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“Mine killed himself,” Sandra muttered, meeting my gaze for only a moment before quickly looking back at her plate.“Got into a fight at the bar before coming home and hanging himself.”
“Mine drowned during a fishing trip,” another woman spoke up.“As you can tell, Nishia, our husbands were all alcoholics.Without us there to be their punching bags, they drank even more and paid the price in the end.My ex was so drunk he wrecked his boat and drowned.They still haven’t found his body—and probably never will.The only good thing that came from any of their deaths was we got their life insurance money.”
“But you still stay at Sanctuary?”I asked curiously.
“I don’t know about the others,” Suzanne answered.“But Sanctuary feels like my home.That’s something I never truly felt until I came here.I have a safe place to sleep at night with the comfort of knowing Jack won’t allow anyone through those gates who might harm me.And these women are my friends, family…sisters.”
Many of the others nodded in agreement, and I began to understand what kept them there.Sanctuary wasn’t simply a shelter.It was a home, a safe haven, a community of women who were able to rely on one another to make it through their traumas together.
After spending my entire life relying only on myself, I didn’t know how to respond to that kind of acceptance.But I knew that I didn’t want to walk away from it.
Even if I was given the option, I wouldn’t go back to New York.
Especially when Jack was at Sanctuary.
No one would ever willingly walk away from him.
“A package was just delivered,” Amy announced as she walked into the kitchen.She held a small Priority box in one hand and frowned at the label.“It says it’s for Jack.”
“Oh, I’ll take that, Amy,” Gracie said as she stepped forward to grasp the box from the nurse’s hands.But instead of opening it, she placed the box on the table beside me.“This is for you, sweetie.”
Wiping my mouth with a napkin in case I had the protein shake on my lips, I picked up the small box with my good hand.It did have Jack’s name on it and what I could only assume was Sanctuary’s physical address.
“Here, hon.”Marcy offered me a box cutter she pulled from a utility drawer.
Thanking her, I carefully sliced through the tape and then lifted the flaps to find an iPhone box inside.Eyes huge, I carefully pulled it out, nearly missing the smaller package beneath.Placing the phone on the table, I grasped the other item and felt tears sting my eyes.
I stroked my thumb over the baby-blue phone case with little fairies all over it.There was a card at the bottom of the box, and I picked it up with trembling fingers, trying to read what it said through blurry eyes.
Little Fairy,
My number is already programmed into the phone.Text me.If you’re scared.Or bored.Or you miss me.I don’t care.Just text me.Or call me.I like hearing your voice.It doesn’t matter.It makes me happy knowing you’re thinking of me.So, yeah…text me.
Jack
The crush I had on him shifted.Or maybe it had already been brewing into something stronger.But I knew at that moment that I was in love with my beautiful bear.
And fuck, that was almost as scary as the shadows.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
jack
Max scruncheddown in the passenger seat of the truck we’d rented after getting off the plane earlier.Even with the large space of the cab, both of us felt like we were packed into a sardine can.It didn’t help that we’d been waiting outside the county jail for two hours with nothing more to do than watch people come and go.
My usual patience was lacking all of a sudden.I didn’t want to wait and watch.I wanted to grab the motherfuckers who were responsible for hurting Nishia, interrogate them, and then put a bullet in their skulls.The darkness inside me caused my skin to itch, wanting to release the fury that was building with each passing minute.
“Didn’t you say that IT chick took care of everything?”
I grunted an affirmative.Mieke had worked her magic and gotten the two suspects released.How, I didn’t fucking know, but she’d made sure something was misplaced, and both men were supposed to be set free.I’d called her to double-check and she said it was all set, but Max and I both knew from experience that the system took its sweet-ass time releasing people.
Thanks to her, we also had pictures of the men we were waiting for, so we weren’t just sitting there playing a guessing game.I glanced down at their mug shots on my phone, wondering which one was the motherfucker who had hurt Nishia first.Was it the guy with the scruff on his chin and the scar across his nose and cheeks?Or was it the one with the chipped front tooth?Which of them had broken her bones?Who had…
“Finally,” Max grumbled, and I lifted my head to find the two men walking out of the building.
As we watched, a piece-of-shit SUV pulled up in front of them.The taller of the two men, the one with the scar and scruff, spoke to the driver.After a brief exchange, both convicts got into the back of the vehicle.I waited until they pulled away before starting the truck.
For the next thirty minutes, I followed them, making sure to stay several car lengths back.Any time the driver glanced in his rearview mirror too often, I switched lanes or put a few more cars between us so he couldn’t see me.He never changed his speed or took a random turn.Whoever was behind the wheel was a confident motherfucker, one who didn’t realize the angel of death was breathing down the neck of every occupant of that SUV.
