Page 93 of Beautiful Exile

“Just happy it’s been boring as hell,” he shouted back.

I laughed as I punched in my front door code and opened it to a waiting Brutus. His tail wagged, and he pressed into me. I gavehim more scratches, bending down to press a kiss to his head. Brutus moved in and licked my cheek.

“I love you, too.”

The simple admission made my eyes sting. Why did it come so easily with him, but was like pulling teeth with humans? Linc’s face swirled in my mind, and the burning sensation in my eyes intensified. That battle of wanting something so badly yet being terrified to reach for it raged.

Linc thought hearing someone might be playing a sick and twisted game with my life would scare me? Hurt me? Nothing scared and hurt more than knowing the beauty of him and losing it.

A clap of thunder swept through the house, making the walls tremble. And as it rolled through, the lights went out.

The panic didn’t come at first because I expected the electricity to flick right back on. It wasn’t like there were high winds and torrential downpours. But the lights didn’t return.

My heart rate picked up, the beats tangling with one another in an attempt to keep going. My hand fumbled, searching the pocket of my cargo pants as Brutus let out a low growl.

“It’s okay,” I wheezed. I felt for my phone and cursed when I realized I’d left it in the studio. The panic dug in.

My finger hooked around my keys, and a frisson of relief found me. But it vanished as I pressed the flashlight, and nothing happened. I tried again, my fingers shaking. Nothing.

The kitchen. There were flashlights in the kitchen. I just needed to get there. Only the hallway looked football fields long right now. I stumbled down it, struggling to stay upright.

My mom’s voice flashed in my head.“Stay here. No matter what you hear, do not come out. Do you understand me?”

And then the image of her shoving me into the hidden closet rose.“Love you to the ends of the Earth.”

The sound of a gunshot in my memory.

And then the darkness closed in on me even further.

33

LINCOLN

My finger sweptacross the screen to accept the call. “Hey, El Bell.”

“Hey, ConCon,” she greeted, her voice soft.

I moved through the studio, clicking off the stereo and shutting doors and windows as I watched Arden make her way to the house. “Pretty late for you.”

A fact that had my muscles winding a little tighter than normal, even as I tried to shove the worry down.

Ellie let out a small huff of air across the line. “You think I’m not going to check up on my big brother and his girlfriend after he tells me some creep smashed up her art studio?”

I shouldn’t have told her, but she’d called just as I was finishing up with Trace. And Ellie had read me the way only little sisters could. She’d pushed, and I’d caved. “We’re both good. Just spent all afternoon getting things back in working order.”

Shutting off the lights, I stepped onto the back patio that overlooked the now-empty paddock and barn. With the storm cloudsrolling in, you couldn’t make out much of the moon, but it somehow still managed to be a beautiful night.

“Good,” Ellie said, a little of the tension bleeding out of her voice. “That’s good.”

“What about you? How are things in New York?” I asked, just as a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the mountains for a split second before plunging the world into darkness again.

“It’s New York. Same ole, same ole.”

Thunder rolled, quicker this time. The storm was moving closer.

“I don’t actually give a damn about New York. What aboutyou?” I pressed. She was holding something back.

Ellie was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know if I want to do it.”

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