Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Dan
“What are you doing?”
I look over my shoulder at Wolff, who catches up with me just as I’m starting up the trail.
“Coming with you.”
His tone is matter-of-fact, as if following me on what could be a wild-goose chase is not even a question.
I bumped into him in the barn when I was saddling Will, and I mentioned I was heading up the mountain to see if I could find Sloane. I guess he finished what he was doing, grabbed his horse, Judge, and decided to come after me.
“She may not even be up here,” I point out.
“Oh, she’s up here,” Wolff counters, pointing at the fresh ATV tracks on the trail. “Although why she’d come up by herself, I don’t know.”
“Doing her job, would be my guess.” I dart him a sharp glance, feeling suddenly protective, even though I had those same thoughts myself earlier. “She doesn’t have the luxury of a team, like we do. Or even a partner,” I point out.
Wolff throws me an amused glance as he calls my bluff. “Is that your party line, or is it how you really feel?”
I don’t bother answering, we both know I’m not happy she’s up here on her own, or I wouldn’t be going after her, knowing it’ll piss her off.
It’s not until we pass near the spot where we found the rifle shells, Wolff breaks the silence.
“Looks like she may have pulled off here.”
He’s just pointing out some flattened vegetation on the side of the path when my radio crackles to life.
“Sully here. Dan, come in.”
“Dan here, what’s up?”
“Sheriff Ewing showed up at the ranch, looking for Sloane. Do you have eyes on her?”
“Negative. Not yet.”
“Dan…” Junior Ewing’s voice replaces Sully’s. “I need you to get to her…we’re on our way, but you’re closer. New information has come to light she is not aware of that could put her in a lot of danger.”
Then he proceeds to explain the kind of danger he thinks she is in, and my blood runs cold in my veins.
“On it,” I bark as I give Will my heels.
Wolff—having heard every word—is right on my tail as we urge our horses to hotfoot it up the trail.
I’m fucking terrified out of my mind for her.
There’s no way she would’ve seen this coming.
Sloane
Forty-five minutes earlier
“Cousin?”
I’m already getting to my feet and my hand is reaching for my weapon.
“He’s going to kill us,” she whispers, her eyes fixed on the door.
Her body is shaking so hard, the chains she’s shackled with rattle. She’s petrified and I don’t think she can even hear me.
Outside the sound of and engine abruptly dies, and I try to listen for other sounds. Anything to indicate someone might be approaching, but I can’t pick up anything.
Well, I’m not about to twiddle my thumbs here, waiting for whoever is out there to dictate what happens next. Determined to take charge of the situation right off the bat, I crouch down and ease to the front of the cabin. There, I squeeze myself in the corner by the window to the right of the door, so I have some cover when he opens the door coming in. I hold my gun in front of me as I try to peer outside without being seen.
An ATV is parked outside, but I don’t see anyone. No one seems to be out front. I shift to the other side of the window, trying to get a better look toward the side of the house, when I catch a flash of a familiar uniform rounding the corner of the cabin.
I blow out a big breath of relief. Backup .
Swinging around, I focus on Shelby.
“It’s okay, the cavalry arrived. Sit tight, we’ll get you out of here,” I assure her before tucking my gun in its holster and reaching for the door.
Pulling it open I step outside and swing toward the deputy I’d seen coming around the corner.
“Glad to see you here. Do you have a toolbox on your quad? I’ve got Shelby Vandermeer held captive inside, and I need something to get her out of those shackles.”
“Shackles? Show me,” Jason says, following closely as I start leading the way inside.
I aim a reassuring smile at Shelby when I walk in the door, but she’s not looking at me.
She’s looking straight over my shoulder, her face a picture of sheer terror.
There’s an instant flashback to this morning, when Shelby and I were in the feedstore talking, and I caught her glancing over my shoulder with a weird expression on her face.
Jason had been behind me then too, sitting in his cruiser outside.
Jason?
He’d been at the end of his shift, offered to drive me to the feedstore. He even mentioned heading straight home when he dropped me off at the sheriff’s office.
So what is he doing here?
Not understanding, I turn my head to look over my shoulder, when I catch sight of something swinging toward me.
