“Why are you here?” I demand, shaking clear of the fog enveloping my mind. “What do you want from me?”
Henry studies me for along moment. Something dark and satisfied glints in his eyes.
“You,” he says simply.
My heart stutters.
“You’re worth something,” he continues. “More than Sadie ever was by the end. People care about you. Powerful people.”
Cold dread seeps into my bones.
“This is about leverage,” I whisper.
He smiles again, wide and ugly. “Smart girl.”
A door slams somewhere deep in the warehouse. The sound reverberates through the space like a gunshot.
Henry stands.
“Rest up,” he says. “We’ll talk more soon.”
“Henry,” I choke out. “Please.”
He pauses at the edge of the light, glancing back over his shoulder.
“Funny,” he says. “That’s what your mother used to say too.”
Then he disappears into the shadows, leaving me bound to a chair in the dark, heart racing, the weight of the past pressing down harder than the restraints keeping me bound to the chair.
And I know—bone deep—that this isn’t about what my mother did.
It’s about what she left behind.
Me.
43
I getto the crash site in under six minutes.
That’s six minutes too late.
Blue and red lights paint the street like a crime scene mural, glass still glittering across the asphalt like teeth. The SUV sits mangled at an angle that makes my chest seize. The passenger side is crushed inward, the back door on Peyton’s side bent wrong, like it was wrenched open.
My vision tunnels.
Ignoring the police tape, I park the truck next to one of the cruisers and rush out. My boots hit the pavement hard enough to jar my spine as I sprint toward the scene, shoving past a cop who starts to say my name and thinks better of it when he sees my face.
“Sutton?” I bark.
She’s sitting on the curb, wrapped in a blanket, shaking but upright, alive, and talking to a medic. Relief slams into me hard enough to be painful.
But Peyton?—
“Where is she?” I demand, crouching in front of Sutton. I grip her shoulders gently but firmly, forcing her to look at me. “Peyton. Where is she?”
Suttons eyes fill instantly. “They—Colter, they took her. They opened her door. Not mine. They went straight for her.
My jaw locks.
