Page 66 of Roark
She didn’t have time to figure that out.
“We thought you were with us,” Sandra said, her voice barely a creak amid the sound of the torch.
“Stop lying!” Kaymen shouted into her face. “Stop sitting there telling those lies when you knew I wasn’t with you. Not one time during that three-mile walk to the motel did any of you see me and wonder where I was. Or did you just not care?”
Kaymen really didn’t seem to care that Tamika and Roark were there, because when Roark heard footsteps, he eased back to the door and opened it so whoever was outside would know they were there. Tamika took those moments to move closer, walking to the other side of the room, opposite of where Kaymen was still yelling at her mother.
“Kaymen, I’m so sorry. If we’d known…if I’d known you weren’t with us at first, I would’ve said something. And when we wanted to go back…we just couldn’t,” Sandra said.
“Why? Because they told you to leave me, didn’t they? Tony and Gabe, they told you to leave the poor no-class Kaymen behind. They never liked me, never accepted me, because I didn’t bend down to lick their rich-ass boots.”
Sandra was shaking her head now. Her arms and hands were taped to the arms of the chair, her ankles likewise taped to the legs of the chair. “Nobody cared about money, Kaymen. You know that. None of us cared which one of us had what.”
“Oh, you cared! All of you cared! That’s why Ronnie kept sleeping with Tony. Even until they took their last breath, she was still sleeping with him and not giving a damn about me. You all forgot about me!”
“Kaymen, I need you to step back and put the blowtorch down.”
Tamika heard Cade’s familiar voice, but she didn’t stop moving. She was getting closer.
“Fuck you! Fuck all of you! I’m not putting nothing down, and she’s not getting out of this house alive!” He fired up the flame on the blowtorch and held it close to Sandra’s face again. “If you were gonna live, you’d have to live looking just like me!” With his free hand Kaymen, flipped off the helmet and hood beneath it.
Tamika paused and gasped at the sight of his completely burned face. What was left of his skin had healed over, and she could tell there’d been attempts at skin grafts, but the result hadn’t been good. He looked like a creature.
“If you touch her with that, you’re dead, Kaymen. I’ll shoot you where you stand,” Cade yelled.
Kaymen shook his head. Tamika could see as his eyes moved and he spared Cade a glance. “You think I give a damn about dying, man? I ain’t had no life since that day. There’s nothing left for me here. Nothing, and it’s all her fault!”
Tamika was just about to lunge toward her mother’s chair when Pierce grabbed her this time and pushed her back out of the way. “Stay there!” he yelled at her.
When he pushed her, she fell back into Roark. She hadn’t realized either of them had crossed the room with her.
“He’s right, stay back and let them handle this,” Roark said.
“They’re talking, and he’s gonna kill her. If I don’t get to her, she’ll die!”
“She’s gonna die anyway. Just like the rest of them. They all deserved to die, just like they thought I did!”
The next seconds passed in a blur as Kaymen touched the torch to Sandra’s cheek and gunshots rang out. The blowtorch fell to the floor, and Kaymen’s body fell back. Roark left her side at that moment and she followed him, both of them going to her mother. They were ripping away the tape to free her from the chair when the first flames shot up from the floor.
Tamika shook her head as she saw it following the trail of gasoline. “We gotta go now!”
Roark pulled Sandra up from the chair and tossed her over his shoulder, while Pierce wrapped an arm around Tamika’s shoulders and hurried her to the door. Cade was behind them, yelling, “Run! Run! Run!”
The next minutes were a blur as Tamika only felt herself running, her lungs burning from the smoke, and the smack of cool night air against her skin when they finally made it out of the house.
“How the fuck did he get in there?” Ridge bellowed.
Pierce paced the length of the waiting room and Cade sat in the chair beside Roark.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Cade replied.
“It’s the only question,” Roark said. Damn, he didn’t want to be sitting in this hospital again, and he definitely didn’t want to be trying to figure out how the clubhouse had been set on fire right beneath their noses. He’d done everything Cade and Pierce had told him to do. Had hired two security teams and personal guards, leased new vehicles, and upgraded the security system throughout the entire Dynasty Manor property. Hell, he’d even had Devlin send him a trunk full of guns to use just in case he came face-to-face with Kaymen Benedict.
Well, that had happened and Roark hadn’t had a gun, and Kaymen had gotten part of what he’d wanted—he’d set another fire.
“We were sitting right outside,” Cade said again. He’d been repeating that since they’d arrived at the hospital. “Pierce and I were in one truck because we didn’t think Kaymen was going to wait too long before striking. We hadn’t been able to find him anywhere, but we knew he’d find Sandra, so we waited for him to show up. We had cops added to your security force surrounding the entire house. So how did this motherfucker get in there and have time to grab Sandra out of her room, set a fire in the parlor, one of the back storage rooms and in the sitting room where he’d held her?”
“What was he, a magician and a demented killer?” Ridge snapped. “Because I don’t know any other way this could’ve happened. My sister and my aunt could’ve died in that house. My whole fucking family was in that house!” Roark stood then and went to his brother. He clapped a hand on his shoulder until Ridge looked at him. “Suri and Aunt Birdie are gonna be fine. They’re in the back being treated for smoke inhalation, and then they’ll be discharged. The firefighters were able to get them out,” he told him.
