Lucas came off the bed, landing partly on Chase, mostly on the floor.
“Fire.” Though raspy, Lucas’s one word told Chase the man was conscious and coherent.
“Yeah, the fucking house is on fire. We have to crawl.”
“Maddy?”
“No, sweetheart, Maddy’s safe.”
A loud crack exploded above them. Chase pulled Lucas, urgency bordering on panic. He couldn’t see the doorway, could only sense his way and pray he wasn’t completely disoriented in the smoke.
His shoulder hit the door frame just as another loud crack exploded. A gush of air brought flames that licked behind and toward them.
Chase didn’t think they were going to make it.
Quitting wasn’t an option. Just as he began to sag, Lucas prodded him.
“Keep going. Side window.”
Chase understood immediately. The side window in the parlor stood furthest away from the flames, which already lapped and sizzled close to the front door. The house, constructed of wood frame and over fifty years old, likely wouldn’t last much longer. Chase maneuvered them in a straight line, down the hall, across the parlor. His eyes burned, his throat burned, and terror coated his skin and lined his bowels. The entire structure around them was ablaze, only the center of the building, where they crawled, remained as yet untouched. But they didn’t have much time.
Chase kept moving, kept checking to see that Lucas stayed with him. Ahead, it seemed as if the smoke darkened, solidified. Reaching out, Chase connected with a wall. Luc had stopped, his choking cough so fierce Chase knew he could no longer move forward under his own steam.
Praying harder than he had in his whole life, stepping out on blind faith, Chase struggled to his feet, reached down, lifted Lucas to his, and then heaved them both forward.
* * * *
“Luc! Chase!” Either Maddy’s screams, or the screams of the horses had awakened the rest of her crew. The men had come stumbling out of the bunkhouse in various states of undress. Luc’s house was closer to the bunkhouse than to her own, so the rest of the men reached it ahead of her.
“Luc! Chase!” Oh God, oh God. Where were they? She had to get in there, had to get to them. With her entire focus on reaching her lovers she saw no one else until male arms wrapped around her, stopped her short.
Bill Campbell yanked her back, his grip stronger than she would have thought possible. He must have known her intent, for he yelled, “Maddy, no! You can’t go in there.”
“Let me go! Let me go!” Struggling, screaming, she fought to get free, to get to her lovers, to save them. A loud sound burst into the air as sparks shot up and out. The window facing the barns had exploded.
Lucas’s bedroom window.
“Easy. You can’t help them. No one can help them now.”
No, she wouldn’t believe that. She couldn’t believe that. “Damn it, let me go!” Maddy clawed at the arms that held her fast. Everything in her struggled as her feral instincts surged up from the depths of her soul.
“Maddy, stop it! Stop! They’re just a couple of queers. A couple of faggots. They’re not worth it! Let them burn!”
“Bastard, let me go!” All she knew, everything inside her, needed to get free, to rescue her lovers. Her mates. Desperation clawed within her, and she kicked and scratched and swore. Bill’s muffled curse was drowned out when another crack exploded. Maddy watched, horrified, as part of the roof—the part over the master bedroom—collapsed.
“No!” Her voice, nearly hoarse from screaming, choked on her tears. “Fuck you, bastard, let me go!”
“Fine, then. Go. Go and die with them, faggot lover!”
The strange words didn’t matter, all that mattered was he’d let her go. Running toward the house, the heat of the flames punched out at her before she’d taken five steps.
“Luc! Chase!” Oh God, if they die, I want to die too!
“Over there!”
Charlie had come running from the bunkhouse, streaking across the ground, obviously looking for some way to get in. He’d raced across Maddy’s path just moments before, and now pointed to the other side of the house.
Maddy looked up just in time to see someone tumble through the side window.
Changing course, she ran, and with Charlie knelt down, reached out.
“Thank God, thank God, thank God.” The litany tumbled from her lips. Both men sprawled beneath the window, coughing and hacking and alive.
“I’ll get Luc, he seems worse off. Help Chase. Move, Maddy, now!” Charlie ordered.
