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After sitting on the couch, still cradling her against me, I wrap her in a blanket because she’s started to shiver as if she’s in shock.
“Baby, you have to breathe.” I drag my hand up and down her back, trying to soothe her. “Long, deep breaths now. Listen to me.”
She turns her face up so she can see me, and I breathe with her, long and slow. She mimics me, and the shivering starts to subside.
“Good girl. You’re safe. Juniper.” My hand traces up and down her spine again. “You’re safe, baby. I won’t let anything hurt you. I’ve got you.”
“H-h-he locked me in.” Her eyes well with fresh tears, and the anger that spears through me is swift and all-encompassing.
“Who did?”
“Eric.” She sniffs and pulls her sleeve over her hand so she can wipe at her nose and the tears on her cheeks. “Jesus, Apollo, he locked meinthere with the dead people. They whispered at me, and it was so fucking scary.”
“You’re safe now. I promise.” I take another deep breath, which she mirrors, and then I fish my phone out of my pocket to call Cullen.
“Yo,” he says in my ear.
“I need you at my place, now. June was assaulted and locked into the mausoleum in her basement. I found her and brought her here. She’s pretty upset, and I don’t know the whole story yet.”
“On my way.” He hangs up, and I toss my phone onto the couch next to us. Silent tears are still trailing down her cheeks, so I brush them away and then tuck her hair behind her ears. “Cullen is on his way. We’ll figure this out.”
“He’s crazy,” she whispers and leans in to bury her face in my neck. “And I’m so sorry that I’m a bitch and I haven’t talked to you.”
“Enough of that.” I hug her close and kiss her head. “We’ll talk about that later. Let’s handle one thing at a time, okay?”
It breaks my heart to see her so…broken. June is one of the strongest people I know. She doesn’t fall apart. She doesn’t have panic attacks.
She’s as sturdy as they come.
She nods, and just a few minutes later, I hear a vehicle pull up outside, a car door slam, and then Cullen is storming through my front door.
“Hey,” I say as he kneels next to June and brushes his hand over her hair.
“June?”
“Cullen.” She lets go of me as fresh tears spill down her cheeks, leaning into her brother and hugging him. “Jesus Christ, I’m still so scared.”
“Okay, it’s okay. Honey, you’re fine now.” He pats her back and then leans away to look at her face. “Fucking hell, you’re white as a ghost.”
“Don’t sayghost,” she says, closing her eyes. He and I share a look of concern, but then she firms her chin, takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. “Okay, I’m getting it together. I’m going to be fine.”
“Who do I have to find?” Cullen asks and then shakes his head. “I’m jumping the gun. Tell us what happened.”
“I went down in the basement because Grandma wanted me to look for a person in the body closet.”
I raise an eyebrow, having no idea what a body closet is, but I don’t interrupt her.
“I was in there, and suddenly, Eric—the asshole from New York—was in there with me. He waspissed, talking about how if I didn’t sell him the property I just bought, he’d burn down my chapel, the inn, and Grandma’s house.”
More tears fall, and she impatiently brushes them away.
“He said that if he locked me in there, maybe I’d have time to think about it, and hedid. He locked me in there, and I knew that no one would be able to hear me scream. I could hear whispers and noises, and it was so fuckingscary.I’m never going back down there. The city is moving the remains tomorrow, but they don’t need me down there.”
“No,” Cullen says, patting her back. “They don’t, and no one is going to make you go back down there. Do you have cameras set up around the chapel?”
June’s eyes light up. “Yes! Yes, after what happened with the spray paint, I had cameras installed at all of my sites, including the chapel.”
She pulls out her phone, pulls up the footage, and offers the device to her brother. “Take it. There will be footage of him coming in and out of the chapel. Fucking hell, I was so scared. I thought he was going to go upstairs and set the place on fire.”
