Chapter 7

Seven

S he pushed Riley to the side and stood from their makeshift love nest. Columns of black smoke stained the wide expanse of blue sky. It climbed higher, spreading. "That's not right. There's something different about that smoke." She was no firefighter, but the smoke was grayish, but there was a darkness about this smoke and the way it choked the air.

"Yes." Holden tossed shorts, shoes and her top on the blanket. "Get dressed as fast as you can, baby."

She knew fear when she saw it and the strained look they shared spoke volumes.

She hiked her shorts on and then her shoes, her panties a tattered mess on the blanket. On went her bra and tank top. "What am I missing? Why is the smoke so black?"

"Move fast, move low, and stay between us."

Not the answer she was looking for.

"You know, that's what Remy said you guys do. The Savage clan. You command and expect everyone to follow. Good for the day job, but not so much with me." Zahara had heard all about the time Remy and Ethan had to fight off a neighboring family. One in particular and then he brought his brothers in as backup.

It ended with the eldest brother, Reaper, a beast of a man with a badge, arresting them all, but Ethan had caught a bullet and was poisoned in the process. Like every other Savage, it didn't keep him from trying to go alpha mountain man on Remy.

She didn't take it and neither would Zahara.

Fingers of sunshine brushed through the branches and lent a false calm to the day. She understood they needed to move fast, but she also needed to know what they were dealing with. If she gave in now these two headstrong alphas would mow her over every time they wanted something. She either put up with that or took a stance.

"Tell me or this isn't going to work." She dug her heels in and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not stupid nor am I weak, so don't try to make me either."

Holden cupped her face. "Never, but we need to talk and run."

Ok. That she could do.

He tossed the truck keys to Riley. "You drive, when we get to the road, stop."

Riley nodded and all three of them retraced their steps back to the truck.

They made double time, not bothering to collect any of their picnic, blanket... nothing.

She jumped in the truck with them hot on her heels and they peeled out, leaving behind the quiet sanctuary.

"This has Reaper's brothers written all over it. Explosions don't just spontaneously happen in the middle of the woods without a little help. Bet that damn Brax fucker is at the head of the trouble." Holden peered out over the hood of the truck, hand braced against the dash.

Holden made a sound of utter disgust. "If so, he's a fucking nasty piece of work."

That much she knew. Just by what Ethan shared about Brax, the man had been adopted by the Savage father when Brax was only a teenager. She still couldn't believe how easily he betrayed the Savages and for what? The approval of a father that didn't want him? She understood all too well the power someone else could hold over another. Being shunned and discarded like a piece of unwanted furniture hurt. She supposed some people couldn't handle it. Brax was proof. She wouldn't have either had it not been for her younger sister needing her. But Brax had all of the Savage brothers and their surviving sister to love him. Only, from the stories and maybe after today, it was a million times obvious that he never accepted them as family.

It had to be reciprocal to work.

"How do you know it's him? I thought he was in jail for his last bought with the law."

Riley shook his head. "We don't. Just running possibilities. But he was released on bail, awaiting trial for what he did to Ethan and Remy."

Oh great.

She'd been so caught up in her own problems she didn't realize that small detail.

"Plus, that fire has the mark of being man-made." Riley pointed and the growing column of smoke off in the distance. "Black smoke means oil and none of us have any sitting around the cabin. You already know about Reaper and his brothers. Brax and what he tried to pull with poisoning the wildlife. Shooting Ethan."

"Yeah. All for money. Think he's wanting revenge for getting hauled in? Didn't Damon say Reaper promised he would keep a close eye on him and the rest of his family?"

"True, but he still has a job to do, babe. He can't keep them under twenty-four-hour surveillance."

Good point.

"Who knows, maybe Reaper has a hand in this. Maybe he decided he didn't like going against the grain after all."

They bounced along the back road, Riley finding every damn pothole there was in the dirt road and slamming into it. If they made it to the house without breaking an axle it would be a miracle.

She couldn't say she knew any of the men they spoke about personally. Class had kept her busy during the days, then waiting tables in the afternoon for extra cash only left her with the time she spent with her men. Holden threw an arm out in front of her when Riley took a dip in the road too fast.

"You remember what Ethan and Remy said, Riley. We heard it too. Reaper is looking for allies, not enemies. Looking to clean up his family name."

"How the hell can you be so sure? Can you trust him?"

"Riley's right, Zahara. We can't measure a man by his family's bad deeds. He has to earn his reputation on his own merits. So far, he's done nothing to us but help when we needed him."

Holden spoke about the time Reaper swooped in just before his brothers killed Remy and Ethan in a hand to hand fight. If he hadn't shown up when he did the six to two odds would have turned out unfavorably for Ethan and Remy, to say the least.

Another boom ripped through the trees and rattled the truck windows.

Riley gritted his jaw so hard she heard something crack, but he didn't take his focus off the road as he took a switchback, kicking up a stream of dust. Gravel pelted the undercarriage like rapidly firing BB guns.

"When we get there, we have to make sure the fire doesn't spread. We have to protect the animals and the surrounding lands, including my father's."

She grew quiet, placing a hand on his arm as a way of offering her support. "I don't know anything about fighting fires of any kind, but point me in the right direction and I'll do what's needed."

Back on the main road, Riley slammed on the brakes in a cloud of dust and Holden threw open the passenger door, hopping out.

She reached for him. "Where are you going?"

"Stay with Riley," he ordered, sending her hackles up, but she understood the curt order. But still. "I have to go check to make sure Remy and Ethan aren't at their cabin."

"Be careful," she hollered, as Holden tore through the field of long grass that hugged the lake separating his cabin from Ethan's. Two miles of a mixture of dense woods and open fields separated the brothers.

