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With the flesh peeling from her hands.
I wanted to scream at them to look at her hand, but the words wouldn’t come out.
“Mam,” I whispered, body shaking violently. “Mam…”
“We have another one.”
“Adult male.”
“In the sitting room.”
“He appears to have been trying to escape through the window.”
“Deceased.”
“The damage is contained,” I heard someone shout out moments before another body was carried from the house. “The upstairs is clear.”
No, no, no!
The upstairs was not clear.
I had kids up there.
I’d fucking left them up there, dammit!
“My brothers and sister!” I strangled out, scrambling to my feet as I fought against the hold the man with his arms around my shoulders had on me. “Let me the fuck in!”
“There’s no one else inside.”
“You’re wrong!” I vehemently argued with the man I now realized was a Garda. “My brothers and sister are upstairs!” I knew they were. Worse, if they were aware that our father was in the house, then there was a huge chance they had barricaded themselves in their rooms and were in hiding. “Fuck. They’re inside that house. You have to let me get them.” Wheezing out a pained cry, I fought against his unbreakable hold. “I left them! I left them in there with her!”
“The entire house was checked,” he tried to placate. He fucking lied to my face. “There’s nobody inside.”
Bullshit.
Lunging away from him, I managed to break free and make it a couple of feet toward the house before he dragged me backwards once more. “Get your hands off me, you dirty fucking pig!”
In the middle of my world falling down around me, Johnny Kavanagh’s face came into view. “Joe,” he called out, slipping under the tape. “It’s okay.”
“Kav!” Breaking away from the asshole trying to hold me down, I moved for Shannon’s boyfriend. “You have to help me get them out!” Feeling frantic, I rushed at him, knowing that if anyone in this world would want to save my sister, it would be this guy. “I walked out. I got pissed and left. But I couldn’t do it! I couldn’t leave them, so I came back, but the house was… My mother!” The image of my mother caused my stomach to heave, and I choked out a sob. “Fuck! Shannon. Tadhg… Nobody’s listening to me—”
“I have them, Joey.” Four words that shook the foundations I was standing on, followed swiftly by four more. “I got them out.”
“You have them?” Dizziness engulfed me as I tried to comprehend what the fuck he was saying. He had them? My kids? He had them? “You got them out?”
He nodded vigorously as his arms came around my body. “Ollie, Tadhg, Sean, and Shannon.”
Ollie.
Tadhg.
Sean.
Shannon.
Johnny Kavanagh had them?
What the fuck?
