“I wasn’t sure if I should even call you, as she doesn’t know I am. I’ve been sitting in my car outside the clinic trying to decide. But I love her, and she’s my person, yet she’s alone in that room right now and her heat is hitting her harder because her scent matches are somewhere else. And I don’t know if that’s right. So I called you.”
“You did the right thing. You really did. I need the address, and I’ll be there.” I’m already typing in “Omega clinic” in my GPS on my truck screen to easily find it.
A long breath streams over the phone. “First, you need to know that she found something at your house this afternoon. A secret basement, lots of knives, and some masks.”
Every nerve in my body switches off. Shit! What must she be thinking? Is that why she ran from me?
“And then tonight, one of the women in our group brought in a photograph from an old newspaper. Not sure if Adelaide told you, but we investigate old unsolved cases, see if we can find any clues, and we’ve even helped out the cops on a couple of cases. Anyway, we were looking into the disappearance of Rebecca Hana, and tonight we saw an old newspaper photo of three men walking with Rebecca Hana in the dead of night before she vanished.”
Everything stops in my head. I no longer see the lights on the dashboard, or feel the phone against my ear, or hear the blood thrashing in my veins.
Everything just stops.
“The three men were wearing masks,” Clio says quietly. “The same style as the ones Adelaide found in your basement this afternoon. And Adelaide said she swears those three men in the photo were you guys.” She exhales loudly. “Look, I don’t know what shit you’ve done, but you’d better not be dragging my bestie into your crap.”
I’m not breathing. A long silence passes.
“I’ll take that as a confession,” Clio says.
“No, but it’s fucking complicated,” he murmurs. “Where’s Adelaide?”
“You need to know that right now she is both grieving and feral, so I don’t know if this is the best time to discuss this crap with her. But as much as I hate to say it, she really needs you all. I don’t want her to suffer.”
“I’ll respect what she wants when I get there. If she doesn’t want to see me, I’ll sit outside her door all night. I won’t goanywhere near her without her permission, but I’m not spending tonight on the other side of the island without her having all the details about us. I can’t. You’d ask the same if it were you.”
She sighs loudly. “God, don’t make me regret this. And I’ll be there, so no shady shit.”
“I swear on my grave. You have my word.”
“Otherwise, I’m coming after you. The clinic’s on Kaimuki Street.’Olu’OluWellness House. Pink building between a florist and a bookshop. I’ll meet you at the reception desk.” She hangs up.
I sit in the truck with both hands still on the wheel and my forehead pressed against my knuckles, my entire chest in pieces on the floor.
She must think we killed Rebecca Hana. Fucking hell!
I press my fist against my mouth, breathing through it for a long second. This has spiraled out of control so damn fast.
Then I hit North’s number on the phone.
“Anything?” he demands.
“She’s safe.”
He exhales hard over the phone, the kind that sounds dragged up from somewhere ugly. “Thank fuck.”
I tell him everything Clio told me. Every bit of it—the basement, the masks, Rebecca’s photo. Why Adelaide must have bolted. By the time I’m done, my hand is locked so tightly around the wheel that my knuckles hurt.
North goes dead quiet for half a second. Then: “Fuck.” The word cracks out of him. “I didn’t want her finding out like this. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.”
I nod even though he can’t see me. “Yeah. Well. It happened because we ran out of time.”
Another curse, lower this time, rough with anger.
“So now we deal with it,” I say. “No more half-truths. She gets all of it. Who we were, what we did, why we left. Everything.Then we make her see the difference between that life and this one. We make her believe we’re worth staying for.”
North’s breathing steadies just enough for me to hear the control come back. “Agreed. Send me the address. We’ll meet there.”
“Copy that.”
