Again and again, while my brothers worked with the same fervency.
River and Otto with crowbars, the teeth of the saw Theo held eating into the surface, Kane and I pounding holes through each layer.
Splintering the wood below.
Sweat lifted on my flesh, a river of it pouring from my face and down my chest and back.
The shouts of Silas’s men rose from below. The hoses turned to high as they tried to battle back the flames that continued to grow.
“We have to hurry,” I rasped through the clawing in my lungs.
Our muscles burned as we fought to get to the women we could feel inside.
Howls of hopelessness. Wails of belief.
We finally busted a hole into the attic.
“Fuck, yes,” Otto rumbled, and he tore harder, jumping down and ramming the sharp end of the crowbar into the sheetrockthat made the ceiling. The surface bowed, and I grunted, “Let me get it.”
Otto climbed out, and I took his place. It was a tight fit, my body rubbing against the frayed edges of the opening.
I took the sledgehammer handle by both hands and raised it directly upright in front of me and slammed it down.
It fractured, crumbling below me. Dust and smoke swallowed me as I fell through.
A hard grunt left me as my back slammed into the edge of the island before I toppled to the floor to the sounds of shouts and screams and the roaring of flames.
But I was in, and I wasn’t going to stop until they all were safe.
FIFTY-FOUR
DAISY
I watchedin horror as the tiny flicker at the base of the curtain smoldered as the fabric seemed to slowly melt.
Ethan watched it, too, his back to me, as if it were the single thing that ushered in the vengeance he’d come for, my mind still grappling with the few details I had. Trying to discern what had driven this disaster.
Ethan and my sister working together?
My sister who for years I’d assumed dead, though months ago, she’d reached out.
The bare spark seemed to smolder for an eternity, our breaths held, terror palpable as my sisters whimpered, their spirits shouting with their ferocity, no doubt each of them trying to figure out a way to get us out of this.
The toxic scent of scorched chemicals touched my nose as the small flame that ate up the curtain suddenly lashed over the wood frame of the window. Flames licking out. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the entire wall erupted.
Soon the entire house.
I had to move.
I hesitated for one beat, unsure of my strength, of my resilience, if I was brave enough. And I knew it was time I stepped beyond the silence.
I would no longer cower or cave. I wouldn’t let anything happen to Cash or my children, and I was going to give it my all to fight for these women who had become my family.
Desperation shuddering through my veins, I picked up a chair and lifted it over my head, a shout of abomination and hope ripping out of me as I ran across the floor in Ethan’s direction.
I didn’t care that Hadley still held a gun across the room. If she’d come to end me? Then so be it. This was the only chance I had.
Ethan started to whirl around at the same moment the chair made contact with the side of his head. Wood smashed against his skull, and the wood splintered with the impact.
