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Come on, open those pretty silver eyes for me.
The blackness that concealed my vision like a darkened veil, lifting the more he speaks. I concentrate, following it through the bleakness.
He’s touching my face this time as he speaks, “Princess, please?” The hint of panicked timbre in his voice startles me. So much so that my muscles twitch, jumping in response.
The blackness of my vision is present, but I can hear the relief in his breath at my movement. It makes my body respond again, stronger this time. More clear.
The soft coaxing of Cole’s voice stretches, bringing me back from this comatose purgatory.
Squinting, the brightness of the lights overhead dulls, a head above my own. Those ocean eyes stabilize me the longer my focus has time to come back.
The muscles along his strong jawline loosen the wider my eyes open. “That’s it, come back to me,” he encourages like a storm hadn’t just exploded inside these walls.
That doesn’t matter right now, because Cole’s innocent.
More happiness erupts, growing, expanding like a balloon with too much helium. He didn’t do it.
“You didn’t do it,” I gasp in awe.
“No baby, I didn’t,” he agrees, and my chest surges. That crooked grin and that sentence are both only for me.
I lunge for him. His eyes tender in his own relief before they widen at my abrasiveness. The force of my newfound strength rocking him from his hinged knees. Falling, his behind settles on the tops of his heels.
He makes a noise, but it doesn’t matter what because it only sounds like delight in my ears. My lids close on their own accord.
Cole is innocent.
twenty-one
Cole
It’sbeendays.Notminutes, not hours,days, and we’re no closer to tracking down Lorna after her little admission at Hardin.
Rory had passed out in shock. I’d barely had time to catch her before Abram was at my side and Lorna disappeared. Her ill-veiled escape timed perfectly.
Abram tried to get security on her, but she was already out of the building.
We rewatched the footage. She’d been smart, taking the emergency exit and hiding from as many people as possible before ducking into a car and fading into traffic.
We tracked the plate, but it was a dead end. The hotel she’d been staying at, she’d also checked out that morning. Abram had gotten her one weeks ago after the added fights with Finn at their home.
At least that’s what Finn had mentioned. I think it was an excuse to get her out of the house. Since then, she’s been like a ghost. Disappearing completely like she doesn’t exist.
Time's ticking and no one in this room is amused that she’s out there, free and doing who knows what.
The woman’s batshit crazyandhas a personal vendetta toward the love of my life. Not a good combination.
The muscles along my arms tighten, tensing more than they already are. Lorna will pay.
“Nothing.Again?” Finn asks in disbelief.
Eli’s dad slowly shakes his head side to side as the phone is set back down. His head already buried back in his computer.
I grunt my disapproval while Finn’s shoulders drop that much farther. With the money he's getting paid he better be tracking another possible lead.
We’re all in Abram’s office at the Caspers’. This is starting to feel like a bad case of déjà vu. The last time all of us were in here had been when Rory ran away.
Then I was the enemy, and Rory was gone. Now Rory is here, and Lorna is our terrorist.
