Burn It Down

by Jess Anastasi

  Buck finished up on the phone and came over to join him.

  “Morning,” his boss greeted with a tilt of his head. “I assume you’re not here working on your day off.”

  “Nope,” he replied with a grin. “You know I’d never do that. Just pretend like you never even saw me.”

  Buck shook his head slightly with a long-suffering look. “If they actually paid you for the hours you put in around this place, you’d bankrupt the state.”

  “Yeah, well, I certainly didn’t get into this job for the money or the glory.” He nodded his chin toward the remains of the building. “Heard anything about the state of our offices yet?”

  “Actually, I was just speaking with HQ in Austin about it.”

  “Let me guess, there’s no funding for new buildings at this time.” He really hoped that spiel wasn’t followed by the announcement he and Buck no longer had jobs.

  “Actually, they’re bringing in one of those double-wide trailer offices for the interim. The new station could take a year or more to get through the red tape, but they seem set on rebuilding at this stage.”

  “Wow, I’m actually surprised that decision happened so quickly.” And relieved. He hadn’t been emotionally attached to the building or anything, but he liked working there, helping the hikers and tourists and never knowing what a day was going to bring.

  “We are one of the busiest stations in the park. I’m glad the current Texas Parks and Wildlife Department administration don’t have their heads so far up their asses they weren’t able to see it.”

  He cracked a smile. “Maybe just don’t say that to their faces until after they’ve built our shiny new rangers’ office.”

  “Always the diplomatic one,” Buck grumbled as he adjusted his hat against a gust of hot wind. “I’m heading up to the offices at Coldspring for some supplies. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “No worries, I’ll keep an eye on things while you’re gone.”

  “Hallie is around somewhere as well. Radio her if you need assistance,” Buck replied as he headed for his SUV.

  Troy stood by and waved as the senior ranger drove off along the narrow road. Just as Buck’s SUV disappeared behind the trees, his radio crackled with a complaint about a disturbance at the campground. He let the dispatcher know he was on it and quickly got into his car, checking in with Hallie, who was currently overseeing parking in the main lot, where a lack of spaces had seen people parking on nature reserves and other no-go zones.

  He hated to jump to conclusions, but if this latest disturbance complaint turned out to have anything to do with Benny Sadler, then he was done being patient and tolerant. He was going to tell the man to pack up and move on. The Sadler brothers had already camped in the same spot for longer than two weeks, so he was well within his rights to issue the order.

  When he arrived and first climbed out of his SUV, he didn’t see or hear any obvious disturbance. There weren’t many people around, and the ones who were seemed more intent on keeping cool than making trouble. A radio was playing somewhere nearby, but the tinny sounds of some soft-rock track were broken up by the sudden crash of breaking glass, followed by raucous laughter.

  Troy tracked the next tinkling crash around the shower block and emerged on the far side just in time to see Benny Sadler toss an empty beer bottle against the cinder blocks, shattering it and adding to the pile of shards already littering the ground at the bottom of the wall, as if they’d been at it for a while. Hal was laughing and swaying unsteadily as he turned to a haphazard pile of empty bottles and handed his brother another.

  They were like immature fucking fifteen-year-olds. No, they were worse, because even their fourteen-year-old sons had more sense than they did.

  “Hey!” he yelled out with an angry clip to his voice as Benny went to throw the next bottle.

  Benny stumbled to a stop midswing and dropped the bottle to clunk to the dusty ground at his feet.

  “Well, if it isn’t the high and mighty park ranger,” Benny slurred.

  Shit, it wasn’t even lunch yet and these fools were wasted again. Still going from last night or on a new bender, it was hard to tell.

  “You come to take someone else’s kids away?” Benny demanded, taking an unsteady swoop down to pick up the bottle. “Or is it about our campsite again? Like you can see for yourself, we didn’t leave any empty bottles around today.”

  Benny threw the bottle to smash into the wall, and Troy quickly closed the distance between then before Hal could hand him another one.

