Chapter 34
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
LINDY
When I’d stuffed the money back into the backpack, I’d realized there was something else in the front zipper compartment of the sack. Flares. As Raptor yelled at us, Wes realized I’d found them and raised his eyebrows at me.
Yes, Lindy, use them.
I’d clutched the backpack for dear life as all the men had disappeared into that cabin. Wes glanced back at me one last time.
This is not goodbye. Not now. Not ever. No fucking way.
I raced around the cabin to the broken back window. I took out a flare, removed the plastic lid, twisted off the cap, and scratched the surface of the cap against the black button, careful to point it away from me. It ignited and I threw it inside the cabin. I was either going to burn them alive or force them out. Either way, I had to do it. Had to do something.
Crash. Puff.
I sucked in a breath. A pink-red pop of light flared inside. Shouts and curses and smoke filled the cabin. I ran back to the entrance of the house. “Wes! Wes! Dad!” I screamed through the smoke pouring out of the front door and the broken side window. I lunged toward the entrance, but an iron arm was suddenly around my waist, holding me back. My heart flew out of my throat. “No! No!”
“Lindy!”
The familiar voice had me turning. Butler.
“Let me go! Let me go! They’re all in there! They’re still in there!” I clawed at him, clawed at the air. The small house glowed with red light, smoke, and flames. My life was in there, the only life I wanted. The life I cherished.
Butler yanked at me. “Wes in there?”
“And my dad and Minty. And Raptor.” I pushed at him as wood cracked and flames licked at the exterior of the cabin, but his grip only tightened. “No!”
Footsteps tromped around us. “Lindy?” Catch yelled, grabbing my arm. Finger towered over us.
Letting go of me, Butler darted toward the cabin, but Finger vaulted forward and stopped him. Butler got in Finger’s face. “The kid is in there!”
Finger’s eyes widened, his head drawing back. On a snarl, he shoved Butler out of his way, and he was gone, running into the burning house. My throat raw, I sucked in air as the smoke enveloped Finger.
Catch and Boner chased after him. Explosions rocked the ground, and shards of glass blew out, raining over us, smoke filling the air.
Oh my God, I did this! I killed them.
“No!” I screamed, my blood turning to ice. “No!”
A large figure emerged from the smoke, a hulking mass. Another emerged. Butler and I ran toward them.
Finger had Wes slung over his shoulder. Catch and Boner dragged my father and Minty out of the building, the four of them stumbling. More Flames ran toward them to help.
“You got them!” My chest heaved. “You got them!” My vision blurred, my heart banging in my chest.
Finger carefully, slowly laid a bloodied, motionless Wes onto the ground before me. “I got him.” He wiped Wes’s matted hair back from his eyes.
“Wes! Wes!” I touched his bruised face, pale face stained with blood and bruises.
Butler started CPR on Wes as Finger ripped his bloodied and torn sweatshirt out of the way. Open gashes on Wes’s side. Raptor had knifed him.
Sour pitched up my throat. “Is he shot too?”
“Just cut. Cut bad.” Finger let out an animal-like groan. “Ah fuck…” Blood seeped from Wes’s wounds.
My head swam. Gritting my teeth, I took Wes’s cold hand in mine and pressed my lips to his flesh. “Wes, Wes, come back to me, come back to me,” I prayed, kissing his hand as Butler worked on him, infusing him with air, striving for his body to function.
A heavy hand landed on my back. “Lindy…” My heart beat again at the sound of my father’s voice.
“Dad? Thank God. Oh, Daddy…”
“He’ll be okay, honey. He’ll be okay,” Dad grunted as he was lifted by two other Flames.
My fingers raked through Wes’s hair. “Please, Wes, please, baby, come back to me. Wes…Wes…”
“Butler—” Finger’s sharp voice boomed, and Butler shot him a grim glare, the lines of his face drawn tight as he worked. “I think he might’ve cut him in the lung. We got to get him to a hospital right now.”
“I have Wes’s truck.” From my pocket, I took out the keys.
Catch caught the keys sliding from my numb fingers. “We got a van too.” He ran.
Finger’s hands pressed down over Wes’s bleeding cuts, hands soaked in blood. “Goddammit…”
So much blood.
Wes’s blood.