Chapter 18
Eighteen
It felt as if the entire building had been struck by an invisible explosion. A glass sculpture fell off its pedestal and thudded to the hardwood, splitting into three pieces.
Gideon spun to urge Cordelia and Mackenzie toward the stairs. Up! was all his brain could think. They had to get to the highest point possible.
Cy moved tentatively to stop them, but a roar filled the room, shaking the foundation with even more violence.
“Go!” Gideon shouted. “To the roof.”
“Cy . . .” Frank started, but a barrage of water shattered the floor-to-ceiling windows and cascaded into the room. The surge took their feet out from under them.
Freezing water pummeled Gideon as he coughed out a mouthful of water and righted himself.
Zero hour. The dam had finally failed completely. They had minutes, maybe less. Mackenzie was already regaining her balance behind him. Cordelia lurched toward the stairs with a screaming Katie.
Frank’s henchman stood up with his gun in hand, watching in shock as the water rushed over his shins.
Seizing the moment, Gideon lunged. Cy’s gun went flying. Cy immediately sprang up again and readied his fist, but terror filled his expression. He didn’t want to die any more than they did.
Gideon jerked his chin at Cy. “You know there isn’t room in the chopper for everyone. Think your boss is going to let you aboard? No way. Are you so loyal that you’ll drown here so he can fly away to another of his mansions?”
Cy shot a look at Frank, who was clinging to the edge of a chair.
“You know what happens to people who defy me,” Frank thundered at Cy.
Cy’s face was stark. “I . . .”
Gideon pressed. “You mean nothing to him, and he’ll leave you to die.”
Still, Cy hesitated.
“You have time. You can get out and save yourself, but you have to go now.”
Cy turned on his heel and splashed toward the foyer and out of sight. He wasn’t likely to make it to his vehicle, but Gideon couldn’t concern himself with Cy’s choices.
He dashed the water from his eyes in time to watch the flood wrest the heavy sofa from its position. It hurtled toward Cordelia, who hadn’t yet reached the bottom stair.
She screamed and clutched Katie. They both went under as the sofa rammed into them.
Gideon dove for the furniture, gripped one end, and dropped his weight like an anchor to slow it down.
Cordelia bobbed up, coughing and frantic. “Katie!” she screamed.
His stomach plummeted as he realized she no longer held her daughter.
He struggled to hold the heavy sofa in place, desperately looking for the child.
A flash of her pink fleece caught his eye. Katie had been jerked loose from her mother and swept across the space, caught against the wall beside the French doors. He called to Cordelia.
He scanned the room for Mackenzie while Cordelia splashed her way to Katie before he let the sofa go.
Cordelia hauled Katie into her arms. The little girl coughed and cried, her small body shaking with cold and fear.
He swam to them and took hold of Cordelia’s forearm, then propelled them once again toward the stairwell.
Across the room he saw Mackenzie with her back to him, water streaming from her jacket. Beyond her, the liquid splashed and foamed as if they were in a giant washing machine, rapidly filling. Where was Frank?
The water began to pull Cordelia from his grasp. He tightened his grip. “Hold on to me,” he called over the chaos.
He was fighting to move them along when he heard Mackenzie shout behind him.
“You’re not leaving here, Frank. You’re going to pay for what you did to Aaron.”
He turned to find Mackenzie lunging at Frank as he tried to rip open a drawer that probably contained a weapon. She shoved him away, sending him staggering to keep himself upright.
With Cordelia and Katie in his arms, Gideon could do little to intervene.
He had to get them to the stairwell fast and then help Mackenzie.
The room was a swirling mass of debris. He hadn’t made it halfway when a second deluge ripped inside, tearing loose one of the floor-to-ceiling bookcases.
It toppled sideways, completely blocking the stairwell, books sliding off into the water.
His heart dropped as he anchored Cordelia against the other bookcase, still holding in place for the moment. Her limbs shivered so violently it was all she could do to hold on to Katie and keep from being swept away.
He shouted to Mackenzie, pivoting in time to see Frank throw a punch that she avoided.
Gideon stumbled over something and went under. He got to his feet again, spluttering.
Frank had shifted toward the back hallway to escape Mackenzie, but she seemed to have read his thoughts.
She plunged her hand in the water and swept up something in her fist. It took him a moment to realize the glittering, dripping fragment was a piece of the glass sculpture that had broken into a sharp point.
She held it like a dagger toward Frank. The water bubbled and gurgled around them.
