Flash Point - Savannah Kade Page 0,2

reset the winch, we have to do this by hand.”

She could see where Kane was now holding onto the rope rather than operating the machinery—the machinery that had just decided to quit doing its job. In her peripheral vision, she spotted a second pair of hands helping her partner as she anchored herself against the tree.

Kane leaned over the cliff and called down to Evans again. The ranger must have given some kind of word because Kane nodded and yelled back down, “We're hand lowering you. Something's up with the winch.”

But it wasn’t just ‘something.’ Jo knew. She’d commented when they set it up, wondering if it was adjusted correctly for this poly-braided rope. She didn’t think it was the right kind for this machine.

So the settings weren’t correct or the grips had been stripped, she didn’t know—only that something was wrong. She’d not been able to articulate exactly what concerned her and, since no one else had agreed, they’d lowered Leo Evans over the side on a setup that was faulty.

She could only hope they remembered her early protests when the evaluations came in.

Jo sighed as the rope cut into her skin, despite the heavy gear she wore. It was going to continue to do so until they had everyone up. They were doing this hand-over-hand now. Technology and machinery often failed, the rescue couldn't.

It was another almost fifteen minutes before Leo called out for the second rope to be lowered. While she and Sebastian anchored him, Hernandez, Smith, and Kelly set up another handheld setup to bring the fallen hiker up.

Theirs was not a smooth job. Leo was a trained professional, mostly rock climbing himself down and using Jo and Sebastian as backup. He had slipped a few times, putting strain on the system … though it should have held.

The hiker was another story and had to be hauled bodily up the face of the rock. If he was smart, he would use his hands and feet to not be dragged along it. Then again, if he was smart, he wouldn’t be on a two-foot ledge off a cliff that he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near in the first place.

Jo questioned how smart the two of them were down there. She and the redemption Fire Department A-shift were out in the wind and the rain with a storm coming, saving these two. Still, she was glad for the gear and the work.

Luckily, once the first hiker was strapped in, getting him up was relatively quick work. The man cleared the top of the cliff less than five minutes later. Though they undid his harness and tried to rush him down the hill and toward the waiting ambulance at the base, he refused to go without his girlfriend.

Jo wasn't sure what she thought about that. He hadn’t seemed all that concerned about her before he was safe again, and it was a waste of emergency forces not to do what they were telling him.

He stood at the edge, making her fear he would go right back over. Jo did not want to rescue this asshat twice. “Sir, I need you to move away from the ledge.”

Though he nodded and quickly stepped back, he then slowly crept forward, wanting to see what was going on. Jo ground her teeth as they sent the harness back down and waited for Leo to strap the woman in.

When the signaling tug was followed by Leo’s verbal command, the team of three firefighters pulled her up. She was probably the easier of the two jobs except when she cleared the cliff. She was yelling.

“I'm never going on another date with you again!” Her arm waved wildly, and she jabbed her finger at her date. “That's it. We're done!”

Jo almost snorted to herself as Lindy jabbed Luke by accident.

Her date should have gone down to the ambulance when he had the chance to go alone. This relationship was not going to work out well.

Others on the Search and Rescue team stepped forward, making sure the couple was snug in their foil blankets and staying away from each other. As they were ushered back down the mountainside, the only one remaining to be brought up was Leo Evans.

Though Jo wasn't looking forward to his expression as he cleared the top of the cliff, it still needed to be done. She couldn’t watch, though she wanted to—Jo was still stuck at the tree, acting as the anchor. Using the trunk as a pulley system gave her