“Mommy!” Esme sobbed, and the whole of me answered to it.

“Stay back, Maribel,” Weatherby barked, stepping between us.

“We don’t want the kid.

We just need a couple hours to get clear before your friends get up the valley — the mudslide’s got the low road.”

Darius came through the doors behind me and stopped dead when he saw his mother.

“Mom.