Chapter 15 - The Cost of Leaving

The firefighter carried Ellie toward the loading yard. Lena grabbed Claire's sleeve.

"We have to move. Fire's under the roof."

Claire looked toward Ethan's voice. Flames licked at the hallway door. She could see his shadow fighting with another man beyond the smoke.

"Ethan!" she shouted.

"Don't come back!"

A gunshot cracked. The shadow of the second man fell. Claire started forward, but Lena caught her around the waist.

"Your daughter is outside," Lena said. "She needs you breathing."

That was the truth no one ever put in the movies. Claire couldn't save everybody. She could barely hold herself together. She turned away from Ethan and ran.

Outside, paramedics settled Ellie beneath a warm blanket. A woman checked her breathing while another fitted an oxygen mask over her face. Claire climbed into the ambulance and held her daughter's hand.

"Is Daddy coming?" Ellie asked.

Claire swallowed. "I don't know."

"I heard him tell the bad man he was sorry," Ellie whispered. "The bad man said sorry doesn't open doors."

Claire squeezed her fingers. Tommy had known that too.

Nina hurried through the rain toward the ambulance, carrying a tablet under her coat. "The state investigator has Ruth's audio. Lena got the garage video to a separate server. Pike can't wipe it now."

"Where's Margaret?"

"Missing. Reed was shot. Police have the gate surrounded, but the warehouse is too hot to search."

A blast shook the windows of the ambulance. The warehouse roof folded inward, throwing sparks into the sky. Claire covered Ellie's head with her body.

A firefighter stumbled out of the smoke, hauling a man by the shoulders. It was Pike, dazed and coughing, a gun still trapped beneath his arm. Officers tackled him before he could stand.

Another firefighter emerged carrying a soaked jacket. Ethan's charcoal-gray shirt sleeve hung from it, burned at the cuff.

Claire stepped out into the rain.

"Where is he?"

The firefighter shook his head. "We found this near the lower pier. Nobody else inside."

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He handed her the jacket. A small object fell from the pocket into her palm: Ethan's wedding ring, still warm.

Below the ruined dock, the black river rolled past without a sound.