Read Online Flaming Desire - Part 4 (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Helen Grey - Free Book Online Page B

with it the strong smell of fire. And heat. I glanced up slope, my eyes widening in alarm. Oh God… I quickly hurried to catch up with the others, past them and hurried to join Matt at the front of the line.
    “We’ve got to hurry, Matt,” I hissed. “The fire’s sweeping down the slope. Fast.”
    He nodded, and without looking back, took my word for it. He quickened his pace even more. I waited for the others to pass, the kids now looking truly frightened, every expression of bravado wiped from their faces.
    They smelled the fire. They felt the heat. They saw the embers floating in the air. As Balding Guy passed me, grunting with effort as he carried Bethany, I saw the sweat on his face, reddened from exertion. He gasped for breath at every step. Right behind him was Skinny Dude. I pulled him aside.
    “Your friend’s going to have a heart attack if you don’t help him. Take Bethany the rest of the way.” He looked at me as if I had grown two heads. “Do it,” I told him. He glanced down at the ground, and then nodded.
    “Jerry,” he said, catching up with his friend. “Come on, let me carry her for a while…”
    I brought up the rear, urging the others forward. The smell of smoke grew heavier, the air thicker with ash. Some distance behind us, I heard the snap of flames. My God, how fast was the fire traveling? Just when I thought the entire group would collapse to the ground in exhaustion, we reached the last camp. Abandoned.
    Down the trail about three hundred yards or so away, I saw the clearing. Ahead of me, Matt spoke into his walkie. In a matter of minutes, I heard the whomp whomp of a chopper heading around the side of the mountain, its rotating blades and engine echoing against the hills.
    The boys started to gesture with excitement, pointing. Balding Guy nearly cried in relief. The other girl walked beside Skinny Dude and Bethany, clasping her hand. It had been a harrowing trip down the valley.
    With tremendous relief, I watched as the helicopter rounded the bend in the mountain. It was a rescue chopper, the side door already open and ready to lower a Stokes basket. It just might be large enough to take the rest of the group with them. Maybe.
    The group erupted with a burst of energy when they saw the chopper. Even Skinny Dude seemed to experience a burst of energy at the sight of possible rescue. Adrenaline.
    In a matter of minutes, we stood at the edges of the clearing. One of the chopper crew lowered himself on a pulley, disengaged his harness as the chopper hovered overhead, and quickly hurried over to Matt. They spoke loudly over the sound of the whirring blades of the chopper, kicking up a cloud of dirt and debris, but I couldn’t hear what they said.
    The chopper crew-member looked in Bethany’s direction as Skinny Dude lowered her to the ground. She managed to stand, her weight balanced on her good foot. The crew-member stepped toward her, asked her a question or two and then nodded. Placing his arm around her shoulders, he helped her make her way beneath the chopper.
    I understood what he was going to do as he placed an additional belt harness attached to the cable with several straps and clips. He arranged the harness around her waist. In a matter of moments, he had harnessed Bethany to his own harness and then gave a thumbs-up signal to the pilot.
    Up they went, the line pulling them off the ground amidst Bethany’s squeals and the laughter of the boys. As soon as she disappeared inside, the crew-member was lowered by the cable again.
    Matt moved to stand beside me. “They’re going to take them all, but they don’t have room for us,” he shouted above the chopping blades.” He turned his back to the chopper, taking the brunt of the debris kicked up by the blades onto his back. I did likewise.
    “We have another campsite to check anyway!” I shouted up at him. I saw the expression on his face. Weariness. Relief. And something else. He looked down at me, as if he wanted to say