Page 34 of Locke 2

“His friend told me.”

Locke’s gaze hardened. “What did he say exactly?”

“He said a man in a green trench coat took him.”

Locke’s movements slowed. There was a faraway look on his face. I watched his reaction closely, knowing I’d finally broken through.

“Locke?”

He shook his head, silencing me. His gaze refocused on mine. His lips pressed into a hard line. Then he came at me again. Before I could even have a chance of backing away, he grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. My chest crashed into his. I looked up at him, eyes wide as he looked menacingly down at me, growling, “If you’re lying to me…”

I responded to his menace with my own. “I’m not.”

His eyes hardened. He looked like he didn’t believe me. “We’ll see. I’m going to make some calls, Kali, about this boy. If I come back and you’re gone and this has all been a trick, I’m going to find you and I’m going to steal you. There’ll be no escaping me or my wrath. I’m going to keep you. Heaven fucking help me, I will finally have you. Do. You. Understand?”

He barely registered my nod before he let go and left the room.

Fifteen

Locke

Time didn’t exist in a linear way for the desecrated soul. It happened all at once. The Hole, his mother’s death, the raven following him as he brokenly found his way back home. Charlotte was there for him for a time, when things got too tough to handle on his own. When the aggression had mutated him, changing his form into that of a true demon. Back when it hurt.

He didn’t feel that same hurt anymore.

He hadn’t for a while, and he almost thought it was because he was finally free.

But, alas, that wasn’t the case. He had simply numbed himself to endure the loss of that damn woman. She’d come into his life an injured bird, and he recklessly took her, thinking he might save her. He’d liked the idea of it. He would rescue her, and she would want him forever. Wasn’t that how the story went? So, he offered her a deal. One last hoorah: to get away from him as a way to reclaim herself, a powerful battle againstthe past that plagued her. She’d run from him, proving to herself how strong she was, then he’d find her, and she’d ultimately surrender to him.

That didn’t happen.

None of it went according to plan.

For so long, Locke had been terrified of himself when he committed such evil. But then he found this damn woman and he didn’t fear the past as much as he feared her.

???

A man in a green trench coat took him.

She knew those words would trigger Locke. She knew that was the clincher. Which meant she knew what happened to him wholly.

Fucking Conor Thames.

He had no right to let her know. That should have been up to Locke, but he quietly reasoned he might not ever have let her know.

It didn’t matter anyway because now there was a boy involved.

Was this a ruse? A lie to get him to explore this boy’s disappearance? But she didn’t look like she was lying, and she was bad at it, anyway. Her heart may have been buried under the jagged walls she erected to protect herself, but it was big and pure.

And he fucking wanted it.

Locke wanted Kali’s heart deeply.

He left her house and drove around the quaint town for the next hour, eyeing the neighbourhoods, the cute business district, the happy signs and warm greetings. Was this seriously what Kali wanted? This Hallmark type shit with the festive orange lights strung up and cheap vampire blowups to celebrate Halloween.

Thank God it wasn’t Christmas.

Goergewel could have been a dying town. The mill had slowed down, the town had gone stale for almost a decade. But then a do-gooder blew through town investing in infrastructure. He threw money into local businesses, and he probably built a fucking park or two.

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