Chapter Fifteen
Levi
My hands sting like the devil, ugly blisters rising and bursting open on my palms. Small price to pay to finally solve this fucking mess I’ve gotten us into; that, and several thousand dollars in cash. A pittance, really, considering the fortune my parents left me.
I shove the radio receiver in my jacket pocket, my hands too fucked up to hold onto it any longer. Thank God Dallas turned the thing on at the other end. She’s waiting for me. All I have to do is make it down to the cut-line road and get to the truck. If we can get into Forks and alert the rangers, they can dispatch a firefighting unit to stop the blaze before it gets out of hand. The cabin’s lost, but the last thing I want is a raging forest fire on my conscience.
I run as best I can, the downhill grade pulling me forward, my feet skidding and slipping over tree roots and rocks. In the fading light, I see the gray van parked up ahead, blocking the road. How did Dallas get through? As I get closer, I see the scrape marks on the vehicle’s side and enough broken branches scattered about to answer my question, but I can’t stop. My leg muscles are burning as I emerge onto the dirt road that leads to the highway. I lope another hundred yards or so until I make out the dark silhouette of my truck parked between some trees up ahead, hazard lights flashing. As I get closer, a figure dashes out onto the road.
“Levi!” Dallas shouts, sprinting toward me, nearly knocking me over as she throws her arms around my neck. “Levi, thank God…thank God you’re alright.”
“I’m okay, but there’s no time to lose. We have to go now.”
“What happened? How did the cabin catch fire?”
“Let’s just get out of here first,” I say. “You’re gonna have to drive, I’m afraid.” I hold up my burned hands for her to see.
“Oh, Jesus, Levi,” she gasps. “We have to get you to a doctor.”
“Later,” I urge, limping the last few yards to the truck. Dallas runs ahead to wrench open the crumpled passenger door. I don’t give a shit about the damage. From inside echoes the sweetest sound my ears could ever hear. The wailing cries of our baby from the front seat.
“You’ll have to hold him on your lap. Can you manage?” Dallas asks.
I shake my head, smiling. “Having both arms burned off wouldn’t stop me from holding my son.” A bit morbid, but it’s true.
“Don’t joke about such a thing,” she admonishes, lifting Mason from the seat so I can slide my ass in, then settling him on my lap before returning to the driver’s seat. “Tell me everything,” she says, slamming the door shut.
“Well, he wasn’t too happy when you drove away in his prize,” I say. “But he still wanted the money. He wasn’t about to shoot me until I’d given it to him.”
“Did you even still have it? Where’d you hide it?”
“Behind the stove. I slid the bag out real slow, then just stood there holding it. He said, ‘bring it over here.’ I said, ‘come and get it.’ Then I shoved the whole thing inside the stove.”
“What?” The truck bounces as Dallas swerves to miss a nasty pothole. “Are you crazy? That was nearly two hundred grand. You burned it?”
“It was money that started the whole problem. Seemed fitting it should end it, too.”
“Holy shit. What’d he do?”
“He fucking swore a blue streak. But you’ve never seen anyone so quick to dive into a hot stove. He tried to pull the bag out, spilling burning coals and shit everywhere. Man, I never knew cold hard Benjamins could go up like that. Before I knew it, flames were streaking across the floor, catching on the rug, the curtains, everything. I couldn’t stick around to save it.”
“I’m sorry. Did…did he get away, too?”
I wince at the pain in my hands and look over at Dallas, her pretty blue eyes filled with concern, ticking back and forth between me and the darkening road ahead. Mason squirms and squawks in my arms. I shake my head. “Can’t say for sure. While he was trying to grab the money, he knocked me off-balance. I fell against the stove pipe, and it gave way.” I hold up my hand in explanation. “I got singed. But he got a face full of super-heated smoke and ash. He screamed. Then I ran.”
“So, he could still be alive. He could still be after us.”
“If so, it’ll be awhile. If not, he’s being cremated as we speak.”
Dallas shudders. “That’s horrible. No one deserves an end like that.”
I may be cold-hearted, but I feel no remorse for the man. There’s no chance he’ll still be alive. I saw the flames engulf him as I left. But it’s better if I don’t tell her that part. “I think everyone gets what they deserve. In the end, their actions dictate what they deserve.”
As the words leave my lips, I can’t help but apply them to myself. What do I deserve? I rail against it’s ills, but what actions have I taken to make the world a better place? Hiding out, shirking my responsibilities, living a docile, secretive, but ultimately useless existence out in the wilderness? That helps no one. Least of all my family. They deserve better. Not only Dallas and Mason, but my mother and father too—their memory, their legacy.
I lean down and place a soft kiss on my son’s head. I know what I have to do, what kind of life I need to lead. And it isn’t up in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.
***
“Thanks, Levi. We’ve got the fire unit on its way,” Doug says as I face him across his desk at the Forks Ranger Station. “An early warning is the best defense. From what you say, I can’t promise we can save your cabin.”
“It doesn’t matter. It was old; it went up like a discarded Christmas tree. I’m just sorry it’s going to damage the forest.”
“We’ll do our best to control it. You say the guy who attacked you might still be up there? What do you know about him?”
“Not much. He just showed up, threatening us. Wanted my truck. Looked like he’d been out in the woods for quite awhile. But I have a hunch he was responsible for those dead animals. He was wearing a coyote’s tail on his belt. We struggled, upset the stove. We got the hell out, but…I don’t know about him. Your men should be prepared to find something unpleasant in the wreckage.”
Doug nods and folds his hands together atop the desk. “Understood. You look like shit, though,” he adds. “Our first-aiders are good, but you should see a doctor about those burns.”
I look down at the bandages wrapped around my hands. Doug’s people did a good job; the pain is starting to edge off. “I will.”
Doug glances toward Dallas and Mason, seated out by the front counter of the station office. “Are they alright? I didn’t know you were married or had a kid.”
Not much point in elaborating on the details. A smile creases my face even as my hands still throb a bit. “Like my cabin, it’s a best-kept secret. We’ve been thinking about moving to the city though.”
“Yeah? Huh. Can’t picture you in a suit. What’s a mountain man like you going to do in the city?”
I chuckle aloud. “Well, us mountain men are pretty resourceful. You’d be surprised what you can learn when you have to. Maybe I’ll be a millionaire someday.”
Doug laughs. “Well, best of luck to you,” he says, reaching for a handshake, then dropping it with a sheepish look on his face. “Take care of that family of yours.”
“Thanks.” I rise from my chair and rejoin Dallas in the outer office. She smiles as I enter the room, bouncing the baby on her knee.
“He’s hungry. I think I should take him home to my parents’ place.”
“Seeing as we have no money at the moment, that’s probably a good idea,” I say. “But we’ll go together. I’m not leaving either of you ever again.”
“You ready to face my folks? It’s going to be quite a shock for them.”
“Are you kidding? I’m a self-made mountain man. I can face anything, including your parents and taking back the reins of Strongbow Enterprises. How do you feel about returning to Seattle?”
Dallas’s smile broadens into a beaming crescent of joy. “Well, it’s been awhile, but you’d be surprised what you can learn when you have to.”
“That’s my girl. And this is my boy,” I say, wrapping an arm around both of them. “What do you think of the name Mason Levi Wynter-Strongbow?”
“That’s a handle and a half.”
“That’s okay. The son of a mountain man can handle anything.”
THE END
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