about to go fight a giant forest fire, sweetheart.”

“Sweetheart?” He wasn’t sweet.

“Butthead?”

That was closer. “Well, you’re cruising. I’m not gonna be gone long enough to forget,” he warned.

“I’m counting on it.” There was a long pause, and Quentin sighed. “God, I’m ready for you to be home, but I know you’ve got a job to do, so get out there and do it. Quit screwing around. Keep yourself whole. You’re the best in the business, but I’d feel better if you were in the air.”

“Yeah, me too.” He supposed he had to do what he had to do.

And this is what he had to do.

“Chauncey said to say hi.”

“Yeah? How’s that hot old man?”

“He looks good, solid as a rock. We should all have that stomach, man.”

Q’s laughter rang out. “It is a thing of beauty. Hell, we should invite him up to the bar and let him have a little R&R.”

“Are we going to become a firefighter resort?” he teased.

“No, firefighters can’t afford us, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Chauncey.”

“I’ll talk to him. Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day.”

“Every day that you’re not here is a long day. You be careful, right?”

“I got no choice. I have something to come home to.”

“All right, enough of this bullshit. You have to go save the world. Once you’re done with that, come home, and I promise to be good for at least an hour or two.” Q’s tone was heavy with irony.

He snorted and toed off his shoes before swinging his legs up into his bunk and stretching out. “That long? You think you can manage?”

“No, I don’t think I have a choice.”

“No, you don’t. All right, babe, I’ll talk to you later. You know where we are?”

“Yeah, I’ll have eyes on you. You know that.”

He more than knew it. He counted on it.