“I told you, you’re not going to get away.”
Frank looked behind Gideon at the bookcase and then at Cordelia. “They’re going to drown,” he said, and Gideon saw fear play across Frank’s features for the first time.
Mackenzie looked too, finally becoming aware of Gideon’s predicament.
Gideon kept his tone firm and level. “Let him go, Zee. We have to get out of here.” He longed to rush to her, but if he didn’t unblock the stairwell, Frank would be proven correct. Cordelia and Katie wouldn’t make it. None of them would.
Mackenzie took a few steps toward Cordelia until Frank moved and she whirled to face him again.
Gideon plowed to the bookcase blockade and threw his weight against it. He strained every muscle and succeeded only in lifting one corner of the heavy oak. He could not do it alone.
Cordelia clutched Katie as the force of the water threatened to snatch the child from her numb hands. In her panic, Katie was flailing, which made it harder for her mother to hold her steady.
Still the bookcase did not move.
Mackenzie stared at Frank. “You’re not leaving here.” The water was up to her waist. She stood between Frank and the hallway he’d been heading toward to make his escape, the glass shard gleaming in her hand.
Gideon fought to make himself heard. “Cordelia can’t hold on to Katie much longer. You have to come help me.”
Mackenzie shot a look at him, agonized. “He can’t just get away without paying for what he’s done. He killed my brother.” She refocused on Frank. “You’re going to stay with me all the way into a jail cell or until we drown. Whichever comes first.”
Gideon repositioned his grip on the bookshelf. “Mackenzie,” he said through gritted teeth, “this isn’t who you are.”
Cordelia’s arms were shaking around Katie. Gideon’s repaired shoulder felt as if it was going to snap.
“Please, help me, Zee.” And then he let his desperation leak into his voice. “I need you.” In so many ways.
She shot a look at him, agony painted on her face. His strength waning, he saw her drop the glass, straighten, and spin around toward him, Cordelia, and the wailing child.
He heaved at the stubborn wood. A corner of Katie’s sleeve pulled from Cordelia’s grasp as the water thundered around them. Water sluiced across the little girl’s face. She coughed and gagged.
Cordelia staggered toward him with her precarious hold on Katie.
“Don’t let them die,” Frank called, his gaze on his struggling daughter.
When Mackenzie made it to Gideon’s side, the water was up to their chests. She grabbed the bookcase, and inch by inch they shoved it just enough to open a narrow gap to the stairwell. While he anchored it in place, Mackenzie swam to Cordelia and escorted her and Katie to the foot of the stairwell.
“Get to the roof,” Frank called across the space, then he hurtled away down the rear hallway.
Mackenzie pushed Cordelia and Katie up the submerged steps.
Gideon nodded at her. “Go. Tell Jake we’re on our way.”
Cordelia held her daughter as high as she could and staggered up the stairs.
Mackenzie looked at the spot where she’d let Frank go.
“Come on,” he said over the rush, giving the bookcase a final shove to secure it in place.
Her expression was pure pain as she joined him, and he couldn’t bear it, not for a second longer. He took her face in his palms and kissed her cold lips, wishing he could absorb the agony she was experiencing. Her grief appeared as acute as the day she’d told him her brother had been murdered.
His forehead pressed to hers, he said, “You did the right thing, Zee.”
Another assault of water shattered the remaining picture window, sending more furniture tumbling with a cascade of glass.
Together they squeezed into the stairwell.
It was a race against the rising water as they pulled themselves up three agonizing flights, chased the whole way by the reckless flood.
The last few steps they had to hold their breath and swim through the stairwell.
They burst out of the final threshold and exited onto the roof, which had become a shallow lake with water up to their shins, rising with every passing second.
Cordelia peered out from the helicopter. Her terror morphed to relief as she saw them. “Hurry! Jake’s got to lift off.”
He pushed Mackenzie ahead. She was as exhausted as he was, running on a whisper of adrenaline, but rescue was within inches.
She’d reached a hand up to propel herself into the chopper when another door opened at the far end of the rooftop.
Frank charged through and ran toward the chopper.
He wielded a fireplace poker like a club.
Of course he wasn’t going to let his family go. Why hadn’t Gideon anticipated the attack?
Before Gideon could hoist Mackenzie aboard to safety, Frank slammed the poker into his compromised shoulder. The agony lit Gideon’s nerves on fire, and he fell face down in the water.