Chapter Nine
Oktober
At a hundred and ten miles per hour on the interstate, the air made the helmet quiver against my skull, the noise and vibration numbing every thought.
The pulse in my jaw and the broken white line on the road reflecting from my headlights slicing the dark ahead registered only vaguely as I concentrated on getting to Mia.
Only getting to Mia mattered. Noose’s headlights flashed in my mirrors, never more than three bike lengths off my tail.
He rode like he didn’t know fear. Pain and Inferno followed behind us in the Bronco, driving with no less urgency.
How the fuck we didn’t get pulled over I had no idea.
I’d have likely gone back to prison if the cops had tried to stop us, because there was no way I would pull over for anything until I reached Mia.
My phone vibrated again. Even through the thick leather of my cut, I felt the buzz against my chest, hard and angry.
I wanted to check it, but we had sixty miles of night ahead and the mountains in the distance glowed a bright, angry orange.
I told myself to focus so I didn’t end up with my brains all over the pavement, but my mind kept feeding me images of Mia alone in the cabin.
Keeping panic at bay proved more difficult than at any other time in my life.
Noose gunned ahead and signaled a lane shift, moving us toward the off ramp. He probably needed gas. Or maybe he saw my focus slipping. Either way, I welcomed the excuse to take a couple minutes but still begrudged even a few precious seconds that stood between me and Mia.
We pulled into the first gas station at the exit.
I cut the engine and ripped off my helmet.
Ash already floated in the air here, fine gray flecks drifting across the yellow cones of light from the station’s sodium lamps.
I had to clench my fists a few times before my hands would stop shaking.
The phone buzzed again, urgent enough that I nearly fumbled it.
The screen glared up at me. Six missed calls from Mia.
I felt a cold flush work down my arms. The last call came only ten minutes ago.
I dialed her back. Straight to voicemail. My fingers gripped the phone too hard and I forced myself to loosen them, thumb trembling on the screen. I called again. Nothing.
Inferno and Pain pulled into the parking lot in the Bronco as Noose topped off my bike before fueling his own. I continued to try Mia while the others filled their tanks.
Inferno got out of the truck and went to Noose, bumming a smoke as the pair watched the mountains in the direction we were headed from the pumps, neither speaking. Inferno lit his cigarette. Pain came up behind me not pretending to do anything except monitor my meltdown.
“I can’t get her,” I said, not bothering to keep the fear out of my voice. “She’s been calling and I didn’t stop to fuckin’ answer.” The last sounded harsh and angry. I was angry. At myself.
“You could hardly answer her call ridin’ like a bat outta hell.
Besides, reception’s sometimes shit in those valleys.
Maybe she left early and is on the move.
” Pain’s voice was steady, slow, the way he talked to gunshot victims and men losing blood.
“You’d rather her leave before it got bad than wait on you to get to her, I’m sure. ”
I tried Mia again. Voicemail. I wanted to throw the phone across the parking lot but didn’t dare because it was my only link to Mia. When it worked.
“Hey!” Noose called to us from the other side of the pump, waving his phone. “Weather app says wind’s shifted again. Gusts to fifty miles per hour. They finally issued the evacuation line all the way to the ridge.”
Inferno exhaled smoke and squinted at the distant horizon. “That’s less than four miles from the cabin,” he said. “Maybe less, if the fire crowns.”
I dialed Mia one more time and let it ring until her voicemail clicked on. My phone buzzed and, again, I nearly dropped the fucking thing, but this time it was Knight. “Ja,” I answered, voice flat.
“You stopped. Are you off the interstate?”
“Yeah. Needed fuel before continuing on the state highway. We’re about twenty minutes from the cut off to the cabins.”
Knight’s voice dropped, low and fast. “Brother, I’m looking at the satellites.
This is not the fire they’re reporting on the news.
The main blaze jumped containment two hours ago.
Secondary fire’s moving fast toward the northeast. If Mia’s where you said she is, she’s in a pocket.
And the wind’s going to close it off well before sunrise. ”
A cold sweat hit me. “Her last call was twenty minutes ago.”
Knight’s keyboard clattered through the speaker. “That entire zone lost cell and Internet. There’s a hardline repeater at the ranger station five miles past the cabins, but if the lines are down, it’s blacked out.”
“Send me the updated map,” I said, already knowing what it would show.
