Page 99 of Beautifully Broken Redemption

“Thanks.” I tapped end on my screen and stared at my phone. How did I tell her this? I didn’t want to. What I wanted was to shield her from all of it. But that hadn’t worked out well last time. Honesty was my only option.

I scrolled to her number, staring at it for a moment before I tapped. It rang twice before she answered.

“Hey, Mase.”

I’d never get tired of hearing my nickname from her lips. “Hey.”

“What’s wrong?”

Of course, she could tell that something was amiss with a single word. “I really don’t want to tell you this.”

Anna was silent for a moment. “Sounds like it’s something I need to know.”

“It might mean nothing.” God, I hoped it was just a coincidence.

“Tell me.”

“Dante found records that your parents’ vacation was to the Hoover Dam area. They were within thirty miles of Vegas when Chelsea died.”

There was no sound in the background. No squeak of a desk chair or tap of a pen. I couldn’t even hear Anna breathing.

“Anna?”

“What do we do with that information?”

“Dante is sharing what he found with the Las Vegas PD, and I’ll loop Walker in, see what he thinks.”

Her chair did squeak then, followed by footsteps on the tile floor of her office. “That’s good. The police will know what to do.”

I could feel the pain cut across the line. I pushed back from my desk and stood. “I’m coming to the shelter—”

“No, don’t.”

“Anna.”

“Not because I don’t want to see you, but if you come, I’ll break. I need to finish this workday. Then I’ll let myself fall apart.”

I gripped the edge of my desk, fingers digging into the wood. “I don’t like you hiding your pain from me.”

“I’m not. I’m telling you I’m hurting. It’s already been a shitty day, and I just need to get through the rest of it. I want you and that bottle of wine and our hot tub.”

“What else happened today?”

She was quiet for a moment. “Nothing important, just stuff that gives me a headache.”

“I’ll rub your head as soon as you’re home.”

“Thanks, Mase,” she whispered.

“I love you. You know that, right?”

“I love you, too.”

“I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“See you.”

I tapped end on my screen. It took everything in me to ignore my instincts to go to the shelter anyway, to force Anna to come home with me so I could take care of her. But I had to trust that she knew what she could handle.

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