45. Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-five
Deacon
Caleb raced down a road so familiar I could have driven it with my eyes closed. When I was younger, I’d taken this route into town more times than I could count.
Since I’d been back, I’d gone out of my way not to take it again.
My hands were so damn numb, I wasn’t sure I could have gripped the wheel if I’d tried. Caleb had no such problem. His grip was tight and steady, his focus razor sharp.
It’d been thirteen minutes since the call had cut off.
Thirteen long, agonizing minutes.
The only break in the silence had come at minute six when Caleb had said, “She’s going to be fine.” He’d been telling himself that more than me.
His words lay on my skull, not sinking in in the slightest. That scream. That gunshot. I’d seen too much. Lost too much to believe in luck. But I couldn’t afford to think about what it would mean if she wasn’t fine.
So, I remained numb.
Until a girl stumbled into the middle of the road. If Caleb had been less steady, he would have hit her. Cursing, he wrenched the wheel. Tires screeched as the truck veered, and he slammed the brakes just before we ended up in a ditch.
He twisted around in his seat to look at her. “Is that…is that your sister?”
The numbness disappeared in an instant, replaced by a rush of fire in my veins. I ripped off my seat belt, threw the door open, and hit the pavement hard as I rounded the truck.
Horror slapped me at the sight of my sister cowering on the shoulder, dirt streaking across her face, eyes wild and brimming with tears.
“Hailey!” I barked, rushing toward her.
She flinched at first, staggering back. When recognition hit, she launched herself at me. I caught her as we collided, her arms and legs wrapping around me like vines.
“Deke…” She sobbed into my shoulder. “Richie has her. She made me run. I didn’t want to, but she made me. And my phone, I left it in her trunk. I didn’t know what to do, so I just started walking.”
A fresh wave of horror crashed over me. He’d done this to her. Our brother hadn’t just taken my girl. He’d kidnapped and terrorized his own sister.
Suddenly, Hailey tore herself away and bolted toward the truck.
“We have to go back. We have to save Phoebe right now!”
Caleb was already moving, catching her by the arms and helping her into the back seat. I climbed in, slamming the door as Caleb threw the truck into gear and peeled back onto the road.
I turned around to scan as much of Hailey as I could see. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, still breathing hard. “No, no, Phoebe protected me. But Richie…he used those plastic things, zip ties, and strapped her to a chair.” Her shaky hand went to her lips. “She can’t run, even if she gets the chance. She’s trapped, and I left her…”
I swallowed down the primal scream trying to work its way up my throat so I wouldn’t scare her. Hailey had already seen one brother turn into a monster. I refused to let her see another.
“I talked to her. She knows we’re coming.” I gripped her trembling hand, forcing myself to be calm and keep the fear buried deep. “You did the right thing, buddy. You did all you could to get help and keep yourself safe.”
Caleb cleared his throat. “Is it just Richie and Phoebe there?”
Hailey jerked at his sudden question then nodded. “I didn’t see anyone else. If Mom and Dad were home, they stayed inside.”
“Okay. That’s good.” His tone turned steely with determination. “Then we’re just dealing with Richie. Between Deke and me, we can handle him.”
I thought about the third voice I’d heard but shoved it aside. I’d focus on what I knew and roll with whatever waited for us when we got there. If I started worrying about the could-bes and might-bes , I’d lose it. Facts were the only thing keeping me from spiraling.
Caleb turned onto the drive leading to my parents’ house, and bile burned my throat. I’d sworn never to come back here, never to have a reason to, but Richie had found a way to drag me in.
My hands clenched as Caleb sped past the house that had been just as much a prison as the cell I’d been locked in for four years.
“There!” Hailey leaned in between us, pointing to a crooked storage shed at the end of the drive. “That’s where he has her.”
Distant sirens howled, but sound carried for miles out here. They were too far away. I wasn’t waiting for them to get here. Neither was Caleb.
He threw the truck into park outside the dilapidated structure and ran around to the back. While he grabbed his rifle, I turned to Hailey, pinning her with a stare.
“Do not move from this truck. I can’t help Phoebe if I’m worried about you.”
She swallowed hard and whispered, “I won’t move. Just get her.”
