Chapter Nine #2
At some point, the Bronco pulled up behind us and Pain stepped up beside me, fixing the cop with a calm, unblinking stare. “We appreciate your concern, officer. But we need to check for ourselves.”
The cop shook his head. “I can’t stop you, but no one will come after you, either. If you get in trouble, you’re on your own.”
I nodded once. “Gut.”
I didn’t waste time, getting back on my bike, starting it up, and gunning past the trooper, deeper into the smoke.
It didn’t take long to find the logging road.
It served as the back way in but was more of a trail covered with loose gravel and fallen branches than an actual road.
My phone vibrated one time. I wanted to stop and see if it was Mia, to see if she’d made it out and I could turn around, but it only vibrated once so there wasn’t much point.
I forced the bike up a small embankment, engine howling in protest as we climbed the last ridge.
The air here was black, not gray, visibility down to fifteen feet at best. The world shrank to the pool of my headlight and the Bronco’s white beams ghosting through the gloom.
I’d honestly expected Noose not to make it in the cage but he managed.
No doubt it had been a really bumpy ride for Pain in the back.
We topped the ridge. Through a break in the smoke, I saw the far side of the lake.
The sky above glowed a hot, infernal red, painting the water the color of blood.
Embers spun in the updrafts, pinwheeling overhead like angry insects.
The wind shifted again, hard enough to nearly push me off the bike. We were close.
I felt the last mile in every muscle of my body.
I pushed my bike harder than I should have on the uneven, debris-ridden trail, but an urgency churned in my gut with the need to get to Mia.
The first cabin roofs appeared suddenly through the black.
I gunned the engine down the slope, braking hard as I reached the gravel turnaround.
I killed the engine and leaped off the bike, nearly losing my footing.
The Bronco skidded to a halt beside my bike, doors shoved open as Noose and Inferno jumped out, scanning the perimeter with their flashlights. Pain followed from the rear of the vehicle as we all headed to the cabin.
“Her car’s gone,” Noose said as we got to the porch. I bolted to the front door. It was unlocked but jammed by the pressure differential from the wind. I kicked it in and called her name.
“Mia!” I called out as I did a quick search, but she wasn’t here.
Pain and Inferno appeared behind me. “She’s not here.”
“No,” I said. The terror in my voice surprised even me.
Noose called from the porch. “Only one road out other than the way we came in. And she didn’t leave that way.”
Pain nodded, giving me a determined look. “Let’s go get your girl.”
Pain’s phone buzzed. He checked the screen. “Knight says the main road is blocked by downed trees and fire. If that’s where she is, she’ll have to turn back.”
I looked upward where the flames were clearly visible near the lake. “Given how close the flames are, I’m sure that’s why she fled.”
I climbed on my bike, starting and gunning the engine.
I wove through the debris in the road, some of it burning where a few treetops had started to catch fire and fall.
My helmet’s faceplate provided some protection from the smoke and heat, but not a lot.
At least, it helped keep my eyes from stinging too badly.
The first mile was manageable. The second, less so. Fire crowned in the treetops, burning embers bouncing off my helmet. I saw the glow of taillights through the haze and pushed the engine until it screamed.
The outline of her car appeared ahead. She opened her door at our approach and moved frantically to the middle of the road, waving her hands to flag us down.
I skidded to a stop, jerking off my helmet. “Mia!” I shouted, voice breaking.
She froze, hands covering her mouth. I hurried in her direction as the wind shifted, sending a curtain of flame over the road ten feet behind her, directly across her car.
I think I yelled, but I’m not really sure. I dropped the bike, running as hard as I could to get to her. I picked her up bodily and carried her back to the Bronco, which had caught up behind me.
She was shaking, mouth open but voiceless.
Noose had left the Bronco at some point after I’d run to Mia and he had the tailgate open for us.
I pushed Mia into the back and climbed in after her.
Noose shoved the tailgate closed, then ran around to climb in the back passenger’s seat, letting Inferno take the wheel.
With firefighting experience, Inferno was the better choice to drive and Noose knew it.
The back seat was still folded down so Pain had room to work.
The second Noose’s weight settled in the seat, Inferno stomped the gas before Noose had the door shut.
Mia landed hard against me as the truck jerked into motion.
I looked out the back window. Another tree collapsed onto the road close to where the first tree had fallen onto Mia’s car. The heat building outside grew intense. I pulled Mia to my chest and wrapped my arms around her, holding her together with everything I had.
The Bronco’s suspension screamed as we hit the ruts and dodged the branches too far out into the path we followed back. As rough as it had been on the way up, I really thought Inferno left the drive train a mile or so back.
We shot out of the fire zone just as the world behind us went black and orange and impossible. Inferno kept driving until the smoke thinned, until the air cleared and I could finally hear Mia’s little whimpers in my arms.
We sat in the Bronco, all five of us, hands shaking, silent. I turned her face to mine, and she stared at me with eyes as wild and blue as the lakes back home.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“You’re safe,” I said. I felt the shaking go out of me then, replaced with something raw and bright and alive.
I looked at the others. My brothers. The men who had followed me through fire and ash for a woman I hadn’t claimed yet simply because I asked them to. We were all here. Alive. And so was Mia.