  “That’s enough!” He snatched an empty bottle of bourbon from Hal and then shoved him back a step so he wasn’t in reach of the pile any longer. “You two are done here. Pack your shit and get the hell out of my park.”

  “You can’t kick us out! We’ve got rights,” Benny retorted loudly, as if trying to gain an audience from the few people nearby. Some of them were surreptitiously watching, but it was obvious none of them wanted to get involved.

  “Like I told you last week, Mr. Sadler, I’ve got every right. I’m not going to tell you again. By the time I’m done cleaning up this glass, you better be long gone.”

  He didn’t bother waiting for them to reply as he stomped back to his SUV but was relieved when they slunk off toward their tents. Benny Sadler immediately set to work taking down their tents by kicking the shit out of them while Hal swore at him. Troy shook his head and opened his car to get out a garbage bag and pair of gloves to pick up all the shards of broken glass, as well as the few intact bottles still littering the ground. More than ever, he was conscious of not leaving one little sliver of glass behind. With the heat and the way the wind was gusting today, any small fire was sure to get out of control in an instant.

  After he was certain he’d picked up all the glass, he did a thorough lap of the entire campground, checking Benny and Hal hadn’t left any other surprises and that people were adhering to the fire safety restriction in place. When he arrived back at his SUV, the site where Benny and Hal had been camping was empty and there was a piece of paper flapping under the wipers on his windshield.

  He snatched it out, already guessing it was going to be a pissed-off note from Benny Sadler.

  You took whats mine. You crossed the wrong man. Now your going to pay. Your going to burn.

  “Excellent grammar and so fucking original,” he muttered, folding the letter and setting it on the passenger seat of his SUV. No doubt the arson investigators would have a field day with this. He just hoped it had Benny Sadler’s fingerprints all over it so they could finally put the bastard in jail.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  JARED RETURNED from the store with a trunk full of groceries but arrived to some kind of trash apocalypse happening in his drive. He left his car parked on the street and walked over to stand next to Tate, who was watching Del wade furiously through the strewn rubbish.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  Tate winced, while Del rounded on him, holding the takeaway Chinese cartons from last week.

  “Tate is an ass, that’s what!” Del chucked the carton and picked up a handful of scrunched-up paper.

  “Okay, that I already knew.” He held his ground when Tate predictably elbowed him in the side. “But it doesn’t explain why our trash is spread across the drive.”

  Del didn’t answer, muttering a string of swear words.

  “I may have accidentally spilled coffee all over some important letter Del needed and then threw it in the bin,” Tate admitted in a low voice, as if not wanting Del to overhear his confession. He needn’t have bothered; Del’d had Superman-levels of hearing since they were kids.

  “Not some letter!” Del shouted. “The letter. The one for my new taskforce that tells me where and when I’m supposed to report for duty.”

  Jared rolled his eyes at Del’s dramatics as his brother kicked an empty bottle of juice aside and dove on another crumpled paper.

  “Del, you know better than to leave something important where Tate
can destroy it. Didn’t you memorize it or put the details into the calendar on your phone?”

  “Do you think I’d be trash surfing if I had?” Del ripped open another large black plastic garbage bag, spilling out a new cascade of refuse.

  He shook his head, nose wrinkling at the stench. “Just make sure you get Tate to clean this up when you find it.”

  “What?” Tate demanded in a ridiculously high voice. He glared at his youngest brother, who at least had the sense to look sheepish. “I’ll just and go get some new bags to put all this in.”

  “You’re not touching a thing until I find my letter,” Del told him furiously.

  Tate held up both hands in surrender, taking several steps back, as if trying to escape the reaches of Del’s wrath.

  “Where’s Lewis and Aaron?” He would have thought the two of them would be out here watching this spectacle unfold.

