by Sable Hunter
“Long time no see, Mrs. Wade.”
A hand gripped her arm and twisted it ruthlessly behind her back.
“Damien, no!”
“You and I have some unfinished business to attend to.”
“No, let me go!” She struggled to no avail. This was a scene they’d played out too many times. Makenna was no match for his strength and he knew it. The only power she had was a threat. “Titan will kill you, Damien. He loves me.”
“How long have you been fucking him, Makenna? How long have you been shaming me, making me the cuckold?”
“I didn’t, not until I left you.” He slung her around and slapped her in the face—hard. “But I wanted to! I wanted to from the first moment I saw him!” She didn’t know what possessed her to confess that bit of information. It just came tumbling out.
“Today’s the day you die, Makenna!”
“Titan will kill you, Damien.”
“Not if he thinks you left him willingly.” He held on to her arm while he grabbed a notepad and pen from the counter. “Write him a note, tell him you don’t love him. Tell him you’re leaving.”
“No!”
“Yes, you just came from the town meeting. Didn’t you? Oh, I was there. I’ve never left. I’ve been staying with Tammie. We’re old friends.” He forced her to sit in a chair. “We’ve been fuck-buddies too. Can’t blame me for that, can you? Being married to a fat frigid bitch like you, I had to seek consolation elsewhere.”
He forced the pen into her hand. “Write. Write what I tell you.”
She struggled in vain.
“Dear Titan,” he sing-songed. “I’m leaving you. I never really loved you. The confusion in town is more than I can handle. I wish you the best. Don’t come looking for me.”
“He won’t believe this.” Would he? In a last desperate act, she signed it. Not with the name Makenna, but with the initials MTF. Would he know what it meant?
“Come on, you bitch!” Damien pulled her to her feet. “Take your purse.” She thought he was about to lead her outside. Instead, they started down the hall. “Get your suitcase and fill it, let’s make this thing look real.”
As Makenna tried to follow her crazy husband’s directions, he took every opportunity to knock her around. When he was satisfied with what she’d packed, he picked up the suitcase and yanked her through the house and outside. Once they were in his truck, she asked, “Where are you taking me?”
“To your funeral pyre,” was his macabre answer as he made her climb onto a four-wheeler that she assumed belonged to Tammie. He made her sit in front of him, her arms still forced behind her back. In horror, Makenna realized he was taking her to Titan’s cabin, the one they’d been in the day of the stampede. “That was you who beat on the walls, wasn’t it?”
“Yea, I enjoyed myself.”
When they arrived, he showed her no mercy, dragging her, hitting her. He was wet with sweat and he stank. Makenna wondered how she could’ve ever thought she loved him. His answer was no surprise to Makenna. By this time, she was tired, she was weak. When he tied her to a chair in the center of the room, she knew all was lost.
“I’m about to set a fire that will put this area on the map. They call this place the Devil’s Backbone, but when I get through, they’ll call it the Devil’s Triangle. I’m going to set three fires, all to converge right on top of you.”
“Are you crazy?” she screamed in panic. Of course he was.
“No, I’m not crazy,” he answered calmly. “A wildfire burns away debris, and that certainly describes you.”
“Were you responsible for all the fires?” She didn’t know why she was asking, she just wanted to know.
“Yes, I love fire.” He grew still. “Seeing something burn that I’ve ignited makes me feel powerful. It’s exciting.” He met her gaze. “More exciting than anything. The thrill is better than sex. It’s the ultimate power.”
Seeing the madness in his eyes made her scream anew. “Titan! Help!”
“No one can hear you.” He stood back for a moment staring at her, as if admiring his handiwork. “You’re nothing, Makenna. You’re nobody. No one will ever love you and no one will find you in time.”
Sheer terror washed over Makenna. She had no doubt he was about to do just as he promised. Titan wasn’t here. He was in town. He wouldn’t know what was happening.
She was going to die. Their baby was going to die! Misery and terror consumed her. “Titan!” she screamed again.
But there was no one to hear her. Damien had left to set a fire—a wildfire.
