An Excerpt from Haven Hill, now available on Amazon
Here’s where the story left off last time.
The sound came like a sharp crack—one distinct shatter in the quiet of their anticipation.
Kate spun toward the hallway, Glock already half-raised.
Glass.
Not close.
Not the kitchen.
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Ariel’s room.
Her first thought was immediate and feral:
He’s inside.
Ariel gasped behind her. Collins sucked a wet breath through his teeth.
“Ariel, you stay and take care of Evan.” Kate didn’t look behind her to see if Ariel had obeyed.
She moved toward the hall instinctively—two steps—muscles coiled, breath tight—and then she froze.
Because something else followed the silence.
A soft hiss.
A faint pop.
An unfamiliar crackling sound.
She tilted her head, trying to make out what Logan was doing.
Then she saw it: a curl of gray drifting out from the bottom of the closed bedroom door. It came and went, cautiously, insidiously, like the tongue of a serpent testing the air outside the bedroom.
It took several seconds—too many—for her brain to compute what her eyes already knew.
Kate stared at the thin smoky ribbon rolling across the floorboards, slow as spilled ink spreading on paper.
No footsteps.
No breathing.
No creaking floorboards from an intruder.
Just… smoke.
Growing thicker by the second. Making her throat ache. Causing her face to feel hot, almost blistered.
Her heart plummeted.
“No,” she breathed, half anguished cry, half prayer. “Oh, God—no.”
A louder crack came from inside the bedroom. A whoosh. A bright lick of orange light snapped under the doorframe like some hellish animal trying to escape—feral, hungry.
That lunatic had actually set her cabin on fire.
Ariel’s voice wavered from behind her, in the doorway of the kitchen, small and breaking. “Mom… that’s my room. What—”
Kate didn’t let her finish.
She whipped around and grabbed Ariel’s shoulder, shoving her gently but urgently back toward the kitchen. “Get back. Stay with Evan. Keep the door covered. Do not move.”
The bedroom door rattled once—then audibly warped, the wood heating and bending as flames crawled along its far side.
Heat spread through the hallway like a rising exhale.
Their sanctuary—their haven—the place that had sheltered them after their lives blew up—was burning from the inside out.
Smoke thickened by the second, rolling through the hallway in dirty gray waves. The acrid bite clawed at Kate’s throat; she swallowed hard and kept moving. The bedroom door groaned, bowing outward as heat chewed at its hinges.
He wasn’t coming in. He was forcing them to come out.
Kate didn’t waste another heartbeat.
She ran back to Collins and Ariel. “We have to get out. Now.”
Ariel’s eyes were wide, watery, but sharp. “Tell me what to do.”
“Back door,” Kate said.
Quickly, Ariel shoved the vintage Hoosier cabinet out of its place as a barricade.
“Good. On my count.” Kate squatted down level with the deputy. He was stubbornly remaining conscious despite the brutal pain he must be in. “We have to get out of here and it’s going to suck,” she told him kindly.
Collins replied roughly, “No, you two should leave me here and run up into the woods.” He glanced compellingly at Ariel.
“Do you think I dragged your heavy butt up those stairs and did my best doctoring to date so I could leave you here?” Kate demanded. Her voice brooked no disobedience when she bellowed, “Get up, Deputy!”
He nodded, his own eyes watering. She holstered her Glock just long enough to slip Collins’s arm over her shoulder while Ariel ducked under his other side. The deputy grunted, teeth clenched, but his legs twitched—enough that he could give them some help.
“Buddy,” Kate told him, voice firm but warm, “I need you to take as much of your own weight as you can. Just a little. Help us get you standing. We’ll do the rest.”
“I’ll… try,” he rasped.
“Good man.”
They hauled him upright—Kate under his left arm, Ariel under his right—a perfect two-person assist. Collins sagged between them, but the slight pressure of his boots on the floor made the lift doable.
His breath wheezed wetly with every step.
“Stay with us, Evan,” Kate ordered, voice threaded with steel.
Smoke pushed harder into the kitchen, chasing them from behind. Ariel coughed as they staggered toward the back door.
The hallway lights flickered. A beam cracked above them. Something in the burning bedroom collapsed with a roar.
“Mom!” Ariel cried.
“I know, baby. Keep moving.”
They reached the back door—and Kate’s stomach dropped.
The wood frame had swollen from the heat.
The door was stuck.
“No, no, no—” Kate grabbed the knob and yanked hard. It didn’t budge.
Behind them, flames snapped louder, laughing at their plight.
Kate let go of Collins for half a second—just long enough to draw her Glock—and slammed the butt of it into the doorframe, splintering soft pine. She kicked near the latch. Once. Twice.
On the third kick, the swollen seal finally cracked. She whispered quick words of thanks toward the sky above the forest.
Cold fog rushed in like mercy.
“Go!” Kate ordered.
They maneuvered Collins through the doorway, his boots dragging over the threshold. The burst of cold air hit his lungs, making him gasp, but he stayed conscious.
Outside, the world was a different kind of dark—open, fog-drenched, eerily quiet except for the low roar of the fire behind them.
Kate and Ariel half-carried, half-walked him across the damp grass, away from the smoke belching from the back windows.
“There,” Kate breathed hard. Her words were punctuated by a hacking cough. “We’re going to the woodpile. Just a few more steps, Deputy.”
The stacked cords of oak and hickory stood shoulder-high against the shadowed north wall of the cabin, untouched by the flames. A chopping stump sat nearby, slick with dew. It blocked the line of sight to the front of the house.
Perfect cover.
They got Collins behind the woodpile and lowered him gently until his back rested against the logs. He slumped, exhausted, trembling, but alive.
Ariel crouched beside him, one hand still on his shoulder. “You okay?”
He managed a nod and attempted a smile. “Better… out here.”
Kate leaned in close, cupping Ariel’s cheek. “Stay right here with him. You’ve got the gun. Now, if Logan comes near you, you shoot until he stops moving. Understand?”
Ariel nodded, tears threatening. “Mom… be careful.”
“I will.”
A beat.
“I promise.”
Kate rose, turning toward the front yard. Smoke rose behind her in thick tendrils; the glow from Ariel’s burning bedroom painted the fog in hellish orange. Ember flakes drifted past her like dying fireflies.
She could see the porch rail through the smoke.
She could feel Logan out there.
Waiting.
This was it.
Kate exhaled once—slow, steady—and moved toward the front of the house.
She had chosen her battlefield.
And she was ready.
About Daisy
She is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.
