“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” I cut in. “I know what the dangers are. I’m not a freaking child.”
Dylan’s eyes lock with mine, searching my face for something he can use to undercut me, something he can say or do that will make me rethink this, in whatever way he can. Instead, he’s met with my steady certainty, the sureness that I’m not going to let anyone turn me away from this.
“Fine,” he mutters. “Joe, Callum—you stay here. Carlisle and I can handle this.”
Relief washes through me. I know for damn sure that my mother is not going to be willing to leave that place unless someone fromthe family is there to coax her. If I tell her that I need her to help with the quads, she’ll drop everything and come running, but it’s not the kind of thing that can come through another source. I hate that she’s stubborn enough to go running back to her house in the middle of this, but that’s just the kind of woman she is, the kind of woman she raised my sister and me to be. The kind of woman who would never leave behind what you’ve worked so hard to make, no matter how much danger it puts you in.
“The kids, they’re?—”
“We’ve got it,” Callum assures me, briefly resting his hand on my shoulder as he moves past me toward the stairs. I bite my lip as I watch him go. It still feels strange to know that one of these men is their father, and that my kids, though unknowingly, are meeting the man who helped bring them into this world.
But that’s the least of my worries right now, by a long shot. Dread grips my chest as it suddenly hits me what I have just fought to do, running into the middle of a fire with Dylan and Carlisle, but I’m being kitted up so quickly that I hardly have time to think twice about it.
“Put this on,” Carlisle grits out to me, tossing a jacket in my direction. Dylan reaches for a pair of flame-retardant gloves that he drops on top of the coat.
“I don’t know if this will fit me?—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Carlisle retorts. “This place isn’t kitted out for anyone other than us. You’ll have to take what you can get.”
“Uh, right,” I blurt out as I pull on the jacket, the stiff fabric enveloping me completely. I pull on the gloves, and they sag at the tips of my fingers, even as I try to yank them down to cover my whole hand.
“Van ready?” Carlisle asks.
Dylan nods. “As it’s ever going to be.”
“Come on,” Carlisle insists, grabbing my arm and steering me toward the door. “We need to go. Now.”
I lock eyes with Joe for a moment, silently imploring him to take care of my children for me, but I hardly have time to catch his eye before I’m through the door and being steered toward the van that I was just pulled out of. I try to catch my breath, and I’m not sure if it’s the smoke in the air or the fact that I’m suddenly so close to these men again after so long, but I can’t.
“Dylan, I’ll drive,” Carlisle says as he throws open the door. “Angelie, next to me, if you’re so intent on giving directions.”
He still doesn’t sound pleased, but at least he’s not actively fighting against this now. I scramble into the front of the van next to him, the coat almost tripping me up as I go, and I strap myself in just a moment before he tears away from the cabin and starts toward the road. I hear Dylan knocking on the inside of the roof, confirming that he made it in one piece, though right now, I’m not sure if Carlisle even notices.
I fix my gaze on the road ahead, doing my best to calm myself. My parents need me right now, maybe more than they ever have. And after everything they’ve done for me over the last few years, it’s the least I can do to make sure they get out of that place alive.
In the distance, as the van crests the hill, I can see the flicker of flames on the horizon, the perspective making it look as though the fire is closing in on Devin Ridge. All at once, the town that I’ve loved for so long looks as though it’s moments away from being enveloped in flames.
I do everything I can to keep the tears from springing to my eyes at the thought of it.
8
CARLISLE
“Where next?”
“Take this road, to the right.”
“There’s no road to the right?—”
“You need to go past the trees,” Angelie tells me sharply, stabbing her finger across me to point to a path that leads through the thick foliage beyond. “See? You can make it out where it pulls away from the road, just drive!”
A part of me wants to shoot back with something smart, but I know she’s here to help us, and the sooner I get that through my head, the better. Gripping the wheel, I spin it to the right, and the van swerves off the road and nudges past the trees to open out onto a path beyond.
“See, told you,” she mutters, running one of her hands through her hair. She’s pulled one hand free from the gloves Dylan gave her, and I can’t help but notice how delicate her fingers are, how small they look compared to our equipment.Well.Not that it’s the first time…
“Just past this gate at the end,” she tells me, leaning forward and squinting through the foliage. She seems to carry herself with certainty in this place, and I guess maybe she had a point when she said that she knew this area better than any of us, even if we did all grow up here.
“I’ll get it,” Dylan barks out from the back of the van, springing out with his gloves pulled on to open the metal gate.
