Page 28 of Pocketful of Us

Catochi.

One little taste.

"It wasn’t a dream."

No.

No.

No, no, no…

"I wasn't dreaming," I repeated, feeling numb to the bone. "Every bit of it was real." Tears filled my eyes and I looked at him. "He used to sing to me when the dreams scared me." I sniffled and wiped my cheeks. "The Everly Brothers.All You Have to do is Dream? Sketch would sneak in my window every night, and if I was having a bad dream, he would sing it to me." I let my shoulders droop in defeat. "It always helped."

"My son is still alive," was all Raffaele said in response.

Sniffling, I whispered, "I hope so."

11

Presley

Since my arrival in Boulder, Colorado, I found myself growing oddly accustomed to the beautiful city. It was a world apart from the small-town of Pocketful I'd grown up in, and in all honesty, I was sold.

If it wasn't for the fact that Cal the freak-show Dillon was still on the loose, Romi was still on the missing list, Sketch was on the rampage, and nowhere in the whole city of Boulder had I found a restaurant that served a decent bowl of gumbo, I would've been securing a swanky penthouse apartment in the suburbs of the city and getting ready to sink my teeth into the psychology undergraduate program at the University of Colorado in the fall.

Of course, there was also the small matter that I had yet to finish high school, but I deemed that a minor technicality considering I had already earned enough credits to graduate three semesters ago.

"You okay there, Cowboy?" Lucky asked from the passenger seat of his truck. We were on the way back from his father in law's hotel where good ole' Lucky boy had a few whiskeys too many to get behind the wheel. Hence my promotion to designated driver of the hitman. "You're being freakishly quiet tonight."

"Yeah." I sighed heavily. "I'm just thinking."

He snorted. "Whenaren'tyou thinking?"

"I'm worried about him," I blurted out.

"Fullback?"

Nodding, I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. Twelve days ago, when we blew his world apart with some serious debased home truths, a still-wounded Sketch had bolted from the warehouse and hadn't been seen since. "What if something bad is happening to him?"

"Don’t take his silence personally, kid. Fullback's dealing with some pretty heavy shit," Lucky replied, sparking up a cigarette. "You know G has eyes on him. Kid's safe. He's just out there trying to find his girl."

"Yeah, but it's not exactly safe for him to beout therein the world. Not now that we know who he really is, and certainly not with Cal Dillon out for his blood," I replied, worrying myself to death at the thought. "And it's not like he's going to be able to find Romi on his own. She's not in Pocketful. She's not with Cal. Y'all checked. It's like she fell off the map. He's a teenage boy. How the hell can he find her if y'all can't?" I blew out a frustrated breath. "I just need him back, Luck," I admitted quietly. "I just…I need my friend, you know?"

"He'll be back," he replied, fiddling around with the truck stereo and settling on one his daughter's Disney songs. "When the time is right and he's ready to accept his future."

"And that rat bastard surrogate father of his," I growled, jaw clenching at the thought of Christopher Capaldi Sr. Before Sketch bounced, he had demanded his pathetic excuse for a father be set free. "Any update on his whereabouts?"

"Boarded a flight out of JFK to Heathrow, London the morning after he let him go," Lucky replied. "Could be anywhere in Europe by now, and my jurisdiction doesn’t stretch that far, kid."

"So, you're acontinental US onlykind of killer?" I shot back sarcastically.

He smirked. "Something like that."

Jesus."And what the hell is up with the freakishly beautiful brother just showing up here?" I grumbled, eyes narrowing at the thought of Romi's identical twin.

I knew whyIwas still lurking around Boulder – hell0, creepy killer by the name of Cal Dillon on the loose in my hometown – but that didn’t explain why Seth Dillon was still here.

Sketch clearly hadn't accepted his murderous offer, so why was he stillhere?

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