“Daniel’s mum has her, and by the sound of it, she’s safe. For now, let’s take a couple of days to get our heads right, and I’ll have our team investigate. Bobbi will need you alert and strong when we go to get her.”
Staring up into Ringo’s concerned gaze, I nod, even though my next words are a contradiction.
“We rest tonight. But tomorrow, we go back to that fucking hospital and find that doctor. She’s going to give us answers.” I place my hand over Ringo’s and deadpan. “And then she dies.”
3
Her guttural cries are too much. The sound is ripping my heart straight from my fucking chest.
With my forehead pressed to the bathroom door, I ball my fists so tight my knuckles crack, fighting like hell not to walk in there.
When she stepped inside and slammed the door, it was a clear message. She wanted to be alone, and maybe she thinks that’s what she needs, but fuck, this time, she’s wrong.
Everything that’s happened today… everything she’s learned about Bobbi… fuck, it’s too much to carry alone. And yet, all I can do is stand out here and absorb her pain.
Daniel better not be fucking with us. I hope more than anything, what he said is true. I hope more than anything that her little girl is alive and well so she gets to hold her again. To see her smiles. Soothe her tears. Teach her what love feels like.
I’ll never get that chance again. My Hope will never rise from the dead, and as much as that rips me apart, I have to believe her time for life just wasn’t meant to be yet. One day maybe, she’ll come back. Reborn. Fuck, there’s even a part of me that imagines she’s been reborn in Bobbi.
That’s gotta be why I love a little baby that isn’t mine… right? Why I’d burn the world down for her, just to see her safe.
I strugglednotto shoot Daniel on the spot at the airfield. The sick cunt deserves to bleed out for every fucking thing he’s put my Angel through. But when Abbey bolted, too fast for me to catch, I had to remain fucking calm and rational.
We had Daniel. Donny Allen was dead. And Ian is still out there.
Thank fuck Brody was quick thinking, stepping up like a true Southern Sadist. He fucking launched himself through the passenger window of the van Abbey was stealing, his legs hanging out as she sped off. I thought the fucker was going to fall out. But he made it in. He answered my frantic fucking phone call. He relayed every turn they made so I at least knew where she was even if she was getting further and further away.
But at least she wasn’t alone. Brody was there, and he could help me get back to her.
I knock my forehead gently against the door as Abbey’s cries grow desperate, my own eyes burning, my throat tight as her pain drags me under with her.
Fuck. The moment I opened that casket to find nothing but a small sack of sand… for one insane heartbeat I thought it had to be a dream. Thought maybe I’d been shot at that airfield and was bleeding out, trapped in a hallucination.
On the other side of the door, Abbey’s cries turn into chokes, and the moment she starts gagging, my hand is on the knob, and I shove the door open, ready to endure her wrath, because there’s no fucking way I’m standing by while she breaks like this.
“Angel.” I charge into the steam-filled room, yanking the shower door open, my eyes falling to the floor where she’s curled on her side as she retches on nothing but air.
Not giving a fuck about my clothes getting wet, I drop to the floor, haul her into my lap, and wrap her tight against me as the scalding spray drenches us both.
“Fuck, Abs. I’ve got you.” I choke out, holding on while she sobs like she just lost Bobbi all over again.
This is fucking cruel. If Daniel is lying, I’ll make him wish he was never fucking born.
But surely the photo evidence is enough. The text messages between him and his mum have date stamps. It has to be real. It just fucking has to be.
Fuck.
Ineedit to be… for my Angel.
Abbey tries to speak, but it’s incomprehensible, so I just hold her, my palms gliding over her wet skin, trying to soothe what can’t be soothed, giving her the only thing I can… me.
Then, for a moment, I let myself break too.
I let myself remember the pain of losing Hope. The way it gutted me to live each day knowing I didn’t get to her in time. That helplessness never fades. It chisels into your very being, leaving you hollow with scars that never stop burning. Wounds that never stop bleeding.
We stay there on the shower floor for a long while, Abbey trembling in my arms, her sobs slowly fading into softer cries, until finally, her tears run dry. And then, we just stay quiet, holding on to nothing but each other, taking the moment to just be silent and still and together.
My Angel feels peaceful in these quiet moments, and I start to think she’s fallen asleep, but then, her quiet, husky voice breaks the silence.
