Burning House
OLLIE
AUGUST
Aloud bang forced me awake. More like a series of bangs.
What the fuck? What time was it? I glanced around my room, pitch black thanks to the black-out curtains, before grabbing for my phone under my pillow.
12:01 AM shone on my lockscreen.
“Who is it?” I groaned, my limbs stiff from riding and sleep. Fuck, I’d been having a good dream. One involving body shots of whiskey, a game of strip poker, and a certain hazel-eyed cowboy.
“Ollie! It’s Quinn. We need your help!”
Even with her voice muffled through the walls, worry and urgency rang in her tone.
I darted from the bed and ripped open the door. “What’s going on?”
“Ca—oh, um…” Quinn’s gaze flicked up and down my barely clothed body, her eyes falling to her feet as a pink blush bloomed on her cheeks.
“Jesus, Quinn, get it together, I’ve got tits just like you,” I snapped, possibly a bit too harshly, but hey, I was tired and grumpy. “What’s up?” I tried to add, a bit softer.
She managed to compose herself, meeting my stare with her own. “Cash’s ranch is on fire. His dad called Hux and asked if we had anyone to spare to send over there. Horses and cattle are running crazy and they don’t have enough help.”
“Jesus Christ.” I blew out a breath and nodded. “Okay, let me get dressed. Send me the address, I’ll get a headstart on my bike.”
Mercenary Ranch wasn’t far from ours. A fifteen minute drive if you were going the speed limit. On my bike? I made it there in nine. I could see the glow of the fire long before I’d even made it to the dirt driveway leading up to the ranch.
The lights were on at the first house, and I noticed the redhead from Hux and Quinn’s charity event walking down the steps to investigate as I pulled up.
“Hey, I’m Ollie, I work for Hux and Quinn. Bad asked us to come.”
It was hard to gauge the emotions on her face with how dark it was outside, but her words sounded relieved as she asked, “Oh, thank God. Are there others?”
“They're on their way. I took my bike so I could get here quicker.”
“Thank you,” she breathed. “I’m Charlie, by the way. The guys are back by the barn. Be careful, the western pasture is burning, I guess. The cows broke through the fence.”
I nodded. “Need anything?”
She shook her head. “I’m good here. I’ve got Aunt Violet and Jacie to help me with the kids. You guys need to get a handle on the cows and horses.” Her words quaked with worry and terror, but resolve resonated in her tone, in her stance.
She was scared, but she wasn’t letting that fear win, and I appreciated the hell out of that strength.
“Which way’s the barn?” I asked.
Charlie was right. The place was pure chaos.
The air was thick with smoke and ash, burning my lungs each hurried footstep I took closer to the barn.
I’d nearly gotten taken out by cows twice now—one of them singed, smoking, and smelling like burnt flesh.
I swallowed the gag that tried to force its way up my throat, determination rippling through me.
The barn came into view, and with it, Bad Mooney’s familiar deep voice as he barked out orders. He held a hose aimed toward the burning barn. Where the fuck was the fire department?
I hurried over to his side, shouting over the roar of the fire, “What can I do to help?”
He didn’t even glance at me as he handed me the hose he used to combat the closest flames—a futile, though noble effort. “Here, take this. I’m gonna help with the last of the horses.”
I glanced between the hose, him, and the barn. “Let me go in. I can move quicker than you. Besides, you know more about this place and these people than I do. You can help direct them more.”
His brow rose, but he nodded, reaching for the hose once more. “Thank you.”
I nodded, before glancing at the flaming building again for a moment, worry gripping my chest like a vice.
But then that familiar surge of adrenaline kicked in.
As much as I hated to admit it, I lived off of dangerous situations like this.
It was like fuel to me. Not wasting another minute, I launched into a sprint toward the barn.
My eyes stung so bad they watered, and smoke slid down my throat even with the bandana I had tied around my face.
I couldn’t see a fucking thing in here, between the ash and embers and flames.
Jesus Christ, it was fucking hot. Within seconds, a layer of sweat covered me.
Muffled shouts and terrified whinnies hung in the air as I forced my way deeper into the barn.
Most of the stalls were empty, but I noticed movement ahead of me.
“It’s okay! It’s okay, girl! Hold on!” The voice was stern, yet feminine.
“Hey, bud. Ho. Easy now.” I recognized that voice at least.
“Cash!” I shouted, just as I managed to catch a glimpse of him through the smoke.
