I looked up and saw a shed. It was small and old and kind of falling apart, but it had walls and a roof and a door that closed.
“This is perfect,” I said.
We went inside. It smelled like dirt and old wood. There were some empty crates in the corner and a tarp folded up against the wall.
Nox spread out the tarp, and we sat down on it.
“Now what?” he asked.
“Now we wait.”
This was really happening. I was really doing this.
And when Mom woke up and realized I was gone, everything would change.
I just hoped I was right about Derek.
I hoped he’d come looking for me.
I hoped he’d help Mom find me.
And I hoped that somewhere in all of that, they’d find each other too.
“Frankie?” Nox said quietly.
“Yeah?”
“What if this doesn’t work?”
I closed my eyes and hugged my knees to my chest.
“It has to.”
Because I didn’t know what I’d do if it didn’t.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Katrina
The sun was just beginning to rise over the orchard when I stepped onto the porch with my coffee. The air was cool and crisp, carrying the scent of apples and earth. I should have been exhausted because I’d barely slept, but my mind wouldn’t stop racing.
I sat down on the top step and wrapped both hands around the mug, letting the warmth seep into my palms.
Derek hurt Sam.
The thought had been circling my brain all night, relentless and unforgiving. He’d hurt Sam. His wife. The woman who was now married to his brother. The details were murky, but the fact remained: Derek had been violent with someone he was supposed to love.
And yet.
And yet.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d looked at me in Jack’s office. The way he’d kissed me as if I were the only thing in the world that mattered. The way his hands had felt on my body—possessive, protective, reverent.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the way Frankie’s face lit up every time she saw him. The way she trusted him so completely, so instinctively, in a way she’d never trusted anyone else.
“He won’t hurt us,”she’d said.
My twelve-year-old daughter had more faith in Derek than I did. And that terrified me.
