Chapter Twenty-Eight

Bexley hadn't seen Josiah since she'd arrived. Lysander had bound and gagged her, keeping her in a room behind the primary bedroom closet. What if he didn't have her son at all and this was a trap to lure Tiberius? She'd seen the note he'd nailed into her bedroom door.

The false wall shifted and she huddled in the corner, but behind the panel appeared Agent Barkley, filthy and bloodstained with fresh drops of blood dripping onto the floor. He removed her gag.

"Thank God, I found you."

"My family? Tiberius?"

"I haven't seen them. But I was hit by debris. Knocked me out a few minutes, maybe more. We need to move. Now." He untied her hands and feet and helped her out of the closet. "Do you know where Garrick or Dalen might be?"

Bexley frowned. "No. Are they here too?"

"Who took you?" Owen asked.

"Lysander Granger. He has Ahnah and Josiah. I don't know where, though. He brought me straight to this room."

"He's keeping you separated from each other for a purpose. I don't know why. Ty's supposed to be on the second floor. Come on."

Whatever Lysander's reasons, they would be deadly.

Bexley followed Owen down the stairs to the second floor. In the living area, a bookshelf concealing a door was open, revealing a hallway.

A gun fired.

Owen pushed her against the wall and put a finger to his mouth, then raised his hand to signal her to stay put. He dashed down the hall, out of view. Fear and adrenaline pumped in unison. Her son or Ahnah or Ty could be dead. She couldn't stay, and darted into the hall after Owen.

"Drop your weapon!" Owen shouted.

What was this place? Tattooed women were naked in cages.

Josiah stood holding a gun and crying while Tiberius lay bleeding on the ground, unmoving and pale. Deathly pale.

A thundering sound erupted, sending a hiccup into her heart as the winds ripped away a portion of the side of the house, blowing it out to sea. The churning waters beyond began to gather and flow right for the house.

Storm surge!

"Don't shoot him," Tiberius said, but it was faint. "Don't shoot my son, O."

Owen trained the gun on Josiah. "Drop the weapon, man. You." He pointed the gun at Lysander. "On your knees, hands behind your back. Do it!"

Water hit with an iron fist, crashing into the side of the house and flooding into the solarium. Pieces of roofing, insulation and glass clattered to the tile.

Screams erupted.

Josiah gripped the gun. "I thought you said she wasn't here?"

Lysander dropped to his knees, hands behind his back and a glint in his eye.

Owen commanded Josiah to drop the gun one last time. "Don't make me fire this weapon."

Josiah dropped the gun, and Owen kept his trained on Lysander. Bexley raced to Josiah and hugged him, then shoved the gun he'd dropped in her waistband and knelt beside Tiberius as water continued to flood the room.

"You're going to drown. I need to move you. Can you get up? Can you walk?" Water rushed over his legs, and she grabbed him under his arms, trying to drag him, but he cried out and she halted.

"He needs pressure applied to his wound." A woman opened her cage and stepped out. "I'm a nurse. I can help him."

"Key...in my pocket," Tiberius said. "Get Josiah help. I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything I said. I love you, Bex."

Bexley took the key. "I love you too. Whatever you did, it saved our son. Now stay alive to be with us."

With a half grin, he touched her face. "I think love lingers even when we don't."

"Don't talk like that." She grasped the key and darted for the women, but the rushing water was too powerful and kept surging through the gaping hole in the side of the house. Roaring and thunder hindered her hearing. She fell and went under, inhaling water and flailing until she felt the metal cage and grabbed on to steady herself.

"Josiah, get your dad out of here," Owen hollered. "There's a secret room on the third floor. Last door at the end of the hall. You." He pointed to the two women outside their cages while keeping his gun on Lysander. "Go with him. Get in the room behind the closet. It's the safest place in the house with the flooding. We have to take our chances. God help you! Go!"

The two women, covering themselves, clung to one another, falling and clambering to escape the rushing water.

"Bexley, you don't have the strength to handle the water. Go with Ty and your son. I'll free the women and send them up. And bring up this dirtbag too, unfortunately." Lysander still knelt as water rose to his waist and his hair matted to his cheeks, a smile in his eyes.

Josiah struggled to help Tiberius stand. Bexley threw the key to Owen. As he caught it, Lysander rose up and aimed another gun at Owen. "This is my kingdom! I control it. No one is going to ruin my plans. Not you. Not him. Not this hurricane." He cursed and fired the gun Ty had slid across the floor earlier. He must have found it during the commotion.

