He glanced around, found Moretti. “Hey, Moretti, where do you store the explosives?”
Moretti jogged over, pointed to a small building a couple hundred yards from the lodge. “If that thing blows, it will take out this parking lot and all of your pretty trucks, too.”
Eric pointed to the building, shouting for the Forest Service superintendent. “See that building? It’s full of explosives. If it evenlookslike the fire is going to reach it, you’ll need to evacuate down the road beyond the first switchback. It’s not likely to burn surrounded by bare slopes and this parking lot, but watch it all the same.”
Malheur nodded. “Got it.”
Eric called for all volunteer and rural fire companies to meet his crew at the top of Piñon Road with every chainsaw, drip torch, and fusee they had. Then he called his mother and asked her to take Caden to her old house in Boulder for the day.
“Are we in the evacuation zone, too?” she asked.
“No, but I’d feel safer knowing the two of you are out of town. If this thing gets away from us again, it could get ugly.”
“Okay, then. This little man and I will pack up and head out. What about Vicki?”
“I called, but she didn’t answer. She’s probably busy. I left her a message.” He doubted she’d leave the restaurant unless all of Scarlet was evacuated.
“She told me the good news this morning. I’m thrilled for you—and for me. Another grandbaby. I can’t wait! You must be so happy.”
He was. “Vicki surprised me at breakfast. I got toned out for the fire not long after, so I don’t think it’s had time to sink in yet.”
“I bet. You be careful, son.”
“I promise. Give Caden a kiss from his daddy. I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too.”
Eric ended the call and shouted for his crew to mount up. “Let’s roll!”
“You really think we can pull this off, chief?”
“We don’t have a choice.”
Libby dashed around her house,grabbing things she wanted to save and shoving them in plastic garbage bags, unable to stop her tears. Nothing was going right today. First, she’d hurt Brandon’s feelings, made him think she didn’t care about him. Then some idiots had started a fire that wanted to burn down her house and her whole town.
What next—freaking bubonic plague?
She’d ducked out of work the moment she’d gotten the reverse 911 call and had driven up to her house, just making it through before the sheriff’s department put up the roadblock. She’d worked hard for the few things she had. She couldn’t let some damned forest fire take everything from her.
So far, she’d gotten all of her vinyl and her important papers—Brandon had made her put them all together in one folder—out to the car. She put the collection of beer bottles representing every brew she’d ever made at Knockers into a big garbage bag and set it next to the door. She couldn’t let fire destroy that. Then she grabbed her camera bag, her favorite clothes, all her crazy colors of fingernail polish, her TV, her sex toys, and her laptop.
She picked up the heavy bag of beer bottles and carried it out to her Jeep, settling it in the back on the floor and hurrying back inside for the next bag. The wind was sharp with the scent of smoke now, a wall of gray rising to the west.
Brandon was out there somewhere.
She’d tried to reach him, but her call had gone to voicemail. He was probably too busy to talk. Or maybe he didn’t want to talk toher. She couldn’t blame him.
Way to fuck up the best relationship you’ve ever had.
She grabbed her camera bag next, turned toward the door, and stopped.
Her music box.
She set the camera bag down, picked up the music box, opened it. A tiny plastic ballerina in a pink tutu pirouetted to a song Libby didn’t know. The music box had been a birthday gift from her father before unemployment and alcohol had made him mean. He’d turned his fists on her and her mother, and her mother had thrown him out of the house. The music box was a piece of junk, but it was the last thing he’d given her before he’d disappeared from her life.
She swallowed the lump in her throat—and nearly jumped out of her skin when a knock came at the door.
“US Marshals! I’m here to help you evacuate.”