Page 118 of Secrets That Bind Us
I sniff. “Dean?”
His eyes stay on Micah. “Yeah, baby?”
“Was Savannah out there?”
He nods. “She’s good, baby. She got me. She’s with Noah.”
I let out a sob.
It’s the perfect storm.
We were always a convolution of objections and disasters.
“Dean?”
His eyes finally find mine, and I take a deep, shaky breath and simply mouth,“I love you.”
“Verity, DON’T!”
I smash down the heel of my shoe down on Micah’s toes, elbowing him in the gut. When he loses his grasp on me, I use my hands to push over all the candles. They fall on his blankets. The sofa. The curtains. I scream when he grabs at me, but the fire is beginning to spread. There’s more shuffling behind me, but I kick at more of the candles.
More grunts– and the windows shatter the higher the flames go.
I look at the stairs to see Mama smiling at me before she turns away and goes up, the flames following her like she’s leading them– and they swallow her flickering form. It’s spreading so fast.Too fast.
Panic rising, I gasp, seeing another figure Noah’s age moving toward the kitchen– more flames dancing behind them.
But a noise like a firework grabs my attention, and soon I’m pushing Micah off of Dean. He rolls onto his back on the floor, and I let out an itchy, burning breath– the smoke now clawing at my throat. Dean gets up quickly. “We have to go!”
I nod, looking at Micah’s lifeless body, then at the thickening smoke and high flames surrounding us, licking at me. I cover my mouth with my hands. Dean said Savvy was safe. She’s okay.
“Front door!” I stumble over Micah’s corpse as we make our escape, but the train of my dress snags on something. I turn around to rip it– only for a still-alive Micah to yank on it harder. His hand comes up… and he shoots, just as the flames engulf him.I fall beside him, watching as my nightmare is engulfed in flames, melting before me.
I blink. “Mama?”
“VERITY!”Is all I hear Dean scream before I take Mama’s hand.
She’s so warm…
Chapter Forty-Four
Dean
Present Day
“Oh my God! Sheriff!” I hear Chief cry out from behind me.
Coughing, I drag Verity’s body out of the house, as close to the cement driveway as I can, ignoring it all go up in fucking smoke. Kneeling beside her, I smack her face a little. I give her a kiss. “C’mon baby! You gotta wake up, Ver!”
I tear my shirt off, cleaning her, trying to find the wound. “Jason! Please! You have to help me.” I choke on the fresh air, then cry out to God. “Please!”
I can’t break. I can’t break.
It doesn’t end like this.
Itcan’tend like this.
“C’mon baby, please, please, please wake up, baby.”
