Southern Secrets by Natasha Madison
Chapter 2
Amelia
I lookup into the sky and see the black smoke. "Oh my God." I put my hand to my mouth for a minute, turning around in a circle. Or maybe it’s the earth spinning.
The sound of yelling snaps me out of my daydream or nightmare, making me look toward the driveway. The men run to their trucks, the sound of rocks hitting metal as one truck peels out.
"I want someone at each barn." My grandfather walks past me, talking to one of the ranch hands. "I want someone making sure all the horses are okay," he says.
"Grandpa,” I call for him, and he turns around, the worry clear on his face.
"We can take the horses," I say, and he shakes his head.
"Don’t you put any ideas in any of your heads. You do not leave this farm." He points at me, his voice stern like it was when we were younger, and he knew we were going to get into trouble. "And I mean it, Amelia." He turns to walk away.
I wait until he’s far enough away before I turn around and look at Chelsea. If anyone is going to come with me, it would have to be Chelsea. We’ve been stuck at the hip growing up, and if there was trouble, we found it.
"Let’s go," Chelsea says, huffing out, and Willow and Emily both look at her. "You know that us staying here is going to be hell." She looks back at me, and I just nod. "So I’m going. Who is coming with me?"
"Me," I say without missing a beat, and then look back at Emily, who nods at us.
"I have to make sure the kids are alright," Emily says, walking over to my mother and handing her my niece.
My mother looks at my niece and then looks up at me. She shakes her head but then mouths to me, "Be careful."
I nod my head and look back at Willow, who is tapping her index finger on her pants. "He’s not going to like this," she says of Quinn. "He especially said don’t move from here." She looks up at the smoke filling the sky, and this time, it looks thicker than it did before.
I look over at the barn and see them starting to bring out the horses. They take off in every single direction. Some with two riders and some with three but none alone. I see my grandfather race off also.
I turn back to see people packing up the food. Knowing my grandmother, she'll make dinners for everyone and have someone run it over to the men.
Emily runs back to us as we look up again and see the smoke getting thicker and thicker. "Let’s go," I say, and we run to Chelsea’s car.
I get into the front seat and look back to see the tears rolling down Willow’s face. "Is it the barn?" She wipes away the tears, and Emily reaches over and hugs her. "The horses." Willow has been in town for a couple of months, and she’s had a rough start after being left for dead. She started working at one of the rehab barns that Quinn owns and is very close to one of the horses.
"Hope is fine," I say, and the look of relief falls all over her. "It’s the supply barn." I take one more look at Emily and then turn to look out the window.
"Wait, isn’t that …?" she says, and I just nod my head and don't say the words everyone is thinking. Our childhood barn. The barn we grew up at. The barn where all the kids took their first riding lesson. That barn was our second home. If we were having a bad day, chances are we would be at the barn, and within an hour, it would be okay. I wipe the tear from the corner of my eye as I send up a silent prayer that everyone is safe.
None of us says anything while we travel toward the barn. Chelsea drives faster than she should to get us there. I look toward the blue sky and hope that the black smoke will stop, but it doesn’t stop. "What are the chances?" I say and look over at Chelsea. "That."
"Whatever it is," Chelsea says softly. "As long as no one is hurt, we can rebuild." Everyone is stuck in their own thoughts, so I focus on the black smoke in the sky.
We see the trucks all parked along the road, so Chelsea pulls over to the side of the road. We get out of the truck and hear the men yelling through the trees. We walk down the driveway filled with cars. We start feeling the heat, but we can’t see the barn yet with the trees surrounding us. But as soon as we get close enough, we see the barn, and all four of us halt with a gasp. My feet stick like glue to the grass as I look on in horror.
The red barn is engulfed in flames. The two windows on the top floor are busted out, and orange and yellow flames escape from the holes. The red paint looks like it’s melting off the wood. A fire truck is on each side of the barn with the stainless-steel ladders extended, and two firemen aim their hoses at the top of the roof to douse the flames. I see other firemen on the side at a safe distance as they extinguish the flames lower down. I hear yelling all around them as they work overtime to save what they can.
We make our way over to where the men stand. Willow goes to stand beside Quinn, her hand going into his. You can see the tears in his eyes as he pulls her close to him. Chelsea walks to Mayson, and he puts an arm around her shoulder, pulling her to him. Ethan looks around and spots Emily right away, shaking his head but holding out his hand. I walk to stand beside Asher, who stands beside my father. My father looks over, and we share a look as we both look back at the barn.