His gaze snapped to mine as he exited a stall, a terrified sorrel horse prancing behind him. “Ollie?” he croaked out, before falling into a coughing fit.
I made it to his side, trying and failing to hold back a series of my own coughs. My lungs seared with each inhale and exhale. Fuck. I couldn’t imagine this was good for anyone. “What can I do?” I choked out.
“We need to get her out, but the fucking—” A blonde woman coughed “—stall’s padlocked!” Her final words came out all but a screech, tears staining her cheeks that were mostly covered by a bandana she wore over the bottom half of her face.
My gaze flicked to the horse on the other side, who screamed and kicked at the stall door. But it was no use. Two other men were in the next stall over, axes and whatever else they could find in their hands as they tried to break down the side of the stall.
Cash glanced at me. “Take him outside. Give him to Mav, and see if he can find some bolt cutters.”
I nodded, ignoring the ominous creaks and groans of the barn. It wouldn’t hold long. Not as the fire raged and ravaged through the wood, eating through it like a hive of hungry termites.
Trying to inhale as little as possible, I rushed the petrified horse out of the barn by his halter. Another masculine figure stood at Bad’s side once I’d cleared through the thick of the smoke. Fresh air sliced down my throat as I breathed in lungfuls and made a beeline for him.
“H-here. Cash s-said to take him,” I all but panted, gasping for a breath I couldn’t quite catch.
The guy at Bad’s side reached out and took the horse, and I recognized him from the charity event. The tall, dark, and broody cowboy who’d been by Cash most of the night. He gave me a silent nod of thanks and grabbed the horse’s halter.
I tried to clear my throat. “Cash needs bolt cutters.”
“Why?” Bad asked, beating the other cowboy to it.
“One of the horse’s stalls is padlocked.”
The broody cowboy fell into a fit of curses, fear all but glowing in his light eyes. “Betty?” His gaze settled on the barn, a look of pure, undiluted terror written into every line of his face. I don’t know if he realized it, but he trembled.
I didn’t know who Betty was, or if that was even the horse he was talking about, so I just shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s still a couple more in there though.”
I turned and rushed toward the barn once more, sure he’d follow behind, but before I disappeared through the smoking doors, I glanced back, only to find him rooted to his place, that same look of fear in his eyes.
His fear was infectious. It had to be. That, or the barn was getting dangerously close to falling apart and caving in altogether. Cash had joined the other two men bashing down the one horse’s stall.
“Are there any more?” I choked on the air, trying to look through the ash and smoke raining down on me.
The blonde woman coughed again, pointing toward the back of the barn. “You can’t go near her though.”
I scowled from beneath my bandana. “Why the fuck not?”
The woman’s gaze glazed with fear. “She’ll likely kill you if you try to go in there.”
“So, I won’t—” I coughed “— go in there.” I’d just let her out. Hopefully, she knew what was good for her and got the hell out of dodge before this whole place went down.
A layer of doubt loomed on the woman’s face. “You don’t understand. She’s been through a fire before. She’s terrified of it. Mav’s the only—the only one who can get through to her.”
“So why the hell won’t he come in?”
Fear shone in her turquoise gaze. “You wouldn’t understand.”
I glanced at the back of the barn once more, finally noticing the black behemoth in the darkness. She was as dark—if not darker—than the smoke billowing around us. She pawed incessantly at the ground.
Coughing on the thick air, I grit out, “Well, I’m not just gonna fucking leave her.”
Not waiting for a reply, I stomped toward her stall.
But with each step I drew closer, the horse became more wild, more angry, more ornery.
She thrashed her head, snorting and screaming as she struck at the barn door.
It made more sense why the blonde was so worried, I guess. This was going to be interesting.
Holy fuck, she was massive. One of the biggest horses I’d ever been around—which wasn’t saying much, but still.
In any other circumstance I’d have admired her sleek lines and dark coat, but right now wasn’t the time.
Not when glowing embers rained down on us and singed her back.
Not as my eyes stung and my lungs screamed for clean air.
My head swam, the creaks and groans of the burning wood both sounding loud and far away at once.
Almost like in one instant they were being amplified by a microphone and the next, I was underwater.
Fuck, that probably wasn’t good. A wave of fear mixed with the adrenaline pumping through my veins, but I pushed it away easily enough. I couldn’t just leave her here. And from the looks of that cowboy—Maverick—outside, he wasn’t going to be coming in here any time soon.
Cash and the others were still struggling with freeing the other horse, if their shouts were any indicator. So it was up to me.
“Hey, girl,” I said, reaching for the stall door.
She struck out again, her hoof crashing against the wood separating us. Fear and fury blazed in her dark, terrified eyes.
“I’m—” A cough “—not trying to hurt you.”
But she didn’t get it. Because of course she didn’t. She was a horse, and I didn’t speak some secret language she could understand. This wasn’t like the stupid movies where the angsty teen could walk into some wild horse’s stall and calm it with a touch.
I reached for the gate once more, and the mare lunged toward it, almost taking a chunk out of my hand with her teeth. Maverick rode this horse? I’d hardly even call her that. More like a hellbeast.
“Please, I’m trying to—” My words were drowned out by the deafening splinter of wood. I dove out of the way, narrowly avoiding the beam that crashed right where I was. Partially blocking the stall door. Well, fuck me.
My lungs ached and burned as a series of coughs trembled through me. This wasn’t going to hold much longer. Honestly, a part of me was surprised it hadn’t started to fall apart until now.
Ignoring the pain in my chest and the fogginess in my brain from lack of oxygen, I stumbled up to a stand and situated myself in front of the crazy mare’s stall.
“Do you want to fucking die?” I choked out, staring down the dark horse. “Because that’s what going to—” I coughed “happen if you don’t get your fucking shit together.”
I reached for the stall door, ignoring the crash of her hoof against the wood.
It’s like she didn’t care if she went down with the barn.
I thought that animals had, like, a self preservation mode?
But it was as if her fight or flight response was out of whack.
This horse would rather fight than flee.
She probably—no, definitely needed Maverick—but he wasn’t here, so she was stuck with me.
“Oh, knock that sh-shit off!” I coughed into the bandana, my eyes blurring everything around me so that she was nothing more than a dark smudge among the glowing red and orange.
The metal of the gate latch was hot, but not melt-your-flesh-off-the-bone hot as I pulled it open and slammed the door inward. A dangerous move leaving me partially blocking the entryway, but I didn’t really have a fucking choice.
The mare reared, a panicked squeal peeling from her. Please, don’t kill me. Her dark, terror-filled gaze met mine for the briefest moment before she lunged forward, moving as fast as a bullet out of a gun.
I launched out of the way, mostly avoiding her as she darted from the stall and leaped over the sizzling beam, but her shoulder clipped my side, sending me crashing against the wooden siding.
Another groan of wood reverberated around me that matched my own pain-filled one.
My right side felt like it had just taken a blow from a sledge-hammer.
Ow, that was going to leave a bruise. A wave of dizziness overwhelmed me, making it damn near impossible to stand upright.
Fuck. Get it together, Ol.
I struggled to my feet, dirt and ash and hay and shit sticking to my sweaty body.
If I didn’t get outside and get some clean air—well, cleaner than this—in my lungs, I’d pass the fuck out.
Another wave of fear surged to life in me, and this time it was too much for the adrenaline.
I tried to move forward, but it’s like my limbs were turning to mush…
or cement. My movements were stilted, sluggish.
Most people didn’t run into burning buildings, and now I could very well die in one.
I stumbled forward, checking every stall I passed for any missed horses, but it looked like they’d gotten them all.
The stall Cash and the others had been working on was empty.
Another beam crashed a few feet ahead of me, forcing me to fall back.
My wrist barked in agony as I connected with the ground once more.
I spewed out a string of curses before succumbing to more fucking coughing. Probably not the smartest move.
I tried to stand, my wrist giving out on me as I put weight on it. Well, that was just great. Another series of creaks and groans and hisses echoed through the barn as a column further away fell. I swear, I watched the entire fucking place sway from side to side.
Holy fuck.
I started forward once more, clutching my wrist to my chest. I don’t know if I’d inhaled too much smoke or what, but another spike of fear trembled its way through me.
A little voice in my head whispered this was it.
That I wasn’t getting out of here. I couldn’t even see where I was going at this point.
And I was so. Fucking. Tired. I swayed on my feet, trying and failing to catch my breath.
It’s like I was drowning, but there was no water.
And my lungs felt like they were on fire.
I coughed, but the coughing didn’t stop this time, it wracked through my body so hard it left me seeing stars. The world began to tilt, the axis shifting, and as my eyes started to grow heavier and heavier, I resigned myself to the realization that I wasn’t getting out of here.
At least I’d saved the horse.