I pulled out my phone and checked the tracker I'd installed on her car. The one she didn't know about. The little red dot that should have been showing her on her way up the mountain was instead moving south.
Away from here.
Away from me.
My chest tightened, something feral and desperate clawing its way up my throat.
No.
She wouldn't.
She couldn't.
I hit her contact, the phone ringing once, twice, three times before she finally answered.
"Killian…" Her voice was small, guilty.
"Where are you?" My voice came out rough, barely controlled.
Silence on the other end. Then: "I'm sorry."
Those two words confirmed everything I'd been afraid of.
"Where. Are. You." Each word was punctuated, a demand she couldn't ignore.
"I can't do this anymore," she said, and I could hear the tears in her voice. "I can't be with you like this. It's not healthy, it's not…"
"Lena, tell me where you are right now."
"I'm not even in the city," she said quietly. "I'm far away from you, Killian. And I need you to let me go."
Far away.
I looked at the tracking app again, zooming out on the map. When I’d repaired her car, I put a device inside of it, so I’d always know where she was.
The red dot was moving steadily northeast on I-95, already well past the Roanoke county line.
Richmond.
She’s heading to Richmond.
Her aunt.
She'd mentioned her Aunt Ellen once, weeks ago, said she lived in Richmond and had offered her a place to stay when shefirst moved to the mountains. I'd filed that information away, catalogued it like I did everything about Lena.
And now it was going to bring her back to me.
"Lena," I said, forcing my voice to calm even as my heart raced and my hands started shaking. "Baby, we can talk about this. Just come back and we'll figure it out."
"There's nothing to figure out." Her voice cracked. "You stalked me. You manipulated me. You threatened Randall…"
"I protected you," I whispered.
"You terrified him! You…" She took a shaky breath. "I can't be with someone who does things like that. I can't."
"Yes, you can." I was already grabbing my keys, my wallet, shoving my feet into boots. "You have been. And you were happy."
"I was trapped."
