Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Seven.
Or was hydrogen on the other side? “Si,” he practically shouted. “Si!” He needed her. Gavin needed her. No, no, the other side is He. Helium. Hydrogen is number one. “One,” she managed. It has to be.
He huffed out a breath. She could smell his sweat. His fear. She saw it sparkling on his forehead. “One,” he repeated. “Two, three, seven, four . . . zero, one, because it’s six digits, Si.”
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t lift her tongue.
Six.
He raised his hand. It was shaking. Gavin was afraid, so afraid, and though her heart was beating so slowly, so very slowly, if these were her last, they’d each be for him. I love you.
With a strangled sound and a whoosh of breath, he typed in the six digits. One chance. One chance. It was all they had.
The alarm made a long beeping sound and the red light went off as the door clicked open. Gavin let out a short cry, shouldering the door as he shot out into the night, Sienna held tightly in his arms.
Five.
He sprinted, his feet pounding the concrete, the sweet night air hitting Sienna in the face as she felt him throw his body forward, clenching her so tightly it hurt, and she gasped out a tiny cry as the world blinked out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Violet stepped off the escalator and moved toward Danny. Her son. His eyes, the left one already beginning to swell, came open. He blinked at her, and even though his face was bloody, his features distorted from his injuries, she saw disbelief . . . then wonder . . . relief. It was naked and raw, the look he might have given her had it been her who’d opened the cabinet that day instead of the devil who had. She rushed the final steps and went down on the floor next to him. “I’m here,” she said.
“Four,” came the voice over the megaphone outside.
Run, Gavin, run!
Danny slumped toward her, and she brought her arms around him, lowering his head to her lap, stroking his hair. Soft. It was as soft as she remembered.
Gavin and Sienna would make it out. She knew they would.
She wouldn’t leave Danny, not this time.
“Three.”
“Mom,” Danny whispered, turning toward her like a child, gripping the hem of her shirt in his fist, burying his face in her stomach.
Violet rocked him. He was her Danny. Whoever else he’d been, whoever else he’d had to be, he’d die as her boy. In his mother’s arms, the arms he’d been torn from far, far before he was ready.
“Two.”
He turned more fully to her, and she felt the wetness of his tears soaking through her shirt. She held him tightly, humming softly, and rocked him as she’d rocked Gavin that long-ago day as they’d sat in the closet, hiding together.
She bent forward, gripping his body to hers, shielding him. “I’m here,” she whispered again.
“One.”
EPILOGUE
Four months later
Sienna’s gaze hung on the little boy sitting all alone on a short rock wall at the edge of the yard, using a stick to draw what appeared to be random shapes on the ground. The woman who ran the group home said he was often out there, all alone. Sienna understood it, though. The boy had learned to find some solace in his isolation. He’d had to, and now, perhaps, he didn’t know another way. Sienna, Gavin, and Kat approached him, his head coming up as they drew closer.
“Hi, Trevor,” Sienna said, giving him a slight smile, butterflies fluttering between her ribs. She didn’t want to make him nervous, but she was nervous too. She wanted to do this right. She wanted to put him at ease. For that reason, she’d asked Kat to come along, the two of them having formed what she hoped was a comforting duo the day they’d entered his grandmother’s apartment and found him alone. Rescued him. Sienna’s leg only ached mildly as she squatted in front of the boy. He ceased the movements with the stick, looking at her curiously at first, but that expression quickly faded into what she figured was a practiced detachment. “Do you remember me? I’m Detective Walker.” She looked back over her shoulder. “And that’s Detective Kozlov.”
Kat smiled. “Hey, Trevor, nice to see you.”
His eyes hung on her for a moment before they moved to Gavin, wariness creeping in. “That’s my husband, Gavin,” she said, giving Gavin a smile. Husband. The word still made her catch her breath. They’d married only a month after that horrible night at the Casino Royale. Let’s not waste another minute, he’d said. And she’d agreed wholeheartedly. Minutes were precious. Seconds. Who knew that better than them?
Gavin stepped forward, offering his hand. “Hi, Trevor.” Trevor stared for a moment before reaching out and shaking. Gavin let go, flexing his hand in the air as if the boy’s handshake had been tight enough to cause pain. “Wow, you’ve got quite a grip on you,” Gavin said. Trevor’s lips tipped the barest bit, and Sienna’s heart lightened. Breathe in. Breathe out.