Chapter Fifty-One
Lochlan
I heard her scream as if it was amplified inside my head.
Every one of my senses is so in tune with her that I’ve convinced myself I could smell her scent if I got close enough.
Logic has no room in my mind when it comes to Jo.
No one has seen her; she’s been missing for at least an hour, and that’s 60 minutes too long.
Someone doesn’t scream like that unless they’re terrified or they’re about to die.
My boots pound the dirt until I’m cut off by the bear fences, but what really stops me is a pair of legs lying in the dirt before me.
Men’s legs…
Curtis’ legs.
Curtis.
“Take one fucking step and I drop the lighter.”
My gaze pings to a man standing just ahead in the shadows of the trees.
The moonlight isn’t illuminating enough to show me his identity.
I don’t really give a shit right now, anyways .
I keep scanning for Jo.
I know I heard her.
My eyes sweep past the bear enclosures, and my body jolts, seeing her pressed up against the wrong side of the fence.
“DON’T!” He yells as he sparks the lighter in his hand.
Jo’s cries reach me at the same time.
“Listen to him, Lochlan. Listen to him, he sprayed me with lighter fluid,” she cries breathlessly.
Every muscle is tensed to save her, to kill somebody, to fucking stop all of this madness.
“What do you want?” I grit out, not taking my eyes from Jo.
The rage in my body is rattling my bones.
“I don’t want anything. My job’s done.” I look just in time to see him smirk as he throws something into the trees and drops his lighter.
The ground ignites, and he takes off on the other side of it.
“No! No!” Jo screams.
“LOCHLAN!”
Her fear rushes over me in a wave as the trail of fire travels quickly, lighting the path towards the bear enclosure.
I don’t think, I just react, running and skidding through the dirt to cut off the fire before it gets to the enclosure.
The flame catches my pants, but barely has a chance to burn before I smother it, smacking away the fire with my hands.
I cut off its direct path to her, but the fire is still burning brightly, catching the dry brush along the trees, and filling the air with smoke as everything begins to ignite.
It’s going to start a wildfire.
“How’d you get in there?” I yell, smacking the fence until I find a loose spot.
“Right here, right here.” She nods her head to a spot a few feet from her, and I grab it, pulling the chain link wide open in one tug .
“We’ve got to go, the fire is spreading.” I reach for her, noticing the chain looped around her waist.
“Lochlan,” she utters as my hands roam over her, looking for a way to free her.
“Lochlan, look at me.”
My eyes ping to hers.
“It’s too late. He threw the key.”
“What?”
“He padlocked the chain. He threw the key into the woods. I’m stuck.”
“No.”
“Yes. He wanted this. He wanted me to get trapped here.” She nods to the ground and the raw meat scattered at our feet.
“The bears?”
She nods stiffly.
“Now, I’m going to burn and they’re going to eat me like I was cooked over a campfire.” She laughs humorlessly with streaks of tears running down her cheeks.
“No.”
“Go, you have to go. You need to get help, or the entire mountain will burn.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to.”
“No, the fuck, I don’t.”
“Lochlan. Please, go. It’s okay, I’ll probably be alright,” she shrugs sadly, unconvinced.
I tug on the chain around the fence post with all of my strength until the entire fence line rattles.
It’s solid metal.
There’s no way to break it.
I would need bolt cutters and time.
Neither of which we have.
Even if I could run for help, I might get cut off by the fire and wouldn’t be able to get back.
The thought of her being trapped here, burning to death …
“I’m not fucking leaving you here,” I growl, tugging harder on the chain that’s not going anywhere.
Her hands cup my face, forcing my attention upward.
“If you stay, we both might not make it. You have to go.”
Her big beautiful sad eyes don’t have a fucking clue.
I press my forehead to hers, feeling her trembling body against me.
“Darlin’, if something happened to you, I wouldn’t survive a moment without you anyway. But that’s not going to happen because I’m getting you the fuck out of here.”
“Lochlan…” She whimpers, seeing what I’m not over my shoulder.
“The fire is getting closer. If it gets too close, I’ll go up in flames.”
“No, you’re not.” I feel down her dress, finding the damp spots and ripping the fabric clear from her body.
“It’s on my legs, too.”
My palms scour the ground for mud, and I fill my hands with it, smearing it up and down her legs, covering any remnants of accelerant.
“Nothing is going to happen to you. Do you hear me?” I demand, and she whimpers again, burying her head against my neck.
“I know you fix everything for everyone, me included, but you can’t fix this. I’m still trapped here.”
“I’m going to fix this.”
The fire crackles through the dry brush around us as I try to fulfill my promise to her.
“Lochlan, can I ask you something selfish?”
“You can ask me anything.”
“If I die, will you bury me here with your family? I don’t want to go back to my family, but I don’t want to be alone for eternity either. ”
“Stop. Stop it, don’t say shit like that.”
“And, maybe you could visit me every once in a while,” she murmurs in my ear as I clutch her body to mine.
