Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Kylie
I didn’t want to give them time.
They’d had too much as it was. Almost two years I’d been gone. If they had been searching for me in the beginning, there was a good chance I wouldn’t have been stuck in that hell for so long. I wouldn’t have missed seeing my kids, watching them grow up…
My chest grew tighter with every passing second.
Taking a deep breath, I stared back at Travis and Gage, willing my heart rate to slow.
I wasn’t being fair to them. I knew I wasn’t. They weren’t responsible for any of this. Not a single moment of it.
But it was so easy to cast blame on them.
To make it their fault that I had suffered for so long.
That I had missed so much. My babies weren’t babies anymore, and I couldn’t deny that looking at them made my heart ache.
Not to mention the way they looked at me.
I was a stranger, an unknown woman now living in their house, replacing the woman they’d once called mom.
I could sense their trepidation, knew they were wondering how long I would be there, what I wanted from them.
It made me feel like a fraud, like I was responsible for abandoning them.
I wasn’t. Or was I?
Travis’s phone rang, pulling me from my thoughts. He grabbed it from his desk and looked at the screen.
“It’s Pop,” he said. “Let me talk to him for a minute.”
I stared at him, waiting. I wasn’t finished with this conversation. Not by a long shot. They were not going to shut me out of this.
“Hey, Pop, what’s up?” Travis greeted, turning away from me and walking toward the window that overlooked the front yard. “Yeah. They’re up and about.”
There was a lengthy pause, followed by, “That’d be great. We’ll see y’all in a few.”
I ground my teeth together, frustrated that he was inviting his parents over. And I knew that was what he was doing. It used to be his way of shutting down a conversation he didn’t want to have. Whether it was with Gage or me, Travis knew just the right thing to—
“Mom and Pop are gonna pick up the kids, take them to lunch so we can have a couple of hours alone.”
I stared at him, gearing up for a tirade to rival all. He was not going to shut me down. Not in this. I wanted—
“While they do that, I thought we’d show you somethin’,” Travis said, looking directly at me.
I stared at him, then at Gage and back. “Show me what?”
“Do you trust us?”
Did I? That was a damn good question. Yesterday I would’ve said yes.
Right now … at this very moment … I wasn’t sure who or what I trusted.
I was angry. No, I was furious. I couldn’t fathom that life had gone on without me.
It just didn’t make sense. It was bad enough that I was weak and constantly in pain after the ordeal, but now I had to endure those blank stares from my kids.
They wanted answers, I could tell. But they didn’t even know the questions to ask because I was supposed to be in their past. They’d dealt with the grief; they’d put it behind them.
They’d moved on.
I’d only been here for a few hours, and it was glaringly obvious how little of me remained in this house.
There were pictures, sure. In the kids’ bedrooms, I’d noticed there were many pictures.
Some of me by myself, some of me with them.
A daily reminder of their mother, and yet they still didn’t recognize me.
But they had tried. Travis and Gage had attempted to keep my memory alive, so it wasn’t fair for me to lay the blame at their feet. It was not their fault. None of this was.
“Yes,” I answered, unballing my fists and exhaling heavily. “Of course I trust you.”
Travis stepped closer, holding out his hand the way he had a few minutes ago.
I didn’t hesitate, giving him mine. He pulled me in, and I went willingly, letting him wrap me in his arms. He smelled good.
The same as before. Like Travis. Clean, with a hint of fresh musk.
I breathed him in like an addict attempting to get their fix. It helped. Some.
“A lot has changed,” I mumbled into his shirt.
“I know, baby.” His big palm ran up and down my back. “But we’d like to fill in some of the gaps for you.”
With my head on his chest, I nodded. I liked that idea. Perhaps if I could see some of the things I’d missed, I would understand. Or at the very least, I would have a better understanding. Because for the life of me, I couldn’t wrap my head around them moving on without me.
Gage
I was at a loss for words.
Between Kylie’s anger and Travis’s about-face, I felt like I was in an alternate reality. Since when had Travis become the rational one?
Not that it was a bad thing. The last thing I wanted was for both of them to become unhinged.
“I’ll get their things together,” I told them as they stood there, embracing one another.