Then my world goes dark.
Dan
“Do you smell smoke?”
I slow Will down and sniff a few times.
Fuck .
He’s right. I can smell it, but I can’t see anything.
August and September are the worst months for wildfires here, especially the past couple of years. But something tells me this is no wildfire.
“How much farther?”
“The cutoff to the cabin is up there past that next bend,” Wolff provides. “We can’t come storming up though. We have to approach with caution. Stay behind me.”
I reluctantly hold Will back to fall in line behind Judge. It’s costing me, not forging ahead, but Wolff has training for this kind of stuff. He leads the way off the trail, cutting a diagonal path through the trees in the approximate direction of the cabin.
The smell of smoke is definitely thicker here, but as I’m about to mention that, I hear the sound of an engine firing up. For a moment Wolff appears to hesitate. Then he urges his horse forward, no longer worried about approaching with caution.
I have to duck out of the way of low-hanging branches whipping at me, and one too-close pass by a tree trunk almost takes out my left knee. But, I’m still in the saddle when our horses burst out of the trees just as an ATV whips past, speeding away from the cabin.
One look to my left and my heart lodges in my throat. A small structure in a clearing at the top of the trail appears to be fully engulfed in flames, and I swear I can hear a woman screaming.
Fuck the guy on the ATV. My gut tells me Sloane is in trouble up there.
By the time I bring Will to a sliding halt, I’ve already noticed the roof of the cabin isn’t quite engulfed, but tall flames are shooting up along the entire front of the structure. Including the front door. My guess is an accelerant was used.
Fire tends to be loud, but it still doesn’t drown out the frantic screams coming from inside. I dive into my saddlebags and dig up my folding axe before leaping off Will’s back. The axe is the only tool I could think of that might be useful. Unfortunately, I can’t even get close enough to the front door to reach it.
Growing frantic, I start running around the side, hoping for a window or another door I can get in.
“Dan! Give me a hand!”
I whip my head around and see Wolff trying to drag a dead tree across the clearing. I immediately rush to help him. I have a good idea what he has in mind. Between the two of us, we’re able to lift the tree and run with it toward the cabin.
It only takes two hits before the door swings in. I don’t hesitate and drop the tree, rushing through the opening, even as I pull my shirt over my mouth as makeshift protection for the smoke. The heat of the flames singes the hair on my body.
My eyes are watering from the smoke as I try to take in the scene before me.
The flames seem to be contained to the front and halfway down the sides of the cabin and leaking across the ceiling. The fire hasn’t gotten to the back wall yet, where I see two figures huddled together on a mattress on the floor.
I have no trouble recognizing Sloane, her walking boot gives her away, and I immediately reach for her. The only thing on my mind is getting her out of here before the ceiling comes down on us. But as I grab for her arm, she shakes me off.
“Help me,” she forces out in a raw voice.
It’s only then I pay attention to the second figure. It takes me a moment to recognize the screaming, half-naked woman is Shelby. She’s cuffed to a length of rusty chain hooked into the wall. Sloane is desperately trying to work the lock on the iron cuffs around Shelby’s wrists with a length of wire, while the other woman appears to be fighting her all the way.
I grab the fold-up axe I hooked on my belt and push Shelby closer to Sloane.
“Hold her still,” I bark, lifting the axe.
I aim where the chain hooks onto the bracket on the wall, hoping there’s a weakness in one of the links. But before I can swing, the axe is plucked from my hand
“Take Sloane out, I’ve got her,” Wolff orders me.
I don’t hesitate and pull Sloane up off the floor. Then I wrap one arm around her waist, and with my other hand force her head in my neck as I half-drag her with me.
The flames have almost blocked the entire doorway and all I can do is hold my breath as I leap through. I don’t stop moving until I no longer feel the heat and sink down on my knees on the ground, still clinging on to Sloane. When I look over my shoulder, I just see Wolff jumping clear of the fire, carrying Shelby.
“You’re okay,” I rasp against Sloane’s singed hair. “You’re both okay.”
Then I release the back of her head and notice my hand is covered in blood.