51. Emery #2
But there would be no scrubbing that memory from my being. The emblem that would forever be emblazoned in my mind.
Trembles rolled through me, and I fumbled as I tried to set the frame down. The wood clipped the top of another frame, and it knocked it over. It hit another, causing a domino effect.
Frames toppled, and two hit the floor.
I was shaking. Shaking and shaking. My chest squeezing so tight I couldn’t get the air into my lungs.
A frenzy took over as I hurried deeper into his closet. Here, where he seemed to keep the relics of his past. I shoved through the clothes, old tees and worn, aged jackets.
Then I fumbled when my fingers landed on the leather.
The cut.
It was the same. The same.
The back embroidered with the owl flying with the skull in its claws. The design circled by an O with an I slashing through the middle.
Terror gripped me by the throat.
Suffocating.
Destroying.
Obliterating.
I stumbled back like I could get away. Like maybe if I clawed my way out of this closet, it wouldn’t be real. This would only be some horrible, phantom vortex that I’d been sucked into.
Glass crunched beneath my shoe, and a shiver rocked me as I looked down and saw that I was standing on a busted frame.
I didn’t know what possessed me to reach down and pick it up, but I did.
My fingers trembled as I peered at the image behind the shattered glass.
Kane and his mother. They stood in front of an orchard of roses. He was maybe ten, and she had her arm looped around his shoulders. Her hand and wrist dangled over the side as she tipped her head against his.
Frantic, I brought it closer, and I studied the bracelet she wore around her wrist.
A thin gold bracelet with three flat filigree roses sectioned out across it.
I choked on the lash of pain .
“Don’t fuckin’ fight me, you bitch.” A malicious voice snarled it in her ear from where she was pinned against him. Even though her wrists and ankles were bound and her entire head was covered in some kind of sack, she fought.
She fought.
Writhing and thrashing in his brutal hold. Scratching and clawing with the bare movement she had of her hands.
He grunted as he threw her up onto another hard surface, and she flailed, reaching out to try to grab onto something. Her nails dragged down what felt like an arm.
She struggled to grip on. To fight her way out. To do something. Because she couldn’t let this happen.
He jerked back, and her fingers clasped onto metal that tore free as he ripped his arm away.
Cries echoed all around her as the glow of what she knew had been sunlight was shut off by the slamming of a rolling door.
Darkness consumed, and the sound of an engine roaring suddenly filled the turbulent air. She was jostled as they began to move.
She fisted tightly onto the tiny scrap of metal that cut into the palm of her hand. A bracelet, she realized.
She gritted her teeth as the hate met with the fear as she held the tiny piece of their captor.
Air wheezed in my constricted throat.
I gripped onto the photo as I tore out of the closet and raced through Kane’s room and into mine.
I dropped to my knees at the small walk-in closet where I’d stored my laptop case that had Emmalee’s things.
I ripped out my laptop and her tablet then tipped the bag upside down and poured the contents onto the floor. Frantic, I searched for the little velvet bag.
A gasp rasped from me when I found it, and I dumped it out into the palm of my hand. My eyes darted between it and the picture.
I didn’t know why I was searching because I already knew it was the same .
This bracelet that I’d had hidden in my room until it’d been gone. Stolen, I’d thought. Until I’d found it in Emmalee’s things.
When I realized she’d taken it from me, I’d thought—I’d thought maybe she’d done it as a reminder of the hatred, too. A reminder of the one who’d hurt us. Ruined us. The one who’d stolen Jana from us. Plus, all those other girls.
I’m not even close to being a good man. I’m not the dragon slayer you think I am. I’m the dragon.
Oh God.
Dizziness nearly knocked me back to the floor when I stood, and the frame slipped from my fingers. My hand shot to the wall to steady myself as I swayed.
Panic blistered beneath the surface of my skin.
The realization was too much to bear.
No.
No.
Bending in two, I pressed my hand to my stomach, trying to stop the bile that raced up my throat.
Quavers of horror rocked through me.
I couldn’t…I?—
Maci’s little voice filtered through the walls from where she played with her dolls.
Desperate, I shot into action.
I would protect her. The way I promised my sister I would always do.
I ran out of my room and into hers, trying to keep it together when she looked up at me with that precious, trusting face. “Hey, Auntie Em! You wanna play wif me?”
“I think…” I ran a flustered hand over my face. “I think we should go for a walk. In the woods.”
We couldn’t go down the main road.
Otto was there.
Protecting us.
Guarding us.
Sickness boiled .
Excitement blazed through Maci’s features, and she popped onto her feet.
“You know I really like walkin’ in the woods, Auntie, but I only gotta do it when I got you or my daddy.”
My knees wobbled, and I swallowed around the torment that threatened to gush out.
“Then we’d better hurry,” I told her as I took her hand and hurried with her downstairs. Revulsion crashed through me when I peered out through one of the big windows and saw Otto out in the distance, his phone pressed to his ear, the man laughing as he paced back and forth.
How?
How could they ever laugh after the things they had done?
“This way,” I told her, the words barely audible.
“Is it a secret?” Maci whispered too as I all but ran with her into the kitchen.
“Yes. A fun game. We have to be really quiet.”
“Like hide and seek?” She squeaked it low, her green eyes so bright.
“That’s right. In case Otto or Kane try to find us.”
My purse and phone were on the counter, and I turned the location off on it before I tucked it into my purse and slung the strap over my shoulder.
We moved to the back door, then I pulled in a steeling breath before I unlocked it and cracked it open.
We slipped through, and Maci followed my lead as I kept my footsteps light, barely breathing as I hurried with her across the deck and down the steps and out onto the rambling lawn.
Fear pummeled me since we were right out in the open, and I ducked down as I gripped Maci’s hand and dashed with her toward the bank of trees that loomed off to the side of the house.
Praying that we could disappear into their cover before someone noticed.
That I could make it into town and get to the police station before they began to track me.
Maci giggled quietly. “We’re so fast and sneaky, Auntie Em. ”
“You’re doing a great job, sweetheart,” I rasped, the words quaking as my breaths spasmed violently from my lungs.
I nearly gasped out in relief when I made it to the yard’s perimeter where we ran into the hedge of pine trees, then a shout of horrified surprise jolted out of me when an arm suddenly looped around my neck and dragged me back. The other hand clapped over my mouth to suppress my scream.
Malice rode out with the words he tsked in my ear, “It’s about time you came out to play. He can’t protect you now.”