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I needed Lily to be back. I needed her to be mine. I needed my world to feel right again. I need to fulfill my purpose.
But even as those thoughts entered my mind, they felt wrong.
My whole life had felt wrong for as long as I could remember because it hadn’t been mine.
Then I’d had right for a little while. But that ended up being a lie.
When I got close enough to Conor, he shook his head. It was subtle, but it was enough to make me come to a stop.
After a glance at his watch, he gave me a pointed look then started walking off the porch.
When he rounded the corner of the house, I realized he was checking the perimeter, and I hurried to meet him at the side.
Not making a sound.
Sticking to the shadows.
“Mickey put eyes and ears on the front porch,” he whispered, just loud enough for me to hear. “And I think he’s watching my phone.”
“Wordless texts aren’t suspicious?” I gave him a dry look, then hurried on, “Why are you here?”
“Mickey brought a girl here about an hour ago. Young. Probably my age.” Conor dipped his head and dropped his voice even lower. “She was dragged in here, yelling the whole time. He said he owned her. I’m supposed to guard her. It’s like that meeting you made me check out last year. The human trafficking. I don’t think he actually stopped.”
“Shit.”
“There was a guy with him. He was the one dragging her. I’ve never seen him before. He’s not Holloway. Do you think he could be the ghost?”
I stopped walking and looked from Conor to the house.
He couldn’t, because the ghost was Jessica. I jogged to catch up with him. “Are they still in there?”
“The girl is, yeah. Mickey and the guy left.”
I blew out a calming breath and clapped Conor’s back. “Keep doing what you’re doing. Stop texting me blank texts. I’ll call Beck and fill him in. Did you get a name on the guy?”
Conor was already shaking his head. “No, and he didn’t say a word. But Mickey has some fucked-up plans. He wants to have kids with the girl to keep O’Sullivan blood in Holloway.”
I ground my jaw, trying to keep my shaking at bay. “I need to get the other guy’s name to see what I can find out about him.”
“Do it fast, man. I don’t want to die.” He tried to make his tone teasing, but I could hear the underlying fear there.
We rounded the last corner of the house, so I dropped back to stay hidden in the shadows and nodded toward the house. “I’m going to talk to the girl to see if she knows who he is.”
Conor looked over his shoulder to whisper, “Her name’s Jessica.”
Shock and dread hit me so fast I nearly fell to my knees.
It had to be a coincidence.
Had to.
I forced myself to turn and go to the back of the house, but each step felt weighted. Impossible.
When I was finally slipping into my old bathroom, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence.
Because with each heavy step closer to the bedroom, I could feel her. Her wild energy that felt close to exploding.
I found her on my old bed, staring at the ceiling.
