Pain throbbed at the back of my head. Blinding. Excruciating. I fought it, swallowed the nausea and forced myself to climb to my knees. My hands fumbled around, searching the floor for my phone.

Gone.

It was gone.

Mumbled voices echoed from the depths of the kitchen. They were coming from the old break room and office.

Fighting the terror lining my veins, I pushed myself to standing and squinted through the darkness. I pressed my back against the commercial ovens just inside the kitchen. I fought to stay as small and quiet as possible.

Slowly, I edged toward the voices.

Sinks lined the far back wall. A huge dry storage pantry was to the right of them and the old office was down a short hall to the left.

Keeping myself plastered against the metal, I shifted so I could peek into the murky depths.

A flashlight and the flickering flame of a candle cast the small room in leaping shadows. Two people were inside, their silhouettes striking against the wall as they moved.

Where was Frankie?

A cold sweat broke out across my nape, and I squeezed my eyes again, gathering courage, calculating whether I could make it to the phone that rested on the old desk that sat right inside the office.

I eased down the short hall, those voices coming clearer with each step I took. Panicked whispers, frantic as they searched.

“Where is it?”

“The question is, where the fuck did you hide it?”

“It has to be here . . . I . . . it’s been a lot of years. I’m not leaving without that money. That money and my daughter and that goddamned tape.”

“You think they aren’t already going to be looking for you since you took that kid? That was so stupid, Janel. I warned you that was the dumbest thing you could do. Going back to his house. What were you thinking?”

“I’m not leaving my baby behind. Not again. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.”

“Yeah, and what’d you expect? Me just to sit on the sidelines while you cozied up with that arrogant asshole again? Taking what’s mine? You’re insane if you thought I was going to let you stay there.”

“Just shut up and help me find it. None of that matters anymore.”

I kept edging closer, footsteps subdued, my heart threatening to pound right out of my chest.

“Yes! Here it is . . . it’s here!” Janel suddenly shrieked, coming into view when she jumped to her feet with a box in her hands. A box she had to have found beneath the floorboards.

I knew I didn’t have any more time. I rushed for the phone that was four steps away. I grabbed the receiver, fumbling to hit those three simple numbers.

I made it. I made it. One second before the receiver was yanked out of my hand. I started to spin around, caught off guard when I was shoved in the side.

Hard.

My feet flew out from under me.

I slammed against the wall. But this time, I was ready. Ready for this fight. A fight that’d been coming for years. For what felt like forever. I was fighting for Rex. For Frankie. I was fighting for me. “You coward, taking a little girl.”

I charged her. Rammed my shoulder into her chest as hard as I could.

Pain splintered through my head, but it was worth it. It was worth it because Janel stumbled back, arms flailing and hair whipping around her. The box she’d had in her hands went sailing through the air and crashed to the floor.

I dove for it. A hand fisted in my hair, yanking it back. “You stupid bitch, always in my way. Not this time. Not this time.”

I threw an elbow back and caught her in the ribs.

She heaved out a cry.

I spun around and rushed her just as she was rushing me.

Our bodies collided.

A clash of souls.

I hooked her around the neck, trying to pin her, hold her.

She jerked free, so frenzied that she reeled, her footing gone. She stumbled back until she hit the desk.

I dove on her, and we slid across the slick wood, knocking everything that had been on the top to the floor.

Papers and the phone and the candle.

And we fought. Arms and fists and ripping hair. Fought until a big body was yanking me off. I screeched and kicked and fought. Fought in fury. In hate. In the desperate need to get to Frankie.

Frankie.

Frankie Leigh.

Aaron’s cologne filled my nose, the memory of it making me gag. I struggled to break out of his hold, but he was too strong. He tossed me aside. As if I was nothing.

Trash.

Just the same as he’d treated me before.

Aaron grabbed the box from the floor and then snagged Janel by the wrist. “We have to get out of here. Right now.”

My attention caught on the floor across the room. A tiny flame leapt to life. The candle a match to a piece of paper that’d floated to the floor.