Travis reached out and grabbed my wrist before I could turn away. “I’ll get it. You sit here with her. She needs a minute.”
Swallowing past the ball of emotion that I hadn’t realized had formed, I nodded. I would’ve given just about anything for a few minutes alone with Kylie. I hadn’t had that yet.
When Travis stepped back, Kylie turned to me.
Without a word, she walked right up and put her arms around me, pressing her cheek to my chest. Warmth moved through me, traveling in my veins, infusing my nerve endings.
I couldn’t remember the last time I hadn’t felt cold inside.
At least on some level. With Kylie back, that chill was disappearing.
My arms went around her, and not for the first time, I realized how thin she was.
She needed to go to the doctor for a complete check-up.
We needed to ensure there weren’t any problems, nothing that we should focus on.
It was clear she was malnourished, but I didn’t have the first clue what that could do to the body.
I was sure it wasn’t as simple as getting calories back into her.
She would need to be on a meal plan, something that would allow her to gain back the weight and the strength she’d lost. And bone loss. Muscle mass. All of those—
“Gage?”
“Hmm?”
“Stop thinkin’ so much.”
I chuckled and some of the pressure in my brain released. “Sorry.”
She pulled back and looked up, her arms remaining around my waist. “Don’t apologize.”
I stared down at her, and my chest constricted. Suddenly, my sinuses burned, and I was overwhelmed by a wave of emotion so powerful, I thought for sure it would knock me off my feet.
Kylie released me, but her cool fingers were suddenly on my face. “Gage?”
“God, I’ve missed you,” I blurted, jerking her into me as I leaned down, letting the emotional tide carry me out. I couldn’t help it. I’d been keeping it together by sheer will. More so for my kids’ sake. Also for Kylie. But I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
Kylie’s frail arms ringed my neck, her fingers gently stroking my hair as she held me as tightly as I held her. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to let her go again.
“I missed you,” I repeated, a sob tearing from my chest.
“I missed you, too,” she whispered. “So much.”
We remained like that for several minutes while I forced myself to calm down. There was no reason to have an emotional breakdown. Kylie was home. Our lives were complete once again. No, maybe we hadn’t found our footing yet, but we would. Of that I was certain.
Travis
Showing Kylie her gravesite probably wasn’t the smartest idea I’d ever had, but after Mom and Pop left with the kids, that was where we were headed.
I got the sense she felt detached from her former life, and to a degree, I understood it.
For one, she’d only been back for less than a day.
It would take time for everyone to acclimate to her presence.
As much as I wished things would go back to the way they’d been on that morning when our lives were altered inconceivably, I knew they couldn’t.
Our lives were different from what they had been. As was hers.
I also understood her need to place blame. She’d been kidnapped and held captive, completely oblivious to what had been taking place in the world around her. I didn’t know the details, but I hoped that with time she would share them.
And while she had been hoping for someone to find her, we thought we had said goodbye to her. I wasn’t trying to minimize her pain, but I did want her to know why we hadn’t looked for her.
As I pulled through the cemetery gates, part of me expected her to say something.
She didn’t. Neither did Gage. There was no conversation as I followed the winding, single blacktop lane toward the back.
I stopped and parked along the side of the road a short distance from her gravesite.
Or rather, the site where someone else had been buried because the body in that casket did not belong to my wife. If there was a body at all.
At some point, we would have to share that information with the authorities so they could do what they needed to do.
Being that ours was a small town, I expected Sheriff Endsley would stop by sooner rather than later to get the details.
After all, a death certificate had been filed with the state.
In order for my wife to return to the land of the living, we had to get that taken care of, too.
And then Sheriff Endsley could take his report and go after the bastard responsible for all of this.
And yes, that was that annoying little angel hovering on my shoulder that was feeding me that do-gooder bullshit.
On the opposite shoulder, the little devil was gearing up to bitch slap the good one.
No way was I letting the authorities find Martin Calloway.
That bastard was not going to have a chance to get away with his crimes.
And something told me he would if we didn’t intervene.
So, yeah, I had every intention of working with Kylie to find him and take his ass down.