Page 22 of Ash on the Range (Red Hart Ranch #6)
"Travis." My voice finally gave out as my legs did.
Someone saw me, maybe Jude or Gage, I couldn't tell from the stinging in my eyes, and started to sprint towards me.
"We made it." One leg turned to jelly. I dropped a knee.
I peeled the material back from Eve's face where she still sang quietly against my chest. Someone pried Eve’s form out of my arms. I looked up into Travis's tear stained face.
"You brought her back.” He stared at me. “We didn't know where she was. She hadn't taken a truck but she fucking walked in, looking for something she’d left out there the day before. I didn't know –" His throat closed up the same as mine.
"Yes sir," was all I could get out.
Rough hands gripped my shoulders. My feet found dirt and miraculously stayed standing. I stared at Jude, his jaw locked.
“Looks like the fire stayed over the hill and all we got was smoke. Some of the back fields might be fucked but we got the car.”
“Car?” I frowned at him.
"That way.” He pointed to the north western boundary that I knew they shared a common fence line with a neighbor they didn’t always get alone with.
“Looks like someone set something alight on purpose.
I've been chasing those bastards for fucking hours.
" Jude's usual animosity came out to play as he joined us. He frowned at me. "Where's Cassie?”
I blinked and held out a hand, turning. “She’s right –" Here.
The last word died on my lips as I surveyed the space behind me and stared back at Forest.
Fuck.
"Where's my sister?" Austin charged up to us, resembling the carnage of the night before.
Gage’s fist caught him dead centre in the chest and knocked him back half a dozen paces. "Not the fuck now, Maguire. Wait your turn.”
I turned back to the fire even as my legs wobbled.
The smoke thickened with a breeze that brought the heat with it, toward the house.
"There was a crash," I said as I stumbled forward.
“I don't know what happened. Maybe something came down.
I gotta find her." I surveyed the forest, trying to pick out where the hell I came out of the tree line but the smoke obscured everything. “I think I came out there.”
“You’re not going back in there, Will.”
Behind us, Eve puked on the ground.
“Christ, she's bleeding," Travis panted.
Jude glanced between us. “I'll help you," he gripped my hand, lifting me off the ground with a simple grip when I could barely help myself stand.
I shook my head. “You’re needed here," I snapped. “I've got Cass.”
The heaviest weight I'd ever felt pressed on the back of my neck like a morality check before it slammed into my spine. "We've got Cass." I'll cast a glance sideways at Austin and nod.
"We do."
The muscle of my legs had one more ride in them. I took off towards the fire that came running down the hill towards me.
Slower, or faster – I had no idea. Pinpointing on the place I wanted to go because that's all I had to do. “She's gotta be there. She's got to be there,” I chanted.
Two sets of footsteps pounded the ground beside me.
I didn't have words left in my lungs as my eyes streamed to fresh.
The tree line came up faster than before and then we were back in the thick of it.
Running into the smoke was nothing like running from it.
I didn't even know where she was. The crash I was looking for didn’t just pop up.
I searched for something that had a fallen pink cardigan.
The one with strawberries on it – I bent down at the ground level scattering about my hands trying to find her.
A hand grabbed my neck, yanking me back up right away.
“Fuck off. Get down here and help me." Finally, Austin got the message, getting to his knees beneath the layer of smoke and helping. My hands burnt my fingertips screaming at me. My jeans tore and singed at the knees. Something landed on my bare back. I yelped and tasted iron but I didn’t stop, not until my hands came across something soft, something almost damn cuddly. "Cassie.”
I resisted tugging at it. Her eyes closed in her sleep, her face soft beneath the smoke.
No, no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no fuck no.
The thought filled my mind, racing around as I stroked her hair covered in ash and pine needles. Then her eyes fluttered and my heart stalled in my chest.
"Will." Her face was covered in dirt and streaks, and half her body lay beneath the vee of two branches that come down together on top of each other. I cupped my hands around her face, leaning down far enough to kiss her and nearly overbalanced, bashing our faces gently together
"Found you," I murmured
“Fucking help," Gage groused.
I looked up to find him gripping one end of a log and grasped the other. We rolled it off her together as I held onto her body, checking for damage but there was nothing visible thankfully.
I couldn't tell if she was bruised or just battered but she didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere, thank God. The next log came off just as easily though she groaned as the branch came up and I found her. “At least I'm not the only one with a busted shoulder now,” I croaked.
Then Gage was there, lifting her. “I got her.” Blonde hair brushed my face as they disappeared into the haze. I sat in a divot of pine mulch and ash, and waited as the fire warmed my filthy, scratched and burned back.
“Nah, you ain’t dying here, fucker.” Austin gripped my chest then the world levitated.
“Put me down. I can run.”
“No, you can’t.”
Then the forest moved, taking us both with it.
My body bumped along over his shoulders while my eyes streamed and drool dripped from my mouth that my arms were too tired to wipe away.
Embers singed my back as we both hissed with the pain, and he cursed more than I did.
Finally, the air cleared enough for us both to hack oxygen into our lungs that attempted to work again.
He crawled the last few paces while I fell face first into the mud, and blessedly sank my face into it at Cassie’s feet.
She stoked my burn back with wet cloths with her good hand while I tried not to scream and held her toe with my pinkie, fucking glad we were alive.
And who knew? Austin turned out to be a hero. Stranger things had happened.
Maybe I could stay on a bull after all.