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“What is it?” I ask, rushing toward her.
“My locket.” She clasps her hand to her chest where her gold locket usually sits. “I remember having it on the porch before we went for the walk last night, I was thinking about them and I always fiddle with it when I think about them. I…I must have lost it. I can’t lose it, Brax, I can’t.” She’s in a real panic, one almost as bad as the one she was in when her life was in danger.
“Calm down, we’ll find it.” I start searching myself but after a good look, we come up with nothing.
“Come on, we’ll trace our steps, we still got a few hours before it gets dark.” I move through the grass, carefully kicking it apart with my boot.
“Why's it so important to ya?” I ask her out of curiosity. I swear if I’m wasting my time sifting through grass up to my knees to find some pathetic trinket her pussy boyfriend got her… I’m gonna flip.
“My parents gave it to me for my graduation. It was the last thing I got from them before they died,” she tells me through tears, following me through the trail I’ve made, on her hands and knees.
“Hey…” I pause, turning around, and she looks up at me from the ground, her green eyes matching the blades of grass she’s crawling through. “We’ll find it, okay?” I promise, and she nods her pretty head back at me before getting back to her search again.
I’m about to suggest we go back to the house and search again tomorrow, when I hear her excited voice call out.
“I got it!”
Turning around, I find her resting on one of the large rocks, clutching the tiny golden chain between her fingers, with a relieved smile.
“I found it,” she tells me again, as I approach her and sit down beside her. She opens the locket, revealing a tiny picture of her and two other people that I assume are her parents.
“I still can’t believe they're gone.” She rubs her thumb affectionately over the photograph. I’m not good at deep and meaningful. So I do the only thing I can do, and keep quiet.
“My mom was always so worried about me, so paranoid about every little thing. She forgot to worry about herself.”
“How did they die?” I find myself asking, which is ridiculous considering I shouldn’t care.
“Car accident, they ran off the road up at Pines Peak, police reckon Mom must have swerved to miss a deer or something.” She takes in a stuttering breath, and I give in to my instincts and let my arm drape over her shoulder. Holding her always feels right, no matter how much my head tells me it was wrong.
Right now, Gracie needs someone, I want that someone to be me.
“That’s it.” She suddenly pulls herself away from me, her fingers fumbling as she tries to take the photograph out of the casing.
“It’s not working, I need something sharp,” she says desperately.
“Slow down, what are you doing?” Taking her hands in mine, I hold them firm to stop them from shaking.
“I just remembered, when my Mom gave this to me she said something, something that at the time I paid no attention to because it made no sense, but now…”
“What did she say?” I ask, tightening my grip on her hands.
“She told me to always keep this close. That help can always be found behind the people that love you.”
“Okay.” I nod, not fully understanding what’s got her so excited, it sounds like a logical thing for a mother to say to her daughter.
“Brax, what if there’s something hidden behind this picture?” She looks up at me hopefully.
“Something like what?” The locket's so tiny.
“Answers, anything. There has to be a reason why those men came for me, and why your Prez wants me too. I don’t trust your Prez, Brax, but something inside me is telling me that I should trust you.”
“Really?” I feel my forehead crease together. Yeah, she told me that last night, but she was scared then.
“Why?”
Gracie pulls her eyes away from the picture and lifts them up to mine.
“Because I don’t think you’d let anyone hurt me.” Her voice is so sweet and full of belief, that for a moment I drop my guard. My head nodding to confirm she’s right. It kills me to admit it but there ain’t anyone that I’d let harm her. Not even me.