* * *
“Hey, excuse me.” Titan touched Allie’s arm as she talked to Hotshot. “Have you seen Makenna?”
“Yea,” she answered brightly. “She borrowed my car to go to your house. She said some of your livestock was out.”
“Oh, okay.” Titan was surprised. “How did she know?”
“I don’t know.” Allie shrugged. “She didn’t say.”
“Is something wrong?” Hotshot asked, a concerned look on his face.
“I…don’t know,” Titan admitted. “I need to leave and find her.” The meeting had finally turned his way. Enough of his friends and supporters had drowned out the troublemakers. A vote had been taken and he was still chief.
“Hey, if you need anything. Call me.” Hotshot touched Titan’s shoulder.
Titan nodded, going to his truck. He was blocked in by a couple of cars that had pulled too close. “Damn!” He had to wait, growing more frustrated by the minute. “Dammit, move!” His gut was doing strange things. He didn’t know if it was the tension from the stupid meeting or if his instincts were trying to tell me something. Was something wrong?
By the time the stragglers had claimed their vehicles and moved on he was so worked up he could have cheerfully picked up the cars and tossed them aside with his bare hands. Gunning it out of the parking lot, he drove home at breakneck speed.
* * *
Damien watched the liquid fuel catch. The bluish-white flame mesmerized him. When the dry grass around it ignited with a rush, he broke out into laughter. Conditions were just right. No rain for weeks and weeks had dried out everything. Just a spark could ignite this whole damn area. That’s what he wanted to see, a furnace in the Backbone.
He stepped to watch. This was fire number two. One more to go and he would’ve set a trap that his tramp of a wife couldn’t escape. To make it even better, he was destroying Sloan’s ranch. Two birds with one red hot stone, you couldn’t beat that with a stick.
Moving on to his other target, he thought about what he’d accomplished. During his career, he’d set almost a hundred fires. Most he’d been right there to put out. A couple of people had died. Oh, well. Collateral damage. Killing people wasn’t his goal, but it happened occasionally. This was the first fire he set with that goal in mind. And Damien had to admit…
It was mighty sweet.
He smiled and took out his lighter—ready to start another fire.
* * *
When Titan skidded into his own driveway, he saw Allie’s car parked next to Makenna’s. She was here, somewhere. Jumping out, he called her name. Listening.
Nothing.
“Makenna!” He tried again, running to the house. Surely she was inside. Going in, he stood in the foyer. “Makenna!”
Again, nothing.
He began looking through the house—the living room, his office, the dining room—finally, the kitchen. Spotting something on the floor, he picked it up. It was her pregnancy test. It was positive! Makenna was having his baby! “Makenna, love, where are you?” Maybe she was upstairs taking a bath. He was about to head upstairs when a piece of paper caught his eye. A note!
Snatching it up, he read it. She was leaving him? She didn’t love him? Pain shot through his heart. She was having his baby and she didn’t want to be with him?
And then his eyes settled at the bottom of the paper. She’d written MTF.
MTF.
Makenna and Tit
an forever.
“No, no, no.”
She wasn’t leaving. She’d never sign a note that way if she intended to break things off with him.
Something was wrong.
Just to make sure, he started up the stairs. “Makenna!” The buzz from his pager stopped him in his tracks. “Talk to me,” he answered dispatch.
“Repeat that.” He just had to make sure what he’d heard.
“Grassfires have been spotted in the vicinity of Skyview Ranch. More than one. With drought and wind conditions taken into consideration, we’re looking at a wildfire, Chief.” Then she paused. “I’m sorry. I’ve notified everyone and called for assistance.”
“My God!” He clipped his pager back on his belt, feeling more torn than if a knife had ripped him in half. “Makenna, baby, what’s going on?” As if a voice from above was speaking to his heart, he knew—he knew that all of this was connected. Makenna was in danger!
Just to ease his mind, he raced up the stairs and looked room to room. He could leave nothing to chance. Heading out, he did the same. Losing possessions was one thing, losing Makenna was something else entirely. Coming to the barn, he looked everywhere before putting a saddle and a bridle on Valiant. “It’s just you and me, boy. You’re going to have to be my fire horse.”
