Burn Zone, page 6
part #1 of Hotshots Series
“Uh-huh. I take it that him going solo means I’m jumping with you?”
“Yep. And you remember that whole listening bit. Garrick, he’s got years of jump experience. This is your first time—”
“I trust you to be gentle.” Jacob had the nerve to bat his eyes. No one was paying them any mind, but still he should know better than to flirt like that on the job. Drawn into Jacob’s good mood as he so often was, Linc had to fight the urge to laugh, not wanting to encourage him more. And damn him for making Linc think about sex, wonder about experience Jacob had or didn’t have, preferences in the bedroom, all the things he was supposed to have banished from his brain.
But he had to leave sex thoughts behind as they headed to the airstrip. He’d been at this enough years to know the pilot and the crew who would be taking them up, ten at a time, in the small plane. In addition to his group, they also had McKenna’s group going up. Jacob and their rookie, Kelley, kept joking around while waiting, even as Linc grew more and more... Not nervous. He didn’t do nervous and this wasn’t his first jump since...
Okay. Maybe he was a little nervous, especially since it wasn’t simply his own neck on the line. He checked all their rigging again, every connection point, and called McKenna over for another cross-check.
“Are you going to be okay?” she asked in a low voice as she verified his work. “I heard you did some civilian jumps over the winter. Good for you, getting back out there. We’re lucky to have you again this season, Reid. Don’t forget who you are.”
Her pep talk wasn’t unappreciated—she was one of the best they had, and if she believed in him, that went a long way. He wished he could believe as easily as everyone else did. She was right—he’d worked with a civilian outlet to get his legs under him again. And it had been a little extra cash, taking tourists up. In general, when he wasn’t a wreck, he liked tandem jumping, enjoyed managing someone else’s experience, giving them a good ride down, showing off his skills. It was far different than a jump for work where every second counted and precision mattered far more than any style points as they battled the elements.
That day was a mix of the two—clear blue skies, not a fire in sight, no two-minute warning to get geared up, and a bunch of rookies as eager as any tourists, the start of the many jumps the rookies would need before the real deal.
Finally, it was their turn, smooth ride as the plane achieved the right altitude near the landing zone. He’d grown used to this view of the mountains and valleys beneath them, so it was kind of neat, seeing Jacob and Kelley get more excited, pointing out the terrain below them and marveling at how far they could see in all directions. He’d always loved Jacob’s ability to find joy in all situations from tossing a toy for the dogs to building a fire in the firepit to playing softball with the family. Heck, he even made working out and cleaning seem joyous, that infectious smile lightening any load.
But as they got ready to jump, true to his word, Jacob stayed still and at attention as Linc clipped them together and triple-checked everything one last time. His back was to Linc’s front, and for once his nearness didn’t affect Linc on a visceral level as he was more concerned with making sure the thick black webbing of the harness was secure.
“Watch Garrick,” he ordered as Garrick went first, demonstrating how they’d need to learn to exit without hesitation, precise timing on the spotter’s signal, his smooth movements and easy smile for the rookies the product of years of experience. Once he was away, McKenna and Kelley were next, Kelley doing a good job looking more excited than terrified as they leaped on the signal, not even yelling like most of the tourists he’d jumped with. Jacob was similarly calm as they waited for their signal.
You’ve done this before, Linc had to remind himself, taking a deep, steadying breath before adjusting his goggles. It being Jacob and being right now, after everything that had happened, shouldn’t make any difference, except it did. For the first time pre-jump, possibly ever, his stomach roiled. Fuck. But there was no time to puke or even to hesitate as the spotter gave them their signal, and his training took over for his jumbled brain, leaping in unison with Jacob.
Then Jacob made a sound, not a yell precisely, but a noise of pure delight that cut right through all the fog in Linc’s brain and loosened the stranglehold anxiety had on his chest. He didn’t have to see Jacob’s face to know that he was grinning. Jacob stretched his arms wide, enjoying the free fall, flying for the first time, and through him, Linc saw everything new and wonderful again—the trees and hills beneath them, endless panorama, pure blue sky, the rush of the wind coming up to greet them.
