Page 65 of After Our Kiss

I could feel her.

I could always feel her.

“Georgia!” I roared, ripping the cellar doors open. It was beyond black inside. Water poured down the steps; the place looked like a submerged cavern. I lifted out my phone and used the light on it to search.

The screen bounced off of the water's surface. I waded down, then down further, until I was freezing up to my hips. The whole basement was flooded. The banging sound stopped, echoing long after through the walls. “Conway! Over here, hurry! Please!”

Rushing with new determination, I shoved through the hallway. Boxes floated into me; I pushed them aside, cutting my shoulder on a rocky corner as the hallway took a sudden turn. I hadn't come down here before; Lonnie had told me there was nothing but mice and mold. Unaware of the second set of stairs, I slipped, tumbling and gulping brackish liquid. It was a miracle I didn't drop my phone.

“Conway!”

That voice... it wasn't Georgia. It itched at part of my brain.

“I'm coming!” I shouted, coughing. Half swimming, I shined my light ahead of me. It lit up two faces—both pale, and one of them barely keeping her nose above the water. “Georgia!” I gasped, grabbing her and lifting her in my arms.

She was soaked. But she was alive.

“You came,” she said weakly. Shivering, she nuzzled into me like I was the safest place in the world. “You heard me crying for help.”

Helplessly I kissed her. I couldn't stop myself; I didn't care about the situation. I needed to feel her... taste her... to know I hadn't lost her in the darkness.

“We have to get out,” she said, staring up at me. “Untie Emily. Hurry.”

“Emily?” I whispered, seeing the other girl—really seeing her. She was strapped to a chair, and even if I hadn't recognized her from the grainy phone pictures, I'd have known she was my sister. I'd spent too many nights huddling over a book with her in our tree house.

Emily had just enough energy to smile at me. The grooves under her eyes were concave. “It was Lonnie,” she whispered, shaking her head in despair. “Our little brother. He took me. He did it all.”

“Then he'll pay for it all, too.” Hoisting Georgia in a way that let me use my hands, I freed Emily from the chair. Cradling them both I struggled up and out of that oceanic dungeon. Emily looked worse in the light of the outside world. Setting them down, I removed the rest of their bonds.

“Where's Lonnie?” Georgia asked, looking around with nervous eyes.

“It's fine, he can't hurt you,” I said, squeezing her hand. I didn't want to let her go.

“But he'll hurt others.” Her fingers curled over her mouth, she was cringing. “I found them. The women upstairs.”

My guts whirled in a bloated knot. “What women?”

“He kidnapped them all! They're tied to beds, gagged so no one can hear them. He had so many of them, Conway.” She was quivering endlessly. “Don't let him get away. He'll do it all again, I know it.”

I didn't understand everything that was going on. But if Georgia had asked me to burn the whole island down, I would have. Going after my brother was an easy request.

If Lonnie hoped to escape, there was only one way he was going to manage it. Thudding down the slippery path I spotted movement in the only boat we had left. He looked up at the sound of my approach. “Lonnie!” I shouted.

Grabbing an oar, he tried to crack me in the head with it. I was much faster than he could pray to be. Slapping the oar into the floor of the boat, I ripped him out of it, dragging him along the dock. He fought me the whole way—but I was stronger. I wasangrier.I had both a devil and an angel guiding my actions. There was no way for him to shake me off.

“You piece of shit!” I said, slamming him to the ground. “Were you going to let them drown in the cellar? And what the fuck is this about other women locked upstairs?”

He crab-crawled backwards as he stared up at me. There was something missing from his face. I didn't know what it was until I saw his little grin: he wasn't even ashamed.

“Listen,” he said, getting to his feet. “I know you're upset. But who will you believe? Me, or some dumb whore? I did this for your owngood,Conway. Georgia was changing you from who you were meant to be!”

The last strand of faith snapped in me. My hands were on his throat, his shirt, throwing him back. He grabbed for my wrists as I tugged him by his collar. His body left a track in the mud all the way to the edge of the cliff. Behind me, the girls were shouting—the cacophony in my ears drowned them out.

Lonnie had the grace to look shocked. He started to wrestle with me, fighting to stop me from chucking him into the ocean. We tumbled hard to the ground, his shoulders sticking out over the cliff's ledge. “What did you hope would happen?” I asked. “What was your fucking goal in bringing me here?”

His defensive mask had shattered—he was done pretending to be on my side. “I wanted you to suffer. I didn't care who had to go down with you, as long as you crumbled into nothingness.”

“Butwhy?What did I do to you?”

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