Mounting up, he began to ride toward the smoke.
* * *
Tears ran down Makenna’s cheeks. She was so afraid. “Help! Help!” The odor of smoke filled the air. Through the windows she could see the fiery flames shooting skyward as the blaze consumed the trees and undergrowth.
She began to squirm, twisting her hands. But the ropes held tight. She rocked the chair, maybe if she could turn it over it would break and she could escape.
Panic washed over her. She’d been so young when the bomb had exploded, but the fear and the dread were the same. In her mind, she went back—back to the time when she was helpless, hearing people scream. The heat and the noise was overwhelming.
Despair made her weak.
The dawning truth was more than she could process—she was about to die.
Wringing and twisting her hands, desperation drove her to try. She knew she’d struggle until the flames licked up her body. Fighting to save her baby was pure maternal instinct.
Suddenly, her fingers touched something hard.
What was that?
She bowed and twisted, shifting her weight, trying to get her fingers into her back pocket.
The knife! The knife Titan had made for her was in her grasp.
* * *
Titan rode toward the horizon. His ranch was going up like a tinder box. The whole sky was bright red and orange. Pulling Valiant to a stop, it was like he was seeing the whole scene from above. He sat on horseback, a lone dark silhouette against the curtain of fire before him. A cowboy pitted against hell. He knew his friends would come. They’d bring their trucks, they’d bring their equipment. The best and bravest would fight a blaze set by a madman.
Damien Wade set this fire, there was no doubt in his mind.
As he rode toward the inferno, a movement in the periphery of his vision made him turn his head. Someone was out here. Heading deeper into the hot zone, Titan had to force his mount to stay on course. His horse had more sense than he did. But if someone was in danger…he had to make sure they were able to get out.
His radio went off and Titan grabbed it. “Go ahead, I copy.”
“Chief! This is Dallas. We’re on our way. Where are you?”
“I’m at the blaze site, about three miles west of my house, near the boundary fence that butts up to the highway. I thought I saw someone, I’m checking it out.”
“Listen, Chief. This is serious. There’s a triangulation of fires. They’re spreading out, but the corners of the burn paths seem to be converging on what Hotshot keeps calling Miner’s Ridge. Do you know where that is?”
“Yea, that’s where my cabin is located. Thank goodness it’s vacant.” The news he was being given was horrendous. His cattle were in danger. Hell, everything he had was in danger. “Can you send someone to cut the fence between my property and the Woods place? I need to give my livestock a way out of this mess.”
“I’ll make some calls.”
Titan could hear the sirens, both on the radio and in the distance. The whine and wail was a comfort to his soul. As he stared into the smoke-filled distance, he saw movement again. “Dallas, I think I got a twenty on whoever’s up here. Let me get back to you.”
“Be careful, Chief, I hate to say this is Wade’s work, but I got this creepy feeling. These fires are too precise, too geometric to be random. You need to watch your back.”
Until that moment, his own fears hadn’t coalesced. What if...oh God, what if...and then as he drew closer, Titan got a good look. It was Wade! On foot, carrying a backpack full of God knows what. “Damien! Stop!”
Instead of obeying or coming toward him, the fool ran back toward the fire. Titan urged Valiant into a gallop. He could feel his mount’s reluctance in the uneven, but obedient gait. “Damien!”
The man was no older than Titan, but he’d inhaled smoke. He wasn’t as fast as he would be normally, so when he came alongside him, Titan dove off and brought him down. “This is the last fire you set, Wade!”
He fought back, throwing punches and butting Titan with his head. “This is the last fire I need to set.”
“You’re going to jail for the rest of your life if I have anything to do with it.” Titan landed a right hook and knocked the SOB to the ground. He was about to try and subdue him when he heard a click.
“Don’t move or I’ll kill you where you stand, Sloan. You know I will.”
