12-Alarm Cowboys (7 page)

“A
dam? It’s Netta.
Chris knows I’m here.”

Adam swore. “Where’s Brynn?”

“At the house. He’s got her—they were shouting.”

“Damn it.” He ran a hand over his face, feeling the stubble already beginning to grow in. He was still on duty; he couldn’t just leave. “I can’t—fuck!”

“Are you at the station?”

“Yes.”

“You can’t go help her, can you?”

“Not unless there’s a fire.”

“I’m on it!”

“No—Netta! Fuck!” But she was gone. He hadn’t meant her to take that as a command. It was one thing for him to start a blaze he knew he could easily contain. It was another thing for an arsonist to set something alight.

“What’s wrong now? Was that Brynn?” Ed appeared at his side.

“No. It was—someone else.”

“Feels like we’re overdue for a fire.” Ed looked at his watch conspicuously.

“Yeah, I think you’re right.”

“You should have
just fucked me, huh, Brynn?”

Brynn came to with a pounding headache. She tried to move and groaned when she found she couldn’t. She opened her eyes and saw Chris on his knees checking the knots in the rope he’d wrapped around her wrists. Her ankles were similarly bound. She sat propped against the hall wall, and her vision swum as she tried to lift her head.

The last thing she remembered was walking back into the house. Chris must have been waiting for her. From the pounding in her head, she figured he’d hit her—hard.

“You think you’re so smart, but you’re the dumbest bitch I ever met. You don’t even know a good thing when you’ve got it. You think Adam Carter would give you the time of day? You think any man would? They all know what you are. A dumb, fucking bitch.”

“What’re you doin’?” Her words slurred together and Chris went out of focus. She knew she had to wake up, but she couldn’t seem to pull herself together. Chris laughed.

“I’m putting an end to this. Time to say good-bye, Brynn. I should have thought of this a long time ago.” He stood up, hoisted a red plastic canister and undid the black cover. When he tilted it and splashed the liquid it contained all over her, Brynn realized what it was.

Gasoline.

“Chris.” She blinked until her eyes cleared. “Chris, wait.”

“Too late, baby. Everyone knows you’re a firebug. Everyone knows you’ve got a beef with me, don’t they? When I tell them you tried to kill me, they’ll realize how lucky I was to escape the fire alive. They’ll think you got what was coming to you.”

Brynn began to struggle against her bonds. “You’re crazy.”

“No. I’ll tell you what I am. Horny. And I’m sick to death of living with a frigid bitch. Gotta be some kind of insurance payout when this dump goes up. I’ll find me a new wife. A better one. Maybe your sister.”

Netta. Brynn struggled harder.

“She’s probably halfway here by now, don’t you think? You sisters were always tight. Netta would make a fine new wife.”

His words didn’t make sense, but that didn’t matter. If he was capable of killing her, he wouldn’t balk at hurting her sister. Brynn struggled to stand. Chris watched her, sneering. When she stumbled over her own feet and crashed hard to the wooden floor, landing in a puddle of gasoline, his laughter washed over her. “Good-bye, Brynn. It’s been nice knowing you.”

She watched his feet leave the hallway and turn toward the front of the house. A moment later the door shut. Any second she expected a sheet of flames to travel back along the trail of gas he’d left behind him, but he hadn’t struck a match.

Yet.

Brynn pushed up again and began to inch toward the front door, moving as fast as her bound hands and feet would let her. The stench of gasoline followed her through the kitchen and into the living room until she understood—Chris had drenched everything with it that could burn. How long had he planned this, she wondered wildly as she inched toward the front door. She began to think she could make it—only ten more feet. Had Chris changed his mind? Was that why flames hadn’t swept through the tiny house? A surge of hope swept through her. Maybe he’d only meant to put the fear of God in her. Maybe—

The door swung open and hit the wall behind it with a thud. Chris’s face was twisted with triumph. “I knew she’d come. Didn’t I say she would?” He flung Netta into the house and slammed the door shut again.

