“I’m not leaving you here,” I said.
“Go, Emerson,” Michael insisted. He shoved the car keys at me. “Take these.”
“Come with me.” I accused him through my teeth as I grabbed them, “You promised we’d be safe.”
“I promised you that you would be safe, and I don’t want you anywhere near this lab. Go with Liam to the car.” Michael leaned over to pick up the cadaver. My stomach rolled. “Please? Time is running out.”
Liam took me by my upper arm, gently pulling me toward the house. “I’m sure Michael knows what he’s doing. We’re just holding him up.”
“Go.” Michael looked at me, pleading. “Stay safe.”
He carried John Doe inside, and Liam and I hurried away across the grass. We were almost to the house when I heard a brief shout, followed by laughter.
Then the world exploded.
Chapter 46
When I opened my eyes, fire had completely engulfed the building. The steel beams that supported the roof curled in the heat of the flames. I lay on the ground, a few feet away from the lower patio. Liam was nowhere in sight.
I tried to sit up, but the ground slanted crazily. Hoping I didn’t have a concussion, I attempted it again, more slowly this time. Looking in the direction of the burning building, I made out the shapes of two people standing in the distance. I shook my head, wondering if I had double vision. No, it was definitely two people. My pulse raced. Liam and Michael? As quickly as it had sprung to life, my heart stopped, dropping into my stomach. The figures weren’t either of the men I wanted to see.
The two stood together, watching the fire blaze. Something was off. They weren’t racing around, shouting, or making any attempt to help. From their stances, they appeared to be enjoying themselves, as if standing around a bonfire instead of a burning building that might have people trapped inside.
Pushing myself up to my knees, I blinked and refocused on the faces that were lit by the blazing fire.
Nausea rose in my throat.
I knew the woman’s face.
Her expression was more vulnerable than the one I was used to seeing. She chewed on a fingernail and kept looking up at the guy standing beside her.
I could only see the back of his head. I couldn’t make out any details, just that he was tall and his shoulders were broad.
I heard sirens in the distance and pushed my spiraling emotions to the side. We were in danger of being caught on the property. I had to find Michael.
“Emerson. Emerson!”
Hope surfaced as a low voice called to me from the patio. I crept up the steps, trying to stay confined to the shadows. When I reached the top level, I looked for Michael but found Liam.
“Where is he?” I asked. “Liam, where is he?”
The sound of fire consuming the lab filled the silence between us. I looked up into his face, lit by the flames. His eyes relayed the truth he wouldn’t speak.
“No.” My knees gave out, and I slumped forward. Liam caught me under my arms and slowly lowered me to the ground. “He jumped out a window, something. He promised me before we came back that we’d be fine. He has to be safe.”
“Sweet girl.” Liam sat down on the ground beside me, his arm around my shoulders to keep me upright. “Once I knew you were breathing I scouted the front of the building. He couldn’t have escaped through the back—that’s where the explosion came from. Michael isn’t there. I don’t think he made it out.”
My breath came in spasms, ripping through my lungs, a thousand knives in my throat. “He … he had to … if he died here, in the past … I would never have met him …”
“I wish that’s the way it worked, but it isn’t.” Liam gently took both my hands in his.
“We have to find him. We have to take him back.” I tried to pull my hands away, tried to stand, but Liam had the same massive strength his son did. Even my rage didn’t sway his steady hold. “Please,” I cried openly, begging, “let me go, please.”
He whispered, “There’s nothing to find, Emerson.”
“No. No!” I insisted. “The police only found a few bones in the ruins of the lab. If the cadaver and Michael were both in the building, there would’ve been more.”
“All of that could depend on where the fire started … how hot it grew. What kind of fire it was.”