Without question, she handed it to her as we raced down the stairs. Tears spilled down Banks’s cheeks, but she didn’t make a sound otherwise.
“I’m logging you into the street cameras,” Rika told her, tapping away on her cell. “They turned right out of the gate about ninety seconds ago, probably headed toward town, but keep an eye on them and make sure. We’ll follow.”
Banks nodded, Rika handed her phone back to her, and everyone rushed through the front door, grabbing keys to cars on the way.
But I caught sight of something and stopped.
They all veered around me, emptying the foyer, but I stared at the grandfather clock, it’s pendulum frozen and the minute hand paused on nine minutes past ten.
Holding up my wrist, I checked my watch, seeing it was actually twenty-three minutes past the hour.
I glanced at the clock again.
“What is it?” Emmy rushed back up to me.
“Clock stopped.” I couldn’t breathe. “Ten-oh-nine. That’s when Reverie Cross died.”
I mean, I didn’t really believe that shit, but I also knew Madden was the only one who refused to light a candle on EverNight. Kind of weird.
She pulled me along, both of us running to the back doors of one of the SUVs, Kai and Banks piling into the front. Michael and Damon climbed into the other car with Winter and Rika, and Kai slipped the key in, pausing suddenly.
He tapped the digital clock, and I zoned in, seeing ten-oh-nine on the car clock, as well.
“What the hell?” Kai growled.
But he didn’t stop to worry. “How far ahead of us are they?” he asked his wife.
“Just reaching the village,” she told him, looking at her screen. “Hurry.”
We strapped ourselves in, and I shot a worried look to Emmy next to me.
“It’s not EverNight,” she whispered.
“It doesn’t have to be.”
Reverie Cross had all year to strike, and while I knew a lit flame the next morning meant you were safe, I had never cared to think about what happened to those who didn’t light a candle at all.
“Let’s go!” I called.
Kai shot off, slamming the gas, and we raced down the driveway, Michael’s headlights bright on our tail.
Kai charged onto the road, the tires spinning under us on the snow-covered blacktop. Kicking it into low gear, he sped down the street, past the other houses lit up with bonfires, lanterns, and holiday lights.
“Did you reach Engelstat?” I turned to Emmy, remembering what I’d asked her to do.
“Yes, the kids are safe.” She nodded. “Banks sent security to the theater. They’ll stay there until we come.”
I nodded once. Good.
If anything, they were probably safer there. Tons of people, the whole place locked down…
“Where are they now?” I asked Banks.
She hesitated, studying her screen and changing vantage points. “Heading toward Old Pointe Road,” she finally answered and then looked to Kai. “They wouldn’t be going to the resort, right? Meridian City, maybe?”
He shook his head, turning his eyes left and right as he raced at what felt like a hundred miles an hour. “Just keep your eyes on them.”
I stared out the window, clenching my jaw so hard it ached. Taylor Dinescu. We hadn’t messed with Blackchurch for him after the last time we saw him that night at the Cove. We threw everything at him and his family, sending him to prison, because he deserved to be there. Not only for what got him sent to Blackchurch, but for my own personal reasons, too.
He’d hurt Emmy. A lot. And he fucking enjoyed doing it.
And when he finally managed to get out six years ago, I hired someone to keep an eye on him for a while—make sure he didn’t get any ideas—but I knew he didn’t deserve a second chance. We should’ve sent him away.
Or dealt with him permanently. He was the one with the money. Not Ilia. If I had just taken care of it, we wouldn’t be here.
“This could’ve been our kids,” I mumbled, tears filling my eyes.
“It is our kids,” Em replied.
I looked over at her as she reached out and took my hand. I couldn’t imagine what Damon was feeling right now.
I wouldn’t really know the full measure of it until it was one of mine.
“What happened in that room?” Banks asked Kai. “Something went wrong if they left a dead body behind. How did we not hear or see anything?”
“We’re going to find them,” Kai stated. “Mads is smart.”
