Prologue

DALLAS, TEXAS

Riley Lawless sat in the chair they’d offered him, but he wasn’t alone. There had been only two chairs in the small office at the police station and there were four of them, so he’d settled Mia in beside him.

Four of them.

There used to be six.

“I’m tired, Riley. When can we go home?” Mia asked, her blue eyes wide.

Riley exchanged a look with his oldest brother, Drew. What was he supposed to say to that? He still couldn’t believe what had happened himself. How was he supposed to explain it to Mia? She was barely six. They’d had a Barbie birthday party for her two weeks before. She’d worn a princess tiara and opened her presents with a grin that showed her first missing tooth. Their dad had forced them all to attend. Three boys amid a sea of six-year-old girls.

Where was his father now? He didn’t understand anything.

Brandon looked to Mia with tears in his eyes. “I don’t think we get to go home ever again, Mia.”

Drew put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We’re going to be okay, Bran.”

Riley wasn’t sure how that was possible. Had it really only been two hours before? Had it really happened at all? Maybe he was dreaming. His mind drifted back.

The sheets tangled in his feet as he tried to sit up. Confusion. There was a crackling sound he didn’t understand. He fought his way out of the sheets and sat up in bed. The computer he shared with his brother was still on, the green light of the screen illuminating the room. Riley rubbed his eyes.

Something was wrong. He could smell smoke.

The light on the computer died suddenly and so did the one on his small fish tank.

Bran?

His brother was on the top bunk. Riley scrambled up the ladder that connected their beds.

Bran, wake up.

There was a pounding on the door to his room and he thought about all those horror movies he wasn’t supposed to watch but he did when he was at Tommy Ferguson’s house because Tommy’s mom always took a sleeping pill and then nothing would wake her. Bran sat up, and Riley could see him even in the darkness. He reached for Riley’s hand. Bran was only eight. Riley had turned twelve months before. Riley gave him a squeeze. Bran was his responsibility.

Hide. Get in the closet and hide, Bran. I’ll deal with what’s happening.

That crackling sound was so much louder, but nothing was as loud as the door exploding as it was kicked open. Riley tried to cover his brother’s body with his own, his heart pounding.

An eerie red light filled the room and smoke came pouring in. In the midst of the haze, a tall figure appeared.

Drew. He was carrying Mia and his face was smudged with dirt. His voice was husky, older than normal when he spoke.

Come on. We’ve gotta move. I think the back stairs are still clear. If not, we’re going out a window. Move it. Now.

What’s happening? He didn’t understand.

The house is on fire. We have to go.

But Mom and Dad? Shouldn’t their dad be the one ordering them around?

Drew shook his head and Riley realized the world had flipped and he didn’t recognize where he’d landed.

He took Bran’s hand and followed his brother.

“Don’t think about it.” Drew looked down on him, bringing Riley back to reality. The grim expression on his face made him look so much older than fourteen.

“I want Daddy.” Mia started to cry.

Drew immediately picked her up, settling her against his lanky frame. “I’m sorry, Mia. But it’s going to be all right.”

Riley wasn’t sure how. He got to his feet. “I’m thirsty. They said there was a water fountain outside.”

“Don’t be gone long,” Drew said in a voice that let Riley know he was in control.

Riley didn’t really want a drink. He was fairly certain he was going to throw up.

A man and a woman, both in blue uniforms, sat at their desks talking. The rest of the building seemed almost eerily empty. “Poor kids. Their dad tried to kill them all. Did you know he’d locked all the doors and propped them closed from the outside so the kids couldn’t get out? The bastard wanted to make damn sure those kids died with him. Found the window he used to get back inside, but the kids wouldn’t have found it because of how he lit the fire before he offed himself.”

“Yeah, well, I heard what he did to his wife was even worse,” the female officer replied with a shake of her head. “They don’t know if there’s enough of her left to identify. What a way to go.”

Riley felt his stomach turn. They were talking about him. They were talking about his dad. His mom.

They were really gone. His dad, who played ball with him and never got mad even when Riley interrupted his work. His dad worked a lot, but he always smiled when one of them entered the room. He would grin and thank them for the interruption because work was boring but his kids were fun. That house had been filled with his dad’s unique energy.

“He didn’t kill her.” His father would never hurt Mom. He loved her.

The two officers looked back, and he saw a nauseating sympathy cross their faces.

The female officer immediately crossed the space between them. “Honey, you need to stay in the captain’s office. I promise a very nice lady is going to be here soon, and she’s going to take care of you.”

“Drew and me will take care of us.” He didn’t want some random lady. He wanted his mom.

“No, honey.” The woman shook her head. “You don’t worry about that now. It’s going to be all right.”

He turned to go back into the office before he heard them whispering again.

“Damn, I hate that they’re going to break those kids up,” the man said in a hushed voice he probably thought no one would hear.

Break them up?

“They don’t have any family. No one’s taking in four kids.”

Riley slammed into the room, his heart in his throat.

“They’re breaking us up.” He couldn’t lose them. He couldn’t lose his brothers and his sister. Mia was so young.

Drew’s eyes closed, and when he opened them again, there was the same steely glint in them he got when facing down a pitcher in a baseball game. “No matter what happens, know that I will find a way to see you, Riley. I won’t let any of you go and when I’m old enough, I’ll come and get you.”

But that could be years.

Bran and Mia were sitting together, slumped against each other. They were asleep and Riley wished he was. He wished this was all a bad dream.

“They say Dad killed Mom.”

“No,” Drew said sharply. “That’s a lie and you never believe it. No matter what they say. Dad and Mom were murdered.”

“By who? Who would want to kill them?” It didn’t make a lick of sense.

Drew shook his head. “I don’t know, but I will find out. I saw some of it. I tried to tell the cops, but they don’t believe me. They think I’m a kid who doesn’t want to believe his dad could do something so evil.”

“He wouldn’t.” How was his dad gone? Where had he gone? Riley didn’t understand. He didn’t understand anything at all.

Drew put a hand on his shoulder and in that moment, in the dim light of the office with silence all around them, Riley could see his father in his brother’s face. “One day when we’re older, we’ll find them and we’ll make them pay. I’ll make them pay.”

The thought gave him strength. It was better than thinking about what he’d lost. “No. You were right the first time. We’ll make them pay. You and me and Bran and Mia. We’ll make them hurt.”

The door opened and an older lady with a briefcase strode in. She started talking about temporary housing and grief counseling. She began to gently broach the subject of foster care and how difficult it would be to place the four of them together.

But Riley just looked at Drew.

And knew one day they would be together again. After all, they had a job to do.