Page 52 of The Villain

No one said anything for a long minute, and then Dare’s voice cracked through the silence. “Two days.”

“What?”

“I’ll go look today, but regardless of what I find, I’ll bring you back to the house in two days.”

“Why two days?” I asked softly, and my heartbeat slowed with each second that passed. There was only one thing of significance in two days—the end of my divorce.

“Dare…” Rob prompted when he took too long to answer. “What is it?”

“Ty got a call this morning. Apparently, Brandon never made it back to Sacramento PD to be booked and processed.”

Never made it…“Oh my god, is he?—”

“He escaped custody. Still no details, whether he’s in hiding or fled or…anything else. So, until I know more or until the timeline on his insurance policy runs out, I’m not taking you from the safe house.”

There was no room for discussion in his voice.

“Okay.” I tried to swallow. “Will you let me know if you find anything?”

It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to ask; the real questions knotted into a tangle in my throat.When will you be back? Will you come see me? Will we talk like you said we would?

Will you let me stop wondering about last night and if you’re avoiding me again?

I didn’t ask any of the questions I really wanted to, and yet the answer he gave me answered them all.

“Someone will.”

Message received.

Chapter Ten

Dare

I write, but you never write back. Has something happened? Did you change your mind about forever? If you did, just tell me.

If you did, I might write anyway. I don’t know who else to talk to.

Mom’s not going to beat the cancer this time. Her doctor said it spread everywhere, and she doesn’t have long. And she won’t let me come home. She says doesn’t want me to remember her like this…

I’ll never understand why she gets to decide that the pain she’s sparing me from is worse than this alternative. Don’t I get a say in how I want tobe hurt?—Athena

This was the third time I’d pulled up to her mom’s house in less than three weeks. The day of the explosion. The day I’d gone and failed to find this invoice. And again today.

Three times, and it should’ve gotten easier to pull up to the curb out front and not remember the way the front door would swing open, Athena’s face beaming when I’d come to pick her up for a movie. Easier to not think about how close we’d cut it to her curfew, making it back just in time only to spend twenty minutes kissing in the car. How her mom would flicker the outside lights to bring us back to earth, and Athena would smile at me like I hung the moon and then hurry inside; meanwhile, I’d sit in the car another twenty minutes thinking about how all I wanted was to kiss that girl forever.

It should’ve been easier to be here. And maybe if I hadn’t kissed her again—touched her again—it would’ve been.

Instead, driving here was like going back in time. Back to the days we spent at the beach, her painting and me in awe…and nights we spent on a blanket in her backyard picking out constellations from the sky.

I put Rob’s Mercedes in park. I’d borrowed her car because I wasn’t putting Athena on my bike. My motorcycle was my haven—the one place where the guilt and regret couldn’t catch me. Sherwood had been that place, too, until I brought her there. Now, my bike was the only spot untouched by her. By her memory. By the way I still wanted her. It also rained all morning, and they were calling for showers the rest of the day, which made asking Rob require less explanation.

I reached for the engine button and froze, the sunlight glittering off the leftover raindrops on the grass catching my attention. It looked just like the dew on the lawn had that morning.

Fuck.I forced my eyes shut.The good memories were painful; the bad ones were worse.

But there was no escaping this one because, when I closed my eyes, all I saw was Athena’s face from the other night. There were a million new memories from that night. A hundred other expressions I could’ve envisioned. The relief when she’d lowered into the tub.

Instead, I kept going back to the last look she gave me—the one where she tried to hide the pain she was feeling inside when I told her I was leaving.

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