“Aubin Breaux? Is that you?”
I blinked, coming around. I was on some kind of seat. I looked around me but didn’t recognize my surroundings. I could hear low voices. I tried to move my arm, but I ached.
I managed to roll my head to look to the side. I saw stars and the moon. Night surrounded us. I blinked and blinked again, until I saw Aubin. A guy was next to him . . . a brown-haired guy.
Lucious? The one we watched on the bronc.
Aubin’s face filled my view. “Hey, Val. You feeling better?”
My mouth was dry. Aub helped me sit up and handed me a bottle of water. I downed it in one, then gasped for breath. I felt weak. One look at Aubin’s face made me remember the fight.
I ran a hand down my face. “What time is it?”
“Eight p.m.,” he replied. “You came around a little afterward, but then fell back to sleep. Lucious helped me get you back here to rest.”
I looked around. I was in an RV. “I gotta get home.” I tried to get off the couch. Aubin helped me up, and we walked to his truck. “My cell?” I asked.
“Smashed in the fight.”
“Shit. My folks will be worried.”
“They’ll understand.” And I knew they would. Nobody understood better than them the shit that had been poured our way since we came to that little fucking town where I’d been a target ever since I showed my “half-breed” face.
We were silent as we rode home. What the fuck was there to say? I couldn’t wait to leave this place. When we were only a mile or so away from my house, Aubin narrowed his eyes and asked, “What’s that?”
I dragged my tired eyes to look out the windshield. An orange glow shone from behind some high trees. The trees that surrounded my home. My stomach plummeted, taking my heart with it and shattering it on the ground when I saw thick smoke rising above the treetops.
My body tensed. “My house,” I gasped. Panic plowed through me, taking control of everything I was. Aubin slammed his foot on the gas. But the closer we got to the dirt road that led to the wooden house, the clearer the flames were. Orange-and-red flames, climbing higher and higher as they reached for the sky.
When Aubin turned the truck to the right, I choked on my breath. My house was in flames. I found the handle to the door of the truck and threw it open. Aubin was right beside me.
“My parents . . .” I said, my voice breaking.
“Your mamma went out to her mamma. Your papa will have got out too,” Aubin assured me. But I heard the doubt lacing his words.
“Mamma!” I screamed, praying she wasn’t here, searching for a way in through the raging fire. “Papa!” I jumped forward, trying to get up the stairs to the front door. Fire lashed at my arms, scalding the skin.
“I can’t find a way in!” Aubin shouted . . . and then I heard it.
“VALAN!” I snapped my head back and looked up at the attic. The window was jammed, someone pushing at the frame. I wiped the water from my eyes and saw that it was my mamma.
“Mamma!” I ran around the house until I was underneath the window. Her hands slapped at the pane. Then I saw another set of hands. “Papa,” I whispered on a choked cry. “No!” I rocked on my feet, shifting left and right, trying with everything I had to smash through the wall of climbing, scalding flames.
“Aubin!” I shouted.
He was next to me in an instant, his hands on his head. But I couldn’t take my eyes from my parents. My mamma was crying, her blue eyes on me. My papa was behind her, but there was a sad look of acceptance on his face. “No!” I called again, then stilled when my papa turned my mamma from the pane and wrapped his arms around her, holding her to his chest. The heat from the flames burned my face; the smell of burned hair reached my nose. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Tears streaming down my face, I watched my parents die.
My mamma turned her face toward me once more and mouthed, “I love you.” I couldn’t feel my legs. I heard a loud crack, and the attic where my parents were standing gave way and crashed into the flames below.
“NO!” I lunged forward and ran toward the house. “NO!” I screamed, over and over until my voice was raw. I ran, trying any way to get into the house. They could still be alive. They might only be hurt.
But before I had even made it two feet, Aubin wrapped his arms around me and dragged me back. I fought to get away, but we fell to the ground. Just as we did, the house exploded, a cloud of flames mushrooming above the crumbling ruins.
Unable to move, frozen in the purgatory that was instant grief and shock, I watched as the remainder of the house was ravaged by the fire. I cried until there was nothing left to give. By the time the firefighters reached the house, it was just a pile of ashes. But I knew . . . knew that somewhere among the rubble, there was a couple holding onto one another even as they died. Because from the minute they met, they’d fought for their love. Fought for their love when everyone told them it was wrong.
And they died for their love. Died because people couldn’t see past their different skin colors and admire the entangled hearts beneath . . .
. . . because love doesn’t see color. Only pure hearts . . .
I slumped forward, my head dropping to my chest. Tears poured from my eyes and my chest racked with sobs. Such fucking loud sobs I hadn’t shed since that night, years ago.
“Hush,” Sia whispered, crying right along with me. Her hand gripped mine, and I fucking held on. Held on to her like she was the only thing keeping me afloat. A hand squeezed my shoulder; I knew it was Cowboy. The action mirrored the one I felt that night. I didn’t dare look him in the face. I wasn’t sure I could. Couldn’t look at the only other person who witnessed that fire. Saw them, hands splayed, calling for help . . . because they fucking dared fall in love.
“It was me . . .” I whispered. “It was all because of me.” My body was drained of energy. Sia guided me to lie down. The room started to spin. She curled into my chest, her hands clutching mine. I caught sight of Cowboy sitting on the end of the bed, eyes unfocused as he stared out the window.
“It wasn’t, baby.” Sia ran her hand down my wet face.
“But it was.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “We stayed in a motel until everything was sorted.” I gestured to Cowboy. “The authorities said it was an accident. Some malfunction-of-the-oven bullshit.”
“See,” she said, trying to soothe.
“But we got a note. Under our motel door—” My words cut off, my limbs becoming leaden. I knew what was coming. Only this time, I was loath to fight it.
“It was the Klan.” I tensed, hearing Cowboy finish for me. Because that’s what he always did. Picked up the pieces I couldn’t carry. I kept my eyes shut, reading the note in my mind with him. “Said it was because they married out of their race.” Cowboy hissed, disgusted at their prejudice. “And for bringing a half-breed abomination into the world, an example had to made of them.”
“Me . . .” I said hoarsely. “They died because I was born.”
“No.” Sia yanked on my hand. “Don’t do this to yourself.”
“They called her a white whore. A traitor to the Aryan race.” I licked my dry lips. “They called her a black-loving slut.”
Sia’s face softened, then her expression changed to one of understanding. “Ky . . .” she whispered. “It’s why you went for him like you did.”
I nodded. “And they died because of my seizures.” My tongue felt too dry to speak, but I managed to force out, “She wasn’t supposed to have been there . . . it should have been me instead . . . but she stayed, waiting for me to come home, because I had a seizure. She would have waited to make sure I was okay.” The room tilted. “They . . . I ruin everything . . .”
Sia clutched my arm. My eyes glazed, and I began to taste the metallic flavor on my tongue. “Cowboy,” I slurred, just as a loud banging sound came from outside. Sia jumped, and Cowboy shot to his feet. No! I tried to scream, but nothing came out of my mouth. I fought for consciousness, fought to get off the bed. But
I couldn’t move.
“Get him hidden!” Cowboy called.
Sia tried to move me. “I can’t lift him!”
I must have blacked out, because when I came to, I was in a dark room somewhere. I heard the soft murmuring of voices outside, then the sound of car doors shutting and a high-pitched scream. Confused, I tried to place where I was. Tried to understand what was happening. But the darkness drew me back under before I could.
And I couldn’t fight it anymore.