Page 89 of Kylie

Not that it was a bad thing. The last thing I wanted was for both of them to become unhinged.

“I’ll get their things together,” I told them as they stood there, embracing one another.

Travis reached out and grabbed my wrist before I could turn away. “I’ll get it. You sit here with her. She needs a minute.”

Swallowing past the ball of emotion that I hadn’t realized had formed, I nodded. I would’ve given just about anything for a few minutes alone with Kylie. I hadn’t had that yet.

When Travis stepped back, Kylie turned to me. Without a word, she walked right up and put her arms around me, pressing her cheek to my chest. Warmth moved through me, traveling in my veins, infusing my nerve endings. I couldn’t remember the last time I hadn’t felt cold inside. At least on some level. With Kylie back, that chill was disappearing.

My arms went around her, and not for the first time, I realized how thin she was. She needed to go to the doctor for a complete check-up. We needed to ensure there weren’t any problems, nothing that we should focus on. It was clear she was malnourished, but I didn’t have the first clue what that could do to the body. I was sure it wasn’t as simple as getting calories back into her. She would need to be on a meal plan, something that would allow her to gain back the weight and the strength she’d lost. And bone loss. Muscle mass. All of those⁠—

“Gage?”

“Hmm?”

“Stop thinkin’ so much.”

I chuckled and some of the pressure in my brain released. “Sorry.”

She pulled back and looked up, her arms remaining around my waist. “Don’t apologize.”

I stared down at her, and my chest constricted. Suddenly, my sinuses burned, and I was overwhelmed by a wave of emotion so powerful, I thought for sure it would knock me off my feet.

Kylie released me, but her cool fingers were suddenly on my face. “Gage?”

“God, I’ve missed you,” I blurted, jerking her into me as I leaned down, letting the emotional tide carry me out. I couldn’t help it. I’d been keeping it together by sheer will. More so for my kids’ sake. Also for Kylie. But I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

Kylie’s frail arms ringed my neck, her fingers gently stroking my hair as she held me as tightly as I held her. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to let her go again.

“I missed you,” I repeated, a sob tearing from my chest.

“I missed you, too,” she whispered. “So much.”

We remained like that for several minutes while I forced myself to calm down. There was no reason to have an emotional breakdown. Kylie was home. Our lives were complete once again. No, maybe we hadn’t found our footing yet, but we would. Of that I was certain.

Travis

Showing Kylie her gravesite probably wasn’t the smartest idea I’d ever had, but after Mom and Pop left with the kids, that was where we were headed.

I got the sense she felt detached from her former life, and to a degree, I understood it. For one, she’d only been back for less than a day. It would take time for everyone to acclimate to her presence. As much as I wished things would go back to the way they’d been on that morning when our lives were altered inconceivably, I knew they couldn’t. Our lives were different from what they had been. As was hers.

I also understood her need to place blame. She’d been kidnapped and held captive, completely oblivious to what had been taking place in the world around her. I didn’t know the details, but I hoped that with time she would share them.

And while she had been hoping for someone to find her, we thought we had said goodbye to her. I wasn’t trying to minimize her pain, but I did want her to know why we hadn’t looked for her.

As I pulled through the cemetery gates, part of me expected her to say something. She didn’t. Neither did Gage. There was no conversation as I followed the winding, single blacktop lane toward the back. I stopped and parked along the side of the road a short distance from her gravesite. Or rather, the site where someone else had been buried because the body in that casket did not belong to my wife. If there was a body at all.

At some point, we would have to share that information with the authorities so they could do what they needed to do. Being that ours was a small town, I expected Sheriff Endsley would stop by sooner rather than later to get the details. After all, a death certificate had been filed with the state. In order for my wife to return to the land of the living, we had to get that taken care of, too. And then Sheriff Endsley could take his report and go after the bastard responsible for all of this.

And yes, that was that annoying little angel hovering on my shoulder that was feeding me that do-gooder bullshit. On the opposite shoulder, the little devil was gearing up to bitch slap the good one. No way was I letting the authorities find Martin Calloway. That bastard was not going to have a chance to get away with his crimes. And something told me he would if we didn’t intervene. So, yeah, I had every intention of working with Kylie to find him and take his ass down.

To my surprise, Kylie was the first to get out of the SUV. Gage and I were quick to follow, then we were leading her past other headstones to the one that had fresh flowers resting in the small vase.

The sun was out, the day warming up. The meteorologist had said it was going to be warm today. In the high 80s. At the moment, it was comfortable, the breeze almost cool as it gently swept through. Sunlight was beaming down through the giant oaks that dotted the landscape, as though a higher power was attempting to provide warmth and light to those buried beneath the ground.

“Someone left flowers,” Kylie said when we stopped a few feet from the headstone with her name on it.

“Travis did,” Gage told her. “He’s put fresh flowers here every week since we…”