Page 130 of Live for Me

She reached around me to try to close the hatch, but I grabbed her wrist to stop her.

I shook my head. “Wait here.”

I went back to the front door and grabbed one of the canisters to bring it back to the hatch. I poured at least half the gas in it straight down that ladder before I stopped and handed the canister over to Memphis.

“There’s another full one by the front door,” I said to her. “Make sure you leave a trail right out the door. I’ll be waiting out there for you.”

I’d never been so fucking proud in my life to see her hands as steady as could be when she took the canister from me.

Of all the things I’d experienced in my years, having the chance to witness Memphis morph into who she was really meant to be was the thrill of my lifetime. I was here to watch while she set herself free; while she wiped out the hurt that kept her trapped inside a mind that was far too powerful to have to function under the limitations of fear and shock.

She didn’t look frantic or out of control when she finally appeared in the doorway again. She was out of breath, and she looked every bit as pissed off as I felt, but she looked like a woman who’d finally realized all the power to be held was in her very own hands here.

I watched her walk down those steps and turn back to face the house again. I took the lighter from my pocket and flipped it open for the flame to spark to life before I went to stand just behind her. I reached the lighter around the front of her body and held it just in front of her heaving chest while I leaned down to her ear.

“Leave it all inside, angel. The pain, the memories, the fear. Everything that’s ever trapped you into thinking you had to live your life a certain way. Leave it in there where it belongs, then light it up. And burn it down.”

She tossed the gas can right to the ground and took the lighter from my fingers with the steadiest hand I’d ever seen for a woman who’d just spent the last half-hour sprinting around like a pyromaniac on cocaine.

I kissed her cheek and stepped right the fuck back to let her have this moment completely to herself. “You’re breathtaking with charred wings, angel.”

She didn’t acknowledge my words. She didn’t look back at me. She didn’t need even the slightest hint of reassurance to know that she was in charge here and that she could do this.

She simply knelt down to where her trail of gasoline ended and laid the flame directly in it.

Memphis stood right there at the bottom of those front steps until I was certain the flames were about to collapse the house. She even resisted a little when I took her by the hand to try to pull her away from it. She wanted to watch the bitch fall in on itself completely. I couldn’t even blame her for wanting to be here for the moment that it crumbled, but I’d be damned if I was going to let any of it fallonher.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

memphis

Ilet him drag me back to the truck, but I absolutely wasn’t leaving until this house was a pile of burning rubble on the ground and there was a genuine risk of this whole place exploding into a forest fire. I couldn’t make my brain understand what Indy might have done to locate this house, but I was overwhelmingly interested in him finding every other location that was used for this purpose so I could bring them all to the same end.

As the front portion of the house started to collapse under the merciless consumption of those beautiful fucking flames, I hadn’t realized I took another step toward it until Utah grabbed my hand another time to keep me near the truck instead. Watching it topple into nothing was mesmerizing. Knowing that nothing could survive a cleanse by fire like this was exactly what I never knew my busted and broken soul needed.

When another section of the house crashed to the ground, I turned back to the man who absolutelyhadrealized that this was exactly what I needed. He was staring straight up at the sky, at the sound of thunder that was somehow loud enough to be heard over the entire house behind me buckling into total devastation. I followed his eyes to the sky and couldn’t believe that thunder and lightning like this hadn’t been accompanied by rain.

Utah was watching me by the time my eyes made it back to him.

“No rain,” he said, reading my every thought. “You beautiful little witch who acts like she can’t control the weather.”

He winked at me and rather than freezing my heart mid-beat or my knees giving out, I closed every bit of the distance between us to launch myself right into his arms. I only had to hold myself off the ground with my arms around his neck for about half a second before both his hands hooked under my legs to lift me up until I could get them around his waist.

He interrupted my assault on his mouth when he chuckled and pulled his head back.

“Half the state will be able to see that fire by now, angel. We should probably go soon.”

I wiggled my legs free from his waist until he started to lower my feet back to the ground. Then I sent my hands right for his belt buckle.

“Then I guess you better be quick.”

He laughed again. “As you wish, sugar,” that monster added, and my hands froze right where they were while I looked straight back up at him.

“Oh, I could get used to that,” came out of me as just barely a whisper. His hands went to either side of my face.

“I’m so fucking proud of you, girl.”

Being able to see the reflection of the arson I’d committed in his eyes while he said those words melted my entire body.

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