“Evie, get Chase.”
I’m immediately nodding. Listening to what she’s told me to do. Because Noah has her. He has her. He’ll take care of her.
Her eyes stay on mine as I stand, walking backward a few steps, and I watch Noah pick her up to run her to safety. Then I turn and run toward danger.
And I run like the goddamn wind straight toward the boathouse. Without worry for myself, praying with every step that he’s there.
Also knowing that without a shadow of a doubt, this is part of Remus’s plan.
The boathouse was where Billy was tortured and almost drowned. This is where he wants me to find him.
Because in the end, it was always going to be brother versus sister.
The moment I hit the door, all the fear over the last two years settles inside my bones, mutating, turning into rage as I bust through, locking eyes withhim.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chase
If they open the door, I fall in.
If they open the door, I fall in.
When they open the door, I die.
I’m staring at the wood grain ten feet from the cause of my death because I’m taped to a fucking chair, gagged, ankles tied together. Rigged to fall and go under the water behind me.
My chest shakes with every breath I take, mainly because of the physical pain but also because I can’t stop staring at the goddamn wood-grained door, hoping it’s not her who opens it.
If there’s any god in the universe, he’ll use whatever power he has to ensure it’s not my baby.Please don’t let her carry this for the rest of her life.
I pull against the restraints again, still not giving up. Even as the duct tape over my mouth stings the open wound where my lip’s split.
Fuck. I’ve spent hours going over and over why this is happening and trying to break free. That must mean I’m at the bargaining stage of death.
I strain my arms again, trying to twist my wrists, the tape pulling at my skin as I sit bound, waiting.
Just fucking waiting to die. It’s happening. This is how I’m going to go.
For a while, I thought about my family and my niece ... wondering how they’d find out. If they’d blame me for not calling the cops when I had the chance. Then I drifted to the guys at the kitchen, wondering if they’d keep me alive through the food. Take some recipes out into the world as it existed without me. But I kept coming back to Noah and Goldie ...and her. It’s always her. Because she’s my heart.
The one reason I have to keep struggling until the bitter end.
I squirm, trying again to pick at the duct tape around my wrists, but I can’t get enough of it to tear.Fuck.Harsh breath rushes from my nose before I close my eyes, ready for what’s to come.
My baby’s beautiful face materializes in my mind, and like a movie, I see all our moments, even the ones she didn’t know we were having. The way she rolls her eyes when she really wants to give in and blush. Or the way she always sits up straighter in her seat when I put a plate in front of her, like each meal is the most exciting thing she’s ever experienced.
But my favorite memory is the way she looked at me the last time we woke up. She didn’t say anything, just stared into my eyes, and I knew she was going to love me for our whole lives.
I just didn’t know it was ending so soon.
The words can’t come out, but I think them in the hopes that somehow they’ll find her one day.
I haven’t left you since the day we met. And I will love you past the day I die.
I keep my eyes closed, finally allowing myself to be at peace, before they shoot open because the door bursts open. And our eyes meet.
“Chase,” she screams.
