With my confusion at a pinnacle, I take a windy corner two miles from Dr. Franklin’s residence too sharply. The tires slide out the Buick’s back end when I hit the loose gravel at a speed too fast to be safe. I correct my error quickly, but the closeness of the Buick’s grill to a massive tree trunk has me pulling off the road for a breather. Getting in a wreck won’t help anyone.
The darkness of a cloud-filled night means it takes me a few moments to recognize where I am. I’m half a mile from the cabin Demi and I camped at for six weeks—if that.
A shiver rolls up my spine when I consider how close I had Demi to a monster. I thought I was getting her away from one. I had no clue she was only miles away from evil. A different type of evil than her uncle, but still evil, nonetheless.
Still needing answers, I guide the Buick toward the loaned cabin instead of the family cabin where Demi is waiting for me. The eerie silence surrounding the cabin when I drive down the driveway swirls the lunch Demi prepared for us before my run.
After pulling up next to the front porch, I tug my coat in close, then climb the entry stairs. I haven’t been here since I thought I had lost the love of my life, and my breakthrough of the threshold this time around doesn’t come without controversy. The faintest scent Demi’s hair got from our many romps here is lingering in the air, but a much more unpleasant smell is overriding it.
I never realized how strong the scent of blood is until I stumbled onto Demi in the shower. It’s a scent that will never leave me. Despite wishing otherwise, it will plague my nightmares for years to come. Even more so when my push on the bathroom door of the master suite has the exact smell I’m terrified of confronting me head-on.
Caidyn said his ‘friend’ rarely uses this cabin, and his assumption is proven accurate when I drag my eyes over the shattered shower stall glass still scattered across the tiled floor. Even the marks my bloody fists left on the tiles remain. It is as if time stood still. Nothing has changed.
After taking a moment to remember things are starkly different from what they once were—Demi is both alive and safe—I search the expansive marble counters near the vanity sink. When I fail to find the canister of vitamins I saw behind the positive pregnancy tests when I endeavored to get Demi responsive and alert, I search the drawers in the vanity before rummaging through a half-full bin on my left, mindful the canister could have fallen during my panic.
“Fuck it!” I mutter under my breath when the tip of my finger is sliced by a shard of glass hiding in the bottom of the bin.
My eyes jackknife to the right when a soft, full-of-angst voice says, “Serves you right.” Demi is standing in the doorway of the bathroom. Her arms are folded in front of her chest, and Max is standing at her left. “I told him there was no way you’d be out here, that if you had questions you wanted to ask me, you’d come directly to me.” She huffs instead of crying. It doesn’t appear to be an easy feat. “What a fool I was.”
“I’m not here investigating you—”
“Then what are you doing, Maddox? You were meant to do your run, then come home.”
Her shouted words stir Max, but his response is nothing compared to the angst my reply hits her with, “I’m trying to work out what happened to our baby. Whatreallyhappened.”
The crackling of her voice exposes she is on the verge of crying, but she maintains her composure—just. “We had a miscarriage, Maddox. It occurs all the time.”
“It does, but how often does it occur an hour after taking a tablet you knew nothing about?” I dig the canister I found at the warehouse out of my pocket before showing it to Demi. “The canister your vitamins were in looked like this—”
“Allpill canisters look like that.”
I continue speaking as if she never interrupted me. “The prescription label on this canister was issued by a doctor who is being investigated for malpractice.” I wait for her to absorb the half legible doctor’s name on the label of the canister before adding, “He doesn’t prescribe vitamin tablets, Demi. He hands out abortion pills like candy during Halloween.”
Demi’s lips quiver when she whispers, “He was right. You think I purposely hurt our baby.”
Her accusation hits me like a ton of bricks, but it won’t stop me from saying, “No. That isn’t close to what I think.” My heart falls from my chest when she ends my attempt to step closer to her by slicing her hand through the air. This is the first time she’s ever denied me. I don’t fucking like it—not one little bit. “You also shouldn’t belisteningto anything Rocco says. You said he was the one who gave you the tablets, so he could be endeavoring to cover his tracks by placing a massive barrier between us.”
“He did bring me the vitamins,” she fires back, both angered she needs to defend herself and devastated. “But Rocco wouldn’t do that, Maddox. He’dneverhurt me like that.”
“Not even if he was ordered to by Dimitri?” Her shock freezes her long enough I can bridge the gap between us. Max keeps me a good two feet back, but I’m close enough for Demi to see the gut-wrenching truth in my eyes when I say, “Someonepurposelyset out to hurt our baby. If it wasn’t you, a member of your family is the next logical suspect.” I realize how badly I fucked up when a heartbreaking flare darts through Demi’s eyes. “I didn’t mean it was you. I talk out my ass when I’m tired. You know that.”
“Yeah, I do know that,” Demi replies, making me hopeful I haven’t shoved my foot into my mouth too badly this time around. “But I also know that is when you’re the most honest.” She ignores the rapid shake of my head. “How about I make things easy for you, Maddox?” Her next set of words break her heart as much as they do mine. “It ismyfault our baby is dead.Iam to blame.” She jabs her fingers into her chest. “Because you were right.Idid take the tablet stupidly believing it would help our baby.Ialso slipped and bumped my head, so perhapsIam responsible for the death of our child.”
“Demi—”
She cuts my reply short by spinning away from me and walking outside.
I’m on her heels in under a second. “Where are you going?”
“To do my shift at Petretti’s. Late is better than never, right?”
I wait until she has Max clipped into the passenger seat of Caidyn’s jeep before grabbing her arm. I only need to run my fingertip down her nose once to calm her down. Once she’s calm, she’ll realize I’m not the opposition. We belong on the same team.
My hand doesn’t get within an inch of Demi’s nose before she shouts, “Don’t!” Her one word cracks out of her mouth like a whip. “I drove here to prove to myself Dimitri is a lying piece of shit.” I don’t know what shocks me more, confirmation she’s been communicating with her cousin or the words she says next. It may be a combination of both. “I’m leaving having no clue who the hero of this story is.”
Stealing my chance to reply, she jogs around to the driver’s side door, slips behind the steering wheel, then drives away.
17
