“Let’s get a unit up there, asap,” Grant shouts.
“No!” I growl, and their attention focuses on me.
“I don’t think you have a say in this,” Grady growls.
“I am the one who got us in this situation, and I will get us out of it. I know Katie, and she won’t hurt Brody. Just let me go and get him,” I plead, not to anyone in the room but her—the woman who stole my heart and will never know it.
She nods, and Grady slams his fist on the table, making everyone flinch, everyone but me.
“I will bring him back,” I tell him.
“Or don’t bother coming back yourself,” He growls, leaving the kitchen.
I don’t give two fucks about his threats. I have to do this. The thing about an ember is it glows as hot as the fire that created it, and anyone in its path is going to get burned.
Chapter 23
Shelby
EARLIER THAT DAY
Iwatch for the school bus, and when it passeS by my house, I frown. They’ve done that once before, only to turn back a few minutes later and drop Brody at home. I am not even halfway through my novel. I’ve been so busy with the bakery, which opens in a month. I wanted to tell Ember all about it, but thenKatherinehappened.
I suck in a breath. Maybe I was wrong to judge Ember that quickly without hearing everything, but my mother told me when my father left us that if somebody shows you who they are, believe them. Ember left his grieving wife, divorced her even. He also didn’t tell me the whole truth; he had access to every detail of mine. Fuck, all he had to do was read the archives, and my past would pop up on every page. I set my book down and looked at the time. I pick up my phone.
“Eddie, you forget something?” I laugh. Eddie has been driving the school bus since I was a kid, and is in the habit of passing a stop or two on his way. But there is one thing he doesn’t forget, and that is to bring his kids home.
“Hey, Shelby. How are you doing?” he answers with a croaky voice.
“Strep back?” I ask.
“It’s that time of year.”
“Say, could you bring my boy home? He’s late for lunch.” I expect him to look around and feel like an idiot.
“Shelby, Brody wasn’t on the bus. Hold on…” There is a pause, and I hear him shouting at the kids. “Shelby, Lucas tells me that Brody went home with a friend of yours and his uncle Ember’s. A woman. Katherine?”
“Thanks, Eddie,” I manage, my chest tightening. My hands shake, and I hit dial on Grady’s number.
“Grady, I- I need you to come…”
“Shelby, where are you?” There is panic in his voice.
“Home…Brody didn’t come home on the bus, and Eddie…” I burst into tears, and the words stick in my throat. I think I end the call and make my way inside. I fall to the ground screaming until my throat hurts, and that is where Grady, Grant, and almost everyone finds me.
PRESENT
Now I am standingin my kitchen, flanked by my friends, and Grady shields me from the man who promises to bring home my son. The man whose ex took my baby from me. But when I look in Ember’s eyes, I know that I can trust him, that he will do everything he possibly can to bring my boy back to me. I refuse to think anything otherwise.
I’m so confused by everything Katie rambled on the phone. Did she actually think of drowning Brody? Why would she do something like that after losing a child of her own?
Ember stands and walks over to me; the way he towers over me reminds me of all the times I reached up and kissed his lips, how when he holds me, we seem to fit. He places a hand on my cheek, and I lean into it despite myself.
“I never left her when we lost our baby even though she’d chosen another man over me. When she fell apart, I was the one who was there. She removed me from her list of visitors and contacts, but I kept trying until I couldn’t live in the past anymore. I need you to know that.”
I nod slowly.
“Trust me,” he pleads, his hand dropping. I watch as he walks out of the kitchen.
