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He opens his eyes. “Our things are in there.”

The second deadbolt turns.

I don’t answer.

His mouth opens, but nothing comes out at first. He looks more wrecked by my silence than he did when I hit him. “Phones. You could have called someone.” His voice has gone low enough that I have to listen for it. “You could have saved us.”

“No.”

“You could have saved all of us.”

The third deadbolt turns.

I shake my head. “I did save us.”

He hits me so hard my head jerks back.

The wall catches the back of my skull, and the hallway disappears in a burst of white. My knees fold.

“You killed us.”

I get one hand against the floor and try to make the house hold still. He’s somewhere above me, breathing hard, while the front door opens.

I taste blood when I lift my head. “No,” I say. “I saved us.”

CHAPTER 35

Oliver

The front door opens while Jamie is still on the floor.

Heather steps inside, takes one look at us, and stops with her hand on the knob. Jamie has blood across his mouth and one cheek is already swelling. I can feel my own lip split, and my jaw has started to ache.

Her purse slides from her shoulder onto the entry table. She comes directly to Jamie. “What did you do to his face?”

The question is aimed at me.

Jamie gets one hand beneath himself, but Heather reaches him first and catches his chin. She tips his face toward the light, turning it carefully from one side to the other while he kneels there and lets her inspect him.

Her thumb stops beside his split lip. Jamie flinches. Heather crosses the space between us and takes my jaw with the same hand. Her thumb presses beneath the bruise Jamie left along my cheekbone, then moves to my mouth.

“You hit each other in the face.”

Of everything available to object to, this is apparently the part she finds most offensive.

Heather releases me and looks between us. “Who started it?”

“Oliver.” Jamie answers before I can.

Heather turns toward him.

Jamie wipes the blood from his mouth with the back of his wrist. “He started searching downstairs as soon as you left. He went through the table by the door and the kitchen drawers, then he went into your office.”

Heather’s attention sharpens.

“I tried to stop him.” Jamie glances at me once before continuing. “Then he went into your bedroom.”

Her eyes move toward the back hall.