The sound of yelling echoes as I feel like I’m watching the scene from out of my body. My eyes fixate on the red and yellow of the flames.
The crackling sound is so loud it makes me come out of my daze. And it all happens in slow motion as we hear more crackling sounds. I look at the firemen yelling something, and then watch as the top of the roof falls to one side, and then the middle collapses in front of our eyes. The heat of the fire rushes to us, and we have to put our hands up to shield our faces.
"Oh my God." I hear from beside me and look back at Asher, who watches the barn go up in flames.
I put my hand on his arm, but his eyes just stare straight ahead. Nothing I can say to him right now will make things better. My hand falls from his arm as I stare ahead at the barn, where I had my first kiss.
The orange flames work their way through the four walls. One of the firemen comes over to us, walking straight up to my father. "You need to step back." He puts his hand on his helmet as he listens to the scramble from his walkie-talkie. "The whole thing is going to go." He looks over at my father. "Jacob, we need you to secure the perimeter. No one in or out."
"Already on it. My guys have been called and have started closing down the roads," my father says, turning to look at us. "Guys, I need you to move away."
He comes to stand in front of me, and I don’t notice the tears running down my face. "It’s going to be okay, honey," he says and wraps his arms around me. "Everyone is safe."
"I know," I say in a whisper, and I move out of his arms because I know he has work to do.
"You going to be okay?" he asks, and I nod. He doesn’t have time to make sure I’m okay. "Ethan," he calls out to my brother. "I’m going to need help."
Ethan kisses Emily’s head and walks toward my dad. "We need to get some tape up all around."
"I can help," Asher says from beside me, and we both look at him.
"Asher," my father says softly. "Are you sure?" He looks over at the barn. "You just lost …"
"Yeah," he says, putting his hands on his hips and letting out a deep breath. "I just lost everything. Not the first time either." He looks over to the barn, his eyes squinting. "With my luck, it probably won’t be the last." He bends his head and walks away toward my father's truck, where Ethan is grabbing the yellow tape.
"I can’t even imagine," I say softly and look over at my father. "What can I do to help?"
"Honestly," my father says, looking around. "The only thing we can do is stay out of the way."
He bends to kiss my cheek before walking away.
I watch as he walks over to the men hovering around his truck. I see my father pointing in different directions and giving orders. My eyes fall on Asher, his shoulders slumped as he listens to my father. I want to rush over to him and tell him it’s going to be okay. I want to hug him and tell him I’m here for him. When he came onto the scene six months ago, I thought he was the sexiest man I’d ever seen. Then we started working side by side, and I found out that he had the best intentions. He would give you the shirt off his back if it would help you. Every single day, I lusted after him more and more, but I knew it would go nowhere. It didn’t stop us from flirting with each other, but in the end, neither of us would be willing to take that step.
The sound of cracking has everyone looking back over to see one side of the barn start to teeter and then slowly crumble to the ground. The heat comes toward us right away, and I put my hand toward my face. It happens in slow motion, and I don’t even know I’m holding my breath. The remaining walls sway side to side as if they're balancing on the edge, and in a blink of an eye, the rest of the barn comes crashing down.
I put my hand in front of my mouth to muffle my scream. I feel heat beside me and look to see Chelsea there, her arm going around my shoulder. "It’s gone," I say, wiping away a tear rolling down my cheek. No matter how many I wipe away, there are more to follow. “It’s all gone.”
"We’ll get it back," she says softly, and then I feel someone put their hand in mine and look over to see Willow.
Her own tears are on her face. "It’s going to be okay," she says. "It’s going to be okay."
I just nod my head as we watch the firemen work at putting out the fire. "We should go," Emily says. "Get out of the way."
I nod and then turn to walk away. I take a couple of steps, then turn back to take one more look at it. With the back of my palm, I wipe away the tears that continue to fall, no matter how many times I wipe them away. "It’ll be okay," Willow says from beside me.
We walk like snails back to the car, all of us looking down and lost in our own thoughts. We see police tape at the front of the lane, and when I look to the side, I see Asher and Ethan wrapping the same tape around a couple of trees. Willow and Emily get into the back seat of the car as I pull open my door, but I stop, looking across the street. Though there are rows and rows of blooming trees, all I can see is black smoke, but for some reason, I feel eyes on me.
"What is it?" Chelsea gets back out of the car and looks at me, her eyes turning to see what I’m looking at.
"Nothing," I say, shaking my head and getting in the car. I close the door and fasten my seat belt. "I guess I’m just feeling out of it," I say, and my eyes try to look into the dark forest, but all I can see is darkness.