Owen jerked backward, taking a hit to his shoulder, and returned fire. The bullet hit Lysander's leg and he buckled.

The roaring intensified, and a gale blew another pane of glass from the roof. Bexley screamed as a jagged shard ripped through Lysander. With a horrifying scream, he fell into surging water that swallowed him up.

Tiberius couldn't stand, but he had to fight for his family. He had no strength of his own, and the dizziness was overwhelming. He couldn't stop the tremors. He was bleeding out and going into shock.

Help me stand.

A thought, maybe a prayer.

He clutched Josiah as he worked to stand, but water pushed against him and his son.

Help me stand.

A definitive prayer.

He rose to his feet, and they fought against the powerful flow toward the hallway. "I lied to keep you alive. You understand?" He needed Josiah to know the truth before he couldn't tell him himself. He had more words but no strength to share them. Every second it became harder to breathe.

Water funneled in faster than they could move. The women left in cages screeched and gripped the bars. "Owen. Owen! Stop. You can't. You can't." The water raged too fast. He'd be swept out and drowned if he tried to rescue the remaining women. But they were doomed to die without rescue. He shook off Josiah and Bexley. "Get Josiah to higher ground. I have to help O."

He pushed into the swirling water, furniture and debris floating away. He didn't feel the agony anymore. Numb but cold now. So cold.

He fell into the water, and it dragged him toward the rip in the side of the house.

"Tiberius!" Bexley hollered.

A firm hand grabbed him by the waist and hauled him upright. "What are you doing?" Owen screamed over the roaring. "Get out of here."

"You can't do it alone. You won't make it. We both know it."

"So we both die? Because you surely will. Listen to me." Owen framed his face, water and blood running down his cheeks and seeping through his shirt where he'd been hit in the shoulder. "I was supposed to be a preacher, and I didn't do it. But I preached to you when it counted. I'm okay with that. Your boy needs you."

"You're talking out of your head." Ty's lungs squeezed and his throat tightened. "Let's go."

"No. Take your family to safety. I'll get these women out. I promise." He tapped his chest with his fist.

Ty shook his head. He hadn't promised to get himself out. O knew in order to rescue them he wouldn't be able to rescue himself. "No."

"Yes. Live in light, brother."

Ty grabbed his arm to hold him in place but he was too weak. And Owen, bloody and bruised and beaten, was still stronger. Ty's wet grasp was slippery, and his fingers couldn't hold on. Owen shoved him backward. "Josiah, help your daddy. Go. I got this."

But he didn't. The water tugged him, insatiable.

"Owen." Ty's heart stuttered.

Josiah and Bexley wrangled him, forcing him to put distance between himself and his best friend.

Owen unlocked the first cage closest to him and struggled to help the woman find her footing, but she made it. The other two women had already entered the hallway, but Ty needed to watch. Needed to make sure Owen made it to safety.

The house convulsed.

Iris Benington touched his shoulder again. "You're going to die if you don't let me help you."

The water sucked Owen under but he surfaced and unlocked another cage. "Go, hon! Go!"

Engulfed in the sea, he struggled but clutched another cage, setting free another captive and pushing her toward cover.

Pieces of solar panel and glass were ripped from above. Flood waters continued to rise. Up or down. It was a toss-up which was safer, but either way, they needed to go somewhere fast. Yet Ty balked.

One last cage.

Owen clung to it with one hand while unlocking it with the other. Susan Mayer swept out, but he snagged her before she could be carried away.

He did it.

Owen did it.

Ty allowed the nurse and Bexley to aid him through the water into the hallway, which was engulfed in about three feet of water and rising.

Movement in Ty's peripheral had him turning toward the huge opening in the house.

Lysander.

He hadn't been swept out. He'd managed to grip one of the bolted-down cages closest to the wall and hang on somehow. He pushed himself up, bloody and drenched, still gripping the gun. His guttural scream pierced the atmosphere as he aimed the gun at Ty.

The world shifted and stilled.

Owen released the cage that was holding him from being dragged away and gripped Lysander around the waist; the gun fired and missed Ty.

But nothing anchored Owen or Lysander, and Ty gaped in horror as his brother by choice was swept out to sea with a madman.