Page 67 of The Impact (Parachutes #3)

“Tahli!” She heard Drew shout from the doorway as she hit the unlock button, hopping into her truck. She started the car, catching him standing in the entrance in his boxer briefs and nothing more.

“Meet me at the house!” Tahli rolled down the window to shout out, already out of the driveway. Then she peeled off, heading to her old home in tears.

When Tahli bent the corner of the block she knew so well, the stretch of black with tiny glows of yellow streetlights gave way to an orange haze in the distance.

It was like the sun had crashed. Smoke hovered over pavement, and even with the windows now up, the smell of burning wood carried into her vehicle.

Tahli pushed the pedal to its potential, gripping the steering wheel.

Raging flames came into view. Her face contorted in anguish, as she watched the blaze consume where a home used to stand.

Horror knocked the wind out of her. She left her vehicle running, racing toward the inferno on spaghetti legs.

There had to be a hundred or so people crowding the street.

“Ma’am, you can’t go in there!”

“That’s my fucking house! My fucking kids are in there!” Tahli swung at the firefighter holding her back, fist connecting with his face shield.

“Let me fucking through!” she screamed…begged…cried frantically. They were all taller than her, and she could barely see beyond the wall of them.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I can’t.”

“Plea- Please!” she choked out through the suffocating smoke, so many nameless faces and none the ones she needed to see. “Oh God, pleeeeaaaaaase!” She pled, as tangerine embers floated in the air.

“Tahli!” Vanessa screeched behind her as their car jumped the curb.

Tahli had beaten her father and Vanessa there, beyond the obvious reasons —she lived closer, and she was a madwoman. But they had gotten a head start getting the news first.

“Hey! Let us the fuck through!” her father demanded to the barricade of workers, the army of flames seeming to intensify instead of diminishing. Even Robert couldn’t break the barriers.

An exploding burst fed the violent blaze, making them all startle.

“We need more water!” One firewoman shouted into a sea of chaos.

“Oh my God, Daddy!” Tahli shouted in horror. “Oh my fucking Goddddd! I need my babies! Where are my babies?!”

Tahli tried to pummel through but was seized by a million hands.

“That’s my goddamn grandchildren! Let us fucking through!” Robert boomed.

Again, Tahli tried to barrel through to no avail. She didn’t care if they pulled her skin off and she slipped through just flesh and bones—she was reaching her children.

“Let them by!” a Hispanic man who looked familiar enough demanded, and the wall parted enough for Tahli to break through.

“Mommy!” The sweetest music as soon as she made it past the public.

So sweet, Tahli slammed two hands to her mouth, falling to her knees.

The heat from the distant flames sweltered on her skin as she jumped up, ran, and embraced Terran, snatching her from an EMT worker’s grasp. Her father and Vanessa rushed over.

“You okay? Are you okay?” Tahli examined every inch of her youngest baby through burning eyes.

“I’m okay, Mommy.” Terran removed her oxygen mask to say. “It was hot, Pop-Pop.”

“Where…?” Tahli’s lips trembled as Vanessa and her father kissed Terran.

“Mom!”

Tahli’s head snapped. To the left, another ambulance sat, and Milo and Dali jumped down from inside of it. Tahli raced to them, with Terran still hanging from her neck.

“Oh my god! Are you okay?” Tahli hollered, panicked and terrified.

“We’re okay! We’re okay, Mom,” Dali insisted. Even a bark from Louie snapped Tahli’s eyes inside of the ambulance where he was tied up, a plastic bowl of water before him. Little DJ was inside as well, petting his head.

“DJ, come here! Are you okay?” Tahli demanded, pulling him closer when he made it to her.

“We didn’t get hurt,” Dali let her know. “Dad…Dad got us out as before it got bad,” Dali heaved through the smog. A veil lifted. As a mother, all Tahli could think of was her children. The second they were accounted for; her blood ran cold.

Head swiveling, Tahli scanned the sea of faces.

“Oh, thank you Jesus!” Vanessa raced up to the ambulance, her father on her heels. “Thank God my babies are okay!”

“Where’s Vin?” Tahli whispered, barely audible through the sirens and shouts.

“Your husband’s right there!” the same firefighter who had held her back pointed.

“Tahli!”

Her head snapped. Drew came rushing up to her.

“He says he’s your husband,” that same firefighter looked to her for some approval. Apparently, her father’s pull with the captain made them much more cooperative.

“You guys okay? Everybody okay?” Drew hugged the kids one by one. Even DJ.

“Where is he?” Tahli’s heartrate quickened, her head woozy.

