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She passed it to him and grabbed the wheel when he took a couple of seconds to punch in a number.
“This is Riley. There’s a big fire down at our cabin. Smoke is blacker than Satan’s asshole.”
A pause.
“Yeah, could be but I don’t know anything yet. Get your brother and meet us there.”
Ah. The twins. Jin and Rebel. She met them at the summer solstice shindig Momma Savage threw each year. The two mountain men didn’t hang around much in Savage Ridge being firefighters in the next town over. “Riley,” she grabbed his arm and turned a worried look his way. “I have a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that this is somehow about me.”
Her comment was lost in a huge gasp of shock as they crested the ridge and the house came into full view. “Oh my God, Riley! The fire. It’s huge already! Half the cabin is gone!”
Billowing clouds filled the sky as Riley slammed the truck to a full stop. She dashed out in a dead run. The back of the cabin had yet to be consumed. That’s where Holden’s bedroom was and where she’d left something very important. If she could make it back there before the fire got to that part she could grab her necklace. The only piece of her mother she had left and foolishly left behind yesterday by accident.
She had to try.
Zahara didn’t even realize Riley was on her until he had his arms around her, pinning her to his chest, taking the full force of her momentum like it was nothing.
“Are you crazy? You get covered by the oil in that tall grass and the fire touches you, you’ll die, woman. Fuck me, you’ll die and take us down with you.”
That’s when she saw it. Black oil. It covered everything. Someone had smeared it over the grass, the sides of the house. Everywhere. Who would do such a thing?
“Don’t you ever put yourself in danger like that. You die, you kill all three of us. Do you hear me?” He grabbed her shoulders, pulling her back to peer into her eyes.
Anger stared back at her. No, something deeper, stronger than anger. Fear.
His voice cracked. His expression suffused with something akin to pure rage as he stared at her for a long moment. “What the hell are you thinking?”
“Riley!” She welled, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“Shh, baby, God, don’t cry, baby. You’re okay.” He thumbed away each tear, holding her face between his palms.
“My mother’s necklace. I can’t lose it.”
She pushed at his chest but she would have better luck moving a mountain than getting him to let go of her.
Right when she would have reached the back door that led into the kitchen, an explosion rocked that side of the cabin, sending lethal projectiles of shattered glass in all directions beyond the wraparound porch.
She ducked, but Riley had his back already turned and blocking her before a single piece had the chance to reach her. He grunted a few times and she knew he’d taken shards to the back.
So stupid. So stupid.
“I am so sorry!” Raw fear buried in her gut at the thought of losing not the last piece of her mom, but what she could have lost if she had made it to that door. “Please forgive me.” She cupped his face, reality settling over her like a mammoth-sized boulder. Frustration ate at her gut from her stupidity and knee-jerk reaction.
“Shh, sweetheart. I’m fine. I’ll heal. And damn, I’m the one that is sorry. I really am. I know that necklace meant a lot to you.” He tucked her beneath his chin as he moved them back from the heat of the flames. “I can’t lose you. Not over a piece of jewelry. Not over anything. Besides, if something happens to you Holden would maul me to death and then drop my remains in Death Gulch for the buzzards just to fuck with my ghost.”
Zahara smiled against his muscled chest. “Probably.” Her speech came out muffled.
Kneeling in the only patch of grass left untouched by oil, he tilted her head back, his expression void, eyes steady on her. He’d erased the fear from his body and expression for her benefit but she saw past the mask as clearly as she could see the fire eating up the cabin.
Holden came around the side of the house with a huge hose in hand
“Zahara get outta here while you can. We’ll fight back the flames until the fire department arrives.”
“Fuck that. What about Ethan and Remy? Were they at their cabin?”
“No, it’s just us out here.”
She pushed out of Riley’s arms and crossed the distance to Holden and took the hose. “It hurts you think so little of me. No Texan ever backs down from a fight and I’m not about to start now.”
