My hand froze on the doorknob; then I turned toward the woods. The smoke was thinning out but not gone.
At the far edge of the clearing, just visible through the last veil of haze, there was movement. Two shadows. Two targets. Twochances.
“I’m going out. Cover me,” I said, mind already made up, taking the steps off the deck at a run.
“Alex, dammit, stand down,” Ryder snapped over the radio. “Do you hear me? Do not risk—”
“I have to.” For her. For Chase. For the one thing I hadn’t let myself admit that I wanted: something that looked a hell of a lot like a future. “I’ve got this.” I dropped my voice to a hush, blending in with the breeze and dying smoke. “I’ll vanish. They won’t see me coming.”
The Houdini in the field.That’s what they used to call me downrange while in the army.
“Alex,” Ryder hissed. “So help me, brother, you better make your ass reappear—and damn soon, or I’m coming out there to find you.”
Chapter Fourteen
Audrey
“It’s going to be okay.” I tried to keep my teeth from chattering as I made the promise to my son. If I let him see how scared I was, then we’d both fall apart.
Chase trembled in my arms, his face pressed tightly to my chest, as I rocked him back and forth without pause, like maybe the rhythm could trick us both into believing we were safe. That this was normal. That this wasn’t the second time in his young life that chaos had erupted and his father had to protect us.
The safe room’s metal walls seemed to close in and collapse all around us, making the air feel thinner with every breath we took.
Eden and Seraphina were across from us in the cramped space. Seraphina was calm in a way that unnerved me, though the way she quietly rubbed Chase’s back said she probably understood me more than she let on. I also knew she trusted Ryder with her life, along with ours, which made me feel a little better. Because of that, I tried to do the same. To trust. To pray. And to not let panic win.
I did my best not to let the sound of gunfire replay in my head like a sick lullaby. To ignore the shotgun blast that’d sounded far too close a few minutes ago. Trevor had more than likely cut someone down, keeping us safe.
This was all my fault. Every painful minute. They were all in danger because of me. Because I’d married a man who’d turned out to be a ghost wearing a mask. I thought I’d found safety and a new life with Mitch. Instead, I wound up inviting a monster into my life. Even worse, into my son’s.
Had it all been a performance? Had I ever truly known him at all?
The fact we were in a safe room because of him served as a resoundingno.
I flinched at the tap on the door a minute later, followed by the “It’s me,” from Trevor before the door creaked open. His hand was the first thing I saw. While our marriage had failed, it was never because he’d been a threat or danger to us. “It’s over. For now.”
Just four words from him, but they shattered something inside me. Air flooded my lungs. My grip on Chase loosened.
“Dad?” Chase twisted in my lap, searching for Trevor.
Trevor stepped into the doorway, arm extended. “I got you, buddy. You’ll be okay.”
Chase launched himself into his father’s arms, clinging to him with the kind of trust only a child could so freely give.
Trevor held him tight, one hand splayed across the small of his back, before stepping aside so the rest of us could file out.
“Are you all right?” he whispered to me as Eden and Seraphina brushed past. His gaze flicked to mine, then over my shoulder, always assessing.
“I’m ...” I swallowed hard, shoulders still tight with tension. “Is everyone okay?”
“Beau?” Eden asked before he could answer, a desperate plea in her tone.
“He’s good. Held the front.” That troubled and guarded expression wasn’t what I wanted to see from him, though. “Alex went into the woods. He’s trying to bring someone back for questioning since we, uh, had to put down everyone here.”
Put down. Kill.Chase was smart enough to read between the lines. But as long as no one on Team Good Guy went down, then I was fine with any measures necessary to protect our family.
Trevor gently lowered Chase until his feet hit the floor. He clung to Trevor’s hand but turned, looking up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. “Did Uncle Alex get the bad man and bring him back yet?”
The innocence in his voice broke something in me. How could he still sound so calm and trusting? I was grateful he was, but it was hard for me to believe. Probably because I was unraveling by the second while waiting for Trevor to tell me Alex was safe.