“He would’ve fought,” Banks told him, crying again. “They would’ve had to hurt him to get him in that car. Did you see on the camera if they hit him or not?”
He shook his head but didn’t answer.
My eyes burned, seeing Banks so scared for the first time ever. I turned my head out of the window. This would be the end of us. If anything happened to those kids…
We had minutes. Minutes before they were gone forever.
“Look at me,” Kai told her, trying to keep his eyes on the road too. “Not today.”
Banks nodded but still looked about to break.
I heard a seatbelt unclick, and Emmy was suddenly in my lap, forcing my face around and my eyes on her.
I closed them, though. I’d brought this on them. What if worse happened to our kids someday? What life did I bring her into?
“Look at me.” She shook me.
I opened my eyes.
“We couldn’t be anyone else,” she said. “This isn’t your fault.”
I stared up at her, all the doubt and worry I was usually good about hiding laid bare for her, because she always knew what I was thinking. She could read me as well as herself.
I didn’t want to be anyone else. But I didn’t want the kids to suffer the consequences for our choices, either.
I wrapped my arms around her and looked up into her eyes. “I love you,” I whispered. “Thank you for my children.”
If I didn’t get a chance to say it again…
Her smile peeked out. “Ditto.”
I held on to her, her scent and eyes reminding me of our kids and everything I loved about waking up every day.
We had a right to be here, and we didn’t ask for this.
Reaching down, I fisted both sides of the slit of her dress and ripped it up her thigh, giving her legs room to move. “Let’s go get these motherfuckers.”
She kissed me as Kai sped into the village, but immediately slammed on the brakes.
“What the hell?” he barked.
I pulled away from Em, squinting out the front windshield to see the street crowded with people, despite the thick, white flakes pouring down. I glanced over at the theater, noting Banks’s two men just inside the doors, guarding the kids.
I exhaled, looking back at the costumes and masks and fire pits glowing bright around the village as music played and people smiled.
Santa sat up in the gazebo, a line of a dozen kids waiting to meet with him.
“The treasure hunt,” I reminded him. That was why everyone was out. We couldn’t have planned this kidnapping better for Taylor and Ilia. Tons of activity to get lost in.
I glanced behind me, not seeing the others. Michael must’ve gone the long way, knowing what the village would be like.
“Head past the cathedral,” Emmy told him. “Take the lane down to Old Pointe.”
He hit the horn and flashed his lights as people took their sweet time getting out of the fucking way. Slowly, the snow-covered street cleared.
“Kai, go!” Banks yelled.
He swerved, past the gazebo, Sticks, and the White Crow Tavern, jerking the wheel and skidding around the corner.
Banks whimpered, holding the safety bar above her window, and I could tell she was losing her mind. Every moment those kids weren’t in our arms, the more chance we had of never finding them.
I had no idea what Taylor and Ilia were planning, but if they’d wanted them dead, they would’ve done it at the house. Ther
e was no way they were planning on returning them, though. It’d be suicide.
Thoughts of things so much worse invaded my head, and my stomach rolled, knowing what happened to kids all over the world. The horror that might await if we lost them tonight.
I rubbed my eyes, the sweat on my forehead coating my hand.
The headlights burned a hole in the darkness ahead, snowflakes fluttering to the ground as the gun dug into my back. I was tempted to use it.
God, I was tempted to take our family over that line tonight.
“Stop!” Banks yelled. She pointed ahead, and everyone looked, seeing taillights in the ditch off the side of the road. My heart hammered in my chest as Kai swung up behind the SUV and pulled to a stop, everyone knowing without a word that it was the same car.
What the hell happened? The kids…
We jumped out of the car, the cold nipping at our faces as we ran to the crashed, black SUV.
Relief and fear washed over me at the same time.
Taylor was collapsed with his head over the steering wheel, his window partially down, and I leapt down the ravine, grabbing hold of the door handle.
