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“But what if she’s not?” I whisper. “What if she blames me for not finding her?”
“That’s not going to happen, because it’s not true. What happened wasn’t your fault. It was those people.” Her expression hardens.
“It might not be my fault, but I promised her I’d find her, and the fact that I didn’t feels like I failed her somehow.”
“You didn’t fail anyone.” She yawns. “And I have a feeling Sadie is going to agree with me.”
“That’s because you’re an optimist.” I laugh at her as she yawns again. “What’s up, sleepy head?” I suddenly grow worried. “Wait, have you been having trouble sleeping?”
She stretches her arms above her head, her back arching. “No. I’ve been staying up late working on some new songs. I know it’s morbidly twisted, but after everything that happened, my creativity sparked a freaking ton. I have so many ideas sloshing around in my brain that I don’t even know what to do with it.” She lowers her hand to her lap. “You want to read the song I wrote about that one night?”
“About the night my dad broke in?” I ask warily.
She shakes her head. “No, about the first time we had sex.”
My body ignites with desire and need as I remember that night and the other nights we’ve spent together since.
“Hey, don’t give me that look; otherwise I might start kissing you and we know where that leads.” She points her finger at the open door. “And as much as I want things to lead in that direction, both of our parents are downstairs.” She grins. “However, if you want, I can totally get some alone time later.”
Just thinking about being alone with her causes my pulse to throb. “I definitely want that.”
“Good.” She leans in and brushes her lips against mine. “Now, do you want to read my song?”
I steal another kiss. “Of course.”
Grinning from ear to ear, she flips open her notebook and sets it on my lap, pointing at which page to read.
Our bodies wind
Creating the perfect song
As your lips fuse to mine.
I could do this all night long.
Lie here
Tangled up with you.
So closely
No one will know
Where you start
And where I end.
My heart is pounding
With every stolen kiss
My mind is racing
Longing for a wish
That we could stay like this.
Always.
So closely
No one will know
Where you start
And where I end.
This moment with you,
God it’s branded in my mind.
I want to keep it forever
Trap it inside
So it’ll always be mine.
Forever.
So closely
No one will know
Where you start
And where I end.
“I want to sing it one day during a concert,” she announces after I’m done reading it. “I won’t do it, though, unless you promise to sing it with me.”
I think she might be secretly asking a question without actually having to say it aloud. But I can’t promise her I’ll go on the tour yet. Not until I find out what’s going to happen with Sadie. As of now, I have no clue what kind of condition she’s in, and she doesn’t even have a place to live. And I need to be here for her while all that is out.
“Maybe one day we can sing it,” I say, shutting the notebook.
“Okay. Just as long as it definitely happens.” She tries not to frown. “Tonight we’re playing at my dad’s club with a guy that Sage wants to be our new guitarist. You should come so you can see how bad we suck. Maybe you can give him a few pointers.”
I can’t contain my laughter.
“Hey, I’m not trying to be funny.” She playfully pinches my side.
“I know you’re not.” My laughter dies down. “It’s just the first time I’ve seen you be so pessimistic about something.”
“Music is my life, and so is the band,” she tells me. “And this guy makes us look like amateurs. We’re going to be booed off the stage.”
“I’m sure that won’t happen.”
“At least promise you’ll be there tonight in case it does, so I can have a shoulder to cry on.”
“Okay, I’ll be there.” I don’t believe for a second that they’ll be booed off stage, but if she needs me to be there then I will.
“Now kiss me, before you have to leave,” Lyric demands, leaning in.
We steal a few more kisses before Lila shouts up the stairs that it’s time to go.
“See you tonight,” I tell Lyric as I collect my stuff and climb off the bed.
She nods, her lips swollen from my kisses. “Text me if you need anything. Even if it’s just to talk.”
I promise her I will, then I meet Lila and Ethan downstairs and we head out to the car.
On the way to the hospital, Lila asks me at least ten times how I’m doing. Like always, I tell her that I’m okay, but this time, I actually am. Yeah, I still have nightmares sometimes and there are moments when I cry, mostly when I think about my brother’s death and Sadie in the hospital. Even my mother’s death gets to me. But for the first time in my life, I actually feel free from the past now that it’s behind bars. There are tons of charges against the people who tortured my siblings and me; charges ranging from murder to kidnapping. Detective Rannali assures me they have a solid case, which should keep my father and his followers there for a very long time.
“Ayden, we wanted to talk to you about something before we go in,” Lila says to me after she parks the car in the hospital pa
rking lot.
It’s midday and the sun shines through the windows, heating up the car the moment she turns off the engine.
“What’s up?” I ask, confused by how nervous she seems.
She trades a look with Ethan, and he twists around in the passenger seat to look at me,
“It’s about your sister,” he says to me. “And her coming to stay with us after she’s released from the hospital.”
“Detective Rannali was the one who suggested it,” Lila explains, unbuckling her seatbelt. “But Ethan and I had already talked about it . . . I know she’s seventeen and is almost a legal adult, but with everything she’s been through . . .” She smashes her lips together, fighting back the tears. “We just thought it’d be nice if she had a place to call home.”
Even though I try to fight them back, a few tears manage to escape my eyes. I want to say so much to them. Thank them for everything, for giving me a home, for not giving up on me when things got hard. For giving me a family. But I’m so choked up, I can only manage a nod as I scoot forward and wrap an arm around her.
She gasps in shock, because I normally don’t hug.
“Thank you.” I suck back the tears. “And I mean that. Thank you for everything.”
“You don’t need to thank us for anything,” she says. “You’re our son, and we’ll always be here for you.”
We hug for a second longer before I move away. I clear my throat a few times and reach for the door to get out of the car.
As we walk into the hospital and toward Sadie’s room, I go over in my head what I’ll say to her if she’s awake. It’ll be the first time I’ve talked to her in almost five years and for some of those years, she was locked up in a house with people who tortured her. I worry there won’t be any of that spunky, lively, carefree sister that I grew up with, and I won’t have a damn clue what to say to her.
“Oh my goodness, she’s awake,” Lila says after she peers into Sadie’s room. She steps back and turns to me. “We’ll let you go in first and talk to her, okay? So we don’t overwhelm her.”
Nodding, I take a breath and step inside.
Sadie is sitting in the bed when I enter, staring out the window with a strange look on her face, like she’s deeply contemplating something. She must hear me walk in, because she turns her head and looks over her shoulder at me.