I met Caleb at the front of the truck. He shoved a baseball bat into my hands, his rifle slung over his shoulder.
“I have the gun, I go first,” he said, voice like gravel.
There was no time to argue. He charged for the door hanging crooked on its hinges. I was on his heels, every muscle in my body coiled.
But I wasn’t ready for what was in that room.
Blood, everywhere. Pools of it. Splatters on the walls and surfaces. At the center of it all—my brother.
Richie lay sprawled, his body unnervingly still, half of his head blown off.
“Phoebe?” Caleb’s voice was cracked and broken. His rifle slipped from his grip, hitting the floor with a dull thud. “No, baby. Oh, Christ, no.”
My gut churned as my gaze dropped lower. Beneath Richie, a motionless body, half-hidden—a body I knew almost better than my own. My world tilted, caved in on itself.
No.
No, no, no.
I looked at Caleb. “That isn’t her.”
It couldn’t be Phoebe. That rope soaked in blood couldn’t have been her long, beautiful hair. That wasn’t her body that lay eerily still under Richie’s. The silence in the room wasn’t from her lungs not pulling in air. Her eyes weren’t closed. Her laugh wasn’t snuffed out. That wasn’t her. It couldn’t be. I was still standing, and if that were her, I’d no longer be in this goddamn world.
“Phe-Phe,” Caleb rasped, dropping to his knees. He shoved Richie’s body aside like it was nothing. Too bad the bastard wouldn’t feel it.
And there she was. So. Utterly. Still.
Caleb kneeled beside his sister, his hands hovering over her. They shook as he reached for her, stopped, then reached again. His jaw clenched, his breath hitched, but he couldn’t bring himself to touch her.
“It isn’t her,” I muttered again. “Not her. Can’t be her.”
I stumbled forward until my knees gave out. Then I crawled to her. She was on her side, still bound to her chair. There was so much blood. It had soaked into my jeans, and my hands slipped in it. In the back of my mind, I registered it was still warm.
I reached her, grabbing her fingers. Plastic dug into the soft skin of her wrists.
“She needs her hands.” My gaze flew to Caleb’s, wild, pleading. “She has to have her hands. We can’t—we can’t leave her like this.”
He jolted, like waking from a nightmare. But there was no waking from this. Digging into his pocket, he fumbled for his knife and shoved it toward me.
“She needs her hands,” he echoed, voice barely above a whisper.
Then he just stared at her. Like, if he blinked, she’d be gone.
She wasn’t gone.
She was here—my girl, my world.
So much blood.
In her hair, on her face, her clothes, everywhere.
My hands shook as I sawed through the plastic restraints, frantic but careful. Careful not to cut her beautiful, perfect skin. The ties snapped, and her arms fell limp, lifeless.
Caleb rocked forward, catching one of her hands before it hit the ground. He cradled it between his own, rubbing her fingers, brushing her palm, his eyes locked onto her like she’d disappear if he didn’t.
How could he be looking at her like she was the center of his universe when she was the center of mine?
I bent over her, brushing her hair from her face. Tears I hadn’t realized I was crying fell onto her cheek, carving tracks in the dirt and blood smearing her skin.
“Angel,” I keened. “Please, baby. Please let this not be real. Please, please, please .”
The sirens grew more insistent as they approached. Help was coming, but too late.
“Where’s her wound?” Caleb rasped, scanning her body. “Where was she hit?”
I shook my head, my breath ragged. “I don’t know.”
The sirens were nearly deafening. Almost here. They were going to take her from me. And if they did, if I had to figure out how to leave this room on my own…I couldn’t do it. I knew that down to my bones.
This was it for me.
I dropped low, dragging my nose along her cheek. “I love you so much, sugar. To the ends of the earth and beyond. So far beyond, it never stops.”
I kissed her cheek. Her jaw. Tilted her head just enough to brush my lips over hers.
Then she gasped.
Sharp. Rattling. Alive .
I jerked back, landing hard on my ass, shock radiating through me.
“Phoebe,” Caleb bellowed, taking her face in his hands, sliding his fingers over her pulse. “It’s there. It’s beating.”
Her eyes didn’t open. But her chest rose. Then again. Another breath. And another.
She kept breathing.
So I did too.