Read Online Heartland by Davis Bunn - Free Book Online

Parsons.”
    â€œWhat, the actor from Heartland ?”
    â€œHe was on the church bus with those kids.”
    The guy grinned. His teeth looked impossibly white. “This is a joke, right?”
    â€œNo, Boss. No joke.”
    â€œOkay, but you still got to team up.” He scouted around. A trio of weary firefighters were gathering their gear from a pile by the oxygen tanks. “You guys headed back out?”
    â€œGot to get that line done,” one replied, then had to cough from the effort of speaking.
    â€œTake this pair with you.” To Derek and Peter he said, “Grab coats and helmets from the pile by the ambulance.”
    The firefighters glared at where Press was written on their vests. “Why us?”
    â€œThey need a team, you’re it. And keep an eye out for JayJay Parsons.”
    â€œThe actor? For real?”
    â€œAll I know is what these two are saying. But if you find him, do us a favor and keep the six o’clock news from telling the world we toasted my favorite TV star.”

Chapter 8
    T here was no room for anything but speed .
    The din was earsplitting. Bulldozers driven by insane men with lightning reflexes shoved down tree after tree. Chain saws chopped off the branches. JayJay and his team joined sweaty, soot-blackened workers pulling the debris into mountains on the opposite side of the line from the approaching burn. The line was a hundred and fifty feet wide and ran off in both directions to where ridgelines became swallowed by smoke. Their task was to widen the line. The four of them wrestled mammoth branches and fragments across the stumpy earth. No one needed to tell them to hurry. Every hint of wind carried the threat of the enemy.
    JayJay welcomed the work. He relished everything about it. The people, the hoarse commands he couldn’t understand, the sweat, the aching muscles, the heaving chest. This was real . The sparks that floated in the air and burned the exposed skin of his neck were not just painful. They anchored him. The tormenting thoughts were banished. He was among new friends. He was doing something useful. Something important.
    He had never felt so alive.
    Derek’s mouth almost touched his ear. Even so, Peter scarcely made out the question, “Do you see him?”
    â€œAre you kidding?” Peter had never experienced such sensory overload. His mind threatened to shut down. He wanted to curl up in a safe corner, close his eyes, and just make the whole thing go away. He could scarcely hear himself, much less Derek. The noise held such intensity it assaulted his brain.
    A trio of planes lumbered by overhead, so close Peter thought he might be able to reach up and touch them. They were followed by two helicopters, the big ones with two rotors each. The choppers carried huge buckets on long metal lines. The buckets almost scraped the treetops. Then they were gone, but the noise level remained the same. As though the din had reached a point where it could not grow any louder. Just change in nature. The dozers and the chain saws and the fire formed fists of noise. He had never heard a burn before. But he knew the sound. It could not be anything else.
    He jerked as one of the firefighters grabbed his sleeve. The man’s words were lost to the din. But Peter read the man’s lips. Stay close .
    They jogged across the clearing. The fire line was frightening in its unnatural straightness. And the people. Hundreds and hundreds of people. All of them moving at breakneck speed. Gestures took the place of words. Everybody worked in frantic coordination.
    One of Peter’s team grabbed an idle chain saw. Peter flinched as the man gave the handle an easy toss and the machine whined to life. He had always hated the sound of those things. Now he was surrounded by a hundred of them. All screaming and biting and cutting.
    Derek punched his shoulder. He pointed to a group of four people who came and went in the drifting smoke. He said