I don’t wait for a plan.The door doesn’t stand a chance.Inside, it smells wrong.
Stale.
Closed.
Fear.
We split fast.Rooms clear.Empty.
Then— “Up here!”Saged shouts.
Attic.
Of course.I take the stairs two at a time.Kick the attic door open.
And there—Quinn.Marlaina.Alive.Tied.Crying.Relief hits so hard it almost drops me.I’m across the room in seconds, ripping tape free, cutting restraints with my knife.
“It’s okay,” I tell Quinn, my voice rough.“You’re okay.”
She sobs into my shirt the second I pull her free.“Mama—I want my mama.”
“I know,” I murmur, holding her tight.“We’ve got you.”
Marlaina is shaking but conscious.Saged drops beside her, hands frantic but careful.
“I’m here,” he says.“I’ve got you.”
Downstairs, there’s a crash.A scream.The woman.
I hand Quinn off to Marlaina who is now more alert.
“Take her.”Then I turn.
It’s over fast.It always is when we move like this.The woman is hysterical, screaming about love and betrayal and Clint and how Lucy “didn’t deserve to get away.Quinn was going to get Clint to come back to her.”Same toxic attachment shit the crazy ones get.
I don’t listen.Don’t care.She’s dealt with.
Contained.
Breathing for now.That’s all she gets from me.
Clint is waiting when we get back.Not by choice.Pinned where we left him.I grab him by the front of his shirt and slam him into the wall again.
“This is your fault.”
“I didn’t?—”
“You played games,” I snap.“With women.With fear.With control.”
His head hits the wall.Hard.“And now a child pays for it.”
He looks like he might pass out.
Good.
“You’re going to fix this,” I tell him.
“How?”
