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Thoughts scramble in my head. Ly has never taken the hand of a stranger she…
“Up there,” Asher rumbles, turning paler than a fucking ghost. His entire body vibrates, pointing toward a giant roller coaster in the distance as he squints against the sun. “She’s up there with someone on the boarding platform.”
With someone. It repeats in my fucking head. Someone. Not anyone we know. A stranger. I follow his line of sight, gazing at the tall roller coaster in the sky. My daughter sits at the entrance of the tallest ride in the park at the boarding platform. With a stranger holding her hand. High in the sky, barely visible from where we are. The only colors streaking in the wind are the multiple colors of Lyric’s unicorn dress. And the dark red hoodie the person wears to conceal themselves from us.
It’s her. But who the fuck is he? Who has Ly? It’s not anyone in the family. They’d have sent a message.
“Who the fuck is it?” I growl, taking off in the direction of the rollercoaster. Fuck common sense. Fuck it all. My soul calls out to the little being I created, needing her to be with me.
Not him.
“I don’t know!” Asher shouts frantically, chasing after me at a quick pace. “I just called Olivia about where we’re headed and that we saw her.”
“Good!” I shout, running toward the coaster and up the paved slopes carrying me up, up, and into the fucking clouds.
My heart pounds in my ears, drowning out everything as I run behind Asher at full speed. At some point, probably because he’s athletic, he passed me, giving me his back and leaving me in the dust with my heaving lungs.
When we finally get to the top of the entrance, I stop dead, slamming into the back of Asher with a quiet umph.
“Shh,” he murmurs, looking at me over his shoulder with furrowed brows. I nod shakily, swallowing hard when Lyric’s little voice filters through. It takes everything inside me not to jump into action and scoop her up.
“I want my mommy,” her little voice sniffles quietly.
“You’ll see her again,” the unfamiliar man’s voice says, carrying through the rock-like surroundings encasing the entrance to the roller coaster currently not running.
It’s deep. Gruff, even. No one I recognize from my life. Has some crazed person followed us here? The boy’s fan? My brother’s fan? Fuck! Another stalker? It can’t be mine. He’s fucking dead. All the possibilities run through my mind in overdrive.
“I want her,” she cries again, yelping when he does something to her.
I tense. Every instinct inside my body screams for me to run in there and save her. I need my goddamn baby to be safe.
“She’ll come!” he says in a sharp voice through heavy breaths, causing Lyric to sniffle hysterically again. “She’ll come. Now, quiet.”
“We need to do this slowly…” Asher’s eyes fall on the man with his back to us. His red hoodie clings to his body, and the hood covers his hair.
Asher pulls out his phone and carefully checks his messages, updating Olivia on where we are and that we need help immediately. Also, snapping a picture of him and sending it on. With shaky fingers, Asher connects a call to Olivia and leaves it in his hand, letting Liv hear everything that happens. Hopefully, with her training, she’ll record everything for later. In case this all goes sideways. But if the swooping in my stomach is any indication of how this will go, it won’t end well.
“This room echoes. You know?” the man in the red hoodie calls out. “I can hear every word you say. It looks like your mommy finally made it,” he sing-songs the last part mockingly. “Let’s get this party started. I’m tired of waiting.”
My heart falls into my ass when he spins around toward us with a black gun nestled in his hand, pointing it toward my baby clutched in his tight, unrelenting grip. Tears work down Lyric’s face as she trembles, but she doesn’t pull away. Whatever fear she has, she knows she needs to stay still.
The moment my eyes collide with his, I die a little on the inside—those eyes. I know them. I recognize that face. It’s someone I saw a week ago at Dead End. Someone I just happened to run into. Maybe it wasn’t such a fucking coincidence that he was there.
Donavon fucking Drake. That is the whole reason the boys left. The videos he kept. The way he stalked me back then. My nightmare has followed me here. But why? Why him? And why the fuck now? I already had one stalker. I don’t need another psycho in my life. Besides, Olivia checked in on him multiple times, assuring me he was gone. He was in Europe. Away from here. But yet, here he stands with a weapon in his hand, smiling maniacally.
“Rivey, so good to see you again,” he coos, tilting his head to the side with a sadistic grin.
My lips pop open, and I shake my head. “Van…” I trail off in horror, shaking my head. “I don’t understand…” His grip tightens on Lyric’s arm when my eyes dart to my baby in the clutches of madness.
“The one and only…” His eyes immediately dart to Asher, who stays in front of me, protectively covering my body with his. “What the fuck is he doing here?” His teeth grind together as his eyes narrow in on Asher frozen with his hands up. Van wildly waves the gun in his direction. “I told you! You are mine, River West! You both are!” Van shouts erratically, stomping his foot.
I stiffen at his words. “Y-yours?” I stammer.
My heart threatens to punch out of my chest when he throws his head back, laughing like a loon.
“Mine. All mine. You always have been. How do you feel knowing your guy here sold you out? He came to me. Begged ME for those videos…”
“Why did you take videos?” I breathe, stepping around Asher. “Why would you do that? That’s gross.” I shake my head, begging to keep his attention on me so Lyric and Asher can run away.
