Page 142 of I Never Stopped Loving You

“Let’s get you home, Little Rabbit. You’re freezing.”

A siren can be heard off in the distance. Someone must have seen the smoke and called it in. Good thing my family name still carries weight around here.

“Can we stay just a bit longer?” she asks as she turns and places her back against my chest to continue watching the flames consume the house.

“Of course. Whatever you need, Willow.”

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“There’s no need to thank me. I’d do anything for you.”

We sit in silence until the sounds of sirens fill the air around us. My body tenses thinking of the last time I heard this many sirens here. It was the beginning of my search for her, and this moment marks the end.

I have her back in my life. In my arms.

My Willow.

My soulmate.

My little rabbit.

CHAPTER 65

NOAH

THREE YEARS AGO

“This town is actually kinda cute,” Monty teases as we drive through the town of Norfolk.

It’s late, but the town is still lit up. Monty was able to get us a rental with no paper trail. Just in case people start to wonder why Mr. Alex Miller disappeared, they won’t come looking for the two out-of-towner’s who came in on a private plane and then left the same night. At least I’m hoping that’s as long as this will take. Get in. Get out.

“Did you hear what I said?” Monty asks as we leave the town behind us and slowly make our way out into the country.

We’re headed to his home, just a few miles off Highway 24.

“No. Sorry.”

“I said she was found not too far from that gas station back there. From the footage I was able to find, it looks like they had a fight and she took off on foot.”

“So she wasn’t in the car with him?”

“No. At least, not at first. She took off back toward his place on foot. Three minutes after she disappears out of the camera’s small view, Alex is seen leaving the gas station heading in the direction she went. She was found by another driver in the middle of the road not even thirty minutes later.”

“What the hell could have happened in that amount of time?”

I’ve been trying to figure out what happened. Did he run her down? Did he beat her and then run her over? I don’t really care why he did what he did. It doesn’t change a damn thing. He hurt her, and that’s all the justification I need to kill him. Still, my curiosity is going to get the better of me. I want to know what drove him to finally snap.

“I’ve been trying to figure that out myself. I think he might have run her down. They aren’t sure if she’ll even walk again after this.”

“What kind of monster runs down his girlfriend?”

“I’m assuming the same kind you kill?” Monty teases.

“Listen, Monty. You really don’t have to do this. There’s a huge difference between helping me find the monsters and helping me kill them,” I say as he cuts the lights and lets the car coast in the darkness. The moon is the only light illuminating our path.

“I know I don’t have to I want to. Let’s just say I have my own reasons for wanting to finally get my hands dirty.”

I start to ask him what his reasons are, but he holds up a hand, silencing me. We’re stopped at the end of a driveway, still concealed by the brush in the ditch. The house sits only three hundred feet away from the road. A single light in an upstairs window is the only indication that someone is still up.