Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
My heart dropped to the ground. Everyone not fighting the fire was at Brock and Lincoln’s house.
“Have you told them the fire is moving that way? Maybe they should go to Tanner and Timberlynn’s.”
Hank nodded. “Tanner’s on his way there now to have everyone leave.”
Nathan and I exchanged a worried look. Hitting him on the side of the arm, I said, “Come on. Let’s get ahead of this thing.”
“Maverick!” Nathan called over the roar of the wind and fire. “It’s getting closer to the barn!”
“All the animals are out, right?”
He nodded.
The next second, we both saw something run into the barn.
“Holy shit! Mav, it’s the foal!”
“Stay here, Nathan!”
He grabbed my arm. “Maverick, no! The fire is right behind the barn!”
“I’m not going to let that foal die.” I removed his hand from my arm. “Stay here, and no matter what happens, you do not go into that barn. Do you understand me?”
Shaking his head, he said, “Maverick, please, don’t go in there. Please! I’m begging you.”
“The longer we stand here and argue, the closer the fire’s getting. Move the hose around to the other side and start spraying the barn. We need to keep it as wet as possible.”
When he didn’t move, I yelled, “Nathan, go!”
Once he’d taken off toward the side of the barn, I made a mad dash. Smoke was already starting to fill the cavernous space, but I could still see. The foal was attempting to get into the stall where I’m guessing she and the mother must have been kept. I grabbed some reins and an empty seed bag and made my way toward her. Putting the reins on her, I tried to talk calmly.
“Shhh…it’s okay, girl. I’ve got you, and I’m going to bring you back to your momma.”
The foal was strangely calm, and I didn’t even have to use the bag over her head to get her out of the barn. Once I got her to safety, Decker, one of the ranch hands who worked with Blayze, grabbed her.
“We were trying to load them up in the trailer, and she got loose,” he yelled.
“Get her in there with her mother.”
He took her reins and ran off with the foal. As I turned to go help Nathan, something else caught my eye—a cat was running back and forth in front of the tack room door. She jumped up and scratched at it, then looked back at me.
“Fuck,” I mumbled, already suspecting why she wasn’t leaving. When I opened the door, four small kittens appeared. The mother grabbed one in her mouth and took off out of the barn. I reached down and picked up the other three, then ran out of the barn, looking for the mother cat. I yelled for Decker before he took off in the horse trailer.
“Decker! Help me with these!”
He ran back over and scooped up the mother and the baby while I headed over to his truck with the other kittens. Once they were safely in the truck, I shut the door.
“She had five kittens,” Decker said, as he glanced back at the barn.
“Go, you don’t have much time. I’ll make sure the other kitten is okay.”
Despite the efforts of Nathan and the other firefighters, I could see the flames had finally reached the barn at the same time I heard a plane overhead. I had one last chance to run back into the barn to look for the other cat.
“Where are you going?” Nathan asked as I rushed past him.
“One last kitten in the tack room.”
The sound of wood cracking echoed from the barn.
“Maverick, the water isn’t helping, and the firefighters said the barn is old and the structure won’t hold. We have to let it go!”
“I’m getting the kitten. Just move away, Nathan, now.”
By the time I got back into the barn, the smoke had grown ten times worse. The back of the barn was now engulfed, and the flames spread quickly. Pulling my shirt up and over my mouth, I went back to the tack room in search of the kitten. I looked everywhere, and when the heat grew too intense, and I knew I had to leave, I turned—only to spot the kitten near the door.
“There you are, baby,” I wheezed as I scooped her up and put her under my shirt.
The sound of wood breaking caused me to sprint as fast as I could toward the other end of the barn. I could see Nathan standing off in the distance, a look of horror on his face.
“Run! Run faster, Maverick!”
The barn was starting to come down all around me, but I somehow managed to miss being hit by anything falling—until I was almost to the door, when a loud bang caused me to falter. Something crashed to the ground right in front of me, making me stumble. I dove forward, twisting my body to avoid falling on the cat, and felt something hit me from the side—hard.