“You son of a bitch!” I yelled, reaching over the window and trying to grab him. He swayed, his face bloody, but the fucking car was crashed between two trees, and I couldn’t get the door open.
“Octavia!” Emmy shouted.
Followed by Banks. “Mads!”
I darted for the rear of the car and pulled open the hatch, crawling over the backseat to the motherfucker.
“They’re not here!” Banks yelled, crawling in after me.
Emmy broke the driver’s side window just as I reached Taylor. He swung around, pulling out a gun, but just then, she shot her hand out, knocking the weapon to the floor, and whipped the ridge of her palm right into his neck, crushing his throat.
Heh. Did Kai teach her that? Looked familiar.
Blood matted Taylor’s hair and dripped down his face. I grabbed him, gripping his jaw. “Where are they?” I bellowed. “What did you do?”
But just then, I saw it. My stomach rolled, and I winced, averting my eyes for a moment. Jesus fucking Christ. What the fuck?
His goddamn eyeball hung just outside its socket, blood spilling out of the other one, as well. How did that happen?
“That…that…” he gasped, trying to get the words out. “That kid is crazy. He killed Gibbons.”
Huh? “Who?” I barked.
You know what, I don’t care. “Where are they?” I fisted his collar, shaking him.
And where was Ilia?
Emmy moved out of the way, letting Kai in, Mads’s father grabbing hold of Taylor with me, both of us squeezing his skull.
I fitted my thumb just between his nose and eye, ready to dig in. “Now, or I take the other one!”
He closed his mouth, and I barely had time to realize what he was doing before he spit in my face.
Kai growled, grabbing him and burrowing his thumb into his eyes, threatening to blind him completely.
“Ahhhh!” he screamed.
“Where?” Kai yelled.
“The marina!” he cried. “The marina!”
I scrambled out of the car, grabbing Emmy’s hand as all of us raced back up to our SUV. Lev and David pulled up, climbing out of their car, having probably tracked Banks’s phone.
“The Pope,” Kai told them, but then he reached across Taylor and pulled out a white mask.
It wasn’t one of ours. More like a full phantom mask. Did he recognize it?
Or…
My stomach sank. They were at the party.
Jesus Christ.
Kai threw the mask back into the car, and then stalked to ours, yanking his door open. “The twelfth floor,” he instructed.
“Yes, sir,” David replied.
Good idea. We weren’t turning Taylor over to anyone’s care this time. We had a place to hide him. If he survived.
They ran over to collect Taylor as Banks jumped on her phone. “The marina,” she told someone, probably Damon. “Kill him if you have to.”
And please hurry.
I opened the back door, letting Emmy in first.
“That was a good move, baby,” I told her, remembering her little hand trick on his throat. “John Wick, right?”
“John Wick 2.”
I nodded, rushing in after her. “Oh, right.”
“I’ll keep you posted,” Rika told her mom on the phone. “Don’t worry.” She listened, then nodded, glancing at me. “As soon as we know something, yes.”
She hung up and handed the phone to me. I tucked it into my pocket, Damon in the driver’s seat in front of me and Winter wringing her hands next to him.
I heard a notification beep, and then Damon tapped the screen of his cell.
“What is it?” Rika asked.
“Banks texted,” he told us. “The kids are at the marina.”
“Does Banks have them?” I blurted out.
But he shook his head, punching the gas, the engine revving under us. “I don’t think so.”
“Damon…” Winter begged, and I could see her knees shaking.
He clasped her hand. “They won’t do anything.”
“They might not plan to, but I doubt that dead body upstairs was planned, either,” she pointed out. “Something went wrong. They’ll be more scared now.”
Rika scooted forward and put her hand on Winter’s arm.
“If they were going to…” I started, but thought better of saying that out loud. “They would’ve done it at the house. They want ransom or something.”
Winter paused a moment, dropping her head. “Or they’re selling them,” she muttered. “Or bringing them to someone else.”
