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“We all have our own sense of energy. And I remember his energy, as I’m sure the others do.” Every head nodded, and Holly smiled. “You’ve been so good to us. We’ll help you.”
“Thank you,” I said on a low sigh. “Go quickly then. He was angry when he left and I need to talk to him before he does something stupid. Should I stay here?”
“Don’t worry. We’ll find you.”
As much as the knowledge that they could pinpoint my location wherever I was should have worried me, I was relieved to think Kipp could too. It also saddened me all the same because he hadn’t come to me yet. He had to realize at some point that this was insane.
He had to come back.
I pulled myself away from the pain clenching my heart and nodded at her. “Go then. Be as fast as you can.”
As my mouth shut, every ghost vanished from sight, and I forced the quiver of my chin to stop. They’d find him. I was sure of it.
Why then did my heart hurt so bad my stomach rolled with sickness? I gulped back the lump in my throat that begged to come out in a scream. Instead, I considered where else he might go. Just because they searched for him didn’t mean I’d stop.
I studied the grounds. None of the soldiers had returned only upping the level of my guilt. Once this was all straightened out, I’d return to help them. For once, I needed to be self-centered, and stuffed all my guilt into the pit of my stomach to deal with later.
With a last look around, I returned to my car, and gunned it down the road. There was one last place I thought he might be and I couldn’t waste the chance that maybe he was there.
My tortured thoughts stayed on Kipp as I made good time into the city. I drove like a bat out of hell down the street until I pulled up in front of the safe house Kipp had been shot at while working the Hannah Reid case.
The last place he’d been alive.
In a matter of seconds, I left the car and ran around the house only to arrive in the backyard where Kipp had died.
The cement on the ground still had the stain of his blood, but now it appeared much lighter than I remembered when we’d been here before.
I dropped to my knees and placed my hand on the patch. Before I hadn’t touched the spot, but remembered Kipp saying he experienced something when he was here. A connection to this very spot, as if he’d felt more alive here—odd, but true—and now I could understand what he meant.
Maybe with Gretchen’s teachings I believed more in energy so I was more tuned into it. But I realized whenever Kipp was around me, I always experienced a zing of energy like a warm embrace. Here, that same energy remained.
I closed my eyes, losing myself in the familiarity of Kipp. But then the tingle beneath my hand lessened, and I opened my eyes studying the spot.
The sensation was fading.
Then like a cold bucket of water splashed on my face, the feeling all together in a matter of a split second vanished.
The concrete was cold beneath my hand. Empty. That warm embrace that started the day I met Kipp was gone. I blinked away the tears trying to understand, make sense out of this, and deal with the hollowness that filled me.
Where are you?
Right then, a scuffle came behind me, and my heart thudded.
Kipp?
Once I spun around, my hopes plummeted as Zach’s troubled gaze met mine. “I’ve been searching for you everywhere, but I thought you might come here.”
I forced myself to pull my hand away from the concrete and clutched my thighs, as gripping emotion settled deep into my chest. “He’s not here. He’s not anywhere.” My chin quivered. “Where is he, Zach?”
Zach knelt down next to me, and exhaled deeply. “I don’t know.” He peeked up at me through his eyelashes, and his blue eyes shone with compassion. “You haven’t seen him at all?”
I shook my head, tears dripping down my cheeks, and I did nothing to stop them. “Even worse, it feels like he’s gone.”
“Gone?”
I placed my hand aga
inst the pavement again, my suspicions confirmed by the coldness beneath my touch. “When we’d come here during the Reid investigation Kipp said he experienced something here.” I revealed the information that Kipp had kept secret. “I hadn’t known what he meant, but when I first came here and touched this spot, I understood. His presence was so strong here.”
