“Oh fuck. Logan.”
I followed his gaze through the windshield. Over the horizon, in Pawsitive’s direction, an orange glow shot into the night sky.
Fire.
Isaac’s foot went to the floor. The engine surged, and the glow grew brighter as we closed the distance while my mind started running scenarios.
Every single one of them ended with me wanting to punch through the goddamn window.
Pawsitive’s parking lot came into view, and I took in the whole picture in a flash. The fire was the barn, not the house. Flames at the far end of the hayloft, smoke thickening along the roofline.
Every animal on the property was locked inside that barn. Every dog, every cat, every horse and goat and rabbit. The structure was still standing, but the fire was still growing.
I was out of the truck before Isaac had fully stopped. I ran for the barn, yelling Lark’s name because Lark was always in the barn, because if something was wrong at Pawsitive, Lark would put herself between the danger and her animals the way she’d stood in the doorway with a shotgun the night of the drug operation.
The smoke hit me before the heat did. I shouted her name through it and got nothing back except the crack of burning wood and the sound of animals in panic.
The team was right behind me, already hauling animals out. Beckett came through the smoke with a terrified goat under each arm. Cooper was at the kennels, pulling dogs. Hunter had Duchess and Maverick by their halters, fighting them toward the door while they nervously shifted and threw their heads and tried to bolt sideways. Isaac had gone for the smaller animals, collecting them in carriers. Travis was waiting outside to move them farther away from the flames.
Lark was nowhere around.
I ran for the house as they continued to pull out animals. The front door was unlocked. The kitchen light was on. The pan sat on the stove, covered, burner off. Country music still played low from the speaker on the counter.
Her phone was next to the sink.
Tova was on her feet in the kitchen with every muscle rigid and her eyes locked on me. She pushed against my legs the instant I came through the door, pressing hard enough to move me.
I went through every room calling Lark’s name. She wasn’t there. Her jacket was gone from the hook by the door and her boots were gone from the mat, and she was not in this house.
Her phone was here. Her truck was in the lot. And Lark was gone.
And the goddamn barn was on fire.
I went back outside with Tova at my heels. The team was still hauling animals from the barn, carrying kennels and leading horses through smoke that was getting thicker by the minute. Somewhere inside, Clarence was producing a stream of profanity so loud and sustained that under any other circumstance would have been the funniest thing I’d ever heard.
Lachlan’s truck came tearing up the drive, and he was out and moving before his door had fully closed. Sera, Travis’s fiancée, pulled up ten seconds later. He must have called her on the way.
“Is Lark okay?” Sera yelled as she ran to the barn to help.
“I can’t find her! She’s not in the house or the barn.” But I knew she’d want us to rescue the animals first and worry about her later.
This was all connected to Carter Hollis. There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in my body.
I grabbed a kennel with two cats inside and carried it clear. Went back for another. Every time I came out, I scanned around, expecting Lark to come running up.
She didn’t.
Tova was a nuisance, constantly pulling at me with the steady, deliberate pressure I knew from nightmares, when she climbed onto my chest and held me there until my breathing matched hers. That wasn’t what I needed now, but I couldn’t make her see that. “I’m fine, girl. Leave me alone.”
She wouldn’t stop. Not only would she not stop, she grabbed my pant legs with her teeth and actively pulled me away from the barn.
“Tova, no. I’m okay.”
She nipped at my hand.
I jerked back, totally shocked by her behavior. She’d never shown any sign of aggression. Not that this could really be called aggression either. I’d barely felt it. But, still.
“No, Tova.”
