Chapter Forty-Two
Sawyer
I strain with everything I have in me, but I can’t lift the metal lighting frame which has me pinned to the ground. I’m pretty sure I was out cold before it came crashing down, otherwise it probably would have killed me.
Kalen comes rushing over, white as a sheet and covered in blood. I’ve never been so happy to see him.
“Fuck, I don’t know if I can lift this on my own,” he says in a panic, calling out to anyone who can hear.
A few initiates come running and they lift the metal from my body. I move slowly to make sure nothing is seriously wrong. Searing pain screams down my right shoulder and through my arm. I can live with that.
“Have you seen any of the others?” I ask, pulling my arm tight into my body through gritted teeth.
“No, I lost Slate in the explosion...or maybe it was Onyx? I don’t remember.”
“Okay, let’s go see if they have gathered with everyone else. Jasper and Frost were on security tonight.”
I watch as Kalen walks; he keeps shaking his head and his balance is slightly off. He has a damn concussion. He’s limping too, carrying himself stiffly and clutching his side so I’d also guess at some fractured ribs. Fuck it.
We move outside and then around the building.
Frost is yelling out orders and everyone is assembling together.
He is sorting them into groups: those who are injured are on the grass, while Jasper is looking them over, someone else is finding any initiates with any kind of first aid or medical training.
“Frost, have you seen my brothers or Amelie?” I ask.
“Slate was here but went to look for Amelie I think. We haven’t seen anyone else. The building has been cleared, there’s no one alive still inside.”
Fuck.
“Kalen, when was the last time you saw any of them?” I turn to check with him.
“I...I was going after Amelie, but then one of the twins was helping me, and then you…”
“You need to get checked over.” Frost frowns.
“Fuck no, I’m going to find my girl!” Kalen whines.
“We’re going to find her. Make sure there are ambulances here,” I tell them.
“Already called. Half an hour, then you and Kalen meet back here. We can regroup.” I nod at Frost, agreeing to his terms. He’s giving us thirty minutes to find her and the rest of the family. I can work with that.
Kalen and I head further down the gravel driveway. It’s getting dark. I pull my phone from my pocket and see that the screen is smashed, but the flashlight still works, luckily, It doesn’t offer much visibility, but enough so that we can search.
“Do you think they’re okay?” Kalen asks, breaking the silence.
“They will be fine. Amelie probably ran off and the twins are with her already, trying to convince her to come back.”
“The twins...one was with me, I think.”
A shadow catches my eye and as I shine my torch towards a tree, a body is slumped against it.
My heart hammers in my chest. I have tried to keep all thoughts from going to where they want to – that this explosion was no accident – which leads me to believe Harold is involved.
What other explanation is there? I had a gut feeling he was up to something.
He never wanted Amelie to be part of The Order and has always resented the fact that Mum isn’t a Davis by blood.
His dreams of Kalen being the most powerful person in The Order were smashed.
Then Amelie showed up with Kessler and Rossi blood, making her the most powerful.
And to top it off, the board voted to allow her to attempt to join, which was thanks to Dirk; he must have most of the living board members in his pocket.
Only, there were several people missing from the room when the explosion happened. Any one of them could be involved.
“Is that Baxter?” Kalen gasps, running awkwardly towards him. The closer I get, I can see it is him. I check his pulse and it’s barely there. Fuck. I can’t carry him and neither can Kalen. Thinking fast, I use my phone to pin our location on maps.
Ambulances will be here soon, and until then, there is nothing we can do for him. He has no serious injuries that are visible anyway.
“We can’t leave him here,” Kalen states.
“Like fuck we can’t. Baxter Branson only ever thinks of himself. Right now, I have a broken arm and you have a concussion. He stays until the ambulances get here.”
“If he dies and Amelie knows we didn’t do anything to help him, she will hate us.”
“And if Amelie is hurt or in trouble, and Baxter pulls through and knows we wasted time on him, I can guarantee he will kill us.”
“Okay, point taken.” Kalen seems to be getting clearer when he talks. Which is a good sign.
A gunshot cracks through the air. Kalen drops to the ground. I look around; it sounded so damn close.
I offer Kalen my hand and pull him up.
“It came from that way,” I say, pointing to my left.
We take off running, but neither of us are in any shape to sprint through the thick bushes.
The problem with the trees and shrubs being this dense is that it’s hard to navigate.
We can’t see the sky or stars to even get a bearing on where we are going.
I just hope that nothing happens to Amelie.
I don’t know if I’m strong enough to lose another person I love. My parents and my best friend were hard to recover from, but her? I don’t even want to think of what I will do if I lose her.