"Good girl."
He stands and turns to the rest of the kitchen.
Rogue is in the doorway.
His eyes find me on the floor next to Marlena. His face goes the color of old paper.
He crosses the kitchen and crouches down behind me and his hands come up under my arms and he pulls me up off the floor without taking my hands off Marlena's chest until Dakota's hands are pressing where mine were.
He turns me around and his hands are on my face.
"Where is he?"
My mouth opens. Nothing comes out.
"Hadley. Baby. Where's Nash?"
I can't speak.
Rogue's hands tighten on my face. "Hadley."
I find the words. They come out wrong. "He took him. Hartley took him. He came in. He shot Marlena. He shot Diesel. Thunder came through the back and tackled him and Hartley shot Thunder and he told me he wanted him, then the next thing I know I was on the floor?—"
Rogue pulls me against his chest hard.
His mouth presses against the top of my head. His hand is in my hair. He isn't breathing right.
"You did right, baby. You did everything you could?"
I nod into his chest. I'm shaking now. Now that I'm in his arms I'm shaking.
"Did he say anything?"
I pull my face back to look at him. "Six hours. He said tell you six hours."
Rogue's eyes go past me to Phantom.
Phantom's eyes are on Marlena. Then they come up to Rogue. The two of them look at each other across the kitchen.
Phantom swallows hard, "Brother, go get your boy."
Rogue's hand tightens at the back of my neck. He looks down at me. "Baby. I gotta go."
I get my hand into the front of his cut. I grip the leather. The ring on my finger is slick. I look up at him.
The woman who answers him isn't the woman who sat at this table an hour ago and let her family fold around her.
"You bring him home, Silas."
"I will."
"You bring him home or you don't come home in one piece. You hear me?"
His hand stays at the back of my neck. His eyes don't leave mine. "I hear you, baby."
He presses his mouth against my forehead and keeps it there for the count of my own heartbeat.
Then he lets me go.
