the fire expanded in a violent burst.
Mark went down to his knees, using his body to cover Kelli until everything settled. However, nothing did.
“Save her,” yelled Victor. He was trying to move but, in that one horrible moment, both men realized that the weight would be too much for either of them to move. That didn’t stop Mark from trying.
He quickly went to the journalist’s side and tried with everything he had to lift the largest piece of wall and wood from Victor’s back. It didn’t budge. Not one bit.
“Save her,” Victor yelled again. Another wave of heat rolled through the air. Mark looked around. The escape route into the hallway wasn’t going to last much longer.
Mark met the blue eyes of his client, knowing it would be the last time he ever saw them.
“I can save you both,” Mark said, though he knew it was a lie. Flames were licking at his back. If they didn’t get out now, they wouldn’t.
Victor yelled one last plea, making Mark decide the fate of three people all at once.
“She’s pregnant!”
Mark didn’t hesitate after that. He picked up Kelli and gave Victor one last look.
“I’ll come back,” he yelled, but the man didn’t answer.
Mark kept Kelli to his chest and ran into the hallway. The state of the rest of the cabin confirmed his earlier fear. Someone had not only blown up the side of the house but also set the area around the entire structure on fire. Reason told him that the kitchen and its back door would be their best bet. The figure in the dark wouldn’t have had time to get the fire going too strongly there.
Kelli stirred in his arms, coughing violently. He held her tighter and almost yelled in relief when he saw the back door wasn’t crawling in flames. He threw it open and ran straight into the water a few yards away. The lake was low for the season, and the dock was high off the water. He splashed under the wood, giving them the only cover available in the backyard.
No shots had rung through the air and no attack had been initiated as they left the house. But that didn’t mean the perpetrator wouldn’t still try.
“What the—” Kelli started to catch her breath, eyes open and looking wildly at him.
“Are you okay to stand?” he asked quickly, already tilting her feet into the water. Confused, she nodded. “I need you to stay right here, hidden, okay?”
Again she nodded, but Mark knew it was only a matter of time before she realized her husband wasn’t with them. She seemed to still be processing being conscious at the moment. Kelli caught her balance as Mark released her. He pulled his pocketknife from his pants and handed it to her, turning as soon as she grabbed it.
An awful sound filled the air, another in a long line of things that would haunt him about that night.
A fireball erupted from the kitchen and engulfed the rest of the cabin. Glass exploded and the ground shook. The house gave one final wheeze and, together, Mark and Kelli watched as it burned to the ground.
Kelli slipped off her heels and padded quietly across the floor. Footsteps echoed in the hallway behind her, but she didn’t stop. Sidestepping a few boxes left scattered around the room, she hurried into the open closet.
It wasn’t deep, but it stretched wide. Empty save a few coat hangers, it didn’t allow her much cover. On the other hand she could try to hide behind a stack of boxes in the corner. Though she’d have to really bend to remain hidden. The footsteps came closer, and she had to choose.
The closet would have to do.
Kelli pushed herself to the corner and slid down the wall until she was sitting with her knees pressed up to her chest. The light from the opened bedroom window lit even the mostly dark corner. She would be seen easily by anyone who looked inside the doors.
Silence filled the room.
For a second, Kelli worried. Had she been seen coming into the room? The shuffle of two feet let her know she had. The footsteps came closer, and Kelli held her breath. Her hunter was quick to search around the boxes and move on to the closet. The shuffling stopped a step from the opening. There was a moment of silence that felt almost tangible.
Then a tiny face peeked inside, and Kelli couldn’t help but laugh.
“Boo,” the little girl yelled. Smiling ear to ear, she squealed in delight as Kelli jumped out of her hiding spot.
“You found me!”
Grace Victoria Crane let out another round of giggles before running off. Kelli laughed as she followed the toddler through the house, knowing the little girl’s destination.
Like mother, like daughter, Grace loved the library.
It was her fair-haired beauty’s turn to hide.
Behind the wall-length curtains—one of the few things that hadn’t yet been packed in the room—stood a pair of little blue shoes. They were covered in sequins, and Kelli knew for a fact that finding them in stock had been a miracle in itself.
“Hmm...” Kelli put her finger to her chin and tapped it. Moving slowly around the boxes and plastic tubs pushed to the side of the room, she made a big show of being confused. “I could have sworn I saw a little girl with chocolate on her mouth run in here!” Grace started to giggle. The sound made Kelli’s heart swell. “I wonder who that could be!” She went to the curtains, ready to tickle the culprit, when the little girl jumped out on her own.
“Got you,” she yelled. When Grace was excited like this, Kelli couldn’t deny the resemblance between them. Although Grace’s hair was a shade or two darker, their ever-changing green eyes were almost identical. Her facial features, however, all belonged to her father.
“You’re the best hide-and-seeker I think I’ve ever played with,” Kelli said, scooping up the toddler. She was about to unleash another round of tickles when the doorbell chimed. It echoed through the mostly packed up house.
“Me, me,” Grace yelled, already trying to wiggle out of her arms and race to answer the door.
“Not without me,” Kelli answered. She moved Grace to her hip and took a moment to marvel at how big she was getting. A year and seven months, almost to the day.
The past two years had flown by and yet, in some ways, Kelli seemed painfully stuck. As she moved down the hallway to the front of the house, she tried to commit to memory how the wood floor felt beneath her bare feet. She wondered what the next year would bring after all of the changes Grace and she were about to make.
A familiar face was bobbing in front of the windows in the front door, inciting a new excitement in Grace. Kelli put her down with a laugh and opened the door for the godmother of her child.
“You’re late,” Kelli teased Lynn Bradley. The short woman with black hair wore a pair of worn overalls with a long-sleeved yellow flannel shirt that contrasted with her dark skin. Kelli raised her eyebrow at the choice of wardrobe but didn’t say anything. Lynn had been a bit eclectic ever since they were children.
“Listen, it’s not my fault that you already packed up your TV, forcing me to choose between the end of You’ve Got Mail and the care of your child.” The twenty-nine-year-old gave her best friend a smirk before bending down and enveloping Grace in a hug. “My, how you’ve grown! Look at you! Gosh, how old are you now? Three? Five?”
Grace put her hands on her hips and gave Lynn a critical eye. She held up one finger. “One!”
“That’s my girl,” Lynn approved. She mussed Grace’s hair, and the three of them went inside.
“You were here yesterday, you know,” Kelli said as they went into the living room.