37. Alana
Alana
I wake up to an empty bed. Well, not completely empty. Midge is curled where Grae should have been, but Grae isn’t here. I knock on the bathroom door. Nothing.
A hollow feeling opens in my chest as I search the house. Each room empty, echoing my own solitude. I rush to the kitchen, half hoping he’s down there cooking, but there’s no noise, no smell of butter melting.
There’s a note on the counter. ‘Getting coffee. Be back soon.’ The entire house is on lockdown. What? How? Why? This isn’t the kind of gone where I’m afraid that he’s left me forever again. He didn’t abandon me, and there’s no sign of a break-in. No. He left willingly.
I go to grab my phone from its charging dock, and that’s when I see the messages. None from Grae. But one from a number I recognize from my files.
CJ: They’ve got G—they know you’re Kinsley.
Who’s got Grae? Why would he leave? My stomach twists as I open the next message. My brain slowly processes what I’m looking at, and it makes me sick.
My mother. My father. My brother. Guns to their heads.
There’s Lena in a different location. And Amanda, also somewhere else. Then Grae, looking up into the camera with an ‘I’m so fucking sorry’ expression in his eyes. More messages follow.
Unknown number: I have them. Who are you going to save?
I have no one. All my allies are gone. They’ve scattered across the area because I told them to. I have nothing. This is my fault. Or… I only have one option. And I’ve never had to use it.
Not until now.
I open my phone to a group chat, and I type the one word I swore I would never say.
Help.