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Back Lost Hills Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. Contents
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
  49. About the Author

“I’ve got you,” Eve said. “I’m not going to let you go.”

She didn’t know if she was trying to reassure Caitlin or herself but they could both use it.

Eve trudged forward through the brush, moving as fast as she could without tripping, hearing the crackling and feeling the heat on her back of the firestorm closing in. Blood from her scalp rolled into her eyes, stinging and blinding her, but she kept on. Her right wrist felt like it might snap off and that the only thing holding it together against the child’s weight and the sheer agony was Eve’s unbending will.

There’s no fucking way I’m dropping this child.

There’s no fucking way I’m letting that fire catch us.

She stumbled on a gopher hole, staggered to maintain her balance, and couldn’t help crying out with pain when Caitlin’s full weight momentarily shifted to her broken wrist. Eve wasn’t sure whether it was tears or streams of blood that were running down her cheeks. It may have been both.

But then she heard the whap-whap-whap of a helicopter approaching. She stopped to look over her shoulder. A water-dropping helicopter came up behind them and doused the leading edge of the flames, buying Eve and Caitlin some time.

The helicopter banked away and a moment later a larger Los Angeles County Fire Department rescue chopper appeared overhead, its rotors whipping up the air all around them as it descended into the field a few yards ahead of her.

Two firefighters immediately leaped out of the open side door and rushed up to Eve. One firefighter took Caitlin from her and the other clutched Eve by her left forearm and led her quickly to the chopper. They climbed on board, where two emergency medical technicians waiting inside laid Caitlin on a gurney.

A firefighter buckled Eve into her seat. She braced her limp right arm with her left hand, hoping to ease the pain caused by each movement of her body or the aircraft.

The chopper rose up and banked over the abandoned house, which was fully engulfed in flames, then high over Malibu Creek State Park, much of it a sea of fire, then headed north toward West Hills Hospital, the nearest emergency medical facility.

Eve looked over at the EMTs, one of whom leaned over Caitlin, cutting away the duct tape that bound her while the other prepared an IV.

A firefighter gently wiped the blood and dirt from around her eyes with moist pieces of cotton and yelled, so Eve would hear him over the rotors: “You’re crazy, you know that?”

She glanced down at Caitlin and decided that maybe being crazy was necessary now and then.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE