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Eastman snarled.
Zoey looked at her sister. At Sydney. They were still on the stairs. There were clouds of smoke rolling behind them. They couldn’t go back that way. Not now.
She held the dead man’s gun. It had two shots left. Just two.
And her baby sister was right there now.
Trapped between the madman and the flames.
Sydney and Pen were there. By the entrance to the garage.
Eastman turned to them.
Murdoch swore again, but he was on his feet. “I’m at your back, woman. Let’s do this.”
Like she knew that man she loved always would be.
Zoey moved closer. “Where is Oakley, Eastman? What did you do with her?”
“A very willful, disobedient child. She has always been too much for me to mold, to handle. She is flawed, I’m afraid. I suspect she’s still in here somewhere. The smoke will do what is necessary. She won’t suffer for long.”
Zoey’s blood chilled at how callously, how coldly, he said it. How many women, children, had he so ruthlessly discarded, disposed of? How manydeathswere on his hands?
How manyliveswas he responsible for even creating now?
“She’s in here now? In this garage?”
He just shrugged.
The little girl was probably hiding. From this man, from the other men, from the flames. Of course, she was. She was just a little girl. There was no way she could understand this.
Zoey didn’t dare look away from the man with the gun. She knew better.
“Oakley? Where are you, baby?” She yelled it as loudly as she could. Oakley thought Zoey was her mother. And Zoey had promised to save her. “Mommy’s here for you now, baby girl! Tell me where you are! Oakley?Where are you now?”
She could see flames attacking the door frame behind Pen and Sydney now.
They would never be able to get out that way.
And they had to get off those stairs. Smoke rose. It already billowed above them now. Only the open garage door gave them enough air to breathe. That wouldn’t be enough soon.
Time was running out.
But she wasn’t leaving this garage without that little girl.
“Oakley! Where are you, baby? Answer Mommy!”
“She is not your daughter! She is Denita’s!”
Zoey stepped closer. “Not anymore. She will be my little girl forever now. Just like Penelope is.They will never be Denita’s ever again!”
“Oakley, it’s Sheriff Lake, sweetheart. I found Mommy! We’re here now to get you! Where are you, baby?” Murdoch yelled beside her. Keeping his weapon steady on Eastman. “I’m here now! I’m here to help!”
Zoey looked at the Murdoch quickly. “We have to find her fast.”
132
Oakley stayed where she was.Even when she smelled the fire.