“About to deploy the chute,” he shouted to Jacob after checking his altimeter. Because of the additional weight of a tandem jump, they used larger than normal main parachutes and deployed them sooner to decrease velocity.
“Already?”
“You’re gonna fit in just fine.” He had to smile himself as he pulled the rip cord. At least Garrick would have a new jump junkie for company this season. The jolt of the parachute pulling them up made Jacob whoop again. By the end of the summer, all this would be old hat to him, and the seriousness of the job would take over, but right then Linc let him have his fun, steering them in gentle swoops, drinking in Jacob’s laughter until he was laughing right along with him, until they were truly doing this together in a way none of Linc’s other tandem jumps had experienced, a synergy that left him breathless as they approached the landing zone.
They landed about as close to textbook as possible, a soft touchdown that got another pleased sound from Jacob.
“Fuck yeah. We did it!”
“Yeah, we did. You’re going to do great for the solo jumps. Good job keeping your head about you.” He’d praise any rookie jumper, but something about Jacob made his voice warmer, more intimate. Their eyes met as he unclipped them, and an unexpected closeness blanketed them. This was why he hadn’t wanted Garrick to be the one to jump with Jacob. He was selfish, had wanted this all for himself, had wanted to be the one to put that look of awe on his face.
Only the presence of the others nearby, also laughing and shouting, stopped him from embracing Jacob. Even a backslapping hug felt too risky for all the big emotions churning inside him. Damn it. How was he supposed to get through a whole season of this? Maybe he wasn’t as old and washed as he’d feared, but he sure as heck was screwed.
Chapter Six
“What do you mean I’m not ready?” Jacob had been looking forward to the first static line solo jump all week. The jump that enabled them to practice correct body positioning while still connected to the aircraft was supposed to be the capstone of the first week of training, prelude to next week’s intense practices and more solo jumps with increasing autonomy. They’d have the weekend off, which was a good thing, what with Jacob’s mom’s birthday party. But right now, he wanted to jump more than he wanted two days off.
“I mean you’re not ready.” Linc stared him down.
Unfortunately, rookies needed their jumper-in-charge to sign off before they got to go. And Linc was being a damn pain in the ass. He and Garrick had been drilling him all morning on body positioning and how to deploy the reserve chute in the event of an emergency. That was the part he’d messed up on when they quizzed him, forgetting to mention cutting the main line, even though he knew that.
“You’re too cocky.” Ray, who would be going up with him as spotter, was usually quieter than the other two, but now wore a frown even deeper than Linc’s. “This is way riskier than the tandem jumping. I’m with Linc on this one. We’ll let the other groups go ahead of us. You need another run-through. Start by showing me your gear. Each part of the deployment bag assembly.”
Fuck. This was typical of the past few days—the instructors gave them work and then his crew gave him double on top of that. All the rookies had stuff like extra inventory and hauling gear, but his guys in particular seemed to delight in keeping him busy. But he couldn’t complain—he’d wanted this, and while he hadn’t asked to be on Linc’s crew, there were no guarantees that anyone else would be easier.
He started again, labeling the static line sleeve, pack opening loop, sliding sleeve, safety wire and other gear components. Then Garrick had him demonstrate cutting a line from a piece of old rigging—like Jacob couldn’t use an emergency knife on his own. But whatever. Finally, finally he was in line for the plane. And the good thing about being irritated at the others was that there wasn’t a lot of room to be nervous about his first time jumping solo.
“Do good work,” Linc said, clapping him on the shoulder. Seeing as how he usually avoided touching Jacob when not strictly necessary, that was nice. It was weird—when they’d tandem jumped together, for those few minutes, Jacob had never felt closer to anyone, but most of the time, he felt further away from Linc than ever despite working right next to him. And then Linc had to go and ruin the warm tingle from the contact, leaning in to add, “Don’t fuck this up.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He glared at Linc before following Ray to the airstrip.