  “Went to a friend’s house,” Tate answered. “You know the Morrisons. They live over on Bower Street. James was in my class, but Lewis and Aaron are friends with his younger brother, Eric. I’m going to pick them up in around an hour.”

  “Okay, as long as you know where they are.” It wasn’t like Lewis and Aaron were under house arrest—there was no reason the pair couldn’t go to a friend’s house. Except with the arson investigation still in the air and the detectives yet to identify the culprit, he didn’t like the idea of Lewis and Aaron being off somewhere without them. Unless he wanted the kids to think he was an overprotective asshole, however, he needed to just let them be and trust Tate would go pick them up in an hour like he’d said.

  Jared went to his car and opened the trunk, doing a few trips back and forth until all the groceries were inside. He put all the cold and frozen items away, but anything that needed to go in the cupboard, he left on the counter to deal with later, wanting to see if Del had managed to find the letter while he’d been busy.

  As he stepped outside, however, a plume of dark smoke on the horizon caught his attention. His stomach bottomed out. Of all days for a fire to catch, today was the worst in recent weeks. Not only was it hot and dry from months of little rain, but there was a strong, hot wind gusting from the south. It’d drive any fire out of control with little effort.

  “Should we be worried?”

  Jared glanced over as Del stepped up onto the front porch next to him, flicking apple peel off a crumpled, stained piece of paper with the Texas Rangers emblem on the letterhead.

  “I’ll check in with the fire chief and see what details they’ve got. But maybe pack the important stuff in your car and be ready to move. And make sure Tate picks up Lewis and Aaron no later than the hour he said.”

  He didn’t want to freak anyone out, but with the direction the wind was blowing and the approximate location of the smoke, if whatever had caused that fire got out of control, the entire town of Everness could be at risk.

  Jared glanced over at where Tate was picking up the garbage and grumbling to himself. It was kinda funny, but his youngest brother deserved the punishment of cleaning up all that trash by himself after trashing Del’s letter.

  He took his cell phone out of his pocket, fingers hovering over the screen as he assessed the smoke again. Truthfully, it looked like the fire might be in the direction of the Sam Houston National Forest, and he was debating whether to call Troy instead of his fire chief. Shaking his head at himself, he dialed the chief. Troy might not even be at the park any longer. Today was meant to be his day off. Even though he said he was going out to talk with Buck that morning, it’d been hours ago. There was every chance Troy was at home enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon.

  The line rang for long moments without the chief picking up, and Jared was about to hang up when his boss finally answered.

  “Winters, what can I do for you?” From the background noise and muted sirens, it sounded like the chief was in his EFD SUV, probably following the engines.

  “Just need to know if you want me on standby, Chief. What’s the situation?”

  “We’ve got three rigs heading out to the Sam Houston National Forest. Reports seemed to indicate a fire was deliberately lit at the main campground. We’ve got several park rangers coordinating evacuations—the damned park is full of visitors today.”

  Jared swallowed down the impulse to ask if Troy was one of the park rangers helping with the evacuation.

  “We’ve got support coming in from a few other nearby towns,” the chief continued. “I don’t have to tell you, this could be the big one we’ve been fearing. We need to get the blaze under control as soon as possible. Head to the station and call in the reserves. It’s going to be a long day and probably an even longer night.”

  “Yes, sir,” he replied, taking a few more details before ending the call.

  “You need to go in to the fire station?” Del asked from where he’d been silently leaning against the porch railing.

  “Yeah. Will you be okay here? If things go bad, I’ll let you know you need to evacuate before they make an official announcement.”

  “Don’t worry about us.” Del gripped his shoulder, a shadow of worry in his gaze. “Just concentrate on doing your job and coming home safe.”

  “Is that a wildfire?” Tate asked as he joined them, all the garbage now back in the trash can where it belonged.

  “No, not yet. Apparently a fire started at the campground in the park, but the EFD are on their way. Hopefully they’ll get it under control quickly and we’ll have nothing to worry about.”

