Page 5 of Locke 2

He couldn’t be real.

And yet there he was.

Max Locke.

In a news clipping on the window of a downtown Georgewel business.

And he’d gotten him out.

Dominic.

One of the notorious Blackwater Boys.

“Kari?” Hal’s hand gripped my arm, and he gently shook me back to earth. “Are you alright?”

My lips felt numb as I muttered, “Feel a bit faint, actually.”

He turned his head, catching the story I was still staring lifelessly at. “Is this story triggering for you? Should I tell Curtis to take it down? I’ve yet to read it myself.”

I shook my head, forcing my gaze away from the window. I plastered a smile but it felt all wrong. “Not at all. It’s not everyday you get a story of a man that gets let out after a wrong murder conviction.”

He furrowed his brows. “Really? Because I sort of see it happen all the time these days. It’s getting harder to get away with murder. All that surveillance and DNA testing.”

My smile wavered. “I guess I don’t pay too much attention.”

“It’s fresh news. You can get the full scoop in the newspaper you got there.”

I nodded, my arm tightening around the newspaper. I still couldn’t speak. I was wobbly. The desire to look back at that paper on the window was hard to ignore.

His face flashed before my eyes, but as usual, it was covered in darkness. Like a shadow had muted his features. All I saw in my memories was a giant, broad shouldered man in a black suit.

I let out a shaky breath, not for the first time disappointed that my mind was blocking his face out. If I was the type of woman that cared for her mental health, I’d have seen atherapist about it, and maybe that person would be able to rid the trauma that man had inflicted on me.

But without all this trauma, I’d be carrying less weight in my chest, and without that weight, who was I?

Instead of vanquishing their demons, was it possible someone could find themselves entwined with them instead?

“You know what I like about you?” Hal said next, smirking at me. I didn’t have a chance to ask what when he said, “You could be looking up the news, but you depend on the paper every day. It’s people like you keeping this baby alive.” He jutted his finger at the building, looking warmly at me.

I smiled back, but I barely absorbed his compliment. “Thanks, Hal. It’s all about living in the now, right?” My chuckle that followed sounded hollow. I stayed offline because I was paranoid I’d spend my whole time looking uphe who shall not be named. Mostly, I was terrified I’d be caught doing it. Like somehow he would figure it out and find me.

Please find me.

I squashed that thought the second it sprouted.

I checked the time and pretended I needed to get to the school soon. That there was a meeting for us teacher aides. We said our goodbyes, though I felt Hal’s curious eyes on me as I strode away, slightly shaking.

It was fine, I told myself as I approached the little school. If Locke was making waves in his career and letting out his dangerous buds, it meant he was involved in his own life, in his own fucked up affairs. Dude had probably trunk-kidnapped more seedy perverts, and I was just a distant memory. Well,good for him and hooray for me, right? My chest deflated a little at that, which was totally stupid, but still. Here I was, forced to live another life quite literally, and it was probably unnecessary.

The more time that had passed, the more I had convinced myself that he wasn’t as desperate for me as I led myself to believe. That when he said he’d chase me to the ends of the earth and find me, he hadn’t truly meant it. After all, it’d been eighteen months and I hadn’t once felt his creeping presence in my life, and that was fine, it was good, it was as it should be. I wasn’t worth the chase, either.

Who in their right (or even psychotic) mind would want me, after all?

The answer came in the form of a little girl’s voice.

“A man in black,” Aurora answered.

Three

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