Page 54 of Some Like It Hot

“Now!” he thundered, not even bothering to hide his panic.

“No. It’s my house—”

“It’s yourlife!”

“No! I’m fine—I don’t need you, Riley. I can do this!”

“Larke—”

“Stop trying to protect me—”

She started coughing.

He wanted to reach through the phone and throttle her.

“Get to the lake! Right now. I’m coming to get you!”

She was still coughing.

“Larke!”

The line cut off. “Larke!”

He wanted to throw the phone. Tucker ripped it from his grip.

Riley grabbed Tucker’s shirt. “You gotta redirect the plane—!”

“We have another drop coming but if we don’t throw it down here, we lose this fire and it keeps heading south, right into the town of Copper Mountain. She’s smart, Riley. She’ll get to the lake.”

Riley ground his molars, gave Tucker a hard look, and let him go. Spotted Barry jogging out past the house to the hangar.

The chopper.

Riley took off toward the hangar and reached the man just as he was climbing into the cockpit of his Otter.

Riley grabbed the door. “I need a ride!”

Barry frowned. “I’m just moving the plane.”

“In the chopper—I need a ride to Larke’s place.”

Barry stared at him, his eyes widening.

“Yeah, she’s there.”

The man aged a decade before his eyes as he stared out across the field, toward the lake, now clogged with smoke. His voice turned whisper thin, almost a gasp of horror. “I can’t fly the chopper through that clutter.”

Riley took a breath, nodded. And the answer was easy. “Then drop me in.”

Barry looked at him. “You can’t see where you’re dropping. You know you could land right in the fire, right? Larke’s smart. She’ll get to the lake.”

“I have more control in a ram—besides, what do you want me to do? I called her—and got cut off. She’s determined to save her house.”

Barry looked back at the horizon. The flames flickered up through the smoke and turned the lake an eerie, deep crimson. “Get your gear. I’m firing up the engine.”

Riley nodded and ran to the big barn, where they’d hung the chutes. He grabbed a jumpsuit, a helmet, gloves, and shoved a fire shelter into the leg pocket, along with a length of rope and his knife.

“Where are you going?” Tucker yelled as Riley sprinted back to the plane. Barry was already taxiing out past the strip, the flames still lapping at the edge of the burn. He angled toward the road.

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