Chapter Twenty
Jaxson
Jogging into the house key in hand, I threw open the door and unarmed the alarm, leaving the door wide open behind me for Lincoln to follow. I didn’t turn around to see where he was at. I didn’t wait for him.
“Skylar! Izzie!” I shouted and hurried through the house upstairs to the playroom, where I told them to go.
I threw open the door and lunged inside, only to find it empty.
“Skylar! Izzie!” I tried again, hoping they would answer me, needing to know they were both all right. Isabella was my world, and while Skylar wasn’t my favorite person, I trusted her to look after Izzie and make sure she was safe.
Silence filled the house as I flung each door open, searching high and low for both of them. I fled down the stairs and to the basement, discovering Izzie in a laundry bin atop a mound of bedsheets. Skylar had the lid of the dryer open doing a load of darks. The washing machine tumbled and thudded, probably making it difficult to hear, besides the basement’s soundproofing. I had set it up as a training facility before we invested in the building that we have now for Eagle Tactical.
I exhaled a sigh of relief, throwing my arms around Izzie, pulling her tight and spinning her around, comforted that she was safe.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you guys come in.” Skylar glanced at me over her shoulder and pointed at Lincoln. “We haven’t met,” she said, smiling and putting out her hand for an introduction.
“I’m Lincoln Taylor.” He offered his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Lincoln smiled charmingly at my sister and brought her hand to his lips.
Skylar grinned and giggled. It didn’t take a genius to see what was happening between the two of them.
“She’s off-limits.” I wanted it made clear that he wasn’t to date Skylar. If they dated, then I’d have to see more of her. That was the last thing I wanted, for Skylar to find another reason to hang around Breckenridge. There were other reasons, too. She was far too juvenile to handle Lincoln. She liked to play the field and go out partying. I was lucky she hadn’t done that in town, coming home after the bar closed, trashed, and stumbling through the front door. I wouldn’t tolerate that type of behavior, certainly not around Izzie.
BOOM!
The house vibrated from a nearby explosion. I clutched Izzie to my chest, covering her, uncertain what was happening around us.
Lincoln met my stare. I handed Izzie back to Skylar. “Stay down here.” My boots smacked the stairs hard on the way up, running out the front door to check on Ariella.
The truck’s window had been shattered. I ran through the snow to the truck, my feet slipping under me, but I caught myself before falling. “Ariella?”
Her head poked up, her eyes wide, and her body trembled.
“I was just sitting here when the windows blew. It sounded like an explosion nearby.”
No one could have missed the deafening roar.
“Do you smell that?” she asked.
I spun around, glancing over my shoulder toward the bridge between our houses. Smoke billowed into the sky.
Ariella unlatched the door and yanked it open. I took a step back, getting out of the way for her. Her feet sunk into the snow with each quick step she took toward the bridge. Unlike the house I’d shoveled and had slightly iced over, the bridge’s path was thick with recent wet snow.
“Stay with Skylar,” I shouted at Lincoln as he stood on the porch, his brow furrowed and phone in his hand. He pointed in the smoke’s direction. He saw it now, too.
“I’m calling the fire department,” Lincoln said.
I followed Ariella through the forest and across the bridge, along the trail between our properties. It was much shorter and a quicker route than by truck.
Thick black smoke rose into the chilly air. The heat of the fire roared and whipped with the wind against the cabin. There was no chance of saving it or anything inside.
“No!” Ariella shouted, rushing toward the cabin.
I hurried after her, grabbing her by the waist, restraining her as she tried to break free, twisting and turning to pull herself from my grasp.
“Please! I have to get inside!”
“You can’t,” I whispered against her ear, clinging to her body, holding her back, willing her to stay with me. Didn’t she understand the danger? The fire bellowed and boomed, the sounds deafening as it ate away at the structure, fire soaring outside through the windows and where the roof had been moments earlier.