Knight sent the image. My phone pinged with the attachment.
I opened it with hands that didn’t feel like they belonged to me.
The red and orange splotches told a story faster than Knight’s words could catch up.
The fire had grown in a crescent, wrapping around the lake.
Mia’s cabin sat in a shallow inlet, the only access via a logging road that cut directly through the burn zone.
If she was still at the cabin, she was boxed in on three sides.
If she tried to take the main road out, she’d be driving straight into the teeth of the fire.
My voice came out strangled. “We have to go around. We have to get in from the other side.”
Knight said, “Don’t stop for anything. I’ll keep monitoring. I’ll call if there’s any break in the weather or cell coverage.” He hesitated. “Don’t be a fucking hero, Oktober. Get her and get out.”
“Danke, Bruder.” I pocketed the phone, then turned to the others. I forced myself to sound steady.
“Fire’s ahead of what they’re reporting. If Mia’s still in the cabin she won’t be able to get out on her own. We take the logging road east of the ridge, cut through the old strip mines, then drop down to the lake. It’s the only way in or out and probably not for long.”
Noose and Inferno nodded without question. Pain just looked at me, eyes steady behind the soot on his brow.
“You sure she’s there?” Pain asked.
“I pray she’s not, but I’m not leaving until I know for sure,” I said.
Pain nodded, a single curt dip of the chin. “Everyone leaves their bikes here.”
“Like fuck,” I said, knowing this was a battle I absolutely had to win.
Pain being a doctor in his former life would guarantee he thought he could control the situation if he kept us all together.
Which would mean, if he thought it was too dangerous, he could pull me back.
“I’ll take my bike and leave it there if I have to. ”
Pain gave me a hard look. “This will not turn into a suicide mission, Oktober. I’ll shoot you in the knee before I let you kill yourself.”
“You tell me exactly what you’d do if Nadine was with Mia right now. If it’s different than --”
“Shut the fuck up and get going,” Pain snapped. “I get it. I’m just saying.”
“Well, say something else.”
Pain addressed Noose. “You drive. I’ll ride in the back so I can make sure I have everything we might need ready if… if anyone’s hurt.” He glanced at me briefly. “Leave your bike here, Inferno. Let Knight know and he’ll make sure someone gets it.”
“Copy that, Pain.” Inferno gave me a nod as he flicked away the cigarette.
“We’ll get her back, brother.” He moved his bike behind a shed next to the main convenience store.
Normally no one would ever willingly leave his bike behind.
None of the brothers but me balked at leaving his bike in this quest. And I only stubbed up because I knew Pain would try to pull me back.
I led us out, Mia’s face burning behind my eyelids like a second sun.
Ash drifted across the blacktop, thicker now, more like a light snowfall than the occasional fleck.
The air tasted bitter, and every breath pulled the fire closer.
My instinct had been to stay with her. I hadn’t wanted to leave when the rest of the guys had, but I hadn’t wanted to scare her or give her a creepy vibe.
The instant attraction we had for each other scared me with the intensity of it.
The next twenty miles passed in a blur of flashing hazard signs and roadwork cones and emergency vehicles barreling the other direction. I rode as fast as I dared, the haze of smoke and ash getting worse by the second.
At the cutoff to the quarry, a state trooper’s SUV blocked the road, its blue lights spinning frantically. A cop in a yellow vest waved his arms, motioning us to turn back. I slowed, but didn’t stop. The cop stepped in front of my bike, hands up and waving to get my attention.
I cut the engine and flipped up my visor. “We have someone trapped at the cabins,” I said, words clipped and fast.
The trooper shook his head, eyes wide betraying his nerves. I didn’t know if he was afraid of me or the fire. “Evac teams cleared that whole area. It’s off-limits. Fire jumped the creek and they pulled everyone out an hour ago.”
“She’s still there,” I said, voice icy.
“She’s not,” he insisted. “If she was, they would’ve brought her to the base camp. You don’t want to go in there, man. It’s a Goddamn furnace. The air tankers can’t get here for another two hours.”
“You said they got everyone out an hour ago,” I said, taking a step toward the officer. “Did the place they took her to have cell service?”
The guy gave me a confused look. “Yeah. I guess. Been talking to my base commander and that’s where he’s set up.”
“She would have called me the second she got out. I know she would have found a way to call because she’s expecting me to come get her if she can’t get out.”