The last word stuck, echoing through the endless canyons of her heart.
She missed Dorian—missed the potential of what could have been. In all her years of loneliness and fear, she’d never once felt as scared and empty as she had yesterday in the dining room, when Dorian revealed that he’d found her heist plans. She knew she’d lost him forever, just as she knew no matter what her future held, that moment would become the single biggest regret of her life, just like she’d told him.
It already had.
I have to figure this thing out. No matter what.
Sasha returned with an armload of goodies—Reese’s Pieces, M&Ms, a giant bag of buttery popcorn, and two jumbo sodas—grinning at Charley like the credit card issue was no big deal, like this sort of thing happened all the time. When they got inside the theater, there was only enough space in the back, but Sasha didn’t mind. She was just happy to be with Charley, to be hanging out together, waiting for the lights to dim and their day of frothy, rom-com fun to begin in earnest.
Charley could barely pay attention to the movies, her mind racing with jagged thoughts and terrible memories, desperate to work out this puzzle and get Dorian the evidence he needed.
By the time they left the theater, Charley felt as used-up and wrung-out as a dishrag. Thankfully, Sasha wasn’t hungry after gorging on all that candy and popcorn, so they decided to skip lunch and take a drive through the mountains instead.
Charley took the long way again, heading over toward Cole Diamante’s property to show Sasha the view, knowing how much her sister would appreciate it.
Despite her anxiety, the hum of the road relaxed her, the sun warming her skin, the snap of the autumn breeze whipping through her hair, the fall colors igniting the surrounding forest in a fiery tapestry of reds and golds that nearly took her breath away.
It was enough to give her the faintest ember of hope, and she nurtured it deep within her, urging it into a tiny flame.
“Okay, it’s coming up,” she said with a genuine smile—the first since they’d seen Bones outside the theater. She reached over and tugged on Sasha’s ponytail. “Ready to see something amazing?”
“Hell yeah,” Sasha said, trailing her hand out the window, surfing the breeze.
The hidden turnoff was coming up fast, and Charley downshifted, preparing to slow down for the turn.
In that moment, with her sister laughing at her side, the car humming beautifully beneath her, the sun shining relentlessly upon them, Charley felt—for just an instant—content.
Then something blurred in Charley’s peripheral vision.
Sasha screamed.
Charley jammed on the brakes.
The car clipped something in the road and spun, careening to a stop on the shoulder, facing the opposite direction.
After checking to make sure Sasha hadn’t been hurt, Charley unhooked her seatbelt and got out of the car to go see what had bolted out in front of them.
Huge.Fucking. Mistake.
Chapter Nineteen
Dorian wanted to burn them all. Every last fucking gray, every last fucking enemy, until there was nothing left of them but a smudge of black ash.
He’d just wrapped up his meeting with Chernikov when he’d gotten Charlotte’s frantic call.
Now, even as she stood before him in the gardens, very much alive and well, he still couldn’t shake the feeling of dread from his heart.
She could have bloodydiedtoday. At the hands of a fucking gray.
“It jumped out at us near the turnoff to Cole’s land,” she said, pacing. “We clipped it. I thought it was a deer or something, but when I got out to go check, I knew right away it was a man. Butnota man.”
She stopped long enough to glance up at him. The moonlight reflected in her wide eyes, making her look young and frightened and vulnerable.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, Dorian,” she whispered, rubbing the chill from her arms. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to scrub that image out of my mind.”
Dorian hated seeing her in pain. He wanted to go to her. To wrap her up in his arms and promise he’d take her away from the cold, brutal world they lived in—from anything that would hurt or frighten her.
But he knew that would only confuse things for both of them. So instead, he stood in place on the garden path, gently urging her to continue. He needed to know exactly what had transpired today. What she’d seen.
