Page 48 of Kylo
But still I didn’t move.
Not for what felt like an hour.
Only then did I put down the plants, deciding they would just have to wait until the following day to get taken care of, and made my way back toward the shop.
I pulled the door open.
Then a small sob escaped me as I stepped inside.
Because damn near every plant had been knocked off their tables and shelves. The gorgeous pottery that Traeger had so lovingly created was in shards on the floor, some even smashed to dust under someone’s heel.
A sob caught in my throat as I looked at my shop, realizing maybe for the first time just how terrible these men were.
Because I’d been playing along.
And they still decided to punish me.
I wasn’t stupid.
This was just the beginning.
It was only going to get worse from here.
What was stopping Marco from framing me? Maybe he would force me to put a print on a gun. Then he could do something awful with it and hold that over my head. He had already threatened my grandmother.
And, in the end, it wasmyname on those imports.
I was as guilty as they were in the eyes of the law.
I moved through the store, my stomach in knots as I realized Ernest wasn’t in his usual place in the bed.
“Ernest?” I called, voice shaky. “Erny, baby, where are you?”
I moved behind the desk.
Nothing.
The kitchen?
No sign of him.
“Ern?” I called, voice borderline hysterical as I yanked open the bathroom, then the hallway closet.
He was nowhere.
Had they taken him?
Would they be that evil?
Tears were flooding my eyes as I ran through the shop, rushing toward the front door, praying he was just hiding somewhere.
I was just about to shove the door when it yanked open instead.
And there was Kylo.
With a very confused Ernest in his arms.
Then, well, I just lost it.
