Page 116 of Deadly Sweet

We spend a good hour talking. She asks me about my life, how we met, what it was like for us in high school, and I tell her everything.

She asks a lot of questions, eager to know more about our past together, but anytime I mention anything about her life outside of that, she looks ready to shut down, so I try to avoid it.

I hope once Corbin is taken care of, she will feel safe enough to get in touch with her parents. They love her a lot and have been broken since her disappearance.

Her father knows I’ve been looking for her, too. He also knows that I’m her scent match.

When he asked me why I didn’t tell Savannah, I told him the truth.

He hugged me and told me he would be honored to have me as a son-in-law. Told me that Savannah always had a thing for me, but thought I didn’t feel the same for her. That broke me because I felt like I had lost so much time with Savannah and I worried for nothing. I could have had her from the very beginning and lost my chance.

Now that I have a second one, I’m not going to waste it.

We throw our trash away and head out.

Where I’m taking her next is just a few blocks down the street. The closer we get, the more nervous I become.

I wanted to go out and do something fun. Savannah is a free spirit, I can tell she doesn’t like to sit still for long. I was worried about the play, but she did awesome with it, far too engaged with it to be bored.

But will she enjoy this? Is it too childish for her? I mean, the woman kills people for a living.

As we round the corner, Savannah comes to a stop.

My heart pounds in my chest as I watch the back of her head. She’s looking at the big sign that says arcade.

She spins around, eyes big and bright. “Please tell me we’re going in there.”

The nerves leave me with her excitement. “Actually, we are.”

She grins widely and grabs my hand. “Let’s go!” she squeals, pulling me along.

Laughing, I go willingly.

“Wow,” she breathes with childlike wonder when we enter. It’s a little loud, but not overly crowded. The place has a life of its own. It’s bright and colorful, all the sounds of the machines going off at once, yet it doesn’t sound like it’s too much.

Going over to the counter, I get us two play cards loaded with tokens and hand her one. “What do you wanna do first?”

She spins around and smiles. “Everything.”

I immediately know that bringing her here was the right choice. She drags me from game to game, excited to play everything.

I also learn that she’s very competitive and will demand to go again and again until she wins. I don’t care if I lose to her, I just want to see her happy. And it’s building up our ticket points, so it’s a win-win.

We take a break, and Savannah gets some cotton candy. I’m not sure if it was a good idea, because she seems even more hyped up than before. It gives her an energy boost, and once we play every single game, we make our way around the room again for a second round.

It’s single-handedly the best night I’ve had in a very, very long time.

We’re relaxing for a moment, leaning up against the wall as we take a snack break, when the sound of laughter catches our attention.

Over by the basketball game, there’s a group of boys. They’re laughing at a smaller boy, and I can’t hear what they’re saying, but I know it’s not anything nice based on the way the smaller kid looks ready to cry.

My heart hurts as flashes of my own past hit me. Kids can be so damn cruel. I’ve been that smaller boy more than I’d ever liked.

When the biggest boy steps forward and pushes the little boy to the ground, they all start to laugh at him like it’s the funniest thing in the world, and the boy starts to cry.

I’m about to go over and say something. It took me a moment, but I recognize those boys as students who attend the school where I work. We might not be on school grounds, but I’m not going to stand by and allow anyone to be bullied. I don’t tolerate it.

Savannah is faster than me, and in a blink of an eye, she’s over to the group of boys.

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