Rocks the size of Texas weighted her gut down. She had a bad feeling about all of this.

"Don't worry about him—he can take care of himself." Riley grabbed her palm and pressed a quick kiss to it.

"Of that, I have no doubt. When he knows what he is up against." Fields of dry grass passed them by in a blur. The cloud of smoke reaching into the sky from between the trees where the Savage home stood. "It will spread."

"I know. We'll do what we can. Don't leave my side. We can't afford to get separated."

Riley popped the clutch and downshifted, taking another deep curve before hitting pavement, the smell of burned rubber barely touching them before they were off. "Grab the phone for me. I tossed it in here somewhere." She dug around the seat and found it stashed under a T-shirt tossed aside earlier.

She passed it to him and grabbed the wheel when he took a couple of seconds to punch in a number.

"This is Riley. There's a big fire down at our cabin. Smoke is blacker than Satan's asshole."

A pause.

"Yeah, could be but I don't know anything yet. Get your brother and meet us there."

Ah. The twins. Jin and Rebel. She met them at the summer solstice shindig Momma Savage threw each year. The two mountain men didn't hang around much in Savage Ridge being firefighters in the next town over. "Riley," she grabbed his arm and turned a worried look his way. "I have a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that this is somehow about me."

Her comment was lost in a huge gasp of shock as they crested the ridge and the house came into full view. "Oh my God, Riley! The fire. It's huge already! Half the cabin is gone!"

Billowing clouds filled the sky as Riley slammed the truck to a full stop. She dashed out in a dead run. The back of the cabin had yet to be consumed. That's where Holden's bedroom was and where she'd left something very important. If she could make it back there before the fire got to that part she could grab her necklace. The only piece of her mother she had left and foolishly left behind yesterday by accident.

She had to try.

Zahara didn't even realize Riley was on her until he had his arms around her, pinning her to his chest, taking the full force of her momentum like it was nothing.

"Are you crazy? You get covered by the oil in that tall grass and the fire touches you, you'll die, woman. Fuck me, you'll die and take us down with you."

That's when she saw it. Black oil. It covered everything. Someone had smeared it over the grass, the sides of the house. Everywhere. Who would do such a thing?

"Don't you ever put yourself in danger like that. You die, you kill all three of us. Do you hear me?" He grabbed her shoulders, pulling her back to peer into her eyes.

Anger stared back at her. No, something deeper, stronger than anger. Fear.

His voice cracked. His expression suffused with something akin to pure rage as he stared at her for a long moment. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"Riley!" She welled, tears spilling down her cheeks.

"Shh, baby, God, don't cry, baby. You're okay." He thumbed away each tear, holding her face between his palms.

"My mother's necklace. I can't lose it."

She pushed at his chest but she would have better luck moving a mountain than getting him to let go of her.

Right when she would have reached the back door that led into the kitchen, an explosion rocked that side of the cabin, sending lethal projectiles of shattered glass in all directions beyond the wraparound porch.

She ducked, but Riley had his back already turned and blocking her before a single piece had the chance to reach her. He grunted a few times and she knew he'd taken shards to the back.

So stupid. So stupid.

"I am so sorry!" Raw fear buried in her gut at the thought of losing not the last piece of her mom, but what she could have lost if she had made it to that door. "Please forgive me." She cupped his face, reality settling over her like a mammoth-sized boulder. Frustration ate at her gut from her stupidity and knee-jerk reaction.

"Shh, sweetheart. I'm fine. I'll heal. And damn, I'm the one that is sorry. I really am. I know that necklace meant a lot to you." He tucked her beneath his chin as he moved them back from the heat of the flames. "I can't lose you. Not over a piece of jewelry. Not over anything. Besides, if something happens to you Holden would maul me to death and then drop my remains in Death Gulch for the buzzards just to fuck with my ghost."

Zahara smiled against his muscled chest. "Probably." Her speech came out muffled.

Kneeling in the only patch of grass left untouched by oil, he tilted her head back, his expression void, eyes steady on her. He'd erased the fear from his body and expression for her benefit but she saw past the mask as clearly as she could see the fire eating up the cabin.

Holden came around the side of the house with a huge hose in hand

"Zahara get outta here while you can. We'll fight back the flames until the fire department arrives."

"Fuck that. What about Ethan and Remy? Were they at their cabin?"

"No, it's just us out here."

She pushed out of Riley's arms and crossed the distance to Holden and took the hose. "It hurts you think so little of me. No Texan ever backs down from a fight and I'm not about to start now."

"Woman!" Holden turned on her and she read his intent the second he laid eyes on her.

"You try to do the He-Man shoulder sling crap again, buster, and this fire won't be your only trouble."

His eyes turned dark. Darker than anything she'd ever seen before.

"Keep wagging that finger at me and that little spanking you got earlier won't be the last time we punish you."

She narrowed her eyes into slits. "I'm not going anywhere."

He considered her for a moment. "Grab the other hose from the side, Riley, while I grab some shovels." Holden expelled a huff of frustration. "Stay close and don't even think of going off on your own."

She nodded briskly, "Time. How long before the big guys get here?"

"Ten minutes tops."

Water blasted from the tip of her hose and she started watering down the dry grass. Holden doing the same beside her while Riley started digging a huge fireline through the grass. Given the strength of the wind, she didn't hold out much hope but it was something.

Dry grass crunched underfoot and cinders scattered through the weeds, causing small pockets of fire to spread along the empty field. She caught as many as she could but the fire was jumping.

They worked together moving as a team trying to save as much of the property as possible. Over the ledge of small hills, a blur of dust kicked up about a mile out.

"Oh thank God! Look! The cavalry is here."