“JoAnna Montgomery, shut the hell up. You’re not dying.”
“And, if you don’t mind dragging out the fake engagement thing… Will you put Jo Dane on my headstone… So I don’t have to carry their last name forever. I like your family better than mine.”
“Don’t, baby.”
“Please,” she begs, wiping the sweat off my face.
The fire is close, the heat of it is heavy on my back, but the flames are still far enough that we’re not in danger of burning.
Yet.
“Jo Dane has a nice ring to it.”
She smiles, “I should have convinced you to fake marry me weeks ago so I could have gotten rid of my family name faster.”
“If anyone could convince me to do it, it’d be you.”
“Thank you for taking care of me all summer.” She wraps her fingers around the back of my neck, tangling into my hair like she loves to do.
“You probably regret accepting the job right about now.”
She shakes her head.
“No, I think this was the big adventure I was looking for,” she whispers against my lips, kissing me softly.
“Do you regret falling in love with me?”
She uttered the words so softly I hardly heard her.
But I did hear her, loud and clear.
With a wildfire burning at our heels, and her eyes pleading for comfort from my words, I can’t be anything other than honest.
“I have many regrets in my life, darlin’. That will never be one.”
She laughs, but it’s only joyful for the briefest moment before it turns sad.
“Thank you for saying that.” She nuzzles against me, hugging me tightly.
“Now, please, go.”
“No.”
“Lochlan, please.”
“We’ve been through this. I’m not leaving you here.”
“The entire sanctuary is going to be destroyed if you don’t get help. The bears will suffer.”
“They’re smart animals. They’ll figure it out.”
“You don’t believe that. This is your life, your legacy. You need to save it.”
“I don’t care.”
“Lochlan…”
“Let it burn, Jo. I don’t fucking care. I’m not leaving you.” I hold her face against mine, feeling her breath fan across my skin.
I need to do something, I can’t let the world go on without her.
I step back, staring at the chain link fencing.
It’s 12 feet high with 12 feet between each post.
It keeps the bears in, but it’s not indestructible.
“I’m getting you out of here.” I kiss her brutally and jump back through the hole I came through.
I pull the chain link webbing from the outside until the metal cuts through my skin, but I keep pulling.
I don’t stop until it breaks free from the posts and snaps back, falling to the ground.
“What are you doing?” She asks, her eyes bouncing between me and the fire in front of her.
It’s bright enough that I can see the beads of sweat on her forehead.
“Your chain is looped like a figure-eight around the post. If I can get it down, we can slide you off and worry about getting it off of you later.”
“It’s metal and probably cemented into the ground.”
“I didn’t say it would be easy.” I jump up, gripping the pole as high as I can and dig my foot against it, pulling the aluminum post until it starts to give.
It’s metal, but it’s hollow.
If I can get it to bend just enough, I can get her off.
“Lochlan,” she cries and then coughs.
The fire is getting closer, and the smoke is filling the air.
I jump up again, grabbing even further up the pole now that it’s slightly bent, and I use every bit of strength to bring it towards the ground.
“Ahhhh.” My entire body is screaming in pain, but it’s still not enough.
It’s bending, but not enough to slide her off.
Not by mysel–
“LOCHLAN!” Hayes yells, riding in on the side-by-side, driving straight through a trail of flames.
Jordy, Arizona, and the Sheriff jump out.
“Help me!” I yell mid-pull, feeling my biceps ripping from the inside out.
Jordy and Arizona jump in immediately, helping me pull the metal post, leveraging it with brute strength until it’s almost low enough.
“Move, move!” Hayes yells, looping the tow chain around the top of the post.
“Clear out, if it snaps back, it could take your head off.”
Jordy and Arizona find a safe spot, but I go to Jo, wrapping my arms around her to cover her the best I can.
“I’ve got you, baby.”
“Lochlan, the fire,” her voice rattles .
The flames are licking my back now, at least that’s what it feels like.
My shirt is saturated in sweat, and each breath feels like it’s being forced through a bendy straw.
Over her shoulder, I see Jackson checking Curtis’s lifeless body.
He went down in the dirt far enough from the tree line to keep from getting burned up.
He picks him up and hands him off to Arizona, who takes off, carrying his limp body out of here through the only clear path through the trees.
The fire is nearly surrounding us now.
“Heads up!” Hayes yells before throwing the side-by-side into reverse and pulling the pole.
My hands go around Jo’s head, bracing for anything that might come flying her way if this doesn’t pan out.
If this doesn’t work, I’m afraid it might be over for us.
Us.
Because I’m not fucking leaving her.
The metal post protests, screaming as it’s bent towards the ground, and then the tow rope snaps.
It’s like a whip cracking against my side.
“Ahh,” I cry out involuntarily.
“Are you okay?” I feel her breath against my neck.
“I’m fine,” I gasp as the pain radiating through my side blinds me.
At least it wasn’t her.