Charlie slipped an arm under Lucas, slung him up in a fireman’s carry. Maddy got her arm under Chase’s shoulder, pulling and prodding as she struggled to her feet.
“Come on, cowboy. We’re not out of danger yet. One foot in front of the other.”
“Nag, nag, nag.” The croak of his voice was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard.
Maddy felt the tears running down her cheeks, but couldn’t give in to the urge to cry. Not yet. He was built solid, and under normal circumstances she knew she could never lift him.
Terror gave her extra strength.
In the distance, the wail of sirens screamed toward them. Maddy finally tumbled to her knees, Chase falling with her, but they’d come far enough away from the fire to be safe.
“Luc.”
Chase’s voice came out gravelly hoarse, but Maddy knew what he wanted, what he needed. The same thing she wanted and needed, too.
“He’s okay. He’s coughing his lungs out over there, but he’s okay. We have to manage to go just a little farther if we want to be with him. Can you make it?”
“Yeah.”
She struggled to her feet, dragging Chase with her. Together they stumbled forward, collapsing again on the ground next to Lucas.
Soot covered her men and they stank like fire. But Maddy had never seen anything so wonderful in all her life as her two lovers, safe. Alive.
Close. That had been way too close. Her gaze was drawn to the blaze. With a swoosh and a roar, flames shot out the window her men had so recently escaped from. She’d nearly lost them. A few seconds slower in moving, and she would have been alone for the rest of her life.
Alone wasn’t how she wanted to be any more.
She’d wanted to tell them earlier, but had been afraid—afraid to open herself up completely. Maddy sensed that after this, she would likely never really be afraid again. There would be no more waiting for tomorrow to say it, and no more waiting for one or the other of them to say it first. Damn them to hell, they’d both made her fall in love with them, so if her words made them uncomfortable, that was just too fucking bad. They’d have to learn to live with it. And her.
“Bastards, don’t you dare die on me, either of you. I love you both.”
* * * *
Lucas figured an abundance of sex, late nights, and beer had saved their lives. If not for all of the above, Chase would have been in bed with him, and they’d likely both be dead.
Lying on the ground, he turned his head to watch the firemen finish dousing the flames that had been near to going out anyway. They’d gutted the house completely, eating damn near every inch of fuel available.
His eyes still stung even though the firemen had irrigated them. His chest and throat burned like a son-of-a-bitch but he was alive, thanks to Chase. He closed his eyes, the ventilator on his face as well as the pain in his throat discouraging talk.
Next to him, Chase sat on the ground, his own ventilator now pushed aside, one hand on Maddy’s shoulder, one on his. That had been too fucking close. Luc closed his eyes and simply abided with his loved ones.
It seemed like only moments later he felt something cold on his chest. He opened his eyes to the sight of one of the paramedics bent over him, listening to his chest with a stethoscope. The man looked too damn young to be a professional. Hell, just about everyone looks young these days.
“How is he?” Maddy’s voice sounded almost as hoarse as Chase’s.
“Hi
s chest is clearing. His breathing sounds better. To be on the safe side, he should spend at least the rest of the night in hospital.”
Lucas shook his head ‘no’. No way in hell he would be separated from his family. Not after nearly losing them.
“If we watch him carefully, can he stay here?” Maddy asked.
The paramedic looked over at what was left of Lucas’ house. Maddy huffed out a breath, and he nearly smiled. Oh, his woman had no patience for stupid people at all. He really loved that about her.
“In the house behind us. There’s a bed there, and everything.”
“Maddy.”
Chase’s voice sounded better than the last time he’d heard it. Lucas smiled. He imagined Chase would spend the rest of their lives being the voice of reason amongst them. At least, Lucas hoped it would be the rest of their lives.
“Yeah, if you’re going to keep an eye on him, he can stay here.”
Maddy looked so worried, it pulled at Luc’s heart. Lifting the mask he said, “Right here.” Her soft laughter as she recognized her own words tossed back at her wrapped around him, more soothing than any lozenge.
“Can you sit up, Lucas?”
He nodded then put his own muscles into the effort to supplement the paramedic’s strength.
