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That’s all he was—a way out.
Not anymore.
He never wanted to come back to Damon’s Mountains again. Like Hallie, he was going to start over and find somewhere new. Maybe make some new friends. Find a new place to work. Find a house somewhere, and try his damndest to never look back.
Chapter Fifteen
Six days.
Almost one week.
Gunner opened the fridge in his apartment and pulled out a bottled water, sank onto the couch, and took a long drink of it. This was the hardest part of the day, where he thought about shouldering the satchel of clothes he kept packed, getting on his motorcycle, and driving back to the place that was calling to every part of him.
He’d always dreamed of leaving Damon’s Mountains, but it wasn’t like he’d imagined.
His phone sat face-down on the coffee table, plugged into a cord, charging.
Maybe today would be the day the text messages waned.
He flipped over the phone, and the first text message that came through said, You’re an asshole. It was from Lucia. She sent him the same text every day at the same time, as if she had an alarm set to remind her to ruin his day.
He huffed a laugh and shook his head. She would give up on him eventually.
He scrolled through the others. Mom and Dad, of course, even though he talked to them every night now. Damon had asked where he’d gone. Lucas had sent him a selfie of him and Kru and Landon shooting him the middle finger.
The last one had the smile fading from his face though.
Bash had texted, Something is happening, with a link just like he’d done a week ago, the night Hallie had disappeared.
With a frown, Gunner sat up, set the water bottle on the table, and clicked the link.
It led him to Hallie’s social media page. Stupid Bash. Gunner already checked this every night. Secretly.
Hallie hadn’t posted since her messages for Derek.
Only when he opened up her page this time, there were new posts. She must’ve done these today while he was on job interviews.
After her posts to Derek a week ago, she’d put up a picture of her and Lucia and Cadence and Jenna, laughing together in a corner booth at some bar.
What the fuck? She was hanging with the Warlander girls?
He scrolled through those pictures, and it was Hallie with the happiest smile. His heart hammered against his chest.
She was out there. She was making friends and making memories.
Attagirl.
The next post was of her in the bleachers of some dirt-track car race, holding a tumbler that read C-Team. Blurred in the background were familiar faces from Damon’s Mountains, and her cousin, Corey, cheering on the cars with her.
The caption read, I’ve been livin’ lately. About damn time.
Gunner ran his hand down his jaw and scrolled up to the next post. She was standing next to the for-sale sign on 1010 Winding Creek Way. She was rolling her eyes heavenward, with this pretty smile painting her lips. There was mostly-healed, green bruising under one of her eyes. Derek must’ve smacked her during that abduction. Gunner clenched his fist and closed his eyes to control the rage that roared through his head. He wanted to kill that motherfucker all over again. Three steadying breaths, and he forced his eyes open to study the picture again. Her hair had blonde highlights in it now, and she had it curled in loose waves down her shoulders. She looked so good. Happy, even. The caption read, I went to make an offer on this place so I could finally put down some roots and be neighbors with my cousin, but someone beat me to it.
Holy shit. It was him. He’d made the offer on it before he left.
His entire body was rigid as he scrolled to the next post. It was a black-and-white video in slow motion of them on his bike, zooming away. It was edited to look like one of those old, grainy movies. The caption read, Dear GW, my cousin told me something last night. She said she mentioned a bite to you. SHE mentioned it, not me. That was never my plan. That’s not what you are to me. To me, you are just freedom, and I’ll never feel differently. I just want another ride with you.
His heart hammered against his chest.