Part of me wanted to go for it. Stamp it out. Protect my gramma’s legacy. But none of that mattered if they got away with Frankie. I couldn’t—wouldn’t allow it to happen.

Hand-in-hand, Janel and Aaron ran down the short hall and escaped out the back door. The door they’d most likely broke in through.

Frankie was my only concern. Not a building or its memories or the hopes of what it may be one day.

Only that little girl.

Crying out in pain, I struggled to get to my feet, chasing right after them. By the time I made it out the door, they were sprinting toward a black Durango parked in the back lot. In my periphery, I could see the spark of fire.

And I knew my grandma’s restaurant was getting ready to go up in flames.

I didn’t slow, only pushed myself harder, desperate to get to Frankie.

Aaron tried to force Janel around to the front passenger seat, but she diverted and wrenched open the back passenger door. “Frankie . . . Frankie?”

Janel started to panic, shouting it again. “Frankie!”

Struggling to jerk out of his hold, she whirled on Aaron. “Where’s Frankie?”

I stumbled to a stop halfway across the vacant lot, heart crashing against my ribs.

“Warned you, Janel, but you wouldn’t listen. We’re not taking that fucking kid. We’re getting out of Gingham Lakes and out of this country, and I won’t have anything slowing us down. Now, let’s go.”

“Where is she?” she screamed.

Even though he seemed to avoid it, Aaron’s attention darted back to the diner, expression twisting in the briefest flash of guilt.

Guilt aimed at my gramma’s diner that was going up in flames.

No.

Oh my God.

Slowly he shook his head. “Didn’t expect the fire. That’s not on me. Now get in or I’m leaving you behind.”

Janel’s expression froze in horror. And I thought maybe it was the first time I saw any true humanity in her. Any true care. Just as fast, it was gone, and Janel started around to the front of the SUV.

She was just going to leave her.

I spun around in my own horror. Flames licked out from the back window and glowed through the gaping door.

For a flash, my eyes squeezed closed, my gramma’s voice a whisper in my ear. Her presence overwhelming, so much I could feel her belief penetrating to the depths of me.

All moments matter. We just rarely know how important they are until the chance to act on them has already passed.

I’d always known Rex and Frankie were worth the chance. This one might cost me it all. Everything. But they would always, always be worth it.

My feet pounded against the pavement. Adrenaline and fear were a thunder that stampeded through my veins and whooshed in my ears.

I held up my arm as if it might protect me when I barreled through the doorway and into the kitchen.

Smoke swallowed me.

Taking me whole.

Black.

Thick.

Suffocating.

Holding my breath, I tried to get as low as possible as I began to search.

When I couldn’t do anything else, I tugged my shirt over my nose and gave in.

Inhaled.

It burned.

Burned so badly that my lungs wept, just the same as my insides.

Heat licked across my skin, so hot I wanted to scream.

Scream for help.

For sanity.

For Frankie.

Most of all, for Frankie.

I groped along the walls. Trying to find my way. To make sense of where I was.

Disoriented, I fumbled, trying to focus.

A wall.

An oven.

The pantry.

Oh God, the pantry.

The door was closed.

When I’d left this evening, it’d been wide open. I was sure of it. I’d been moving things in and out and had propped it open.

I slid my hands over it, feeling, searching. Relief wrenched from me when I found the latch. I managed to drag it open.

Smoke billowed inside. It was at the same second I heard Frankie’s cry.

“Frankie!” It was a shout.

Joy.

Solace.

Fear.

Each emotion rushed me. One after another.

Because I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t see and everything hurt so bad.

The radiating heat and the asphyxiating smoke.

But there was no chance I was giving up.

Flames bloomed just outside the pantry door, consuming the kitchen, eating away the plaster and wood and memories.

I dropped to my knees and crawled across the floor. My hand came into contact with something that moved. A foot. A leg. A tiny body that I pulled into my arms, holding her against my chest, burying her face in my shirt.

Because I’d do anything to protect her. To save her.

Dizziness swept through my being. Head. Body. Soul. I fought to stay coherent. To stay awake. To fight.

I clutched Frankie to me, rocked back, and screamed.