“I should’ve been there when you were hurt,” he sounded ravaged. “When I got the news that you were hit by that car…I broke.”
Well, that made two of us.
“I’ve been drinking,” he whispered.
I knew that, too.
“I miss him every single day.”
I wouldn’t let him sit there anymore without me.
I all but fell out of my chair and crawled to him, ignoring the way that my head swam, and my eyes went somewhat blurry.
When I got to him, he reached for me and clung on as he started to rock.
“God.” He whispered. “I’ve failed y’all so many times.”
“You didn’t fail us, Dad,” I whispered. “You did everything you could with what you were given. I had a wonderful childhood, and I’ve always been happy. You didn’t fail.”
“I failed,” he disagreed. “But I won’t fail in this.”
“What are you…” I started to say, but then I watched as he got to his feet and headed for the door again.
“Dad,” I said, but then he tried the handle again, and it turned, the fail-safe mechanism kicking in.
“Dad, don’t do it,” I whispered, feeling the tug of torn skin on my wrists. “There has to be another way.”
He looked at me like I was a naïve little girl.
And maybe I was.
But I couldn’t witness this.
I couldn’t…
“Don’t,” I croaked, knowing he was about to do it. “Please.”
“This is the only way, baby,” he whispered. “They don’t know we’re in here. If I don’t go…”
If he didn’t go, we’d both be dead.
Logically, I knew that.
Logically and emotionally were two separate things.
“You were the best thing that ever happened to me. You and your brother. You’ll never know what kind of hell you helped me survive,” he grated out. “Miracles from heaven. Two perfectly beautiful things that were like a beacon of light in my darkness.” He shook his head, his eyes haunted. “I want you to have babies. I want you to laugh. I want you to think of me and smile. But baby, get your crying done, and then remember the good times. The ones where I wasn’t a complete fuckup.”
“Daddy, please don’t,” I whispered as he started to move. “I can’t…”
He smiled sadly at me before he opened the door and walked outside, closing it to keep the smoke at bay behind him.
The last words I heard as the door closed were, “I’m so proud of you, honey. Tell your babies about me. I love you.”
I knew he wasn’t going to make it.
I cried.
God, I cried so hard that by the time I felt hands on me, I was barely conscious.
Something heavy was wrapped around me, and then I was being dragged out of the small, enclosed space that I’d been stashed in before the fire was set.
CHAPTER 23
What did one plate say to his friend? Tonight, dinner is on me.
-Text from Sophia to Haggard
HAGGARD
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked for a repeat of what Easton had just shared.
“The gym you work out at is on fire,” he repeated. “Firefighters made a quick sweep of the building but didn’t find anyone. Do you know if anyone is there?”
I couldn’t think.
Today had been weird.
We’d arrived at the jail to find nothing.
Blakely hadn’t been talking mostly because when we’d gotten there, she’d been dead.
Had been dead for hours.
Nobody had thought to check on her for a few hours, and in between well checks, she’d hung herself from the bunk beds in her room.
At least, that was what it appeared had happened.
I wasn’t convinced, especially after getting a call about her being ready to talk.
And now this…
“Nobody should be there, no,” I admitted. “Taos is out of town. Madden is, too. Open gym isn’t for hours, and nobody has the key but the owners, the coaches, and his kid.”
His kid that wasn’t answering her phone.
“I thought that, too.” He paused. “But there’s a truck out front.”
A sick sort of dread started to fill me. “Where’s it parked?”
Easton hesitated. “In the back of the lot. By the light pole. It’s a white Toyota Tundra with lifted…”
“That’s mine.” I was freaking out now. I looked over at my brother. “Call the house. Ask Boston where Sophia is.”
Rook looked at me, nodded once, then pulled his phone out of his pocket to make the call.
“That’s my truck,” I said into the phone. “Sophia’s there.”
I wasn’t sure how I knew.
But I knew.
She was there.
She was inside that building.
“Fuck,” Easton hissed.
The next fifteen minutes went about how one would expect when they had the knowledge that their significant other might be being burned alive.
When I arrived, it was to see things going fucking nuts.
There were about six firefighters gathered around something on the ground, and there were more that were pushing into the building. The building that was fully engulfed in flames.
My heart sank as I parked my bike as close to them as I could get before running toward whatever was on the ground.