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All of them.
Every single one that I’d been lucky enough to have spent with her.
With the first hint of the sun lighting at the curtains on my window, I climbed out of bed. I dressed, unable to stand being in the loneliness of that small room for any longer.
I grabbed my phone, already knowing my plea had remained unanswered, though it still sent a billow of despondency rippling through me when the last message on the thread with Caleb was the one that I’d sent him last night.
Needing to get out of the house before I lost it, I sent an SOS to my bestie.
Me
Tell me coffee is already brewed.
Two seconds later, she responded.
Dakota
We’ve already been open for an hour.
Me
See, and this is why I refuse to work for you.
I did my best to joke. To remember it wouldn’t always feel this bad, except I worried I was only telling myself a lie.
Dakota
Yet you’re awake at this ungodly hour. Sounds like you need to get your cute butt down here.
Me
Yeah, couldn’t sleep and I don’t want to be alone right now. Is it okay if I come hang with you at the café?
Dakota
Of course. You know you’re always welcome here.
Me
Be there soon.
I tucked my phone into my back jeans pocket, brushed my teeth, then pulled my hair into a ponytail.
I scribbled a note for my grandpa and left it on the counter, promising I would be back later.
I stepped out of the front door and into the approaching day, the air cool and crisp as it brushed against my skin.
I inhaled it, trying to stave off the shivering that shook me to the soul.
Then I squinted through the misty light at the pickup truck that slowed then came to a stop in front of the house. Its headlights were still on, and I couldn’t make out who it was.
I climbed down the two steps from the porch, and I started down the walkway when the passenger window rolled down.
Confusion twisted my brow.
“Nate? What are you doing here?”
That was when I heard crying from the backseat.
Evelyn.
“Ms. Dae! I need you! I need you!”
My heart rate kicked into a sprint, and I ran that way. “What happened?”
The truck only had two doors with the extra small cab in the back, and I ripped open the passenger door and climbed in on my knees so I could get to her, leaning over the seat.
“What happened, Evelyn? Are you okay?” It came out haggard, riddled with confusion and this sense of dread that whirred at the back of my mind.
“I want to go home.” Her face was splotchy and red, brown eyes terrified. She was only dressed in her pink nightgown with the unicorns on the front, and her feet were bare. The seatbelt was strapped around her, but she wasn’t in her booster.
Ice slicked down my spine.
I whirled back to Nate.
“Where’s Caleb?” I demanded. “What’s going on?”
He grinned with those dimples that had always made him appear cute. “Don’t worry. We’re just goin’ for a little ride.”
I could barely process the flash of metal before I realized it was a gun. That was one second before the butt of it cracked against my skull.
There was no time to react.
No time to scream.
Because in an instant, everything went black.
FORTY-SIX
CALEB
I was in my office, stuffing anything of importance into a case, my laptop and the few paper files I would need, trying to keep my fucking hands from shaking, but the bedlam going down in the middle of me was making it nearly impossible.
Agony stark.
My chest stretched so tight I thought I would implode with the force of it.
This misery that gathered from the darkened depths, inflating with the hatred of what I had to do.
I’d already packed what I needed in my bedroom and bathroom. I’d been up throughout the entire night, anyway, raging like a beast, pacing the floor as I kept checking out the window, waiting for the disgusting fuck to show his face.
Unable to sleep or settle.
Torn by what I had done.
The decision I had made.
But it was required.
There was no other choice.
I had to get Evelyn out of here before it was too late. Before the monster caught up. Before the one thing I was supposed to protect was harmed.
Visions flashed, images that I couldn’t stomach of a little girl sustaining the same fate as her mother.
My sister.
I swallowed down the bile that stormed up my throat.
I couldn’t fathom it.
Couldn’t even consider it.
Wouldn’t allow myself to think it because I wouldn’t allow it to happen.
I’d failed at every other turn, but protecting Evelyn would not be one of them.
I glanced at my phone that I’d set on the desk.
My teeth ground as I warred with the urge to pick it up. Respond to her text. Tell her I was a fucking liar, and I hadn’t meant a thing I’d said.
