“Yes,” I say with the whisper of a smile on my face. “You are too kind.”
She glares at me but stops just short of opening the door, then turns to face me and crosses her arms. “Fine. But the audacity.”
“To be fair, I don’t think she counted on me being on the boat.”
“It’s your boat.”
“Yeah, and she snuck onto it late at night. She said she was only there for supplies.”
“So she was there to rob you?” Anastasia’s eyes widen, and if I weren’t so shaken up already, I might have laughed. “Are you kidding me? Why is she not in a cell, Zane? Did you tell the police? If someone did hurt her, then it seems to me the best place for her is behind bars.” She crosses her arms.
“If someone is really after her, then that’s the worst place for her to be. All it would take is one person being paid to get arrested, then taking her out once they’re inside.”
Anastasia stares at me in twisted shock. “This is insane.”
“Besides, like I said, she kicked me out of her hospital room. I don’t think she wants anything to do with me.”
“The audacity,” she repeats. “She’d better stay away from you, Zane. I’m sorry she was hurt, but her abandoning you like that? No. You deserve so much better.”
“I’m okay, Anastasia, honestly.”
“Well, I’m not.” She studies me for a moment, then shakes her head. “You’re going to insist on helping her, aren’t you?”
“Does it sound like she wants my help?”
“That didn’t stop you before, and we both know it won’t stop you now. Come on, Zane, don’t get involved in whatever this is. Let the police handle it. Whatever it is, it could be dangerous. You have no idea what she’s been into.”
“I know that, but I can’t just leave her to die, Anastasia. If someone really is after her, I can help. Besides, I’m more likely to die on a mission. This is nothing.” I smile, hoping it will ease some of the fear I see in her expression.
Her eyes fill. “Because that makes me feel better. If I remember correctly, Tessa spent more than a night in a jail cell when she was young. Maybe this is trouble she brought on herself by doing something she shouldn’t have been doing.”
She’d been arrested twice for shoplifting before she turned thirteen. It was the morning her dad came and picked her up the second time that I really saw her. I was at the precinct, waiting on my dad to finish work for the day, and she’d been brought out from the back.
Even though we’d been at the same elementary school, I didn’t really know her. And since I got moved up to high school when I was eleven, I didn’t have a chance.
Not until my gaze locked on hers when they brought her out from the back.
From that moment on, I sought her out, trying to know as much as I could about the beautiful, haunted girl who’d captured my attention as a young teenager.
Dad died a week later, so it was another two months before I saw her again.
“She’d been stealing food, and no charges were filed. She wasn’t even officially booked.”
Anastasia sighs. “Only because Officer Leopold is a big softie.”
I chuckle. “I’m sure he’d love to know that’s what you think of him.”
Anastasia runs both hands over her face. “Zane, this is not good. I know that you beat yourself up for a long time over what happened to her, but you have answers now. Maybe you can let her go.”
“I thought she was dead. Her dad practically confessed, even though they never found enough to charge him with anything. Anastasia, she’s alive.” For the first time since I realized it was Tessa who’d passed out in my arms, the full weight of that truth hits me square in the chest.
I’d grieved her.
Spent years trying to prove what everyone believed to be true.
And this whole time, she’s been out there—alone.
Or is she alone? Did she find someone else? “I’m not in a relationship at this time.” I hate that it brings me relief to know that.
