Show Me the Way (Fight for Me #1)(100)

And I knew my grandma’s restaurant was getting ready to go up in flames.

I didn’t slow, only pushed myself harder, desperate to get to Frankie.

Aaron tried to force Janel around to the front passenger seat, but she diverted and wrenched open the back passenger door. “Frankie . . . Frankie?”

Janel started to panic, shouting it again. “Frankie!”

Struggling to jerk out of his hold, she whirled on Aaron. “Where’s Frankie?”

I stumbled to a stop halfway across the vacant lot, heart crashing against my ribs.

“Warned you, Janel, but you wouldn’t listen. We’re not taking that fucking kid. We’re getting out of Gingham Lakes and out of this country, and I won’t have anything slowing us down. Now, let’s go.”

“Where is she?” she screamed.

Even though he seemed to avoid it, Aaron’s attention darted back to the diner, expression twisting in the briefest flash of guilt.

Guilt aimed at my gramma’s diner that was going up in flames.

No.

Oh my God.

Slowly he shook his head. “Didn’t expect the fire. That’s not on me. Now get in or I’m leaving you behind.”

Janel’s expression froze in horror. And I thought maybe it was the first time I saw any true humanity in her. Any true care. Just as fast, it was gone, and Janel started around to the front of the SUV.

She was just going to leave her.

I spun around in my own horror. Flames licked out from the back window and glowed through the gaping door.

For a flash, my eyes squeezed closed, my gramma’s voice a whisper in my ear. Her presence overwhelming, so much I could feel her belief penetrating to the depths of me.

All moments matter. We just rarely know how important they are until the chance to act on them has already passed.

I’d always known Rex and Frankie were worth the chance. This one might cost me it all. Everything. But they would always, always be worth it.

My feet pounded against the pavement. Adrenaline and fear were a thunder that stampeded through my veins and whooshed in my ears.

I held up my arm as if it might protect me when I barreled through the doorway and into the kitchen.

Smoke swallowed me.

Taking me whole.

Black.

Thick.

Suffocating.

Holding my breath, I tried to get as low as possible as I began to search.

When I couldn’t do anything else, I tugged my shirt over my nose and gave in.

Inhaled.

It burned.

Burned so badly that my lungs wept, just the same as my insides.

Heat licked across my skin, so hot I wanted to scream.

Scream for help.

For sanity.

For Frankie.

Most of all, for Frankie.

I groped along the walls. Trying to find my way. To make sense of where I was.

Disoriented, I fumbled, trying to focus.

A wall.

An oven.

The pantry.

Oh God, the pantry.

The door was closed.

When I’d left this evening, it’d been wide open. I was sure of it. I’d been moving things in and out and had propped it open.

I slid my hands over it, feeling, searching. Relief wrenched from me when I found the latch. I managed to drag it open.

Smoke billowed inside. It was at the same second I heard Frankie’s cry.

“Frankie!” It was a shout.

Joy.

Solace.

Fear.

Each emotion rushed me. One after another.

Because I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t see and everything hurt so bad.

The radiating heat and the asphyxiating smoke.

But there was no chance I was giving up.

Flames bloomed just outside the pantry door, consuming the kitchen, eating away the plaster and wood and memories.

I dropped to my knees and crawled across the floor. My hand came into contact with something that moved. A foot. A leg. A tiny body that I pulled into my arms, holding her against my chest, burying her face in my shirt.

Because I’d do anything to protect her. To save her.

Dizziness swept through my being. Head. Body. Soul. I fought to stay coherent. To stay awake. To fight.

I clutched Frankie to me, rocked back, and screamed.





42





Rex





I rushed through the doors of the police station. I’d been on the phone with my mom the whole way over, trying to get as much information from her as I could and settle her down at the same time. Which was a ridiculous notion in and of itself, considering how close I was to coming unglued. Torn limb from limb. Janel’s fist punched right into the center of my chest, the bitch ripping out my still beating, bleeding heart, holding it hostage in her corrupt, vicious hand.

Never in a million years would I have imagined she’d stoop this low. Of course, I’d had no clue how deep her betrayal went, either.

Treason.

Treachery.

It was nothing less.

Lieutenant Seth Long was already coming out of his office when I skidded to a stop in front of it. We’d gone to school together, had been friends for as long as I could remember, the guy devoting his life to the greater good.

“Rex,” he wheezed, amped up, whole station already on red alert. “APB has been issued, and I have every available cruiser already on the streets. We’re going to get her back. I promise you, Rex, if it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to get your daughter back.”