“Do it now!” I shouted as I scrambled to my feet.
Smoke infiltrated the big room, so much that it was becoming difficult to see, the fire growing with each second.
But I could see Ethan.
A demon in the fire. His gun pointed at Hadley. His voice was low and cut with venomous power. “Do not move.”
She laughed a maniacal sound. “I’ve been terrified of you since I was nineteen. Since you wrangled me and Jaimie into doing your dirty work. I loved him. Ilovedhim. And you made him do every abhorrent thing while you sat behind your desk acting as if you were clean. Acting as if there was no connection. No relation. I lostmysister because of you. Because I knew you would kill me too if you found me. Do you really think I’m going to bend to your will? Not any longer.”
A gunshot popped off, and I watched in horror as my sister crumpled to the ground. Ethan’s arm was still raised with his gun as he stepped out of the smoke that grew and grew, away from the flames that now swallowed the entire back wall.
A choked sob garbled in my throat as I looked at my sister. My sister, who I had finally been reunited with.
And she was…gone. Gone forever where she was a lifeless, broken shape on the ground.
Agony left me on a roar, the sound mixed with the rage as I forced myself onto my feet.
My lungs burned and my eyes stung. But it was my spirit that wanted to weep.
Sounds echoed from the roof, and Ethan turned his attention that way, fear creeping over him as he realized his plan might have been faulty.
That he might have damned us all.
But I refused to let him.
With him distracted, I hurtled myself in the direction of the front door, frantic as I started to undo the locks.
Hysteria lit inside me, the blood whooshing through my veins just as loud as the flames.
I made it down to the second one when a fiery dart of pain sliced through my shoulder.
Agony filled my scream, and I bowed forward, trying to remain on my feet so I could get to the rest of the locks. Only it was futile.
Ethan was there, shoving me off my feet.
I could feel him rise over me.
A vapid, horrendous silhouette that towered.
The heat of the barrel of the gun directed at me when I tried to push myself back across the floor.
Grief sat on my chest like ten million tons of bricks. The fact that I’d done this. That I’d come to this place and invited evil in. Trapped these amazing women within the walls of Ethan’s hatred.
Their families. Oh God, those men. I couldn’t fathom what they would go through.
The suffering they would be stricken by.
I squeezed my eyes closed as I prepared to meet that same fate.
I allowed my children’s precious faces to invade.
Their smiles and their joy and their love.
I committed it all to Cash.
Prayed through everything he would find a way to stand.
A cry of terror ripped out of me when a crash suddenly boomed from somewhere near the kitchen.
