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“The back door was hanging wide open,” Parker reported. “The front was still locked and bolted with the chain in place. There was blood smeared on the carpet in her room where he tried to pull her out from under the bed and stab marks on her mattress. Other than that, the place looked untouched.”
“No one was lingering insideorout,” Thane added as he let go of Oaklynn, who immediately sought me again.
I pulled her back into my arms as Foster brought the suitcase forward. “I grabbed your phone, purse, shoes, book bag, and a change of clothes. But if you need us to go back for anything else—”
“No, that’s...” Oaklynn waved a hand as words failed her. Then her eyes filled with tears. “Y’all have done more than enough. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Hey, you’re one of us,” Parker assured as he brushed his thumb tenderly over the bruised scrape on her cheek to wipe away a tear. “We look after our own.”
Her chin trembled as she glanced up into his eyes, and then she leaned against me and burst into tears. “I’m sorry. I just…”
Unable to contain her emotions, she turned to bury her face in my chest.
My own tremor went through me, and I almost started sobbing right along with her. I could’ve lost her tonight. She could’ve met the same fate that Thalia had.
Except my dead big sister had saved her.
I didn’t even know how to process that.
“That’s it,” I announced, glancing around the kitchen at my worried friends. “I’m going to get her into bed. She’s still pretty shaken. I think some sleep will help.”
“Yeah, man.” Thane tapped my arm. “Good idea. You go take care of her. We got this out here.”
I had no idea what they meant bythis, but I nodded and accepted the suitcase that Foster passed over to me. Then I ushered Oaklynn from the kitchen, and she followed blindly where I led.
Once we reached my room, I asked if she wanted to sleep in something different. But she pulled my shirt tighter around her and insisted, “I want to stay in this. It smells like you.”
She lifted the cloth to her nose and breathed it in, only to pause with a squint before she repeated, “It smells like you…”
Her gaze rose to mine in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I smelled him,” she said. “Tonight. He smelled like…chemicals. Like a darkroom. Like some of the journalism majors who develop their own pictures.”
I froze, not liking the sound of that. Just how close was this guy to her out there in the real world? “You think he’s a journalism professor?”
“I…” She shook her head. Then frowned. “I don’t know. I just know he had a very distinct smell.”
“We’ll figure it out tomorrow,” I swore. “For now, let’s just try to get some rest, okay?”
She nodded wearily and let me lead her to the bed. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to sleep again, but Iwouldlike to curl up on a soft mattress with about a million blankets on top of me.”
“You got it,” I assured. After I turned down the covers, she climbed in readily, and I tucked them right back over her.
Sitting on the mattress near her hip, I smoothed her hair down as I looked into her eyes which were still puffy and red. “Do you need anything else? A drink? Snack? More blankets?”
She shook her head, only for her gaze to move to my bookshelf. “So that picture you hid from me,” she started, focusing on the blank spot I still had up there. “It was ofThalia?”
“Yeah, but…” I exhaled before reaching down to pull the photo out from between the mattresses. “It was howIlooked in it that I was trying to hide from you,” I admitted as I handed it over.
She flipped it around and sucked in a breath. “Oh my God. You were so cute and pudgy. Just look at those cheeks.”
I smiled vaguely. “Yeah.”
“Thalia looks exactly the same, though,” she added, glancing up. “I definitely would’ve had questions.”
I winced and scratched the back of my neck uncomfortably. “I’m sorry I let you assume we were twins.”
