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I need to call her and thank her. I hadn’t thought about what seeing the condo in the state she’d left it would do to Wrenlee. But I haven’t been here since she was taken. I hadn’t been able to leave the hospital. Ianhad brought me clothes, and clearly the guys and Candace had kept things here running smooth.
Thankfully, Candace had the forethought to think of Nemosis and Saint, or the pair would have starved.
Wrenlee would have skinned me alive if I’d let the two of them come to any harm. Again, I find myself in Candace’s debt.
I’m in all their debt. For the rest of my life. Without my brothers—I wouldn’t have been able to get to her in time. As it was, the paramedics murmuring, “Another minute, and I think we’d have been too late,” will live forever burned into my mind. Etched there by a trauma I know I’ll never fully heal from. It’s not possible.
I hope the bitch burns.
Pushing thoughts of Alice from my mind, I tighten my hold around Wrenlee’s hand, my eyes already on her face when she tips hers to me. Catching them and holding them, I mouth, “You good?”
She gives me a small nod, but at the sound of a loud meow, her head twists to the side to see Saint and his little black body zooming (her words) down the hall toward her. I’m surprised when I see Nemosis strutting not far behind.
She releases my hand and bends low to give pets and scratches, before lifting Saint in her arms to give him a snuggle. His purr is a motor in the room.
Yeah, Saint missed his Mama. By the way Nemosisweaves between her legs, rubbing against her with a motor purr of his own, I’d say so did he.
Her eyes move from Saint, to me, to her dad. “I’m pretty tired tonight. Do you think we can order in, maybe watch a movie and go to bed early?”
“Sure, kiddo.”
“What do you want?” I ask.
Her face softens when she looks at me in a way that could bring me to my knees for her for the rest of my life. “Wonton soup.”
I give her a grin. “Coming right up.”
forty
Wrenlee
Dad squeezes me tightly outside the door to the spare bedroom where he will be staying before he flies home in two days. He looks down at me with haunted shadows that circle his eyes—the same haunted shadows that circle Cash’s. It’ll take some time for them to go away, I know. But I do hope it takes less time than more.
What happened to me was horrific. It’s something I’m sure will cross my mind countless times over the coming years—because forgetting about being buried alive—forgetting about the moment where you accept death, can feel the cool claws of it grazing over your fingertips only to be pulled back intothe living is an experience one isn’t likely to forget. But I can move on, move forward.
I will move on.
I won’t let Alice keep taking from me, especially now that she’s behind bars.
It’s sad how far she spiraled for vengeance in the name of love. I’m mentally sound enough to know that she wasn’t. For all she’d done for Alyssa, it was over her body that they’d finally found Alice.
She’s snapped in a fit of rage when Alyssa refused to run away with her. Alyssa’s cause of death had been blunt force trauma to the head. I’d asked no more questions. I wanted no more answers.
I would do my best to push Alice and the tragedy that fell around her from my mind and life.
“Love you, Kiddo.” Dad kisses the top of my head the way he does. “So damn much.”
The emotion I hear in his voice has my own throat feeling thick. “I love you too, Dad. But you don’t have to worry anymore.” I tip my head back to look at him. To assure him. “I’m safe now. I’m safe with Cash.”
He dips his chin. “That boy loves you.”
I feel my lips curl into a small, thoughtful smile Dad’s eyes don’t miss. “He does. I know it.”
“You love him?”
No hesitation, I nod. “He’s the one. The only one for me.”
It’s Dad’s turn to nod. “I know it.”
