Paradise Peak (New Americana 5)

Gut heaving, he covered the words with his fist, then turned his back and exited the cabin, leaving the letters behind.

Outside, the wind had turned fierce. Travis slung his bag over his shoulder and hustled down the stone walkway. When he cleared the trees and stepped onto the bank of the river, heading toward the bridge, an odd tint bled into the haze surrounding him.

The smoke-filled air had turned orange. It took on an eerie glow, the haze brightest high above the trees further up the mountain beyond his cabin, and above it, dense clouds of black smoke rose overhead.

An angry wind cut a path down the mountain and through the trees, shoving before it a thick swath of smoke. The black mass loomed low toward Travis like a distorted finger, burning his eyes, clogging his throat, and rushing into his lungs.

“Dear God . . .” Heart pounding against his ribs, he ran across the bridge to Hannah’s cabin, climbed the steps, and banged on the door. “Hannah!”

There was no answer.

Coughing to clear the smoke from his throat, he tried the doorknob and, finding it unlocked, thrust it open.

Hannah stopped in midstep two feet from the door, an overnight bag over her shoulder. “Travis, wh—”

“We have to leave.” He grabbed her hand, tugged her out onto the deck, and shut the door behind them. “Right now.”

She stumbled to a stop on the deck, her head tipping back and mouth parting as she took in the ominous orange glow across the stream, above his cabin. A dazed look entered her eyes. “The wind must’ve shifted.”

Something caught Travis’s eye; a flutter of gray against an auburn background. “Hannah . . .”

He touched her hair gently, his fingers sifting through the bright strands near her temple, plucked the gray speck out and lowered it in front of her.

“It’s ash.” She looked at him, then peered above his head, her eyes widening. “It’s everywhere.”

Large and small bits of gray, black, and white ash began falling like snowflakes from the sky, littering their hair, clothing, the deck, and dirt path. The shower of ash started out light, but grew heavier by the second, and the strong gusts of wind barreling down the mountain hurled the flakes in sporadic patterns around them.

“We gotta go,” Travis shouted above the roar of the wind.

He grabbed her hand and led the way down the winding staircase of the deck. When their feet hit the dirt path, they bolted, ducking their heads against the wind and sprinting to the stable.

“The horses!” Hannah looked up at him, eyes full of fear. “There’s no time to load them, and we’d never make it down the mountain with a trailer in this. We’ll have to let them run.”

A gust of wind slammed into them, and her free arm shot out, gripping Travis’s forearm as her legs shook beneath her. A neigh rang out from the stable and hooves pounded against a stall wall.

Her chin trembled. “But what if they can’t outru—”

Her voice broke, but there was no need for her to finish.

What if they can’t outrun the fire ?

Terror coursed through him at the thought, but Travis leaned close, blocking the wind, and squeezed her upper arms. “They will. I’ll let them out and set ’em in the right direction. You go to the lodge and get Margaret and Red. Load up the truck.”

She blinked up at him, dislodging ash from her thick lashes, then nodded. “I’ll call Ben and Liz and let them know the fire’s jumped.”

She took off, running across the field toward the lodge.

It took Travis five minutes to unlatch the stalls and urge each horse out, but it felt more like fifteen. Ruby and Juno dashed out of their open stalls without hesitation, darting out of the stable and galloping across the grounds in the opposite direction from the blaze on the mountain.

When he reached the last stall, the new mare, still kicking the walls of her enclosure, tossed her head back, eyes wild.

Travis clutched the latch on the new mare’s stall, the metal cutting into his palm, and kept his voice as steady as he could manage. “Don’t look back, beautiful.” His chest tightened. “You gotta run. Fast as you can.”

He swung the stall door open and jumped out of the way as she peeled out of the stable, dirt spraying from beneath her hooves.

Travis grabbed his bag and ran toward the lodge, watching the mare follow the other horses’ lead and whispering, “Don’t look back.”

As he reached Red’s truck, parked in front of the lodge, the front door banged open and Red came out, carrying two large bags. Margaret and Hannah followed on his heels down the front steps, each carrying a bag of her own.