“I just still don’t understand so much about that day. How did he even know where to find you? Why didn’t you text me after your test? It doesn’t make sense. You vanished. I get that none of it was under your control after a certain point, but none of the things that lead up to it are adding up in my head.”
“I meant it, what I said before. I think you and Brady understanding it is important so we can all move on. Honestly, I don’t think there was a lot of time before he came looking for me. If I was able to find Brady, he was too, and I started getting weird feelings a lot that were easy to brush off in the beginning. Remember that car we saw together after our date?” Chase nods, vaguely green. “Looking back, I’m sure that was him. But he never does anything until he knows he can get what he wants out of it, so he probably followed me for a while, waiting for a good time to get me alone. And for the record, I did text you when I got home, but the message wasn’t sending, and I didn’t have a chance to figure out what was going on with that.”
There’s a tick in his jaw that I’m really hoping isn’t aimed at me. “With the issues Blake is seeing, I don’t think any of this is a coincidence. Let me grab a couple of things and we’ll get out of here. There’s something I want to see about, though.”
Yeah, now that I’m saying it out loud, it doesn’t really seem like it just happened to be the perfect circumstance where Chase was gone, and I couldn’t try and get ahold of him in an emergency situation. If I think about it too much, I’m going to overbalance this seesaw, so no thank you. I don’t even watch as Chase gathers whatever he deems important, just thumb through my sketchbook again to calm myself down a little. Not that I knew it when I was little, but it’s been one of the more reliable grounding methods for me for as long as I can remember. It’s oddly comforting, letting myself fall into mycreations. It’s what I’d imagine reminiscing over family photos would be to people who don’t hate their families.
No wonder I was suffering to the extent I was when I gave this up; I was breathing with one lung.
A warm hand lands on my shoulder. “Ready to get out of here?”
I nod. “Yeah. I’m getting the heebie-jeebies in here.”
Chase grumbles an agreement. I’ll be damned if I let this house feel like this for long, but I think for the first time coming back, I did okay. It wasn’t easy, but the good things that came from it outweigh the bad. My sketchbook is back in my possession, and Chase’s hand stays on my thigh the entire drive back to Blakely’s house. In my world, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Chase says he needs to talk to Blake about something, so I go find my brother. Truthfully, I’m not sure I’ll ever forget the betrayal he expressed about what I did. He’s the best part of me; the same DNA that bonds us together, and somehow, he ended up with the most sensitive heart I’ve ever encountered in life. I’ve got a lot of pain to try and make up for with him. I know he wouldn’t like me thinking of it like that, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to view it any differently when at the end of the day, it boils down to something I did that caused him tremendous hurt.
He’s bent over his laptop, so lost in his work that he doesn’t notice me. In my defense, he’s the one who left the bedroom door open, so he kinda set himself up for being watched. It’s so odd, how he looks so much like our Dad—same chestnut hair and warm chocolate eyes. He’s got Dad’s height too. If you held up a picture of my Dad at the age Brady is now next to my brother, you’d say they were twins. But even with all that, they’re such vastly different people that I don’t notice the resemblance nine times out of ten. Brady’s warmth radiates through, no matter who’s genetics he ended up with. He’s so quick to smile,offer encouragement and positivity, and make someone laugh. Dad never did become half the man Brady is now. Less than a quarter of a century on this planet, and he already broke the mold he came from years ago.
I’m so proud of him. I wonder if he knows that.
“You gonna come in or just stand there forever?” he asks suddenly, glancing up.
I guess he wasn’t as lost as I thought. He pats the bed next to him, and I don’t need any further instruction. “What are you working on?”
Brady shrugs. “Just a logo for a client at work. I needed something to do.”
“Lemme see.” He passes over the tablet at my demand. “I’ve never seen your art, Brady. This is really good.”
He scoffs. “Art makes it sound like I can do what you do. I’m only good at this because the program does most of the hard stuff for me.”
I roll my eyes as I pass it back. “Digital art is still art, you doofus. Just a different medium.”
My brother eyes the sketchbook lying between us. “Sure thing, Koda.” He hesitates for a moment. “Are you okay? Going home went okay?”
I fold a pillow under my head before laying back to stare at the ceiling. “It went about like you’d think. My backpack was right where I thought it would be, and the vibes were a little eerie, but everything was otherwise fine.”
Brady sets his tablet on the nightstand, probably to give me his bestI’m your big brother, you can’t lieto meface. “Are you upset that we didn’t find your backpack?”
I definitely saw something like that coming. It’s the face; it gives him away every time. “No. I don’t have a reason to be.” I don’t know why they’re both so concerned about that specific detail. I didn’t tell Brady or Chase what I was planning, and it’snot like it's anyone’s fault except my own that it fell where no one would see it. I’m just glad to have my own clothes again. Well, that and my sketchbook. I’d glue this thing to my hand at this point just to never be unwillingly separated from it again. “Hey, can you help me with something, actually?”
The sentence isn’t all the way out of my mouth before he’s agreeing, and by the time I leave his room to find my maybe—hopefully, still—boyfriend, I’ve got his tablet with me and about a dozen pages bookmarked to read through.
I’m so over living in fear or denial. Now, I know without a shadow of a doubt what horrors are out there, and I’m not going to let it stop me anymore. Whatever it is that’s lingering at the edges of my brain, I intend to dig it out one way or another. And while I do that, I’m going to solve another problem.Watch out world,or whatever someone that has their shit together would say.
CHAPTER 12
CHASE
“Look, you can say what you want, but I’m going to do it. You’re being short-sighted,” she snipes.
I resist a growl. “And what about the damage it’ll do to Easton?”
Blake slams the papers in her hand down on the desk. “Who is saying that? You or him? Because forgive me if I’m not tempted to listen to what someone else has to say about what he is and isn’t capable of.”
My teeth grind in an effort not to shout. “You are missing the point,” I grit out. “It’s not about if he’s capable. It’s about if it’s good for him. Why can’t you just go alone?”
She throws her hands out in front of her. “That’s not how it works. I can’t go report a crime on behalf of someone else. What would you have me do? Sit on the facts or possibly get some real help here?”
