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She stayed in his embrace and looked up at him. “Hunt.”
He kissed her again because he needed to feel the connection they shared and know that she was real and alive and safe. “What?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know you are. The important thing is that you’re okay.”
Tears fell down her cheeks, leaving wet tracks through the soot on her face. “She’s dead. He killed her.”
He wiped the tears from her face. “You said she’s here.”
“He lit a bunch of cement bags on fire.” She shifted and pointed to the cement pad in front of the mostly burned-down structure. “I walked over her grave.”
He held her close and she dissolved into a fit of tears and grief so deep and consuming he could feel it all around him.
The ambulance and fire trucks pulled in behind them.
Controlled chaos erupted as the fire department let the structure burn while they put out the brush fire surrounding the building before it spread into the woods. The building wasn’t worth saving.
The paramedics helped Cyn into the back of the ambulance and put an oxygen mask on her. Her O2levels were low due to the smoke inhalation but they said she’d be okay. They looked at her arm, determined she needed more stitches. She needed another trip to the hospital. But she refused to go until they found her sister.
The fire department had some heavy equipment on their trucks. Once it was safe to get near the building, they used a couple sledgehammers to pound the two-inch slab into chunks. Hunt helped move the pieces aside, then he took the shovel and dug down until he found Angela wrapped in a tarp. When he opened the tarp at her head and spotted theLearrings, he closed the tarp back up and laid his hand on Angela’s head, then whispered, “Rest easy. We will find Lana. And I’ll take care of Cyn and her for you from now on.” He meant it with his whole heart.
Cyn stood with her arms wrapped around her, his jacket engulfing her slim frame, just outside the perimeter his fellow officers set up while they excavated the scene.
He walked right up to her and kissed her on the forehead, wishing he could tell her something different, and knowing this was what she needed to start healing. “We found her, sweetheart.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. She’s wearing the earrings you gave her.”
The tears came again, but not in a torrent, more like resignation and relief. “Thank you, Hunt.”
He didn’t know if she simply didn’t have the strength to cry anymore, or had simply run out of tears. Shelooked lost and pale and just so sad and done right now. He wished he could make it all better, but there was nothing he could say or do to bring her sister back.
“Lana is out there somewhere,” she whispered. “Nothing matters now but finding her.”
Rad had gotten away, but the manhunt had already begun, because while he recovered Angela’s body, his fellow officers scoured the woods and found the gun Rad used to shoot Cyn and most likely used in the home invasion assaults and murder.
He was facing an insane amount of charges that would put him away for the rest of his life.
Which made him even more dangerous.
“I need to get you to the hospital.”
“I’m fine.”
“No. You’re not. That gunshot wound needs to be cleaned and stitched. You’re probably dehydrated again and you need to have your lungs checked after all that smoke you inhaled.”
“My oxygen level is back to normal.”
“Cyn.” He stared down at her, waiting for her to make the right decision.
She looked up at him, confusion and something else in her eyes. “I don’t know what to do now without her.”
“Yes, you do, Cyn. You’ve already said it a half dozen times. We will find Lana. You will love and protect her and care for her. She needs you, sweetheart. And so do I. So please, let me take you to the hospital to get checked out.”
Instead of moving toward his car, she leaned into him and buried her face in his neck.