“I’ll be working your deployment bag,” Ray reminded him as they waited for the plane to return from the previous batch of trainees. “Just keep a clear head and listen to your comm set. You’ve got this.”
“Glad someone thinks so,” he grumbled.
“Hey now. You need to stop butting heads with Linc. No one’s making you be here.” Tone impatient, Ray scanned the sky.
“I know. But it feels like you guys are just waiting for me to tap out. And that’s not happening, no matter how much work you pile on me.”
“Good to know. And hell, I’d say it’s nice to see you treating Linc normally instead of that crush you had on him several years back, except all this snapping is getting old quickly. You gotta find a happy medium, kid. Figure out how to work together for the season or else you’re both going to be miserable.”
“I...what?” Jacob’s jaw was currently taking up residence on the tarmac. He hadn’t thought anyone had picked up on that crush, except maybe him at nineteen had been way less subtle than him at almost twenty-five. Because his feelings hadn’t changed one bit even if apparently his behavior had. But fuck a duck on Ray noticing anything. “I didn’t...”
“Sure you did.” Ray shrugged. “And you’ll find some guys here with issues with you being out. God knows your brother ran his mouth enough. But not me. I’ve got a cousin. Married to a SEAL. Good guys. But Linc’s not like that...” He made a dismissive gesture with his hand that Jacob had no idea how to interpret. Linc wasn’t what? Out? No shocker there, but Jacob was never entirely sure who knew what with Linc—Wyatt had known or suspected something, but he didn’t know about the rest of the friend circle. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to out him so he said nothing as Ray continued on. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is don’t go letting yourself get hung up on him again, but maybe stop with assuming he—or any of us—are out to get you. We just want to keep your ass alive for the season.”
“Thanks.” Jacob wasn’t sure what else to say. Definitely didn’t want to make things worse, protest too much, or reveal that his crush persisted like moss on a shady roof, never truly gone. And he couldn’t promise to do better, not when Linc drove him up the side of the mountain with a single look.
Luckily, he didn’t have to say much more because the plane arrived back at the airstrip and it was their turn to go. Even though he knew the dangers, he wasn’t particularly nervous—more like the pre-fight jitters he’d had in MMA or the giddy anticipation of Christmas as a kid. It was another step closer to his ultimate goal, and with any luck, jumps like these would be routine soon enough. But he wasn’t stupid either—he listened to Ray and the other flight crew, pushed out all other thoughts, including all those inconvenient ones about Linc, until he was leaping out into the perfect light blue spring sky, high above the world.
He didn’t let the rush of free-falling distract him from the proper body positioning they’d been practicing, the arch of torso critical to maintaining stability, ready this time for the jerk back of the parachute as it deployed from the static line, then following the radio commands as he guided the parachute to the landing zone. Everything went from model-train-set tiny to larger than life rapidly, barely enough time to take in the scattered buildings below, the forest stretching beyond that. The whole enterprise took a matter of minutes—days of buildup to mere seconds really. But wow, the rush of adrenaline and satisfaction really was something, and the high lingered even as he did the remainder of his duties for the day. He wasn’t intentionally slow, but his crew had heaped a lot of fiddly tasks on him, so he was one of the last to leave the facility, only a few vehicles left in the parking lot.
And somehow he’d known, known the whole time he was floating down to earth and then stowing gear and doing end-of-the-day chores, that Linc would be here, waiting by his truck. Linc’s own truck was conveniently three spaces over. He’d parked in the back of the lot again, by the trees, out of view of the facility, but still rather open for an argument if that’s what Linc was spoiling for.
“So.” Linc regarded him coolly. “You didn’t die. Or fuck up.”
“There is that.” He met Linc’s gaze, didn’t waver. What was it going to take for Linc to believe in him, really believe that Jacob could do this? Not having an answer to that made his back muscles tense and his voice testy. “Ray was a good spotter. No problems there. Well, other than the fact that he seems to be under the impression that I once had a hopeless crush on you.”
