Page 72 of Until Retribution Burns (Beauty in Lies 3)

“It’s sweet that you think I’ve ever had any control over what Mom did, but I promise you I do not. She came here to tell me a story. One that isn’t my place to tell you, so you’ll have to ask her if you want answers,” I said, wondering if my father knew about the man who’d come before him. My parents had married later in life, and it wasn’t unreasonable, even if surprising, to think they’d both had love lives before each other.

“You trust him,” Odina said, narrowing her gaze as she stared back at me with cloudy eyes. “You’ve never trusted them before.”

“Rafe is different,” I explained, standing from the couch and moving to the kitchen. I grabbed a dishcloth from the drawer, running it under cool water and taking my seat next to her once more. I dabbed the cloth over her forehead, watching as she settled into the touch. No matter how much Odina hated me, she’d always wanted to be cared for when she hit the point where alcohol numbed the pain and made her vulnerable.

Those were the nights when I got a brief glimpse of what I thought our bond could have been if it hadn’t been for that day in the river, and when I clung to a glimmer of hope that maybe one day things could be different for us.

I’d given up on that hope, but I had continued to show her kindness in the moments when she’d accept it and when she needed it. Where I’d once thought it a strength, now I saw her for the weakness she was. My love for a sister who didn’t deserve my affection weakened me, but it would take a very sharp knife to sever the bond between us completely.

“He’s a man,” she scoffed.

“He loves me. In a way that I hope you find one day. Maybe then you can understand that I’ll never forgive what you tried to do. We both know there was no chance of us ever being true sisters again after what you did with Wayne. But trying to seduce my husband was the icing on the cake.” I hated to admit the words, even knowing that they were well and truly said in earnest. I couldn’t help but hope that one day Odina grew to love a man, and someone she should have been able to trust came and threatened that for her own pettiness.

I felt terrible even thinking about it, but the thought was there nonetheless. The bonds of sisterhood didn’t mean I had tolikebeing so tied to her. As terrible as her actions with Wayne had been in high school, my territorial feelings where Rafe was concerned meant she’d straight up pissed me off.

“He killed Wayne for what we did,” she said, and there wasn’t a trace of doubt in her voice. Even if it had never been addressed, she knew the man who had interfered on that night came back to make good on the threat that was fuzzy in my memory. “Why didn’t he kill me?”

“Because you’re my sister, and he knows I would have a hard time forgiving that. He let you live as a kindness, so I suggest you keep your distance from now on,” I said, pressing the cloth into her face. I glanced out the windows, my eyes narrowing on where Odina had parked our father’s truck next to the house. “We live separate lives now —”

My words cut off as Joaquin shouted. “Get down!” A flash of light blinded me, making everything disappear in a shock as I tucked my face into my chest to protect my burning retinas.

Boom.

Glass shattered at my side, raining down on us as I put my arms up to cover my face and tucked my head in instinctively. The shockwave knocked us off the couch, forcing us to the floor, and I rolled to my stomach protectively. My ears rang, the repercussion of the blast making that too-familiar sound consume all of my thoughts. In the eerie, ringing, near-silence that followed, I moved into a crouch slowly, peering out the window.

The place where my father’s truck had sat before was now a raging inferno, my gaze catching on the flames and terror filling me as I cradled my stomach tightly in fear.

The baby I hadn’t been sure I wanted suddenly felt like something I couldn’t live without—something I needed to protect at all costs.

A second blast rocked the night, the air rippling with the force of it even though it seemed further away. Not trusting if that was because of true distance or simply a consequence of the ringing in my head, I crouched even lower and moved to check on Odina.

Joaquin closed the distance between us, wrapping an arm around my back as he crouched with me to try to remain out of sight. His gun was already drawn and clutched tightly in his hand, ready for whatever might come our way in the wake of the explosions. “Get to the panic room,” he grunted, gesturing me toward the hallway where the men’s quarters were located. His voice was muffled from the pressure in my ears, as if I was in the water of the river and not feet from the flames.

“Not without Rafe!” I argued, yelling despite the intent to stay quiet. My throat burned with the way the words felt torn out of me.

Odina held her ears in her hands, the side of her face covered in cuts from the glass. My face stung with the same, tiny abrasions that felt so miniscule compared to the pain claiming my entire body. Still, there was an oddly familiar sensation of deja vu as I pushed through that pain.

I’d survived a car bomb once before, and I’d be damned if this one got the best of me. “Hurry up,” Joaquin ordered.

“We have to move,” I said to Odina, nudging her with my foot as gently as I could. With the pain overwhelming my body, I didn’t know that I could move to help her to her feet. Only the adrenaline and the will to protect the baby kept my limbs functioning despite my terror.

The heat of flames on my face was more than a memory—a reality that seemed inevitable for me to escape. As if the fire of the fate I’d escaped followed me through my life with Rafael, waiting to consume me within the flames.

“I can’t,” she sobbed.

“Get up!” I yelled, holding out a hand for her. If she didn’t take the offering, I’d have no choice but to leave her. To let my sister suffer a fate meant for me once again, purely because if I had to choose between her and the baby, there would be no choice at all.

She took it hesitantly, leaning her weight into mine as soon as she stood on wobbly legs. I shouldered it, nearly collapsing under her as I made my way toward the back hallway where Rafe’s office was. Joaquin kept his hands free, that gun clutched in his hands far more valuable than helping my sister walk. His face conveyed everything he felt about watching my twin use me to support herself, disgust written into the twist of his mouth.

Smoke curled out under the office doorway, my heart catching in my throat at the sight of it. Odina paused her steps, freezing in place as she stared at it and looked back toward the front of the house. “I’m not going in there,” she wheezed, holding up a hand to cover her mouth and breathe through the smoke.

“Then go,” I said, shrugging off her arm as I clenched my eyes shut against the burn in them. She gave me one last lingering look, briefly turning it to Joaquin who made no move to leave my side. She shook her head before she turned on her heel and retreated toward the front of the house. It was up to her to save herself. The only thing that mattered was getting Rafe and making our way to the bunker.

I took one last smoke-filled breath of air before I put one foot in front of the other. Joaquin led the way, attempting to stand between me and whatever might be on the other side of that door. Even going for Rafe’s office at all came as a surprise, when I’d have half expected him to cart me to the panic room no matter what I thought of that plan, but he couldn’t fight me and protect me at the same time.

A window at the end of the hallway in front of me crashed open, glass spraying through the space as a bottle cracked against the wall. Flames erupted, consuming the hall in fire that made me stagger back a step as the heat of it touched my skin.

“Rafe!” I screamed with a cough, the sound ringing in my ears.

Only the fire answered me.

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