Jack brushed past him, reaching for the shovel that swung beside the fire poker. She desperately tried to fish the burning pages out of the flames. “We’ll take pictures of the file,” she stammered, stomping on the charred, curling pages. “We’ll keep them as insurance.”

“Jack, stop. I need to send this video to Lily, and right now you’re in the frame.”

“I’m not letting you send that video!” Jack dug another pile of pages out of the fire. She had no idea what order the pages were in now, or if any of them were readable, but she refused to give up on the only evidence they’d uncovered. The only real lead they had. She took picture after picture, and twenty minutes later, she was sitting on the floor, scanning through the photos.

Everything looked charred and wrinkled. She could barely make out a word.

“The file is destroyed,” Raven said, crouching beside her. He scooped up the half-burned pages, dumping them back into the fireplace. “I’ll send Lily a video to prove it, and then we can plan our next—”

Raven broke off at the sound of pounding on the front door. Jack’s heart skittered into her throat. She told herself it was her mother, drunk and incapable of dredging her keys from the recesses of her purse. It had to be her mother. It couldn’t be the police.

Jack took slow, unsteady breaths as Raven strode to the window, parting the heavy green curtains. His phone chimed. He pulled it out of his pocket, reading the message aloud. “ ‘I warned you,’ ” he whispered as Jack caught a glimpse of flashing lights in the driveway.

“We took too long to send the video. We have to burn the other files before the police find them.”

“You have to run,” Raven countered, bolting back to Jack’s bedroom. He returned seconds later, and before Jack could utter a word, he’d hurled all of their stolen files into the flames.

“Raven—”

“Go, now,” he said as her brothers hurried in from the kitchen. Everyone Jack loved was in this room. How could she leave them? But the second Flynn saw police lights in the driveway, he put himself in front of the other boys. Raven took Conner’s hand. Diego took Dylan’s.