for one of Cash’s cars that had been left outside in case I wanted to leave. I wasn’t leaving until Cash did, but I wanted to make a call.
“Raff,” I said, sitting down on the bed, suddenly feeling so tired.
“Kee? What happened? Where’s Cash?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t relive it again. Not then. “It’s bad, Raff. I can’t talk about it right now, but I need you to go get Maureen and the kids. Right now.”
“Bring them where? And where the fuck is my cousin? What happened?”
This “hospital” was the equivalent of a safe house, and I was instructed not to give out the address under any circumstances. So I gave Raff the address to one of the houses Harrison and I had used a while back. I liked it, so I remembered the address.
“That’s where you are?” he said.
“No.” I shook my head. “But that’s where I’ll have one of my brothers meet you. He’ll stay with Maureen and the kids until things settle down.”
I could tell he was angry, breathing heavy, maybe because I was being vague. Then all of a sudden he cursed, but it was panicked.
I jumped to my feet. “What?” My voice echoed his. “What!”
“Fuck!” he yelled. “Maureen’s building is on fire!”
I flew out of the warehouse—none of the men in the kitchen paid any attention to me—and found Cash’s car on the other side of the building. I wasn’t sure what had happened to the man standing guard outside, but I had a feeling he was making his rounds.
It didn’t matter. I was going to call Harrison on my way and let him know where I was going. Maybe the boys were still at the house and they could get there quicker than I could.
None of them answered their damn phones. I left a message for Harrison, only giving a rushed version of what Raff had said to me, but by the time I pulled up to Maureen’s building, none of them had called me back.
The place was engulfed, but there was no one around.
“Oh, God,” I pleaded, almost jumping out of the car before I stopped it. I left it running while I hauled ass for the building.
The heat stopped me in my tracks. I wasn’t even that close, and it built a barrier I could feel already singeing my skin. There was no way in. No way out.
“Those babies,” I cried out. “My babies!” I hadn’t realized until that moment…they had become my children.
My babies.
They made us a family. My blood didn’t run through their veins, but every ounce of my love did.
People started to crowd around, their phones out, either recording or calling for help. Why are they just calling now? Where are the first responders? Where’s Raff? Did he try to go inside and—as the thought came to me, the fire seemed to get angrier, and it sounded like the jaws of hell opening up, swallowing the building. It was starting to collapse.
I fell to my knees, sobbing into my hands, my heart turning to ash in the burning building.
“Kee-ly,” I heard a strangled voice scream my name. “Kee-ly Kell-y.” It was said in broken up syllables. Then I heard the wail of a baby.
Across the street. In the darkness. Hiding close to a building.
“Kee-ly,” the strangled noise came again, louder than the baby. It was rough and shredded, but I heard it. “Kee-ly Kell-y.”
I ran across the street, my eyes narrowing against the darkness to try and see better. The fire had the other side of the street lit, but this side was full of darkness and smoke.
I heard coughing, another wail, but it was going up and down in octaves, like someone was trying to shush it.
“Ry-an,” the shredded voice said. “Ry-an, don’t cr-y.”
“Connolly!” I screamed. “Connolly!”
“Kee!”
She was pressed against the building, her eyes wide with fear, but holding onto Ryan with a grip that would’ve rivaled a grown woman’s. She was trying to shake him to keep him from crying.
I fell to my knees in front of them, trying to look over them both. “What happened?” Tears and smoke blurred my vision. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “Gran-ny.” She sucked in a gust of air and pointed across the street, at the burning building.
It took her a minute, but she told me in broken words that her Granny had talked to a man earlier, Mart-in, and then he left. Another knock came at the door, and her Granny told her to take Ryan and go