Page 64 of Combust
The pieces clicked into place. This hard-bitten couple were the ones who’d been rustling trees up and down the valley.
“Emily’s still in that barn, and you’re worried about those stupid trees?” Denise hissed, but she opened the passenger side door of the pickup and motioned to her son. “Cody, get in.”
Cade couldn’t believe his ears. “Hey!” he called to them. “You’re notleaving, are you? How are we gonna contact you when Maggie finds your little girl?”
The pickup truck shot backwards out of its parking space, forcing Cade to jump out of its way.
“We’ll get in touch,” Austin said through the open driver’s side window. “There’s only two hospitals in the area, right?”
Old, bad memories of being surrounded by flames came roaring out of the dark corners of Cade’s mind.
A red haze descended over his vision as his bear rose inside him, and his skin prickled a sharp warning of impending shift. Cade knew that his eyes had gone gold, and he didn’t care.
“You asshole!” he roared.
He reached out and yanked the truck’s door open. He hadn’t intended to rip it entirely away from the car, but he wasn’t sorry when it came loose. He flung it aside, then seized the wide-eyed and gaping Austin by the shoulders.
The truck was old enough that it didn’t have safety belts, so hauling him out of the driver’s seat was easy.
As Denise shrieked in surprise and terror, Cade lifted the man and held him at arm’s length. His feet dangled a couple of inches above the mixture of red mud and melting snow.
“You were just gonna leave your daughter in a burning building?” he growled.
“No—no, that firefighter lady has it covered!” Austin gibbered, his gaze darting in every direction, never meeting Cade’s eyes. “I tried to find Emily, really I did!”
“You’re a no-good thief and a lowlife.” Cade shook him, and heard teeth rattling. “And I’m gonna—”
A tremendous crash from the direction of the barn interrupted him. He dropped Austin into the churned filth, whirled, and raced towards the structure as a shrill alarm pierced the roar of the fire.
That’s the distress call from Maggie’s PASS!
Chapter Eighteen - Unbearable Heat
Maggie was trapped somewhere inside that barn. And Cade didn’t have any PPE.
But hehadto go in there and help her. He couldn’t lose her, and especially not tofire.
He temporarily forgot about Austin and Denise as he sprinted around to the side door where Maggie had previously emerged.
Then it came to him.If I shifted into my bear form, I’ll have a thick coat of fur. Maybe thick enough to shield me from any flames.
Cade shed his clothing with desperate haste, then let his bear take over. It was already right beneath the surface, agitated by the danger that their intended mate had put herself in.
He hooked the door with his long, curving claws and slid it open. A dense choking cloud of smoke billowed out, perfumed with burning sap.
A small part of his brain couldn’t believe that he was running straight into the heart of a fire, a fate he’d escaped once and sworn never to tempt again.
But Cade’s bear ruthlessly overruled that tiny, chickenshit voice, and Cade charged into the darkness.
He immediately found himself among various hunks of machinery in a small space. It was boxed in by stacked trees, separated by alleys almost too narrow for a full-grown grizzly to squeeze through.
Holy shit, this barn is crammed to the rafters with fuel,he thought, horror seizing his limbs with icy claws.
He turned in a circle, trying to pinpoint where Maggie’s alarm was coming from in this densely packed space. How the hell was he going to locate her before the trees piled everywhere really began to blaze and barbecued both of them?
Then, a miracle occurred. He caught the faintest whiff of Maggie’s scent in the stinging, resinous smoke. He swung his head around, found it again, and followed it.
The shrill bleating of the PASS grew steadily louder as he moved, confirming that he was heading in the right direction.