“Dizzy?” the attendant asked.
He was a little, but decided to lie about it. He didn’t want to take the chance of anyone changing their mind about sending him to the hospital. “No.”
“Just sit still a moment, it will pass.”
So much for thinking the paramedic too young. He seemed to be old enough to have Lucas’s number.
John Anderson, the fire chief from the company over in Gunnison, came toward them from the wreckage of the house, the expression on his face grim. A man Lucas had played poker with a time or two, John had been a volunteer fire fighter for more than twenty years before he finally accepted the job of chief. He nodded to Maddy and Chase then got down on his haunches, putting him on eye level with everyone.
“We’re going to call in a special investigator from over in Colorado Springs to go over the scene. But from what I can tell right now, it looks as if this fire was deliberately set. You piss anybody off lately, Lucas? Win one too many poker pots?”
Lucas’s thoughts zeroed in on one target and one target only. Before he could say anything, Chase spoke up.
“If that fucking little pecker-head did this I’m going to personally kick his nuts up so high he’ll need to wear a jock strap on his nose.”
“What little pecker-head?” Anderson asked.
“That fucking little prick, Kevin Marsh.”
Lucas could feel the waves of fury rolling off Chase. He couldn’t blame him one bit for it. He figured between them, they’d very likely kill the little bastard.
“Verna Marsh’s nephew? From right here in Marshville?”
“Yeah. That little—”
“No.”
Maddy’s one word stopped Chase cold. Her hand squeezed Lucas’ shoulder. He turned his attention to her, but she scanned the area all around them, as if searching. Her next words confirmed it.
“Where’s Bill?”
Charlie and Pat stood nearby. Even Ralph was there, all of them witnesses to the night’s events.
Lucas couldn’t see Bill anywhere.
“Where’s Bill?” Maddy asked again, her voice hoarse but frantic. Charlie must have heard, because he stepped forward.
“I thought he went over to the Bunkhouse to make coffee for everyone, but come to think of it, but that was a while ago now.”
“Go look. Please.”
Charlie must have read something in Maddy’s expression, because he swore, then took off at a run toward the bunkhouse.
“What’s that all about?” Anderson voiced the question on Lucas’s mind.
Maddy was shaking. Chase put his arm around her, held her close. Maddy reached for Lucas’s hand, and he gave it to her. Then she turned her attention to the fire chief.
“When I…when I came running out, saw the fire, I wanted…I was going to go in there, I had to get in there to get to them. But he wouldn’t let me. Bill wouldn’t let me. I fought him. I fought him hard.”
“Damn it all to hell, Maddy. What the hell were you going to do, brave the flames to save us?” Chase’s chastisement lost some of its punch since his voice sounded so weak and he coughed in the middle of it.
“And you wouldn’t do the same thing, positions reversed?” Her expression looked so fierce when she said that, Lucas’s heart turned over in his chest. I love you both she had said the moment he and Chase had been dragged clear of the flames. He hadn’t said it back. But he would. The moment they were all alone together, he would say it to the both of them.
“That’s different. Yeah, yeah, I’m a male chauvinist pig. Sue me. Now tell us what has you so worked up about Bill.”
Maddy’s eyes glistened with tears and she met Chase’s gaze and then his before turning back to Anderson. “He finally let me go. But before he did—oh God, I can’t believe this—before he did, he said ‘they’re just a couple of queers, they’re not worth it’. And he…he acted as if he believed them already dead.”
Which meant Bill had known they were there together. Lucas acknowledged the shaft of pain as he realized a man he’d known for more than twenty years, a man he’d called friend, had tried to kill him, tried to kill Chase.
Anderson didn’t even so much as give either Lucas or Chase an off glance. If hearing that someone he’d known for years was gay bothered the chief at all, he didn’t show it. Instead, he turned to look at the smoldering building behind him. As Charlie approached, Anderson got to his feet.
“Bill’s not here,” the man reported. Bewilderment filled his voice as he continued. “He’s not here, and most of his stuff is gone. I checked out back. His truck is gone, too. What the fuck, Maddy? Bill?”
