Page 14 of Steel

Almost as soon as we dove into the protected area, the shaking began to stop. We remained where we were, not moving even as the earth beneath us began to fade into silence.

“Christ,” Denver moaned and rolled over onto his back. “A fire and an earthquake.”

“Don’t forget an avalanche,” Axe tossed out.

I was the first one on my feet, venturing into the clearing while dust swirled in both directions. Only when it started to clear could I make any sense of what I was seeing. As carefullyas possible, I moved closer to the edge, peering down at the pathway we were supposed to take.

“Fuck,” I hissed. It was blocked off.

“What now?” Axe asked as every man moved beside me.

“Now we need rescue ourselves.”

The rockslide had taken out a huge portion of the mountain fueled by heavy spring rains, a mudslide occurring in another location. We were damn lucky we’d been in this area or we would have perished. Now it came down to having a helicopter take us to safety.

“How long?” Raptor asked as he polished off the last of his water.

“Fifteen minutes.”

I watched my brother pacing the ground, glancing every few seconds toward the sky. I could tell he was anxious, more so than while being in the fire. We’d experienced two small aftershocks and from what I’d been told, another larger earthquake was possible, the magnitude in the six-point range. That could be catastrophic if located in an urban area but not untypical for the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.

That didn’t mean the extraction wasn’t dangerous because it was.

However, there was no other choice.

I headed toward him, uncertain how to get through. He’d shut down for weeks after our brother’s death, refusing to find comfort in anything. Only when Kenzie had crashed into his life had he come out of his shell. He blamed himself even now forWill’s helicopter crash, when it had been the fault of no one but Mother Nature.

“We’ll get off the rock,” I told him. “The ETA is five minutes. Then we’ll be on the plane heading home in a couple hours.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Have faith. They’re pulling in a military bird and pilot to man the operation.”

He shook his head. “Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean we’ll be safe.”

I remained quiet.

“Look what happened to the Wingman.” Will’s nickname.

“That’s another reason we need to get off this mountain. We don’t want to be here if a larger quake hits.”

As he scrubbed his jaw, he peered over the edge. “He shouldn’t have died in that bird, Steel. You know that.”

“No, he shouldn’t have. But his death wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah, it was. You know it was.”

“Stop. You need to stop. We’ve been through this a hundred times. Just because the two of you argued doesn’t mean you caused the accident.”

After all this time, I wasn’t expecting his level of rage. He spun around to face me, shaking his fist in my face. “You weren’t there. You have no goddamn clue what was said and how upset he was. You don’t know how I upset him with what I did.”

Sighing, I glanced away briefly. “No, you’re right. I wasn’t there. But I know what I heard and I know the two of you. Will could handle his own with you and everyone else.”

Damn if his glare wasn’t filled with hate. “Like I said. You weren’t there so fuck off, bro.” When he walked away, I closed my eyes.

If he only knew the level of guilt I’d placed on myself. If I had been there, maybe Will would be alive today.

Viper furrowed his eyebrows as he closed the distance. “What was that about?”