Page 63 of Hush Money

She coughs suddenly, batting away a hand when it tries to replace the oxygen mask over her face. I freeze, choked by the image of her turning her head in my direction, opening her eyes and frowning at me. “What’s wrong?” she croaks, her voice barely audible. “Why are you making a fuss?”

A cheer rises up from the crowd. The EMT replaces her oxygen mask. Tamsyn reaches an arm out for me. I make it to all fours for my crawl this time, getting firmly in the way as I stretch out next to her, rest my head on her chest and listen to her beating heart with the kind of joyous relief I was just positive I’d never feel again this side of the grave. She strokes my hair. And all is right with my world. For three seconds.

Until I remember that Ravenna is still out there.

That monster I married is still out there.

I push away from Tamsyn, lever up on my elbows and ignore the EMT now trying to offer me my own oxygen mask. My attention now is all for the uniformed cop standing nearby. “Catch Ravenna! Don’t let her get away!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

LUCIEN

It’s close to dawn by the time the two of us get checked out at the hospital, released and return home. I send Tamsyn inside while I debrief with the fire and police departments and we all survey the smoldering and wet wreckage of the cottage. I’m sure I look like the walking dead when they finally dismiss me and I head inside and upstairs. Maddie, who dashed back to Ackerley as soon as she heard, is sitting in a chair in the corner of my bedroom looking at her phone. She glances up when I walk in.

“I’m back,” I say. “How’s she doing?”

Tamsyn emerges from the steamy bathroom just then, saving Maddie the trouble of answering. She’s wrapped in one of the fluffy white towels and looks rosy cheeked with her wet hair.

“She’s doing just fine,” Tamsyn says tightly. I’ll have to take her word for it, because she doesn’t sound that fine. Her voice is raspy from the smoke inhalation. I get the feeling her lungs are working overtime. I know mine are.

But it all could have been so much worse.

I take a closer look at her, determined to keep my shit together despite my pounding heart and the rock lodged inside my chest. She looks pretty good, actually. You’d almost be able to believe nothing happened earlier—if you overlooked the slight shakiness in her hands, her singed brows and the way she’s showing a little too much of the whites around her eyes, as though they’ve become permanently stuck in the shocked position.

“She was able to get the smell of smoke out of her hair,” she continues. “She didn’t need a babysitter while she was showering.”

“Good,” I say, pleased to discover that her fierce independence wasn’t consumed by the fire. “I’m sure Maddie doesn’t appreciate being called a babysitter. She probably prefers to think of herself as an unobtrusive companion available if anyone needs anything after a difficult evening.”

“Correct,” Maddie says crisply.

Tamsyn seems to realize she’s overreacting. “Sorry, Maddie. Thanks for your company.”

“Anytime,” Maddie says, standing and pocketing her phone before heading to the door. But she zeroes in on my face as she passes, and something in my expression stops her. Then she does something she’s never done in all the years she’s worked here at Ackerley: she reaches for both my hands and holds on tight, squeezing. “She’s okay, really. I hope you are, too.”

My emotions are running too high for me to do anything other than nod and try to keep it moving. “Appreciate it,” I say gruffly.

Maddie lets go and nods with grim satisfaction. “Shout if you need anything. Either of you.”

“Will do,” I say.

“Thanks again, Maddie,” Tamsyn calls after her.

Maddie leaves and closes the door behind her, leaving me and Tamsyn to reluctantly face each other. This whole operation is hanging together by a frayed thread. Neither one of us seems to want to be the one to show too much emotion and make everything fall apart.

I open my mouth, but I don’t know what to say and don’t trust myself to speak.

Luckily, she comes over and takes my hands the way Maddie just did, pulling me closer. I cling to this lifeline, reveling in the fact that Tamsyn is as warm, strong and vibrant as ever. We stand there like that for a moment, eyes locked, no words necessary.

“They didn’t find her, did they?” she eventually says.

It’s a pointless question, like asking if the sun is still rising in the east these days. Of course they didn’t find her. Of course she’s gotten away with something else. That’s Ravenna. Always has been and always will be.

Unless I permanently eradicate her as an issue. Which I fully plan to do.

“No.”

“But the police put out an APB for her?”

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