  “Lewis and Aaron’s dads are still staying at the campground, aren’t they?” Tate asked, sounding more concerned than Jared would have expected. Obviously Tate had become as quickly attached to the two boys as he and Troy had.

  “The park rangers are coordinating an evacuation,” he replied nonchalantly. He had far more things to worry about this afternoon than Lewis and Aaron’s deadbeat fathers. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

  Assuming they were sober and obeyed the evacuation instructions. Sometimes people dug in and refused to leave against all logic and orders from emergency services.

  “Is Troy helping with the evacuation?” Tate asked, switching tracks but seeming just as worried, if not more so.

  “Truthfully, I don’t know.” And he was going to have to do something about that. He wouldn’t be able to concentrate on his job properly today if he didn’t know what was happening with Troy. “But even if he is, Troy is trained for this sort of thing, just like I am. We’ll all be fine, but I do have to go in to the fire station. Stay here with Del and make sure you go along with whatever he decides to do, understand? If the fire comes toward the town, you might have to leave in a hurry.”

  Tate nodded quickly, suddenly looking more serious and grown up than Jared could ever remember seeing him.

  His phone started ringing in his hand before Tate could reply, and he glanced at it, relief running through him when he saw Troy’s name on the screen.

  “It’s Troy. I need to get going anyway. Head inside and pack a bag each, okay?”

  Del sent him a reassuring nod as Jared turned away and answered the call.

  “Troy, please tell me you’re at home.” He didn’t bother trying to hide the concern in his voice.

  “I’m at the campground,” Troy answered, the line crackling and background noise muffling his voice.

  Jared took a breath, jamming the immediate apprehension down and locking it away. Like he’d told Tate, Troy was trained in emergencies, they both had jobs to do, and worrying about his boyfriend wasn’t going to help anything right now. Besides, if this fire got big enough, he’d be putting himself in exactly the same position in the coming hours.

  “How’s it looking?” he asked instead of the other dozen things he wanted to say, chasing each other around his mind.

  “Not good. The fire’s taken hold along the northern edge of the campground. A few RVs have gone up, but I have no idea whether we managed to evacuate everyone.”

  He swore under
his breath as he quickly got into his car. “I’m on my way to the station now. I spoke to the fire chief. He said there were reports it’d been deliberately lit.”

  “Yeah, I spoke to the older couple who first reported it. I was down at the gates, turning people away because the main parking lot at the lake was already full. They saw the fire start behind one of the picnic shelters and then saw someone running off but didn’t get a good look at them because of the smoke.”

  “So, no clue who it might have been?” If only the couple could have given a description. This time the arsonist had lit a fire that’d already destroyed people’s property. It could burn through a huge area of the park and straight down on Everness if they couldn’t get it under control. Lives were at risk.

  Troy gave a sharp laugh. “Yeah, I got a clue. I told the Sadler brothers to pack up and leave the park this morning. Did a round of the campground, and when I got back, there was a note under my wipers. Typical threats, but I should have gone straight to the arson investigators since it specifically mentioned burning. Instead I got caught up helping Hallie. I didn’t think—”

  “Hey,” he interrupted before Troy could take that thought any further. “This is not your fault, got it? You’re not responsible for some drunk, bitter asshole who thinks lighting fires is a good way to solve his problems.”

  Troy started to say something, but the line crackled again, making it cut out for a second.

  “—just arrived,” Troy was saying. There were sirens in the background, so he was likely talking about the fire engines. “I have to get back to helping with the evacuation. I’ll call you when I’m leaving.”

  “And I’ll text you if they call me out to the fire,” he replied, feeling like he had a hard lump in his chest.

  “If you end up out here, stay safe. Okay, Jared? Fuck knows what I’d do if anything happened to you.” Those words came through the line loud and clear, leaving Jared’s heart skipping.

  “Same goes for you. Be careful and leave as soon as you can.” His voice had become thick, and he swallowed around the tightness in the back of his throat.