The ring on her finger dim with it.
Phantom crosses the kitchen to Marlena, his knees hitting the tile, his hand finding her face. "Babe."
She doesn't answer.
He puts his forehead against hers.
He's gone still in a way that I have seen on this man one time in ten years.
I cross the kitchen.
I crouch behind Hadley. My hands come up under her arms. I lift her up off the floor without taking her hands off Marlena's chest until Dakota's hands are pressing where Hadley's were.
I turn her around.
My hands are on her face. "Where is he?"
Her mouth opens. Nothing comes out. "Hadley. Baby. Where's Nash?"
She can't speak.
My hands tighten on her face. The blood on the side of her head is fresh enough that some of it transfers to my fingers. "Hadley!"
The words come out of her wrong. "He took him. Hartley took him. He came in. He shot Marlena. He shot Diesel. Thunder came through the back and tackled him and Hartley shot Thunder and he told me he wanted him, then the next thing I know I was on the floor?—"
I pull her against my chest hard.
My hand goes up into her hair on the left side and finds the place where the blood is and stays still there.
I don't breathe right for a moment. "You did right, baby. You did everything you could."
She nods into my chest. She's shaking now. She wasn't shaking when I came in. Now that she's in my arms she's shaking.
My mouth stays at the top of her head. "Did he say anything?"
She pulls her face back to look at me. "Six hours. He said tell you six hours."
My eyes go past her to Phantom on the floor with his forehead against Marlena's.
His head comes up. His eyes find mine across the kitchen.
He swallows. "Brother, go get your boy."
I look down at Hadley. My hand tightens at the back of her neck. "Baby. I gotta go."
She gets her hand into the front of my cut and grips the leather. The ring on her finger is slick against my chest. She looks up at me.
The woman looking at me isn't the woman who sat on the porch this morning with the chain off her throat and the ring on her hand.
Her grip on my cut tightens until her knuckles whiten. "You bring him home, Silas."
"I will."
She doesn't let go of the leather. Her eyes don't leave mine. "You bring him home or you don't come home in one piece. You hear me?"
My hand stays at the back of her neck. I memorize the way she looks at me. "I hear you, baby."
Then I make her promise me back.