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Movement in Ty’s peripheral had him turning toward the huge opening in the house.
Lysander.
He hadn’t been swept out. He’d managed to grip one of the bolted-down cages closest to the wall and hang on somehow. He pushed himself up, bloody and drenched, still gripping the gun. His guttural scream pierced the atmosphere as he aimed the gun at Ty.
The world shifted and stilled.
Owen released the cage that was holding him from being dragged away and gripped Lysander around the waist; the gun fired and missed Ty.
But nothing anchored Owen or Lysander, and Ty gaped in horror as his brother by choice was swept out to sea with a madman.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ty’s brain wouldn’t process what he’d witnessed.
Voices were muffled. He was moving but he didn’t feel it. Not even when he tripped and fell on the stairs toward the third floor.
“Get that on him. Use it to apply pressure.”
The sounds of clothes being yanked off hangers registered.
“We need a phone. Call someone!”
“Dad! Dad, I’m sorry!”
“Stay with me. I love you. I need you.”
Owen. Owen was gone. “Why did Owen do that, Bex?” A sob escaped his lips.
Iris held his wrist. “I have a palpable pulse, which means for now his blood pressure is decent, but it’s growing faint. Looks like a small-caliber wound.” She felt around his back. “I don’t feel an exit wound. It’s lodged.”
“What does that mean?” Bexley asked.
Iris frowned. “The bullet could be lodged in his aorta. He could have a small hemothorax.”
“And if that’s the case?”
Iris shook her head. “We might have a few hours.”
Ty might have a few hours but Owen had none. “Why would he do that for me? Why? Why?” Owen should have let him help him. They could have worked together like they always had. They could have saved those women together.
But deep down he knew that wasn’t true. Ty didn’t have the strength to save anyone.
He couldn’t even save himself.
Owen knew it too.
And Owen had chosen to lay down his life to save Tiberius.
Bexley wept as Iris worked on Tiberius. Women who’d been held captive for months huddled together draped in the shirts and suit coats of their captor, but that was all they had to help give them back their dignity.
Josiah cried on her shoulder, apologizing for everything he’d ever done and said. He was going to need to see Drew to work through the trauma. All of them needed mental health care.
But where was Ahnah?
Josiah said Lysander told him she left them, but she couldn’t believe that. Their lives had not grown that far apart.
She leaned her head on Tiberius’s for a moment. He was quiet. Too quiet. The only sound was the terrifying destruction happening all around them. More roofing had been ripped away and crashing continued, but so far they were safe here. They had found jugs of water in the room, flashlights, a lantern and packages of snack crackers and granola bars plus blankets and a first aid kit, which Iris had used on Tiberius to pack his wound as they prayed the hurricane would pass quickly or Tiberius wasn’t going to make it.
