Page 18 of Grave Kisses
“Okay,” he says with the sweetest smile.
Chapter Seven
Kendra
A warm hand onmy face drags me out of my sleep. I groan and stretch before opening my eyes to see Bellamy looking at me. He is wearing a sad expression, and that frightens me. “What?” I ask, shooting up from where I was sleeping in the guest bed. We worked late into the night sorting and boxing up important items, so we ended up sleeping here. I see that not only are Bellamy and Marcus sitting with me, but Martin, Noel, Julie, and Jesse are here. I get off the bed, and tears well up in my eyes. I don’t like how they are looking at me, like I’m a victim of something horrible.
“Kendra, baby,” Julie says, fighting back tears.
“No,” I sniff. “Whatever it is. No. I don’t want to know. You are going to tell me something bad.”
“Kendra…” Marcus says with more firmness. He stands and corners me as tears roll down my face. I’m melting down, and I don’t even know what’s going on. “Your apartment building caught fire last night.”
“What?” I ask. “My… how? Why is everyone…”
“There was an explosion inside your apartment caused by propane tanks. They said there were at least twenty in there when the fire got to your apartment. They think the explosion came from one area near a closet, so it’s likely they were stacked in there… Your front door and fire escape were locked from the outside.”
“Someone… Oh God…” I say, spiraling fast and hard. “I could have died… Someone tried to kill me.”
“It’s being investigated as terrorism right now because the explosion was so big and it took the building down while people were evacuating,” Martin says.
“How many people… died?” I ask hesitantly.
“Fourteen,” Martin tells me.
“They want you to come in for questioning,” Jesse says.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding,” I laugh dryly.
“I have the adoption papers signed and filed. Give them the videos and all the information you found last night.” Jesse says.
“No,” I say. “No, he lived here for years… Call them and let them search this property. I’ll sign whatever I need to. Tell them I’m reporting a crime that is related.”
“Okay,” Jesse says. “I’ll tell them they can do the questioning here then.”
I stand in the guest room and stare at a spot on the wall for what feels like forever. I am lost deep in my thoughts about where to go from here. I don’t have a home. I don’t want to move in here, considering what Archer did to me here. Alan didn’t even want to be here, but it kept the memory of Kimberly and his wife alive. It was the last piece of them he had left. What do I have left of him?
Nothing…
I lost everything…
I have nowhere to go…
He took… everything from me.
“Kendra!” Marcus says, shaking me. I blink a few times before pulling out of my disconnected state. “There you are. What happened? Where’d you go?”
“I… lost everything,” I say quietly. “He… I have nothing left.”
“Belongings can be replaced,” he says softly. “I’m just glad you weren’t home.”
“There’s… I had my baby blanket from before… I don’t know what happened to my birth parents… But I came with that blanket when my parents died,” I say, my voice quivering with emotion. “It had my name on it.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Noel says.
“I’m homeless,” I say. “I… where the fuck do I go?”
“Will you hit me if I offer for you to stay with me?” Marcus questions. “It even comes with a live-in Bellamy.”
