Page 16 of Midnight Salvation

Her words are rapid-fire, like she can’t speak fast enough. I’m shaking my head as I try to catch up, my brows crowding my eyes. “Wait an hour, what are you talking about?”

“Our family evacuation plan,” she stresses, as if those words are going to magically tell me what the hell she’s talking about.

“Ma, I don’t know—wait.” I spin around, facing the wall. My back rounds as I lean over a little, the icy fingers of dread curling around my heart and squeezing. “What did you say?”

“I said this has always been our family evacuation plan if the compound is compromised. Honestly, son, you should know this.”

I wave my hand in the air, like I can physically swipe away her words. But it’s been so long since I was a civilian, since I had to learn the evacuation plan, that I’d forgotten it I guess. I doubt Silas or Bane remembers either, or they would’ve already been to the Lincoln Street safe house by now, protocol be damned.

“No, no before that. What about Evangeline?” My heartbeat pulses inside my veins, a thudding reminder of the urgency in the situation.

“I said I’m worried about her,” she says, pitching her voice louder for a moment. “Honestly, Asher, I’m worried about the quality of service on these burners. Who knows how long they’ve been here.”

“Ma,” I bark. “I love you, and I’m so glad you’re safe with Hunter, but I need you to focus so I can figure out what the fuck is going on. Where is Evangeline?”

Anxiety felt like a swarm of bees trapped beneath my ribs, buzzing and stinging with frenzied urgency.

“I don’t know, son,” she says, her voice gentle. “I ran to your house, right when they breached the gate. She grabbed Hunter, and we got on the UTVs. I was going to lead her off the property through the service gate in the back. But the red one, it wouldn’t start.”

Loathing as thick as tar slides down my throat, filling my stomach with nauseating bitterness. The image of Evangeline’s panicked face flashes in my mind, her dark brown eyes wide with fear as she clutches Hunter close on a dead UTV.

I told Silas I was going to fix it, but I’ve been so distracted lately that I didn’t make it a priority.

“Fuck,” I breathe out, shame pricking at my eyes.

“I was going to run over to Bane’s house, see if his was there. But there just wasn’t enough time. She made me take Hunter and get on the blue UTV, so I made her take my gun.”

“Since when does anyone make you do anything you don’t want to?” My words fly past my lips too freely, fueled by anger and self-loathing, and I clamp my mouth shut to stop any more from spilling out.

“Where is she?” The words escape her in a shaken whisper.

“Gone.”

She sucks in a sharp breath. “She’s dead?”

My jaw tightens as I shake my head. “No, no. We didn’t find her here.”

“Then she’s not gone, Asher,” she insists, some of that legendary steel slipping back into her tone. “If she’s not on the compound, then she’s in trouble. And she needs us, son. She stayed back so Hunter and I could safely get away. If she wasn’t already family, that alone would make her part of it.”

Determination wars with the overwhelming urge to sink into myself, to let the rot of self-loathing and anger eat me from the inside out.

“So get your shit straight and bring home our girl,” Ma says. “By any means necessary.”

I jerk my chin up, staring at the wall in front of me unseeing. “I will, Ma.”

“I know you will, honey. And for fucks’s sake, tell your brother to answer his phone when I call,” she says with an exasperated sigh.

I shake my head. “It’s a burner. You know how he gets with unknown numbers.”

“Yeah, well, he needs to work that shit out too.” I can just picture the way she arches her brow and looks down her nose, like she’s about to lecture one of her sons.

“Yeah, I’ll tell him right now.”

“Is he with you? Just hand your phone over.”

I glance behind me at the sound of a low groan coming from the studio. I left the door cracked open in my haste to answer the phone, but I’m not worried he can overhear me. Besides, who the fuck is he going to tell?

“Nah, I’m busy having a chat with one of the assholes who stormed the compound. Silas is at the house, trying to figure out where you and Hunter are.”

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