Anderson looked from Charlie to Maddy. Then he reached for his cell phone.
“Sheriff Barclay? Chief Anderson. I’m out at the Dalton spread. I have a suspected case of arson to report.”
Chapter Eighteen
Maddy invited the men from the bunkhouse up to the ranch house where she proceeded to make them bacon, sausages and eggs. They’d tucked Lucas into bed almost immediately, but Chase refused to rest, claiming he felt good enough to throw together some biscuits, so they had those too, along with lots of coffee.
A somber mood lay over them, and no one felt much like talking. The sun was just cresting the horizon when Chase got up and poured everyone a second cup of coffee. He’d taken the time to shower, but Maddy hadn’t. Still wearing a night shirt tucked into her jeans and no shoes, she imagined she looked like hell, but she didn’t care.
There was nothing so urgent that it had to be done that day. Maddy gave Charlie and Pat the day off. She called the K-Temple ranch and spoke with Michael Templeton. Rumor and gossip traveled faster than the wind amongst cattle and horse folk, and she wanted them to hear the news of the near-disaster from her, rather than from the grapevine. She offered to send their horse and their man back early, but the Templetons assured her they had no worries about security. When she admitted that she had one mare left to service, Michael told her to go ahead and finish with the planned mating.
Lucas was asleep in her father’s bed, face down because he’d neglected to tell anyone that he’d burned the backs of his legs. Against Lucas’ protests, she’d called Doc Morton and he’d been kind enough to come out right away.
The burns weren’t serious, and not even likely to blister. Doc had applied a topical salve, and also left some pain killers in case Lucas needed them.
Lucas, exhausted, had bitched half-heartedly about having to lie there all alone, but soon tumbled deeply into sleep.
After the early breakfast, Maddy insisted Chase climb into her bed. It stood as a measure of his exhaustion, now that everything that could be done had been done, that he gave her only a token protest. He’d been sno
ring in minutes. She quickly showered, taking just long enough to clean the smell of smoke and fear from her body. Then it pleased Maddy to spend the rest of the day, until late afternoon, alternating between the rooms, keeping an eye on both her men.
“Hey, pretty lady.”
Maddy opened her eyes and yawned. She’d fallen asleep in the wing-back chair that had been a staple in her father’s room since he’d first taken sick. There had been times in the past when she’d fallen asleep here, watching over her dad.
But it had been much more poignant keeping vigil over one of the men she loved. The long night must have finally caught up with her. She didn’t remember falling asleep.
She blinked and focused on Chase, whose soft words had just awakened her. He hunkered down in front of her, gently stroking her leg. Her eyes swept over to the bed and encountered Lucas’s sleepy gaze.
“Hey. Must have fallen asleep. Sorry.” She stretched and sat up straighter.
“You’re more than entitled. Our new bed should be arriving shortly. Then we can all get cozy together for awhile.” Chase’s voice sounded much better than it had just hours before.
“For more than a while. You’ll stay here from now on. Both of you.”
“We need to talk about that, sweetheart.” Chase’s tone was quiet, with no hint of humor whatsoever. “You mentioned wanting us to live in this house with you once before. But as was made abundantly clear just a few hours ago, some people take great exception to other people living alternate life-styles.”
Maddy couldn’t help it. Her temper ignited. “Oh, fuck that! Just fuck it. One sick bastard lets hate turn him into a monster, and you want me to change how I want to live my life? I don’t think so.”
“Maddy. Bill was our friend. We don’t know what happened to make him—”
She looked over at Lucas, and her heart simply lurched. He could have been killed, and yet here he lay trying to defend the man who, in all likelihood, had set that fire.
“Lucas, I know you were closer to him than any of us. And I know that what he did has to be devastating to you. But if he could set that fire, then he wasn’t really our friend, not ever. He hid a side of himself, a side that I would have found repugnant even if the three of us weren’t lovers. And I for one refuse to give in to the whims of hate-mongers. I will not let small minded people dictate how I live my life.”
Special Cowboy Menage Collection Page 16
