Page 62 of Burning Escape

“Hey, that’s my cousin you’re talking about.” One of the men behind Orion stepped up.

“So you wanna be responsible for his fiasco?” Frank asked him.

The man backed down.

“We need to get inside,” Mara said, a worried expression on her face as she looked over the top of the chapel at the flames coming closer.

“I’m not going anywhere until you release my men.” Frank practically snarled.

“Release our man and we’ll seek shelter together. We don’t want any trouble.” Amos faced the militiaman. “We have enough room in the basement of the chapel until the fire passes us by.”

But Tori.

For a moment, the men faced each other in a silent stare down.

“You’re just going to let us walk on out of here when this is done? I don’t believe you,” Frank said.

Amos didn’t back down. “I’m a man of my word. I don’t want to see anyone harmed. If you agree to leave us in peace.”

“Fine, but let us go. We’ll find our own way out of this fire.”

“What about Tori?” Orion yanked his wrists, the thin cable cutting into his skin. But with the woman he loved missing, he didn’t much care.

Amos nodded at his men, and they released the militia, who immediately ran for the ATVs.

Orion ran after the one related to Damian. “Where is Tori? Did your cousin?—”

“If she’s the blonde trainer from the gym, there’s no telling what Damian has done. But I’m not waiting around to find out. He’s on his own.” He swung a leg over behind Vlad on the seat of the four-wheeler, and they peeled out of the commune.

A strong hand on his shoulder stopped Orion from sprinting after them. They disappeared into the smoke.

“Hold on, son.” Amos released the locking mechanism on the snare, freeing Orion’s wrists.

“I have to find her.” His eyes were already watering from the smoke in the air.

“We’ll go with you,” Abraham said. John, Mara’s brother, stood next to him.

“I can’t have you risk your lives?—”

“You don’t have to do this alone, Orion. We can cover more ground together.” Amos looked past Orion and over the chapel roof. “Look, the fire is moving south. That’s because, together, we worked on that fire line the way you taught us. One man could not have done it. God brought you here for a reason. To help us. And also for us to help you get your wife back.”

Orion followed the outline of flames. The line was holding.

And the truth of Amos’s words pinched in uncomfortable ways. But he was right. Except for one thing.

“She’s not my wife.” In that moment, the truth of the matter crystallized. “I’m hopelessly in love with her, but…we’re not actually married.”

But he wanted to explore that possibility in the future. She was fire and light. Passion and adventure.

Life before moving here had been full, but looking back, it seemed dull and stale. She brought a joy he wanted to discover for himself. He needed to find her. Now.

Amos studied him a beat, his eyes narrowed. “She still needs saving, and you still need our help.”

But what had Amos said earlier?Cover more ground.

Right. Orion needed to dial down the pride and realize theywerebetter off working together.

And his team was bigger than the four of them standing here in the middle of the Refuge.

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