A sputtering noise escaped Linc’s pursed lips, expression damn near priceless, all wide-eyed horror. “He what?”
“I know. That was my reaction too, only inside. Man. Your face.” He had to laugh, keep from flipping out like Linc. “I kept it cool in front of him, but what the hell? He even warned me to not get hung up on you again.”
“As far as advice goes that ain’t terrible.” Rubbing his jaw, Linc looked away. He didn’t seem particularly shocked by the crush thing, only that Ray had known, not that Jacob had expected anything different. He had been damn obvious when he’d first returned from Vegas. And afterward too, the years that followed, all his flirting and innuendo, not all of it as private as it probably should have been. It was easy to forget sometimes that this was a small town and people talked. “He say anything else worth noting?”
“That we need to get along. Apparently, I’m being a pain in the ass.”
“He’s not wrong there either.” Linc breathed hard, like he was working overtime to convince himself this was no big deal. But Jacob wasn’t having any of Linc shoving all the blame on him.
“Come off it. You know damn well I’m not the entire reason things are weird. It’s not all on me being stubborn.”
“No, it’s not.” Exhaling like he’d just been gut punched, Linc slid in closer, stealing the last of Jacob’s oxygen as he yanked him close, bringing their mouths together.
Their last kiss had been tense from the start, grief-fueled, regrets seeping in even while they were still lip-locked. This wasn’t that.
No, it was raw and hungry and more than a little angry, like Linc wanted to use his mouth to extract something from Jacob. Maybe a promise to be nicer. Or to give up smoke jumping. Something. It was impossible to think with Linc kissing him so thoroughly that it was a wonder there weren’t scorch marks in the gravel at their feet. It was coffee and cinnamon and a hot, questing tongue that sought to singe his every last nerve ending until all he could do was gasp and hold on.
“Jesus, Linc,” he managed when Linc finally let him up for air. “Were you that damn sure that I was going to fuck up the jump?”
“No. I...uh...” Linc stepped back, looking down at his hands like they’d betrayed him, reaching for Jacob. “Not sure what the hell came over me. Sorry. That... Damn. That was inexcusable. Sorry.”
“Well, could it come over you back at your place?” Even though his mind was still spinning, Jacob put on a light smile. Maybe... “For a not-out guy who wants no drama on his crew you sure know how to take a risk.” Gesturing at the nearly empty parking lot, he licked his lips, tasting Linc there.
He’d expected Linc’s recoil, so it didn’t hurt, much, when Linc stalked several paces away, looking stricken. “Fuck. I didn’t mean... This is why it’s crazy, us working together. The things you do to me...”
“Oh, it’s all me, huh? Like I’m the mountainous equivalent of a mermaid, luring you to your doom? Damn it. This is not all me seducing you.”
“I know it’s not.” Linc’s voice was more subdued now. “The kiss is on me. And like I said, I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t want...” Shaking his head, Linc shifted his tone even before Jacob could revel in him admitting to wanting Jacob. “But we can’t do this.”
“I take it that’s a no on heading back to your place, working this out between your sheets?”
“Fuck. Is everything a joke to you? This isn’t some game.”
“No, it’s not.” Hadn’t been a game in years, and Linc damn well knew that. He met him hard stare for hard stare before Linc turned on his heel, undoubtedly ready to go sulk somewhere and blame Jacob for all this when he had been the one doing the kissing. Again.
“Night,” he called, determined that this wasn’t the end of things, not by a long shot. “Don’t forget about Mom’s party Sunday.”
Whirling around, Linc made a very ungracious noise. And it was a low blow to be sure, but it felt good to land the hit nonetheless, watching as Linc went pale then flushed, opening and closing his mouth a number of times.
“I’ll be there,” he ground out at last.
Jacob gave him a mock salute. “Counting on it.”
* * *
