There was no gentle version of that kind of heartbreak.
I pulled on clean clothes, dragging a shirt over my head, fingers slower than usual. When I stepped into the hallway, I tamped down everything to focus on her. “Ember?”
No response.
As I turned toward the kitchen, I realized it was empty. So were the living room and the bedrooms. Opening the back door, I called outside. “Ember?”
Still nothing, which caused a strange tension to spread inside me.
When I stepped back into the kitchen, the first thing I noticed was the floor. Water pooled across the wood, and a bottle had cracked open. My gaze snapped to the counter and onto my phone, where the screen was open andglowing.
I stopped breathing altogether when I saw the screen.
The background was toggled between the call log and my folder on her, with a video paused. My mind instantly locked me out with panic because she saw it—she watchedeverything.
“Fuck!” I screamed, grabbing everything within my reach and throwing it to the ground. Shards of glass exploded around me, but I kept going until I felt a fraction of the anger dissipate. It was only when I looked across the room and saw the photo of me and my brothers, that I stopped.
What the fuck am I supposed to do now, guys?
Notonlywas she gone, but she left without me explainingeverything to her, which made it allsomuch worse. I was the man who kidnapped her, who watched her, who kept a folder full of that footage.She’s going to think it’s me in the videos.My grip tightened around the phone as I stared down at the mess around me.
I had to find her, to explain. She needed to know the truth before she got hurt. Before—
The phone suddenly vibrated in my hand. The caller ID showed Knox, which caused my blood pressure to spike to dangerous heights. “Pleasetell me you got him.”
“Yes. I couldn’t do it using face recognition in the database, but I got a match from the ring he's wearing. You can see it in the video on his hand, a championship ring from last year.Football. The emblem is for the quarterback—I double checked that information with the tracker you found. The necklace was registered as a gift and labeled under a woman named Kinsley.”
I bit down on my tongue so hard I tasted blood.
That Mother Fucker.
It was her “brother,” the quarterback.
“Do you want me to call the police?”
“No,“ I ground out, my voice radiating with rage. “I got it.”
For a few seconds, everything in my brain went black. I forced myself to inhale as the wrath living in my chest begged for escape.
The fucking quarterback.
As Knox ended the call, I stared down at my phone and the call log that was now displayed on my screen. Blinking throughmy red vision, I looked at the numbers listed at the top. There had been calls madethismorning, while I was in the shower. Kinsley’s name hung there, now a permanent contact, but that was not what my eyes snagged on. Above Kinsley’s timestamp was another number, the last one on my outgoing call list.
If Kinsley hadn’t answered, she would have called someone else for help. I ran for my keys when I realized it wasn’t Kolby, that number I had looked up after going through her texts.
“FUCK,” I yelled out again, running to my car.
Ember had called Bodhi, thinkinghewould be the one to save her fromme.
34
Ember
Bodhi walked straight inside, without saying anything else to me.
I figured it was best for both of us to take a few minutes before I followed him in, considering we were both dealing with strong emotions. I understood his frustration and where he was coming from, I knew it was because he cared. Unfortunately, I was still trying to cope with what I’d just learned about myself.Something that I couldn't just outright tell him, at least not yet.I stood in the entryway for a few minutes, staring into the darkness as I willed it to swallow me, just so I would stop feeling for a little while.
When I finally stepped inside, I could tell Bodhi had moved into the kitchen. Soft golden light spilled out, stretching across the floor in a warm rectangle. I kept my eyes on it as I slipped my shoes off and walked toward him, my body moving automatically even though my mind was still somewhere else.
