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“What three rules?” Cam asks the question, so I don’t have to.
Laiken lists them off like they’re burned into her brain. “Leave Hayes and leave Calder Bay. Have no contact. And lastly, don’t let him know that I left for any reason other than that I wanted to. I broke rules one and two the day I came back, and I broke rule three tonight—which is why I guess shit hit the fan.”
He glances over at me, finally putting the pieces together as to why I needed a distraction. My brows raise for a second to confirm, and he turns back to his sister.
“Okay, what do you meanshit hit the fan?”
She starts to get upset again while Mali runs her hand over her back to keep her calm. “I went back to my motel room and there was another note waiting for me on my bed.”
Mali reaches into her bag and pulls out an envelope, passing it to Cam. His jaw tenses as he looks at it and then hands it to me.
You were warned.
What happens next is on you.
Jesus Christ. Who the fuck would care that much to still be watching her after all this time? Do they really have nothing better to do?
I toss the envelope onto the coffee table and take a sip of my beer while Laiken continues. “I tried to leave. I threw my things in the car and tried to go, hoping maybe it wasn’t too late. That I could still just stay gone and everything would be okay.”
She pauses, and I’m stuck with the pain that comes when I realize she once again tried to go—without telling me. Not that I’ve done anything but make her feel like she should leave. Still, the ache in my chest is there, and it’s not from my bruised ribs.
“When I got out of town, some kind of gas filled my car. It was strange. Nothing I’ve ever smelt before. It made me feel really dizzy, so I pulled over. But before I could get out of the car, I passed out. And when I woke up, I was right back inside the town limits, with this left in my car.”
Taking the other piece of paper from Mali, she passes it to Cam.
“You had the chance to leave, and you came back. There’s no escaping now. Welcome to your nightmare,” Cam reads it out loud. “Fucking Christ.”
If I thought this was some kind of ploy or move at justifying her leaving and trying to get me back, I’d call her out on it. But there’s no way she’s lying about this. Not when I saw the pure terror in her eyes. Hell, I even saw it when she confronted me with the recording a couple nights before she left. I just thought it was because of me. Because she thought I was a monster.
I never considered it was because of someone else.
“Do you have the original one with you?” Cam asks. “The one you said has the proof in it?”
Laiken shakes her head. “It’s at home.”
Home. That word shouldn’t matter to me. Where she lives is her decision. But just hearing her say it like that, like anywhere but here willeverbe her home, it strikes a nerve. As far as I’m concerned, this is the only place that will ever be her fucking home.
I stand up, unable to handle being here any longer. “I’m going to head out.”
Cam’s brows furrow. “Right now? You don’t want to help me get to the bottom of this?”
My gaze meets his, and it’s the only time I’ll let any vulnerability show in front of Laiken. “I can’t. Not tonight.”
He nods in understanding while Laiken’s head falls back against the couch as she starts to cry again. There’s a voice inside of me telling me to go to her, to make everything better again, but I know I can’t do that.
I can’t save her anymore. She took that ability away from me. Ripped it straight from my hands as she walked out the door. There’s nothing I can do for her that doesn’t make me want to run for the hills.
She made her choices, and now it’s time for me to make mine.
IT’S A LITTLE PASTtwo in the morning when I finally get back to the bar. Knowing the bar probably still has the smell of sex in the air, I decided to go down to the inlet and sit for a bit. It’s usually a good place to sort out my thoughts. But not tonight.
Believe me, I would love nothing more than to go back to the night before she left and beg her not to go. To stop her from leaving in the first place and promise her that no matter what life throws at us, we’ll get through it. But the shitty thing about life is that there is no redo button. You can’t rewind. You can’t go back. All you can do is drown in the aftermath of the choices that were made, even if they weren’t your own.
Sticking the key in the lock, I turn it and open the door. But before I get more than two steps in, I stop.
Someone has been in here.
I can’t make out what it is, but there’s something hanging all over the walls. I reach for the switch to turn the light on, only for nothing to happen. The power is out, and it leaves everything in total darkness.