“Brynn!” Netta scrambled to her feet, holding her dripping hands out in front of her. “What is that?” She wrinkled her nose. “Brynn, that’s gas—”

Something broke through the front window and smashed against the wooden floor. Netta screamed and dove for Brynn as fire exploded in every direction. A sheet of flames spread to engulf the living room, lapping at the walls and curtains, setting the furniture alight. Another crash sounded at the back of the house and then another. Netta clawed at Brynn, got a grip on her clothing and hauled her to her feet.

“Out the back,” Brynn screamed and Netta half hauled, half dragged her into the kitchen, but the back of the house was engulfed, too. She spun around, but flames roared in every direction. Netta lunged toward the heart of the house. She manhandled Brynn into the tiny bathroom and slammed the door shut behind them. “What are you doing?” Brynn shrieked. “Netta, we’ll never get out.”

The bathroom shared no walls with the exterior of the house, but Netta reached over Brynn’s prone body to turn on the faucet in the tub. “Get in!” She pushed Brynn into the tub, but Brynn knew the gesture was hopeless. With the house burning like an inferno, they’d die of suffocation or worse before it was all over. Still, she didn’t have a better idea. She huddled in the tub with Netta’s arms around her as smoke filled the small room. Netta reached for a towel, wetted it and jammed it under the door, but Brynn knew it was no use.

“I’m sorry I came back too soon,” Netta said. “I didn’t know. I thought I’d gotten away.”

“You almost did.”

“I never dreamed anyone found out, or that Chris was blackmailing you.”

“Of course you didn’t.”

“I should have come back. I never should have left.”

Tears slipped down Netta’s face as she worked at the ropes binding Brynn, finally undoing the knots at her wrists. When Brynn could move her hands, she turned around and Netta got to work on the knots at her ankles. “I’m going to get you free. We’ll wrap up in wet towels. We’ll make a run for it, and when we’re out of here I’m going to turn myself in.”

“Netta!” But Brynn could feel the heat from the inferno outside their door, and knew it was pointless to argue. If they opened it, they’d be goners for sure.

If they stayed, they’d roast alive.

“I love you.” Netta tugged the rope at her ankles and it finally came free. “Come on. We have to try.”

Brynn staggered to her feet, took the towels Netta grabbed from the cabinets, soaked them in the cold water that now half-filled the tub, then wrapped one around herself and handed the other one back to her sister. Her wrists and ankles stung when water touched them, but she didn’t care. These were the last moments of her life. The last breaths she would take. She wished she could have told Adam how much she’d cared all these years—that the memory of their one kiss was what kept her going.

She wished she could tell him—

Netta reached out to open the door and screamed when she burned her hand on the metal knob. Flames licked up the inside of the door and filled the room with smoke.

There was no way out.

‡

T
he half hour
that passed after Netta’s call seemed like an eternity to Adam. When the fire bell clanged it was almost a relief. Ed stuck his head out of his office and shouted, “It’s Brynn—go!” Every member of the department, anticipating the call, leaped to man the engines.

“Holy fuck,” Jacob said and pointed to a glow in the sky long before the fire truck turned on the road leading to Brynn’s house. Adam’s stomach sunk and he leaned forward to peer out the front windshield. Netta had certainly started a blaze.

When they turned the corner and saw the small house, the blood in his veins ran cold. Flames shot out of every window; the house was already engulfed. Knots of neighbors clustered around the house watching helplessly, but neither Brynn nor Netta was in sight. When the truck pulled up and parked, Adam grabbed a hose and ran with it, racing to kneel in position in front of the house and direct its spray. It wasn’t enough, though. It would take far too long to stop this fire. Meanwhile, Brynn was inside.

He had to get to her.

He clapped Jacob on the shoulder, gestured to himself and then to the house. Jacob shook his head vigorously, but Adam couldn’t wait another moment. “Take my place,” he yelled, and waited until the man was in position. Snapping his visor down, he grabbed a hatchet from the fire engine and took off at a run toward the front door. He hacked it to pieces in a matter of moments and stepped aside.

