Page 99 of The Ashes of Summer

"It could've been anybody, Summer." Her jaw sets. "Don't do that to yourself yet."

Yet.

That word. We all hear it.

"How did you even get here?"

Constance drags her sleeve under her eyes. "I saw the map Kurt drew in the hospital."

Adelaide lets out a watery laugh. "Jacob told us not to come. Threatened us, actually."

"Yeah, well." Constance shrugs, hard. "He can be pissed at me later."

They came anyway. Knowing what this place is. Knowing women disappear up here and don't come back.

Then the sound of grinding metal cuts across the night, and every one of us goes still.

The gates. Beginning to close.

Panic flashes over Adelaide's face—but the SUV is between us and the house, and its shadow is holding, for now.

Then voices. Male.

The front doors of the Ridge bang open hard enough to echo across the property, and Donnie comes out under the floodlights with two armed men behind him.

And Harris.

Oh God.

He looks ancient. Broken. Donnie shoves him forward and he stumbles so badly he nearly goes face-first into the gravel before Donnie catches his collar and hauls him upright like something on a leash.

Rage and grief hit me at once, hard enough that I sway.

He risked everything for me. And now I know exactly what's about to happen.

Donnie throws him down onto the driveway hard enough that Adelaide gasps behind me. Harris cries out—small, frail, and it guts me.

Then Donnie laughs.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Constance's hand closes on my arm. "Summer, don't."

But I can't stand behind a car and watch him die for me. I can't.

I step out from behind the SUV.

"There she is," Donnie drawls, and the smile that spreads over his face makes my skin crawl.

Harris lifts his head, and the second he sees me, tears spill down his face. "No—miss, no—go⁠—"

Donnie kicks him in the ribs. The crack of it carries across the driveway. Harris curls around himself with a broken sound.

"Thought you could let her go, huh, old man?" Blood runs from Harris's mouth into the gravel while he fights for breath. "How'd that work out for you?"

My nails bite into my palms until they sting.

Donnie crouches beside him, easy, almost friendly. "You know what's funny?"