Page 83 of Through the Fire
There was a harsh inhale of breath. “No! How could you ask that? You were—are—my baby sister, Alex. Everything I’ve done has been because of you. I took down the Jovanovics and the Blanchetts so they couldn’t hurt anyone else. I helped other women escape. My entire life since that day has revolved around getting revenge for your death.”
Her laugh was humorless and awful. “Thanks, Big Brother. Abandon me when I needed you, but make sure all these other women don’t have a bad day.” Her voice went up an octave at the end, and silence fell in the room. “Too bad about what happened to them.”
“You killed them.” There was no question in his voice, just flat resignation.
“I did. Every single person you tried to save. Why should they be safe when I wasn’t?”
“They were innocent, Alex.”
“So was I!”
Kit jolted, hearing the sound of muffled protests. How many people were in there? How many would Elena manage to hurt before Kit could stop her? She wished she could see inside the room, but, from the clarity of Elena’s voice, it sounded as if she was facing the entrance. If Kit tried to peek through the archway, there was a good chance she’d be spotted. It was difficult making a plan, though, when she didn’t know what weapons—if any—were in play. From the shrill note in Elena’s voice, she was very close to snapping. Kit needed to find out exactly what was happening in that room.
“You were dead!” Mr. Espina’s voice rose to close to a shout. In the silence that followed, there was a child’s sob, hastily choked back. Kit frowned, trying to identify the sound. Was that Dee? Her heart sank into her boots. She’d hoped that the kids would’ve headed off to school early, but it seemed that they were trapped in there, too. “I saw you get shot! You fell so far, there was no way you could’ve lived.” His voice broke, making Elena’s grating laugh sound even more inhuman.
“Too bad that wasn’t me. The Jovanovics played you, Brother. You left me there. I prayed for you to save me, and you never came. You never came!” Her voice rose to a shout, but then she quickly got herself back under control, speaking in that coldly amused tone again. “So, I saved myself. It took years. You know what I did during that time? I made a plan. I executed it to perfection and killed every single person you tried to save. I wanted you to suffer as much as I did.
“Then Jules came along with the kids and changed things. You started sending them all here, where you could keep an eye on them and they could watch over each other, rather than just leaving them on their own to die. You thought this way would be better, didn’t you? That you could actually save them this time?” She gave a short, bitter laugh.
“You were wrong. This time, I’m going to make you watch as I kill every one of these people who were somehow more worthy of saving than me. I want you to see them die so that you know you failed them, just like you failed me.” Several people were quietly crying now, too many for Kit to tell who was whom. “You’re already missing one from this group.”
“Yolanda Hopper,” Mr. Espina said quietly. “She asked for my help. As soon as she arrived in Monroe, you killed her and burned the house down to cover your tracks…didn’t you?”
“Like I told her,” Elena said carelessly. “I made a much better Elena Dahl than she ever would.”
“Alex, stop. No more. Killing more innocent people won’t help anything.”
“Sure it will.” The amused note was back in her voice, and it chilled Kit to the bone. The woman had just been casually talking about killing kids and the women who’d taken her in, who’d befriended and defended her, all to get revenge on her brother for not saving her, a brother who’d thought she was dead. “It’ll hurt you. And that, Big Brother, is worth killing everyone in this room.”
Chapter 25
“No!” Tio’s cry spurred Kit into action. She launched through the archway into the room, peripherally taking in the scene, the bound and gagged women and terrified kids. In the center of the room, her back to the fireplace, was Elena, holding Dee in a headlock with a semiautomatic pistol pressed to her temple. Mr. Espina, his eyes wild with pain and grief, struggled against the duct tape holding him to a chair.
If Kit could’ve stopped, she would’ve at the sight of a white-faced Dee with a gun to her head, but her momentum pushed her forward. All she managed to do was drop the knife so that she didn’t accidentally cut the little girl. Shock froze Elena in place just long enough for Kit to reach her. Pushing the hand holding the gun up, she took both Elena and Dee down in an inelegant tackle.
As they fell, Kit scrambled to grab the gun and shove Dee to the side, out of Elena’s range. They hit the floor and slid as Dee wiggled free of the struggle. Everyone was shouting—some of the words muffled by duct tape—adding to the confusion. Now that Dee was clear, Kit narrowed her focus on Elena. If she could neutralize the threat, then the rest could be dealt with later. She squeezed Elena’s wrist, hard, and the gun hit the floor, spinning in place just a few feet away from their fighting bodies. Both of them reached for it, but Kit’s reach was slightly longer. Elena drove a fist into Kit’s kidney, sending a flash of pain through her. Her body involuntarily stiffened, and her hand jerked. Instead of grabbing the gun, she only managed to shove it farther away.
With a roar of rage, Elena drove up her hips and flipped them so that Kit was on the bottom, cracking her head painfully against the floor. Cursing herself for underestimating Elena, Kit struggled to shake off the wave of pain and dizziness from the hit to her head. In her peripheral vision, she saw Dee scurry closer, and Elena swung a fist toward the little girl.
No! Kit mentally screamed, lifting her spinning head to crack her forehead against Elena’s nose while reaching out and knocking the other woman’s arm away before Elena’s fist could connect. Dodging the hit, Dee grabbed the fallen kitchen knife and scrambled out of reach. Pain flared in Kit’s skull, but it was worth it. With a roar, Elena unleashed a flurry of punches on Kit’s face and midsection that she blocked as best she could, but the room was spinning and hazy from the double hit to her head.
Elena landed a lucky right hook to the left side of Kit’s face, the pain and shock jarring her just long enough for Elena to roll toward the gun. Kit held on, going with her. She knew that if she allowed Elena to recapture the gun, everyone in this room would likely die. She used the momentum to keep them rolling, fighting to regain the upper position.
As they tumbled over, Kit’s head cracked against the brick hearth, a bright flash of white filling her brain, wiping out her thoughts. As soon as the shock of pain faded, she scrambled to her feet and lunged for Elena, but it was too late. Elena’s fingers closed around the grip of the gun. Turning, she aimed the pistol at Kit. Everyone in the room froze, and Kit realized that Sarah, Grace, the twins, and Dee were missing, and Jules and Sam were free of their bindings. The knife. Dee must’ve freed them while Kit was grappling with Elena. Despite her terror as she stared down the gun barrel, Kit felt a rush of relief that some of them had escaped.
“I sent for backup!” Kit tried to think, but the blinding pain in her skull and fear made it difficult. She swayed slightly before catching herself. “More officers should be arriving any second.”
A flicker of uncertainty crossed Elena’s face before she sneered. “I don’t believe you. No one is coming.”
“Wes dropped me off and then went to get the chief. Listen, you can hear the engines of the squad cars coming up the driveway.” They both listened, and Kit was thankful that the wind had picked up again, covering her bluff.
“I don’t hear anything.” Despite her words, Elena shot a quick glance at the covered window before quickly taking in the room. Kit was pretty sure she’d just noticed that most of her hostages had escaped. Her lips tightened along with her grip on the gun as she refocused on Kit. “Guess I’ll just have to kill the rest of you quickly, then.”
She aimed the gun straight at Kit’s heart.
Kit froze. She forced herself to not flinch away, to stare straight at Elena, to make the woman look right into her eyes as she killed her.
