With my heart in my throat, I finally look into her crushed soul. I’ve caused that.I didthat. “I was never found.”
Lie. A fucking Lie.
Shock takes over her stunning features.
I’m so fucking sorry.
But I don’t say it aloud. I drop my head and take off, leaving behind the only thing that has mattered to me in so long. Leaving behind the woman I thought I could have loved.
THIRTY-THREE
Hush
I don’t stop.
I don’t look back.
I just go. My Harley taking me to her.
Back to her.
I had to escape. I had to leave. She lied. How could she have kept this from me?
But Danika doesn’t deserve half my heart. She doesn’t deserve to be treated this way. She doesn’t deserve my pain. She deserves someone whole, not me who’s already six feet under.
A fucking monster.
The sun has gone down, and the moon casts a glow over the darkness in front of me. My adrenaline—the fear is what keeps me going.
I only sleep when I can’t force my eyes to stay open any longer. Maybe this can be how I leave this earth. Riding my Harley. But I can’t go out being a coward. I can’t go out knowing I’ve shattered Danika into pieces. But I can’t stay either. I must do this.
With only a few hours of sleep under my belt, I fill up my ride and keep going. Not looking back.
Instead of the universe helping us find each other, maybe me and Danika weren’t meant to be. I was meant to help her and that’s it. And I did. I saved her that night. It’s done.
Gracie wouldn’t want me to be with her.
Liar.
Liar.
Liar.
FUCKING LIAR!
I swerve, my front tire inches from the ditch. But I correct myself and continue the ten hours I have left. The cold chills me to my bones.
My muscles scream out from it all—the endless hours of straining my limbs.
But there’s no turning back.
I finally make it to the cemetery. Stone graves line the grass and my stomach twists in knots as I scan the area. I haven’t been here since the funeral. Since they lowered her lifeless body into the ground. Her cherry wood casket being the last image I remember.
I light a cigarette and kick down the stand to my Harley, letting it take the weight from me. Fifty degrees is welcoming compared to the temperatures back in Ohio, but the wind picks up, and my cigarette goes out.
A small chuckle manages to leave my chapped lips. “You never did like me smoking.”
The wind wraps around my face, and I close my eyes, letting it sink through my bare skin.
