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“Beau.”
I gasp and move toward his voice, cutting the plumes of dense air with my body, coughing into my hand. The heat. God, the heat. “James?”
“Here,” he says. “I’m here.” He emerges from behind one of Danny’s Mercs, holding the side to hold himself up. All the windows have been blown out, the hood littered with broken bricks and glass. James’s face is smudged with soot, and he has a horrible hacking cough.
“Fuck me,” Danny splutters, getting up from the ground, his hands braced on his knees as he coughs his guts up.
“Fury,” I murmur, scanning the area. “Where’s Fury?”
Both James and Danny look to what remains of the restaurant, the flames billowing inside.
“Oh no,” I whisper, my hand coming up to my mouth. “No, no, no.”
“Beau, we need to get out of here,” James barks, seizing me.
“But Fury!” I wriggle and squirm in his hold, trying to pry his hands from around my waist as he drags me away.
“He’s here,” Danny yells, disappearing behind a mountain of rubble and emerging a few moments later with Fury staggering along beside him, hacking and choking. “Get in the car!”
My relief gets the better of me, emotion catching up, and I let out a wracked sob. It’s short-lived. “Dad,” I blurt, starting to fight James’s hold again. “My dad.” I’m suddenly facing the other direction, James having swung around, and I see my father holding on to the side of his car, looking completely stunned. He’s in shock. I break away, running toward him. “Dad,” I pant, making it to him, holding his suit-covered arms. “Dad, are you okay?”
“Beau, we need to go,” James barks.
“I can’t just leave him!” He’s a zombie, completely out of it.
“Fuck,” James curses, taking my father’s arm and guiding him to the passenger side of his car. “Where are your keys?”
Dad blinks rapidly, patting at his pockets absentmindedly. “I don’t know. I had them.”
I scan the sidewalk where he was standing and spot them in the gutter. “I’ve got them.” I dip, collecting them and throwing them across the roof of the car to James.
“Get in,” he orders me.
I do as I’m told and watch as James rounds Dad’s car, signaling to Danny up front, and as soon as he’s behind the wheel, he screeches off, throwing me back in my seat.
“Get your belt on, Beau,” he demands harshly, catching up to Danny as I slowly pull my belt across, shaken to my core, my ears ringing, my attention split between my raging boyfriend and my traumatized father.
Until I hear sirens.
I peek out the back of Dad’s car and see various emergency service vehicles speeding into the street from the other end. “You knew something was going to happen,” I whisper, turning back around. James is supposed to be dead, so what the fuck is going on? He looks up at the rearview mirror, finding me. “Are we just going to skirt past the fact that someone just tried to blow you up again?”
He doesn’t say anything.
He doesn’t have to.
The Bear’s moves are becoming bolder.
And death seems to be getting closer.
* * *
It’s complete chaos outside Danny’s mansion when we pull through the gates. Otto and Goldie look about ready to tear each other’s heads off, Ringo between them, Brad’s just getting out of his car, and Rose is being held on the steps by Esther and Tank.
I peek at my father, who hasn’t breathed a word for the whole journey, his gaze set firmly forward. And it isn’t because he’s scared of the man beside him. I don’t think he’s got it in him to be anything at the moment, other than frozen from shock.
As soon as James rolls to a stop, I get out, rounding the car to open the door for Dad. He looks at me blankly. My smile is weak as I offer my hand, and he accepts, letting me help pull him out. I shut the door and motion the way, seeing Rose flying down the steps and diving into Danny’s waiting arms. She checks him everywhere, kisses every square inch of his face. And then slaps him.
I watch, tense, as everyone waits for his reaction. He cracks his jaw. Rolls it. Gives Rose a murderous glare. And then she dives back into his arms on a broken sob.
“Beau,” Dad says, turning into me. “Where are we? What on earth is going on?” He looks up and around again, before grabbing my arms and getting close. “We must leave. You’ll be safe with me.”
I can only smile dejectedly at his naivety, taking his hands and holding them. “I’m safest here,” I assure him. “I promise you.”
He deflates before my eyes, as if it’s just this moment finally sunk in that I’m here of my own free will. “I don’t understand.” He shakes his head, frowning, looking as if he’s trying to unravel it all here and now. “Why?”