Jesus. I closed my eyes, groaning. We all knew the worst-case scenarios, and none of them ended happily for us if we didn’t catch up to those kids in the next ten minutes.
I hated that she let those thoughts fester, but…it kept us alert, I guess.
“Just go,” Rika barked. “Go around him.”
Damon swerved into the wrong lane, passing another car, and then jerked the wheel again, speeding on ahead, in front of it.
Taking out my phone again, I dialed Athos.
I should’ve called her right away. Shit.
“Hey,” she giggled, and I could hear her friends’ chatter in the background. “I’m not drinking. I might do some kissing. And I’m raising a little hell. Proud of me?”
“Go to the theater,” I blurted out. “Now. It’s an emergency. Stay there until I come and get you.”
There was silence, and I half-expected to be questioned, but she didn’t fight.
I heard her swallow. “Okay,” she replied quietly. “I’ll text when I’m there.”
“Love you,” I said.
“Love you too.”
We hung up, and I looked at Rika who was listening in, her shoulders relaxing when I nodded.
We didn’t ever overreact, and Athos knew it. If I sounded worried, I had cause, and she needed to do what she was told.
Rika reached behind and picked up a jacket out of the third row, pulling it on, and then dug under the seat, pulling out a blade. She kept them in all of our cars and various spots in the house for immediate access.
But I put my hand on hers, stopping her.
She met my eyes, and I shook my head. No. Not this time.
Her eyes narrowed, confused. “You can’t be serious,” she whispered. “I’m always with you.”
My heart ached, because I never wanted to do anything without her. She was the reason we were who we were. It had all started with her.
My eyes dropped to her stomach, our son starting to show himself more every day.
“I need you to be with him,” I told her.
At all costs.
“But Octavia and Madden—”
“We’ll get them.”
Of course, she was needed. And always wanted.
I touched her face, tipping her chin up to me,
and the look in her eyes took me back to that night when she was thirteen, yelling at me over the hood of my car. “I’ve waited too long to see you and me walking around in one person,” I murmured.
We loved Athos and we were lucky, because I didn’t give a shit about the mother who’d left her at the sitter’s when she was seven and never came back, or the father she’d never known.
She was made for us.
But I was dying for another chance to be a dad.
Damon swung into the parking lot of the marina, cliffs on both sides and snow pouring white over the sea. Rika finally nodded, knowing this was as far as she went.
“I’ll call Search and Rescue.” She took my phone out of my hand. “And direct the police when they get here.”
I took her face and leaned in, kissing her as Damon and Winter jumped out of the car, and headlights fell upon us from behind.
Kai and Will were here.
“Lock the doors,” I whispered against her mouth.
“Go.” She kissed me again, her cheeks wet with tears. “Hurry. Bring them back.”
I jumped out of the car, icy flakes hitting my face as I blinked against the snowfall.
“Let’s go!” Kai shouted.
I ran, glancing once more at Rika through the windshield, but she was already on the phone as she leaned over the front seats, hitting the locks.
We raced down the steps and onto the dock, looking for any sign of movement or life among the boats, or out at sea.
“Jesus, it’s getting bad,” Emmy said, pulling Will’s coat around her as she blinked against the downpour.
The black ocean loomed beyond, the darkness swallowing up any light. God, there was nothing. No kick up in the wake of a boat. No lights. Where were they?
I grabbed for my phone, but my pocket was empty. I forgot Rika had it. We needed more eyes on the town. I didn’t know where Kai got his information, but they could be anywhere but here.
“Mr. Mori!” someone called.
We all spun around, and my eyes finally caught sight of the old man up on the second-floor balcony of the marina office.
Doones was about sixty-five and the last old sea dog Thunder Bay could brag about from back in the day, when we prided ourselves on our clam chowder, rather than our cheese and wine tastings.
Kai rushed up, shouting, “Did you see Octavia and Madden tonight? Which way did they go?”
Fire Night Page 6