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I swallow a lump of desperate emotion, and it’s all I can do to bide my time, waiting for the moment to take this lunatic out.
As he destroys the library, I reach toward my ankle with the handnotstaunching the wound in my side to achingly slowly draw out the firearm concealed there.
It’s almost within my reach when Matt really goes to town, smashing the pictures and lamps adorning the walls.
But I freeze when he draws out a lighter, realizing belatedly that those lamps look like old-style kerosene lamps and are surely full of flammable liquid.
He yanks Wren to him as he holds the lighter up high. “If I can’t have you…”
With a flick, the flame shimmers on the tip of the lighter, and he smiles as he lets it go. “Then no one can.”
The lighter falls down, down, down, landing on a stack of kerosene-soaked books, and the room is instantly aflame. Fire travels from stack to stack, filling the space faster than I’d have thought possible.
All the while, Matt stares at Wren as she thrashes, trying desperately to get out of his hold. I pull the gun the rest of the way out of its holster, pushing myself to stand despite the burning pain in my side where Marcus’s bullet entered my body.
“Let her go, Porter.”
Matt freezes when he sees my gun, and Wren uses that moment to reach into his waistband and grab his own gun.
He roars at her as she makes to run toward me, only for Matt to yank her hair back, holding her in place. Using her as a shield.
Rather than let him regain control of his gun, she flings it away into the corner of the burning room, and Matt loosens a growl of displeasure before staring me down.
“You can’t have her.”
I grit my teeth, sweat from the rising room temperature dotting my brow as I weigh my options quickly. I immediately know that I can’t attempt a shot. Not when Wren could get hurt.
“Please, Matt, we’ll all leave together. We can make this right—ouch.”
She cries out when he increases his grip on her hair, pulling her back against his chest even closer and hissing, “You fuckingruinedit. You ruined everything.Youdid this, Wren. You let him put abastardin your belly—”
I fire off a warning shot, rapidly reaching the end of my rope. “I’m giving you one last chance before I put a bullet in you. Let. Her. Go.”
Matt opens his mouth to answer, but before he can say anything, Jo’s fist connects with the side of his head, sending him sprawling across the floor where he lies motionless.
“Took you long enough.” Wren hurtles across the room, carefully tucking her small form in against my non-injured side, and I press a soft kiss to her brow as relief fills me.
Jo shrugs as he rubs his chest, where the bullet hit his vest, before his keen eyes assess the situation and the encroaching flames. “I think it’s past time we made our exit.” Then he steps around us, plucking Sara from the floor as though she weighs nothing.
“Where’s Matt?”
Wren’s voice trembles as she peers into the flame-filled room, and I clench my jaw in frustration.
“He’s gone.” Her face pales as I spear Jo with a glare. “We don’t have time to look for him. Keep your eyes peeled.”
Wren sticks to my side as we make our way through the house and out the main door to find Elliott bound with cable ties, while Ford attempts to suture a bullet wound on his own side.
“Where are my boys?” Elliott seethes as sweat, blood, and dirt mix on his heavily furrowed brow. “Give me my sons—”
Ford brings his elbow down behind Elliott’s ear, and the bound man slumps forward heavily. “Doesn’t matter how many times I put him to sleep, the fucker won’t stop waking up.”
Jo softly lays Sara on the grass, and Wren kneels alongside her mother, checking her over with a grateful smile. The sound of an incoming chopper lightens the anxiety in my chest, and I press my hand more harshly over my wound, grateful that help is at hand.
I heave a sigh, staring up at the glass windows of the library as the fire begins to spread to the rest of the house, the devil in me hoping that Matt didn’t make it out.
And as though my thoughts manifested him, Matt’s roar pierces the air behind us.
“She’ll never be yours.”
