Rubbing my face with both hands, I did my best to settle down to try and push the nausea away. “It’s the school I went to—Hawes Down.”
“Fuck,” he hissed. “And the close up of this white door with the number four on it?”
I could see what he was talking about clearly in my mind, seeing as how I’d grown up in that house. “That’s Mum’s house. I grew up in it until she died, and then we rented it out because she owned it outright and moved in with Nan. Before I moved, I discussed it with my brother and sister, and we moved her into it so she could sell hers and have some money to play around with. He sent one before with the street sign on it, The Glade, so now he’s taunting me with the front door, too.”
“Hate to ask it, babe, but the last one—what does this area mean to you?”
I didn’t want to look. Raising my head, I stared at the picture in front of me, seeing the nightmare play out again like it’d only happened yesterday. “That’s the crossing on the road called Pickhurst Lane where Mum was run over by a driver who was five times over the limit.”
“You need to call your dad, honey. Tell him what’s happened, and I’ll put these in a Ziploc bag, okay?” he said gently, rubbing my back with his hand.
It was fair to say that Jackson and I had become good friends over the last two weeks. We laughed a lot, made fun of each other, spoke about stuff, and I’d even helped him with his online college work. Even though I was pissed at his brother—and also even though I understood his reasons for checking out, because I’d done it myself over the years—I liked the guy, but only as a friend.
Nodding, I slowly got up and made the call, listening to Dad lose his shit when I told him what was going on. I only got to his fifth ‘mother fucker’ when I lost the lid on my stomach contents and vomited my soul down the toilet. It was fortunate that I’d been so close to it, otherwise, I would have had a mess that would’ve made me do it again, cleaning it up. It was never-ending, as each spasm deep in my gut brought up everything I had inside me until all I could do was dry heave and pray for death.
A cold, wet cloth being placed gently on my neck was heaven, but the shock of it also made me jerk and whimper.
“Guess who gets to play hooky with me today?”
Welp, seeing as how I wasn’t in a fit state to walk, let alone work, I wasn’t going to argue. I also didn’t argue when he picked me up, flushed the toilet, and took me over to the sink. However, I did hit him weakly in the throat when he told me that if I didn’t brush my pukey breath, he’d make me gargle bleach and set Dobby on me.
Elijah
Three days later…
I’d just thrown the last bag into the back of the truck when the sound of an engine getting close pulled my mind off the mental checklist of things I needed to do. Well, the checklist of things I needed to do here, which was about half the size of the list I needed to do when I got back to Sadie. Then again, a lot of that list included groveling, so there was that.
The most recent report from her dad had come in, and when I’d read that she’d received some postcards from the fucker back in England, I flew into action and packed up. Every report so far said she was okay and Ned was intercepting them, and he was contained, so this had come out of the blue and, I didn’t like it. She wasn’t safe anymore, even with Jackson with her, and I’d spent long enough getting my head together and needed to get back to her. They could say there was no need for concern, but it didn’t make a difference to me now.
Grassy Point in Sarasota Bay, Florida, was where I’d come with Coop, to a small house hidden in some of the undeveloped land that we’d bought together four years ago, and it’d done me well while I kicked my ass for a lot of things. The time away had helped me let go of the lingering guilt I felt about Coop, it’d numbed me to how his family had treated me after he’d died, and it’d just stressed what I already knew—I couldn’t live without Sadie Dahl in my life.
The last one had been strange for me because I hadn’t known her for long in the grand scheme of things, so I’d had to pick that apart a bit more to understand it. My worry was fucking up and going into something that I was reading incorrectly. I didn’t want to hurt her more than she’d already been hurt in her short life. But, after I’d dealt with the other two things, I’d understood even more that I wasn’t going to do that. I finally had focus back in my life, and I felt freer than I had in a long time. It’d also hadn’t involved me getting into fights to work it out, either.
I needed to get back to her and explain what’d happened, as well as apologize for being the kind of asshole who’d have sex with a woman who was a tyrant and a bitch, and not even remember doing it. I get that I was at a bad place in my life back then, and the shit with Levi and Charlotte had made my mood plummet even further, but that wasn’t an excuse for being that level of asshole.
So, I’d packed up and was going to drive straight through after I got my shit in the vehicle. Which was what I was doing, so seeing my brother’s truck coming toward me on its jacked-up wheels confused me.
As soon as he came to a stop, he was out of the cab and striding toward me. At first glance, if you saw Marcus and Jackson together, you’d think they were identical with zero differences. They copied each other’s hairstyles and appearances to fuck with people, but once you got to know them or spent time with them, they couldn’t be more different, including visually.
Smiling widely and happy to see him, I closed the distance and held a hand out. I got as far as saying, “Marcu—" before his big beefy fist hit me on the jaw, almost knocking me off my feet.
“You son of a bitch,” he seethed, glaring at me.
Wiping my mouth with my hand, I was surprised not to see blood on it. “I don’t think mom would like you calling her that.”
“Got a call from Jackson last night saying he’d spoken to Sadie’s dad and found out you’ve been getting reports this whole time. We all thought you didn’t have a clue what was happening, and all this time, you did. Fuck, brother, I haven’t even met her yet, and I’ve done more to help her than you have.”
Holding my hands out in front of me when it looked like he was going to punch me again, I snapped, “Yeah, and the reports all said she was doing okay and was being kept safe. I know ducking out like that was bullshit, but if I’d stayed, I would have been so stuck in my head that I would’ve missed something and ended up putting her life at risk.”
“Bull. Shit. Bull-fucking-shit! You fled with your dick up your ass because you got outed by a woman you didn’t remember fucking. There was no reason to do it like that, and there sure as shit was no reason for you to stay away after reading about the contact he’s been making with her and how fucked up it’s been.”
Holding a finger up, I jogged back to the truck to get the papers out of the bag. Opening the envelope that had them all in, I pulled them out and took them over to where he was still standing.
“Read those and show me where she’s been contacted and intimidated. Maybe you misheard what Jackson was saying?”
His eyebrows scrunched as he scanned the pages, one after the other. “I don’t know what to tell you, Elijah, but this is all bullshit. A lot’s been missed out of these reports, and I know I didn’t mishear Jackson because he’s been emailing me stuff for Remy to look into.”