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“Listen, Ed just pulled into the garage. You call me if you hear anything.”
“I promise.” I didn’t want to tell her that River’s picture had been flashed all over the news minutes ago. A part of me wondered why the media hadn’t released her photo earlier, but I suspected the FBI had something to do with it.
The call ended, and I placed my cell on the nightstand. The information that Shirley had given me was interesting, but not enough to make me give a shit about Josie. River and Brynn were my primary responsibilities.
I did like Shirley. A lot. Once River returned, I’d see what she thought about inviting Shirley and Ed out to stay for a few days. I’d be happy to fund the trip, since they’d been an intricate part in helping River and me meet.
Stifling a yawn, I settled in for a long night of mindless TV while my brain worked out different scenarios of how to find where River was. Tim was my best bet, but I’d told him to basically go fuck himself after he had his minions set my club on fire.
Finally, somewhere in the middle of season one of Lucifer, my eyes fluttered closed, and I fell into a fitful sleep.
“Holden. Holden, wake up,” a faceless kid said.
I lifted my head, glancing around a child’s room. “What is it?”
“Something bad is going to happen.”
I struggled with the blankets, then sat up, rubbing my sleep-filled eyes. “Go back to bed. Everything is fine. You probably just had a bad dream.”
“It wasn’t a dream. Please,” they begged.
I kerplunked into bed and pulled the covers up beneath my chin. My eyelids drooped closed, then snapped open again. I pointed to the door. “Out.”
Feet shuffled across the floor, and the sound of the doorknob turning echoed through the otherwise silent room.
Nearly asleep again, a scream ripped through the night, and I jumped out of bed and ran to the hallway.
“Holden! Holden! Don’t let them—”
“Stop!” I bolted forward, slamming into the back of the adult at the end of the hall.
“Holden!” Little fingers reached out to me.
Our hands grasped each other’s, and I tugged hard in a vain attempt to free them. Losing my balance, I toppled to the floor, then a thick, inky blackness clouded my vision.
I sucked in a breath, my body visibly trembling as I flung the sheet off me. Covered in a cold sweat and nauseous, I jumped out of bed and hurried to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. I grabbed the tan hand towel and dried off, then returned it to the circular hanger.
“What the fuck?” I stared at myself in the mirror. My nostrils flared as I attempted to control my rapid pulse. I hung my head, trying to decipher if these were nightmares or lost memories. What if the years I couldn’t remember anything …? My breath halted in my lungs. My vision blurred, and my pulse pounded in my ears.
“Hello?” Brynn’s voice came from the bedroom, breaking through my panic.
I tried to pull myself together before I spoke to her. “Hey, how are you doing?” I strolled over to her as if nothing were wrong. As if I hadn’t just had another fucking nightmare that twisted my stomach into knots and caused me to break out in a cold sweat.
“Chance is snoring.” A sleepy smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. She tugged on her pink and white striped Victoria’s Secret pajama top. It was cute that she still liked matching sleepwear. “And …”
“And?” My forehead creased with concern.
“You were yelling. I could hear it from Chance’s room.”
My eyes widened in shock. “Shit. I’m sorry.” I rubbed a hand over my chin, feeling like an ass for waking her.
Brynn pointed to the bed, and we crawled in. She snuggled beneath the blanket, and I remained on top of them.
“What’s going on?” She stifled a yawn.
“Nothing for you to worry about.” I looked at her, wondering what she was thinking. She had to be terrified about her diagnosis as well as River. There was no way that all the stress was helping her body fight off the cancer.
“Holden, I’m going to say this the nicest way I can. Fucking spill it. I can’t focus on my cancer every second of the damn day. I don’t want you guys to act any differently. It will help me a lot if you talk to me about your life, the club, what you’re thinking. What I really need is for my best friends not to tiptoe around me. Don’t change. Let’s talk the way we always have.”