“Daddy.” She gripped her father’s arm, and his eyes came down to hers. “Where– Where’s Dalvin?”

Her father’s eyes bore into hers before they flared with alarm. Robert’s head swiveled around, and Tahli heaved breaths not deep enough. She couldn’t breathe. The overwhelming dread trembled her numb fingers.

“Dali! Where’s your father, baby?” Tahli heard her father question. Thank God for him. Tahli couldn’t find her tongue.

“Where…where is he?”

“He’s out here. He’s just…” Dali pointed over by one of the firetrucks, a crowd of people behind the yellow tape but only a few on their side. Tahli spotted Erica and other neighbors; their faces warped in worry.

“He got us out, Mom. He… Then he was with the…he was with the cop,” Milo’s voice shook, his wide eyes zipping around the crowds now as well.

“Where’s Daddy?” Terran cried. “I want Daddy!”

“He was just here!” Dali shouted, and Tahli caught the fear. She couldn’t address any of it. All of the children started calling Vin’s name in different versions of panic. DJ made a mad dash for the flames and two police officers scooped him up, carrying him back with his feet kicking in the air.

“Daaaaaadddddddddddd!” He roared like Vin was all he had. Because he was all he had.

In a second, at least a dozen emergency workers were consoling the children, as Robert and Vanessa hollered Vin’s name.

Two hands to her chest, Tahli clawed at her nightgown, unable to catch a full breath.

“They’ll find him, Tahli. He’s out here somewhere.”

But she couldn’t answer her father. Couldn’t blink off the water from her lenses.

She was trying to breathe. But she was failing.

When people spoke of lives flashing by, Tahli never imagined fifteen years could play back in seconds.

But she saw births and vows and laughs and moments and fears and tribulations in blinks.

Something bottomed out her gut, because even if he had stepped away, he wouldn’t have left these kids standing here alone for long.

“Dalvin!” Tahli summoned the strength to scream.

“Daaaaaalllllllviiiiinnnnnnnnnn!” She flew to the other side of the street where the home he gifted her was being swallowed up in Hell’s mouth. A bridge of firefighters caught her, of course.

“Ma’am! Ma’am! No!”

“You can’t, ma’am!”

Tahli didn’t hear them. She swung her whole body around, fighting like she’d never had to fight. All of her life, she had people willing to fight for her. Her father. Vanessa. Abby. Paige. Jay and Dan. Even Lexie. And Vin.

Nobody was ready to fight for her like Vin.

Nobody would fight for him like her.

“Ma’am, I assure you there is no one in that house! We will locate him!” an officer shouted in her face with fury.

“And I assure you I’m not taking your fucking word for it, motherfucker!” Tahli screamed like a lunatic, spit spewing from her mouth, swinging her arms, smacking him in the head.

“Let me fucking go! Dalvinnn!” She was lifted in the air, being hauled away from the blaze. Kicking and screaming, Tahli writhed desperately to return to it. She didn’t care if it melted her skin off. She would run into that fire just flesh and blood to save him.

She couldn’t see betrayal. Couldn’t feel pain. She only saw his smile. Different versions of it. With their children. With her. She slammed her hands against shoulders and body parts swathed in firefighter gear to no avail, body squeezing in agony, strength swallowed by numbers. Heart crushing.

“Tahli, you can’t go in there! They’ll find him!”

“Tahli, I’ll find him!” her father called on top of Vanessa.

“Tahli!” Drew called out.

“Daaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllviiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!”

She screamed frantically for him to appear. Begging of God. Begging of The Devil if she had to.

“Get her in a cop car!” that same officer shouted. “Subdue her!”

“Mooooommmmmmmmmm!” Dali screamed.

“Ma’am, look at me. Look. At. Me!” Some baby-faced, pale firefighter pleaded, eyes stretched on hers with two hands to her cheeks.

“I promise you we got everyone out of that house!”

“Garcia!”

That same man snapped his head to the calling, still holding Tahli’s face, and Tahli froze, panting in burnt air.

“He got past Willows! Pushed him to the ground. He’s back inside!”

“Dalllllllllvinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!” Tahli bellowed, agony and terror each grabbing a hand and ripping her in two. “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh Godddddddddddd!” Because she knew it. She fucking knew it. Knew it when the realization hit that he was not at her children’s sides.

“Tahli, no!” her father boomed, just as she bit down on the man’s hand. He yanked it from her cheek. The strength of love dipped her under his arms and escaped her into the street, her name being called in various voices behind her.

“Dalllllllllllvinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!”

Can you see it, baby love. Your family? The one you always talk about? Decorating your tree in here. Hosting your own Christmas parties. Everything you told me you dreamed of.