Controlled Burn (Blackbridge Security 8)

I frown. That’s a shitty percentage, but it’s still not zero, and that’s what we were working with without this recent update.

“Hold on,” Wren says when I turn to leave. “Holy shit. Look.”

The screen switches from camera view to camera view, and I’ve seen him do this enough to know he’s tracking the car. They’re still in Kendall’s car and hope fills my chest as I watch it, turn after turn.

“They’re in the industrial district.”

I’m on the move, knowing every single minute is precious.

All the guys are on alert when I leave the office, and the look on my face must tell them what they need to know because they move en masse toward the elevator.

Something happened when I was in the office because Kayleigh rushes up to me with tears in her eyes.

“I told her because I thought she should know,” Kason says, regret filling his young face which is also stained with tears.

“My momma?”

I look to Kayleigh. “Sweet girl, I’ll protect your mom with my own life. I swear.”

She nods, giving me a little sniffle before running across the room right into Anna’s arms.

Kason stands before me, his eyes shining with fresh tears. “Please, Finn. Bring Momma home.”

“I swear I will,” I tell him, and I feel that truth in the deepest parts of me.

He nods at me before turning away to join his sister.

My throat is clogged with emotion as I walk across the room toward the elevator. Deacon claps me on the back as I climb on. The entire ride down, I pray I just didn’t lie to that little boy. He’d never forgive me.

I’d never forgive myself.

Chapter 33

Kendall

My brain and my body aren’t on the same page. I’m terrified, couldn’t eat a thing if it were offered to me, but my stomach is still growling.

That noise is drowned out by the arguing going on in the warehouse. I’m back in the industrial building, and the man with the neck tattoo was here when we got back from the ATM. My captor, the one who has been with me the entire time, wasn’t very happy to see him. He shoved me back in this room, reminded me of what was at stake, and then he left.

“And I told you it was taken care of!” neck-tattoo guy yells, growing increasingly frustrated.

The other guy murmurs too low for me to decipher what he’s saying.

“They’re gone. That’s all you need to worry about. I’m not giving you the fucking details so you can hang me out to dry. Fucking look at you, all twitchy and shit. This is the last fucking time I do a job with someone I don’t know.”

More murmuring, but I can’t focus on their fight.

They’re gone echoes in my head, a broken record of words playing over and over.

He was the one who had my children.

They’re gone.

They’re gone.

They’re gone.

I collapse to the side, curling into a ball. He was talking about my kids.

They’re gone.

I’m numb, the sounds around me nothing but background noise as my heart breaks.

They’re gone.

They’re gone.

They’re gone.

It can’t be true because if he means what I think he means then I’ll never survive it. I can’t exist in a world where my children don’t.

Laughter and the smiling faces of Kason, Kayleigh, and Knox flash in my head, drowning out the pops from the warehouse. I grin into my arm, feeling truly crazy as I try to remember holding each of them for the first time. I was alone in the hospital, only surrounded by hospital staff with the twins. Ty just couldn’t be bothered to return my phone calls despite being in labor for hours and hours. He didn’t pop back up until after I was already home with them.

It was two weeks before he met Knox, claiming some out-of-state job that prevented him from making contact like he was a fucking spy or something. The man seriously thought I was an idiot.

I frown, shoving all thoughts of that man away, trying to replace it with happy ones involving my kids. We have had a lot of happy times despite me scraping every extra penny I have into savings. They enjoyed trips to the park and didn’t care if their clothes were from last season’s sales rack. Kayleigh was the only picky one in that regard and so long as it was pink, purple, or had sparkles, she was as happy as a clam.

I think of Kason and the way he tried to boss them like he was the man of the house.

I think of Knox and his serious face when he’s drawing with his favorite blue crayon.

My perfect little babies.

My angels.

This last thought makes me sob, all the good fading away into darkness.

They’re too young for wings.

Maybe all of this could’ve been avoided if I’d only listened to Finn this morning. He offered to come along while I looked at the house. It was another give on his part, another thing I couldn’t take from him because I’ve already taken so much, but losing my children is the worst I told you so in the history of them all.