Behind him, Jacob struggled to direct the water’s flow to clear a path for him through the flames, but Adam decided he’d have to trust the fire retardant material of his jacket and pants to see him through. Flames licked up every wall and across the ceiling. He was walking into a death trap.

Entering the house cautiously, he worked his way quickly through the living room and into the kitchen, scanning left and right as he went.

“Brynn! Brynn!”

He heard a muffled sound and broke toward the center of the house. Spotting the closed door to the bathroom, itself a wall of flame, Adam leapt forward. “Get back from the door,” he bellowed and hoped Brynn could hear him if she was inside.

He swung the ax and shattered the flimsy door. The flames licked inward, drawn by fresh oxygen. Adam knew he had seconds to get Brynn out of there.

He kicked the remainder of the door down and found Brynn bent over Netta, cradling her sister in her arms. Not stopping to think, he grabbed Netta from her, tossed her over his shoulder and lifted Brynn under his arm. There was no time for gentleness. He staggered under their combined weight and slammed Netta against the doorjamb before regaining his balance and making his way down the hall. Brynn did her best to help, but she could barely keep her feet as the heat and smoke engulfed them. Adam’s breath was labored under his mask. His eyes streamed from the stinging smoke. He heard a shout and Jacob was there. Jacob pulled Netta into his arms and together they staggered toward the gaping front door.

Plunging out of the house into the cool evening air, Adam gasped and wheezed, dragging Brynn farther from the flames. When hands reached to take her, he didn’t want to let go, but he recognized the blue uniforms of Chance Creek’s EMTs and released her to them. Someone grabbed him, removed his helmet, and tried to clap an oxygen mask to his mouth. Adam fought him. He had to keep Brynn in his sight. If he blinked he might lose her.

“Damn it, Carter!”

It was Ed. “I gotta see her!”

“She’s okay. She’s breathing!”

Only then did Adam let him get the oxygen apparatus over his nose and mouth. He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself, watching Brynn’s chest rise and fall. She was breathing.

Brynn was alive.

Brynn awoke with
a gasp that burned all the way down to her lungs. She fought to sit upright, positive she was still bound and about to burn to death in the hallway of her home. Bright lights and pale green walls assured her she was in the hospital. She touched the cool white sheets and began to cry in relief.

“Shh.” Someone stroked her hair like her mother used to when she was very young and she buried her face in the strong shoulder that presented itself. Only when her tears ran their course did she pull back and consider who the shoulder might belong to.

“It’s just me.” Adam handed her a tissue. “You’re safe. So is Netta. You’re both going to be fine.”

“The house—”

“It’s gone. We couldn’t save it.”

Brynn took this in. She should have been inside it when it went. Would have been if not for Adam. He’d saved her after all, just like he said he would so many years ago. Words wouldn’t come when she opened her mouth and Adam took her hand.

“Everything’s going to be okay.”

“Chris?”

“They caught him in Silver Falls. He had two cans of gasoline in the bed of his truck and his clothes stunk of it. Two of your neighbors have come forward as witnesses.”

“But he’ll tell about Netta!”

Adam showed her his watch. It was quarter past one. “Time’s up. Unfortunately no one has been able to take Chris’s statement yet. Cab Johnson’s been too busy tonight sorting out a series of fights at the Dancing Boot.”

“Did you have something to do with that?”

He grinned. “Might have.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Me? I’m not the one getting mixed up with all these fires.”

“I think those days are over.”

“I sure as hell hope so.” He squeezed her hand. “Please tell me your marriage is going to be over soon, too.”

Her heart contracted at the urgency in his tone. She looked at him through her lashes. “What do you care? Don’t you have a woman already?”

A smile tugged up the corner of his mouth. “I already told you no. But if I have any say in the matter I will just as soon as Chris is out of the picture. What do you say, Brynn. You finally ready to give me a chance?”