“Do youreallythink he’s alive?” he asked again, pulling me out of my reverie.
“Yes,” I replied. “Which means the officers who claimed his DNA matched a burned body lied to us.”
“I’ll review that report again and see who worked on it. Does Eva have any family members I can talk to? I need to follow proper procedure to avoid any loopholes.”
“Her grandfather is here. Hold on a sec.” I handed the phone to Harry and signaled that I would be outside.
Harry nodded and took the call.
Needing air and a moment to myself, I walked down the hallway and stepped onto a balcony, staring into the night. Streetlights flickered on the empty street. Somewhere a car honked, a dog barked, and a woman yelled at her man for drinking too much.
Where are you, Eva?She was still angry when our last call ended. Everything had been one huge miscommunication. Though I tried to remain positive, worry ate at me.
When I thought the past could never be healed, Eva patched me up with passion, creativity, and devotion to herfamily. I had forgotten what it felt like to have a family until her. I gripped the iron railing, my fingers curling tightly until my knuckles whitened, and vowed to get her back at all costs.
The door to the balcony flew open, Harry’s face beaming with hope.
“Kain! Milo got something!”
Chapter Fifty-Two
Eva
The back of my head throbbed as I woke. Rubbing the spot, I felt a minor bump and remembered the horror of the live heart and lungs in the cooler. Nausea threatened at the memory, so I shut it down.
I remained still in bed, wallowing in my frightening situation. What was wrong with these people? How could they farm organs like this? A human life was precious. When I stared at those organs, a part of me sensed the fear rising inside me. But another part felt the anger from those organs. It was as though they looked back at me, scolding me with their disapproval.
Tears streamed down my face as I imagined a young Kain experiencing this horror. He was captured for five years. Five years of horrific trauma transformed a person. His solace was his tattoos and the will to survive. My heart swelled for him, loving him more and more.
I missed him so much. If I wanted to see him again, I had to get out of here. Nerves swirled in my stomach, then slowly formed into a wave of courage. Then I remembered the tools hidden in my socks and bolted to a sitting position. Relief settled when I felt the tools were still there. They weren’t tiny objects, so I had no idea why my body didn’t register them sooner.
Fear has a way of blinding your senses, making you focus only on certain things.
My stomach churned as I wondered who had brought me back to this room. Did the person see the tools?
The bathroom door opened, and Avery exited, walking to her bed and changing into a fresh shirt.
She heard me move, smiled, and walked over. “How you feeling?”
“I’m such a weakling.”
“You’re not. It’s a normal reaction.” She sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing a comforting hand on my arm. “You were in shock, and your blood pressure dropped, so you passed out.”
With Avery’s medical background, I wondered if she’d met people with weird phobias like me.
“Do you faint at the sight of blood? Many people do.”
I’d heard of hemophobia, but that wasn’t what I had.
“I have organophobia.” Embarrassment heated my cheeks. “It started when I was seven and witnessed an attack at a park where a man’s gut spilled out of him. I had nightmares for months. When my parents died the following year, that trauma made everything worse. Especially when I learned how severely their bodies were damaged in the car accident . . .” I swallowed the lump lodged in my throat. “Just months after their deaths, I remembered waking up one night and walking in on my grandparents watching a surgery show on TV. I couldn’t look away when it showed a chest cavity with a beating heart.”
“Oh gosh. That’s traumatic for you to see considering what you’ve experienced.”
“A few days later, I saw them watching a horror movie where a killer gutted his victims. Their organs spilled out of their bodies. Then the organs transformed into little monsters, murdering people.” I paused for a moment to breathe. “TV exaggerates things, which didn’t help my young mind. The loss of my parents solidified the phobia, making it harder to overcome.”
“Grief takes a long time to heal. Nothing’s wrong with you.” She took my hand in hers. “We all have fears. Overcoming them strengthens us.”
“I had several nightmares about organs. One was about a bloody heart, a liver, and lungs popping out of a body and chasing me.” I laughed at the ridiculous dream that traumatized me. “In your studies, have you met people with different phobias?”
