TONY: Slow Burn (Raging Fire Book 1), Kallypso Masters [classic novels TXT] 📗

Carm laughed. “Aspen might be a little too sedate for you, but if you want to relocate, look into Denver. My brother Marc has some friends there. They might be able to give you some suggestions on where to live and work.”

As they came closer to K2, the point of no return before Knife Edge, Carm brought her group of four to where Nick and Joyce waited and checked the weather reports again. Looked good.

Two hikers came toward them at a brisk pace, but rather than stick to the standard trail, they veered off onto a steep slope.

“Wait!” Carm called out to them. “That’s not a safe shortcut! You really need to go back the same way you came.”

But the two either didn’t hear her or chose to ignore her warning. Carm nearly went after them but didn’t want to leave her own group. She hoped they’d quickly realize the path they’d chosen was hazardous and return to the main trail.

Returning her focus to her group, she reminded all of them how to approach the popular but dangerous sharp-rocked feature, but two of those with the more severe altitude problems wisely opted to wait for them where they were. She left them with extra water bottles.

While most of the four continuing on wanted to crawl over or straddle the sharp ledge the entire way to the Capitol summit and back, Nick had expressed an interest early on to attempt it upright—at least in some places. Carm gave him the go-ahead after warning him again that the sheer drop-offs could kill him if a strong gust of wind came along at the wrong time. She also cautioned him to watch out for patches of algae still slick with morning moisture. She’d never had anyone she was responsible for injured on an outing before and wasn’t about to have it happen today.

This wasn’t Nick’s first climb, but she’d keep an eye on him and let him know when to go from standing to straddling if need be. Her primary concern, though, would be keeping the less experienced team members from hotdogging to impress their boss.

So far, so good, though. Joyce and Shawana had followed behind Nick, both choosing to straddle the rock. Carm brought up the rear and was about halfway across when Nick made it safely to the other side with a whoop of victory. Knowing Nick was across, Carm took the opportunity to scan the endless mountains surrounding her and admired the view of the three alpine Pierre lakes below as she followed the others inching over the sharp point. In her element, she literally felt as though she was on the top of the world.

Suddenly, an image of Tony flashed across her mind. Not the smiling, carefree man she’d encountered at the reception, but one whose face appeared to have been ravaged by immense sorrow. It was incongruous with Tony’s personality, and she wondered if everything was okay with Marc and Angelina on their honeymoon.

Shrugging off the image, she forced herself to focus again on the climbers ahead of her. But Tony’s distraught face niggled at the back of her mind. A quick glance at her satellite phone didn’t show any messages from Sandro or her parents, but when she got back to base camp, she’d call Sandro just to be sure.

The only other time she’d had any kind of premonition was when her oldest brother, Gino, had been ambushed in Afghanistan. She’d chalked that up to normal worrying about a loved one stationed halfway across the world in a war zone, but days later, her worst fears had been confirmed when they received word that he’d been killed in action.

It was still difficult thinking about the brother she’d lost. She could understand why she’d had that premonition about Gino, but why was Tony invading her thoughts?

He’d be working today, because this would have been Marc’s day to work. Had there been a fire? A bad call? A knot settled in the pit of her stomach. If anything happened to the crew while Marc was in Italy, he’d never forgive himself. When one was hurt, they all suffered.

“Carmella?” Glancing up, she saw Shawana staring back at her with furrowed brows. “Everything all right?”

Shawana and the other climber had already exited the Knife Edge, leaving Carm straddling the sharp rock formation alone. Regaining her focus, she quickly scooted off the Edge and while the others took in the scenery, she prepared for the climb to the summit.

“Are we ready to hit the summit?” Nick asked. She nodded, reminding her group about what they’d encounter at this stage of the climb before they set out.

On Wednesday morning, Rafe walked into the station just before Tony’s shift change but didn’t immediately make eye contact with Tony as he headed straight for the kitchen and the coffee pot.

Normally, Tony would be headed home now, but the battalion chief on Rafe’s shift had told everyone from the station who’d been involved in Sunday’s bad call to be here this morning for the After Action Review.

This was Tony’s first such meeting, so he had no clue what to expect. They’d probably spend an hour or two throwing out woulda-coulda-shoulda scenarios. Tony didn’t wish for something bad to happen, but hoped the tones would drop on some innocuous call—like rescuing a cat from a tree—so he wouldn’t have to face everyone at this AAR he’d been dreading.

He’d been through a grueling two-and-a-half days. After finding the victims two days ago, Tony had gone home and holed up in his apartment for the rest of that day. Texts and voicemails from his family poured in, wanting to make sure he was okay.

Who could be okay after that outcome?

He’d texted everyone back saying he was fine. Lying to his family left a bad taste in his mouth, but he was trained to deal with the possibility of bad outcomes, wasn’t he? What was everyone so worried about?

Hell, where should he start? He hadn’t