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She’d come up one end of the basement hallway and out on the first floor. Sydney wasn’t even going tothinkabout what she had seen in the kitchen.
The woman’s sightless eyes would stay with her forever.
Right now, she had to get this kid to safety. Somehow. They weren’t going through that kitchen. He wasn’t going to see that woman dead like that. He just wasn’t. “Come on, baby, let’s get out of here.”
There was a side door. Off what looked like an old fashioned sitting room or parlor. She carried the little boy outside, quietly. She couldn’t leave him to go back inside for Pen. She just couldn’t.
Zoey wasn’t ever going to leave this place until she had Pen back. Sydney knew that.
But for now…
Sydney had to get him away from this place. Away from the fire.
Those men were around there somewhere. They’d have no reason to keep them alive if they found Sydney and this kid again. They’d already tried to kill him once.
She slipped the little boy to the ground. Just outside that side door.
As a shadow came closer.
She crouched, ready to kick out. To defend him with her very life, if she had to.
She was ready—then stopped.
The girl with Pen’s face froze. Sydney released the breath she was holding. “What are you still doing here?”
Pen’s twin had been hiding behind a large trashcan. “I came back to help. I couldn’t just let you be in there alone. Who—where did you findhim?He’s just a little boy!”
Well, the girl was the answer to Sydney’s prayer right now.
She lifted up her pant leg and there it was. Her lifeline. Her hope. Sydney unhooked the latch. If something else happened to her tonight, her sisters wouldn't have a chance of finding her.
But...
Did that really matter with this baby here now? "Take this. Keep it on you. It'll get you back home to your family. I promise."
"It's just a bracelet." she said in Pen’s voice. That voice…a thousand knives beneath Sydney’s skin.
Sydney leveled a look at her in the lowering light. They probably had half an hour before the sun fully set. Then things would be more complicated. "With a tracking device inside. There are powerful people looking for me and Pen right now. Just take him and keep walking. Until those people find you. Don't stop until you get to Value. There will be people to help you when you get there. And make sure he gets to people who will love him. They’ll find you with this.”
Sydney went down in front of the little boy with Slater's eyes. Pen's eyes. Zoey's. Sweeney's. "Listen to me, baby boy. You go with her, ok. She’ll keep you safe. Do you know that she's one of your big sisters, too? Just like Oakie is. She's going to take care of you now. I promise. I’m going to go help Mommy Zo find Oakie." She straightened the stuffed doll in his hand.
It was like a jab in the gut.
She recognized that doll.
How could she not? She’d never forget the day Jillian had proudly brought one home for her, Brynna, and Melody, shortly after their mother had died. Sydney’s own Jilly Silly doll held a place of honor on her bedroom shelf. With her sister’s almost illegible autograph across its cloth bottom. Jillian had signed it for her that very day. She’d been so proud.
Being Jilly Silly had financed half of Jillian’s nursing school education.
Her hand tightened on that doll before she gave it back to that sweet baby boy who looked so much like his older brother—Jillian’s husband.
Sydney wanted her big sisters so much right now.
More than anything, she wanted to behome.But that wasn’t going to happen without Pen and Zoey. It just wasn’t.
A Beck didn’t leave a sister behind.
A sister by biology or a sister by choice.
