Chapter Two
AYDA
The smell of fresh burning wood made it feel more like a cookout than a funeral pyre. Cloying black clouds rose high above us, but there was nothing we could do to stop the flames now. The fire was in full swing, crawling through the upper branches and into the hazy air above.
I was sickened by the sight of another representation of the club going up in flames, but I couldn’t think about myself right now no matter how gutted I was at the sight of Pete’s tree ablaze. The man in front of me, the love of my life, was watching one of the most important and significant things in his world turn to charcoal. For Drew, this would be the same as losing Pete all over again.
This was one of the things we’d been fighting for.
Placing my hand on the skull and hounds at his back, I felt his heart pounding even through the leather. I gave him the time he needed to process what he was seeing before we acted on this. I knew this had to have something to do with what we’d done—what we were about to do. Even the tree seemed to whine as it was consumed, creaking under the pressure of the fire.
We stayed there for a few minutes, both of us speechless,before something other than the blaze cut through the air.
The fire department had arrived.
I could barely hear the sirens over the roar of the fire, but they were there, screaming into the unusually still air. The noise grew louder and louder as we watched something we loved disappear branch by branch, our moment of mourning coming to a sudden end.
Pulling off my helmet, I turned my head and watched as the fire chief’s SUV, with full lights flashing and sirens screaming, passed the cattle grate and slid into the empty field. He fishtailed as he neared, dirt and grass shooting out from around the vehicle, bringing it a sliding stop. The driver's door opened with a very purposeful force.
Ronnie Bex, fire chief of the Babylon Fire Department, stepped half out of the vehicle, obviously standing on the side runner as he assessed the fire and frowned in confusion. He waited for a beat, looking around the field to the roads that cut around it before the crash of a branch pulled his attention back to the blaze. Then he turned his bewildered eyes to me.
I knew he registered the mess my face was in, but the small shake of my head when he looked at Drew seemed to appease any negative thought he had there. I hadn’t come up with an excuse for that yet, so I needed to deflect any unwanted questions until I figured out something relative and believable. Falling down the stairs and walking into the door were too predictable.
“You call this in yet?” Ronnie barked.
I shook my head and left my hand on Drew’s back as I took the lead on the conversation. “We just got here.”
“Son of a whore. What the fuck is going on today?” He held up a hand to me and then reached into his vehicle for a radio handset. “Dispatch: we got a Class A out at the junction of Southwest CR thirty-one fifty, and southwest thirty-one sixty.”
The radio squawked for a moment before clearing, thevoice of the dispatcher coming back.
“Sorry, chief, we have dispatched to two other locations. We’re waiting on a third. We don’t have a truck for you right now.”
“Fuck.” He slapped the top of his SUV, squeezed his eyes shut, took a deep breath, and pressed the button again before speaking calmly. “Can you call Randy over in Dawson, see if they have a spare rig they can send us?”
“On it, chief.”
I waited for him as he threw the radio back into the passenger seat and watched him swing from his truck before I asked any questions.
“What’s going on?”
Ronnie swiped his BVFD cap from his head and wiped his brow with the back of his hand, letting his gaze move to Drew, and then back to me. The town may have accepted Drew and the Hounds to some extent, but that stigma of Drew being a grenade with a loose pin would always be around.
“Christ. You don’t know?” he asked in surprise.
“Know what? We’ve been out on a ride and then came back to this.” I flung my free hand at the tree in exasperation, acting as though this was the most significant thing in my world. For now, as far as Ronnie Bex was concerned, it was.
“It’s just. Well, The Hut... the Sinclair place, and the remains left at the old factory where…” He didn’t bother finishing that sentence, I was pretty sure my expression said it all. “It’s… it’s all on fire, Ayda. The whole goddamn town is burning.”
“What? The Hut? Owen’s…” I trailed off with concern, my hand covering my mouth. I hoped to God that Owen’s place had burned to the ground before they got to it. I wanted him to be bone when they found him.
“You really haven’t heard?” Pulling his hat back on, he stared at the burning tree and shook his head again. “You two shouldget back to town.”
Drew had apparently lost his voice, his ability to move, and his usual sense of leadership. He stared at Ronnie, finally blinking before his entire body tensed—his arms going rigid by his side. Throwing his head back, Drew let out a feral roar of anger I’d never heard from him before. His hands were balled into fists, his body shaking as everything fell to pieces around us—pieces we didn’t know were going to fall.
I didn’t say or do anything. There are times when you just have to let a moment happen—when the shit that’s hit the fan has to fall away so you can assess the damage left behind. I knew Drew wouldn’t fall back into the state he’d been in after Harry’s death. This wasn’t that kind of mourning. This was an exorcism, and it had to happen so we could figure out what the fuck was going on and move forward.
Ronnie’s eyes widened at the animal sound coming from Drew, growing wider still when the unexpected sound cut off and an almighty crack broke out from the heart of the tree.