A smudge of blood smears across the screen as I answer.
“Monty! Where are you? Where’s Ella?”
His voice makes me smile. I see his face, feel his hands, smell the lemon on his skin.
“Gable.”
He pauses. “Ella?”
The clouds are gone.
I think …
“I see stars,” I whisper.
And I wish.
I wish.
I
Chapter 47
Gable
“Ella!” I bellow her name as I shoulder down the front door. The house is quiet. Z is breathless as he appears next to me.
“Where could she be?”
I search my mind and try not to let the burst of panic in my blood cloud my thoughts. But since that phone call from Guy, all I’ve felt is terror and determination. A desperate need to get to Ella before?—
“Stars. She said she saw stars.” I race for the back of the house, for the doors that lead to the pool. The ballroom is dark, and the doors are open to the elements.
One body is inside.
Two bodies are on the patio.
“Ella.” I rush to her. She’s lying next to Monty, the two holding hands—both soaked in blood. “Ella, baby.” I cup her face, my voice breaking. “Wake up.”
“Shit.” Z breathes out the word from behind me.
I lift her into my arms, her body limp and cold, and go for the car. It’s a blur of movement, of fear, and I’m not evensure how I get behind the wheel with her cradled on my lap. Z gets into the back with Monty, and I drive.
I don’t remember the journey.
I only remember talking to her.
Begging her not to leave me.
Lights blur as I speed down roads.
Lights and memories.
“Don’t you ‘what’ me, you sanctimonious asshole; I told you I need to speak to Barnaby, and I know he’s in there!”
I hold her closer.
“It’s everything I remember Asher saying about you. Is it okay that I did that?”
