Chapter Twenty-Three
Chad
Chad couldn’t remember the bridge.
He couldn’t remember the phone call from Josh inviting him over.
His memory of his and Romeo’s time at the cottage was sparse—snapshots of moments, both good when he was with Romeo or Merc, and bad when he found himself alone, heart pounding, not knowing how or why he was pacing the cottage in the middle of the night but with a gut feeling he was supposed to be doingsomething.
If he did thatsomething, things would be better.
Jumping.
A deliberate act, unlike falling.
Keeley had made him jump.
And if it had been any other location, a bridge over a road like Alexandra or the top of a parking ramp like Thomas, Chad would be dead.
That thought had woken Romeo a few times in the night, and he’d shaken Chad awake, needing to know he was all right.Chad didn’t blame him, he still had to pinch himself sometimes when he dreamed of drowning.
The cold hit of water woke him up with one name on his lips.
Romeo.
He’d managed to surface.
The jogger on the bridge had seen him.
He’d been swept under again, weighted down by his soaked clothes.
The water burned like fire.It violently assaulted his mouth and nose.Once he breathed it in, he couldn’t stop, choking and convulsing.It hurt.Worse than anything he’d ever experienced, and he didn’t make that claim lightly after being tortured by a mad man with a scalpel.
Keeley had killed him.
But he’d come back.
And the first month had been disorientating, learning about himself and all he’d been through while knowing something was missing.
Ally and Josh were careful whenever the topic of Romeo came up.
He didn’t blame them.
The first time he’d heard the name since waking up, he’d gasped and started shaking.