Titan froze, looking down the barrel of the revolver. Around them fire was raging, consuming everything in its path. “I know you would, but you’re not going to get the chance.” With a vicious kick, he sent the gun flying.
Boom! The gun went off as it spun through the air. “Get up, you coward. You set fires because you can’t deal with your problems face to face.”
Damien rolled to one side, rose and tried to run. Titan jumped him, wrestling him to the ground. He kept one knee to his back while he pulled off his own belt to tie Wade’s hands.
“She’s dead, you know.”
His cold words stopped Titan’s heart. “What did you say?”
“My slut of a wife is dead. I tied her up in your cabin. It’s ashes by now.”
“No!” Titan’s scream echoed over the Devil’s Backbone.” For one moment, he almost did it—he almost took the son of a bitch by the neck and snapped it.
“Titan, we’ve brought your gear!” Hotshot called from some distance away. Seeing the despair on his friend’s face, he came running. “What’s wrong?” When he drew nearer, he saw Damien. “You’ve got him.”
“Take him, Jericho, take him before I kill him.”
Hotshot got Damien Wade to his feet.
“I’ve got to go.” Titan went to his horse. His eyes were blinded by tears.
“But…where?” he asked, seeing Titan head into the thick of the smoke.
“He said Makenna’s dead. I’ve got to go to her.” Before Hotshot could say more, he was gone.
* * *
Wildfire. Texas Wildfire.
Firefighters were striving to subdue a wind-fed razing dragon consuming miles of timber and pastureland. The heat was like an oven, visibility was impossible. Helicopters flew over, dumping water. Pump truck after pump truck emptied their bowels into the conflagration to no avail. Men stood side by side, shooting foam onto the flames, while mechanical beasts dug ditches, leaving scars in the earth to inhibit the spread of the wildfire.
Ignoring the cries for him to stop, Titan rode through. His horse was nearly mad with fear, yet he obeyed his master, battling heat and death to reach where the cabin once stood. Now there was nothing more than glowing embers. One of the crews had reached it, but just put out the fire as part of the general process.
Dropping Va
liant’s reins, Titan dismounted with a heart-rending bellow of grief. “Makenna! Makenna!” If Maverick hadn’t been there to stop him, he would have run full-throttle into the red-hot debris. “Did any of you see her?”
They didn’t have to ask, Hotshot had radioed ahead.
“We didn’t see her, Chief. If she’s there, she’s buried beneath the rubble.”
Titan turned on him, almost attacking him in his incomprehensible sorrow. The horse whinnied and danced on its feet, its remaining at the scene untethered a statement of its loyalty.
Standing there, staring at the destruction, Titan felt hopeless. He’d lost the most important thing in the world to him. And…the baby! He’d lost her and their child. “No, God, no!” he shouted to the heavens, then bowed his head in utter inconsolable grief.
“Maybe she’s not there, Titan. Maybe she escaped.” Maverick shadowed him, trying to offer his friend something to hold on to.
Titan stared at the cabin, remembering the time they’d spent together here. “Damien said she was tied up.” His heart sank at the idea.
“We need to go back, Chief.” Maverick touched his arm. “There’s nothing you can do here till it cools off where we can search.”
His radio sounded again. Titan raised it to his ear slowly. He had lost all heart to fight. “Sloan. Go ahead.”
“Your cattle are safe and we’ve plowed a barrier. You won’t lose your house.”
Titan recognized Ronan’s voice. He sounded so happy, he thought he had good news. Ronan had no idea that Titan would give everything he had just to hear the sound of her voice.
“Titan?”
Titan’s whole body clenched. He was hearing things.
“Titan?”
There it was again. Bracing, Titan turned—and there she was. Black soot on her face. Her hair was askew. Her clothes were torn. She was the most beautiful sight he’d ever beheld in his life.
“Makenna,” he whispered, staring, trying to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
“Go to her man, she’s waiting. She needs you.”
Maverick didn’t have to tell Titan twice. He mounted his horse, clicked the reins and rode toward her. When he drew nearer, she held up her arms and Titan pulled her to safety.
