“I don’t want to leave.”
Riley’s words have me missing a step, tightening my grip on her hand. “What?”
“I don’t want to leave Winter Lake. I thought I did, before, but now I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
Hope flares in my chest. “It’s a great place to grow up, to live.” Not that I’m an expert on the town. I might have gone to school here, had friends who lived in town, but a lot can change in a decade.
“Does it look different?” she asks, her gaze moving around the street.
I follow her lead and take in the buildings. “A lot is the same,” I murmur. “New paint, the odd store is different, but mostly it seems just as I remember it.”
“Will you come down more now that you have?”
It’s a valid question. When I insisted on coming with her and Uncle Granger this morning, neither of them was convinced it was a good idea. “Yes. I’ll come when you do.”
“Oh.”
“I said I’d never let go,” I remind her, raising our hands to make my point.
We cross a side street, and she uses her free hand to indicate down it. “See the dark brown house? That’s where I lived.”
From here, it looks neglected. The way the sun is out should have it looking bright like the houses around it, but the color, the weathered paint, make it dark. It makes me think of Halloween and haunted houses.
“Will you fix it up,” I ask without thought. “Sorry, didn’t mean to suggest?—”
“It’s okay, it does need renovating; the bathrooms and kitchen have never been changed.” She smiles up at me as we leave the road for the sidewalk again. “I don’t know if I can live there again as it is.”
“I can help. I built the shed at the back of the cabin, and Uncle Granger and I built the woodshed at his place three summers ago.” I want her to be comfortable, to be happy with where she lives. “We can drive down every day and do a little bit at a time, or you can hire someone to fix it.”
“Hmm…” Her focus shifts to something in front of us and she smiles. “There’s Granger and Chief Yunker.”
Looking up, I see both men waiting for us, a couple of officers behind them. As we walk, the look on my uncle’s face changes and the chief lunges forward, his hand reaching for his sidearm. Confused, I react on instinct when both men yell my name.
Spinning around, I find Warren rushing toward us, a gun held out in front of him. Everything happens at once. I yank Riley behind me just as a loud bang echoes down the street and pain spears my side. Spinning more, I take us to the ground, shielding her from Warren, and the ground seems impossibly hard.
Another bang quickly followed by another echoes before I land hard on my side. Pain ricochets through my torso, but I don’t let go of Riley. Curling around her, I cover her as best I can, except I can’t catch my breath and she’s trying to wiggle free.
“Felix!” Her hands shove at my chest. “Oh my god! Felix!”
I want to move. Want to lift off her because I have to be crushing her into the sidewalk. “Rile…”
“Don’t talk.” Pain pierces me when she presses on my side. “Don’t move. Granger!”
“I’m here. The ambulance is coming.” My uncle is a blur beside me. “Fuck!”
More pain as he joins Riley in pushing against me. “Love. You. Rile…” It’s hard to breathe and my eyes are getting heavy…
“Don’t close your eyes.Felix, don’t close your eyes. Stay with me.”
The panic in her voice has my instincts wanting to move, to do what she asks, except with each struggle to pull in air, to hold my eyes open, my vision blurs more until I can’t do it. “Love…you…”
RILEY
The drive to the hospital is silent—tense.
Granger hasn’t said a word since they loaded Felix into a helicopter and disappeared into the sky, and even then all he said was ‘let’s go’.
I didn’t waste time asking questions. Just ran to keep up with his long stride. He’s not driving recklessly, although he is doing more than the speed limit. Then again, with a police escort, that isn’t an issue.
