Page 10 of Outlaw Ridge: Griff
It was a strange thing, watching people try to save what was already gone.
Smoke coiled upward into the night, thick and oily. The air smelled like scorched wood and plastic and something worse. Something acrid and personal. Lily blinked against the sting, her eyes raw, her heart still locked behind the numbness in her chest.
A few minutes later, Griff jogged back to the truck and climbed in, brushing a bit of ash from his sleeve.
“They need to shut down the road,” he said, “and to keep the fire from spreading. I’ve got to move us out of the way.”
She nodded again, wordless.
Griff put the truck in gear and eased them back onto the main road, pulling into a small clearing just past the bend. Behind them, the engine hissed as water blasted toward the flames, drowning what little remained of the home she’d tried to build. As the fire hissed and cracked and finally began to dim, Lily felt something inside her harden.
Someone had taken everything. And she wasn’t going to let them walk away with it.
Griff didn’t ask if she wanted to go anywhere else. He just drove, one hand on the wheel, eyes steady on the dark road ahead. Lily didn’t argue. She barely had the mental energy just to keep breathing.
The fire was behind them now, but she could still smell it on her clothes, in her hair. A sour, clinging reminder of everything she’d lost.
They turned off the main road a few minutes later, the truck bumping onto a long dirt drive flanked by open pasture and stretches of cedar. The wind had picked up, and the branches swayed in rhythm with the tires crunching over gravel.
Griff’s place came into view around a low bend in the road. It was an old ranch house, wide and square, with a wraparound porch and a few rusted remnants of fencing still standing where a corral must’ve been years ago. A barn sat farther back, the roof clean and recently reinforced. The porch light was on, warm against the cold dark.
He slowed to a stop in front of the house.
“This used to be a working ranch,” he said, shifting into park. “One of the places that Owen had renovated when we brought in temporary deputies. Figured it’d help with housing, give us a foothold while things got rebuilt. I ended up buying it. I decided I could keep it as a home base when I go back to Strike Force.”
Lily glanced out the window, eyes tracking the shape of the barn in the dark. The place was simple, solid. Clean lines, no frills. Like Griff.
She realized after a second that he was still talking, not to fill the silence but to give her something to hold on to. To steady her. To keep her from falling apart.
Lily didn’t tell him it was working.
She just opened the door and stepped out, the night air cold against her skin, the scent of fire still clinging to her.
The porch creaked under their boots as they stepped up, the wood solid beneath her feet. Griff pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. The door lock clicked a second later.
Of course he had an app for that.
He pushed the door open and held it for her. Inside, the house was warm and quiet. The kind of space meant to stay that way. No clutter, no noise. Just clean walls, polished wood floors, and a faint scent of coffee and cedar.
Lily stepped inside and glanced around. The furniture was sturdy, nothing flashy. Everything had a purpose. Griff closed the door behind them and keyed in a code at the panel near the entry. Another layer of security, she figured.
“When are you heading back to Strike Force?” she asked, her voice steady even though her chest still felt hollow.
“Not sure yet,” he said. “Hallie wants to keep me around a little longer. Says I’ve got a skill set she doesn’t want to lose.”
“Skill set,” Lily repeated, giving him a sideways look. “You mean all that computer stuff you do when you think nobody’s watching?”
Griff made a quiet sound that might’ve been a laugh, or maybe just agreement. But he didn’t expand. Typical.
She didn’t push. Whatever he did for Strike Force, it went beyond typing fast and looking calm under pressure. She’d seen the way he worked, methodical, calculated. The kind of guy who could take a system apart without touching a wire. Still, he’d stepped into Outlaw Ridge and made himself useful without ever making himself the center of anything.
Now here she was, standing in his house with everything she owned smoldering in a pile of ash. She didn’t know what came next. But at least she wasn’t standing there alone.
“Want something to eat?” he asked.
“No, I’m good,” Lily said. “But I wouldn’t mind some water.” Maybe that would get the taste of the smoke and stench out of her throat.
He nodded and headed into the kitchen anyway. The house had an open layout, so she stayed where she was, arms crossed,watching him move through the space with the same quiet efficiency he brought to everything else.
