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“Aspen? What’s the matter?”
“Help me. You’ve got to help me. Please.”
“Come in. Come in.”
I follow him inside.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Buck?”
I can’t speak. I can barely breathe. My breath is coming in rapid pants.
“Calm down.”
“Katelyn,” I rasp out. “Where’s Katelyn?”
“She’s upstairs. I’ll get her, okay?”
“Yes. Katelyn. Please.”
But instead of going upstairs, he walks into the kitchen. He comes back with a small paper lunch bag.
“Breathe into this. It will help.”
Right. Paper bag. Hyperventilating. Whatever. But I obey him. I breathe in and out into the paper bag. And to my surprise, it does help. I’m still breathing hard, but at least I can get a full breath now.
A few moments later, Katelyn comes running down the stairs with Luke.
“Aspen! What’s wrong?”
I just nod, still breathing in and out into the bag.
“Easy,” she says. “Okay. Breathe in. Breathe out.”
Her gentle voice calms me. Finally I remove the bag.
“Tell us. Tell us what happened.” She leads me to a sofa where we sit down.
Tears stream from my face as I relay the story in a trembling voice while I constantly try to brush the shivers from my arms. Gloria Delgado and her husband. Throat slit. Buck. Five minutes. Fifteen minutes.
“All right,” Katelyn says. “We should call the police. Right, Luke?”
Luke doesn’t reply at first. Then— “I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”
I widen my eyes. “Buck said he’d call 911 from their landline.”
Luke shakes his head and wrinkles his forehead. “Really? Because from what I know about Buck, he probably thought that wasn’t a good idea.”
“That’s what he said. He didn’t think it was a good idea, but he promised me. He wouldn’t lie to me.”
Luke doesn’t respond.
“No,” I say. “You’re thinking he’d lie to me. He didn’t. He did not lie to me.”
“I don’t think he would lie to you intentionally, Aspen.” Luke pushes at his hair. “But you have to consider that there’s a reason why he wanted you to leave after five minutes.”
“Why? What could the reason be?”
“I don’t know what the specific reason could’ve been,” Luke says, “but he was protecting you.”
“I don’t want him to protect me. I want him with me.”
Katelyn grabs my hand. “What can I do for you? Maybe a drink of cool water? A glass of wine?”
“No. Nothing.”
“Get her a glass of water,” Luke says. “It will help.”
Katelyn nods and hurries into the kitchen. A moment later she comes back with a glass of tepid water. No ice.
I’m thankful for it. I down the whole thing.
I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.
“You’re dehydrated,” Luke says. “That’s why I asked Katelyn to get the water.”
“Please help me,” I say. “Please find Buck.”
“Of course we’ll help,” Katelyn says. “Won’t we, Luke?”
“Absolutely. I owe Buck a lot, so I’ll do anything you need me to do.”
“That’s just it,” I say. “I don’t know what we should do. You need to tell me.”
“First thing is, I will go to this Gloria Delgado’s house,” Luke says.
“Yes. Let’s leave now.”
He shakes his head. “No. You need to stay here with Katelyn.”
“Luke,” Katelyn says, “we want to go with you.”
“First of all, I can’t risk anything happening to either of you,” he says. “And second, Buck told you to leave for a reason, Aspen. He didn’t want you there. And that means he was expecting that something might go wrong.”
“I don’t care. I want to be with him.”
“He would want you safe. That’s why you’re going to stay here with Katelyn where you’re safe.”
“Wait just a minute,” Katelyn intervenes. “I want you safe too, Luke. We’ve been through too much. I can’t lose you.”
He touches her cheek, much the same way Buck touches mine.
“I’ll come back to you. I will always come back to you.”
“How can you make that promise?”
“Because that’s how much I love you, Katelyn. You and I have both already been through hell and we’re meant to be together. We’re meant to be happy. I won’t risk that.”
His words calm Katelyn. I can see it on her face as her features soften.
“If you’re sure,” she says. “If you’re sure it’s best.”
“It is. I need to do this. Not just for Aspen but for Buck.”
She nods, her lips trembling. “I understand.” She gazes at the diamond on her left hand. “Don’t forget. Don’t forget where your forever lies.”
He kisses her lips. “I could never.”
Luke walks upstairs, and within a few minutes, he returns. I gasp as I see the pistol in a holster around his waist.
“Not a gun…”
“I hope I don’t have to use it,” he says. “Believe me. But I have to be prepared.”
Katelyn and I grasp each other’s hands.
Luke leaves the house through the back. A moment later, Katelyn and I watch out the window as he drives away in a black SUV.
“He never drives that car,” Katelyn says. “He always drives his Tesla S.”
I don’t reply.
I don’t want to think about what significance Luke’s choice of car may have.
