Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
Axel
I hadn’t slept at all last night because my mind was too consumed with the text messages Charlie had received.
It was obvious someone was using Jason’s phone to try to get her to respond, but the picture of her dead husband still haunted my thoughts.
While it had looked self-inflicted, it was hard to picture him being able to do something like that, given how his hands were bound.
While I hated the asshole for what he put Charlie through, I felt bad that he died the way he did.
The next morning, I got up early and started breakfast because I was too anxious to sit in bed any longer and wanted Charlie to rest. Last night was rough for her, and I held her while she cried herself to sleep.
We didn’t talk much about what had happened.
I just let her feel what she needed to feel, knowing that I would be there when she was ready to talk about it.
I had texted Jo this morning and asked her to stop by, so it was no surprise when she showed up five minutes later with Ashley right behind her.
That was the thing that I loved about Nowhere—if there was trouble, everyone rallied around whoever needed help and made sure to take care of their own.
It was obvious that whoever was looking for Charlie would be able to track her phone to Timber Falls yesterday, so we needed to get ahead of anything headed our way.
I was flipping the final pancakes while Jo and Ashley finished their second cup of coffee, making small talk, when Charlie walked in. She looked exhausted but was freshly showered, with her wet hair loosely braided behind her head.
“Good morning,” she said softly, pulling out a stool and sitting down. “I’m guessing Axel told you guys about the text messages?”
Jo and Ashley nodded as they watched her cautiously, all of us treading lightly as we waited for Charlie to guide us on how to support her. I set the plate of pancakes down and grabbed the butter and syrup as Ashley handed out plates. We all got our food while the silence ate at me.
“They’re going to find her,” I blurted out, hating the look of panic on Charlie’s face at my admission.
Fuck, I was going to mess this up by being a paranoid asshole. She needed me to be there for her, not to instill fear about the unknown.
“I’m sorry,” I started, stopping when Jo shook her head to stop me.
“We don’t have the luxury of beating around the bush right now.
We need to deal with the facts. Charlie’s phone was on while you guys were in Timber Falls yesterday, which is how all of those text messages came through.
Given that the time and date stamps on the messages spanned the past few weeks, I’m going to say they came through with the exact time and date they were sent.
That means the last text message was sent yesterday, while you were in Timber Falls,” Jo said, locking eyes with me.
“It’s not a matter of if they find Charlie, it’s when. ”
“I fucking hate this,” I muttered, stabbing at the pancake on my plate with a fork.
“You can hate it all you want, but Jo is right. We can’t sit around and pretend this isn’t happening. We need to act as if they’re already here,” Ashley said, smiling softly at Charlie. “We will protect you, Charlie. Nothing is going to happen to you on our watch.”
“I don’t think I can do this,” Charlie said, pushing away from the table as she struggled to stand up.
“Do what?” I asked, reaching my hand under her elbow to help her.
“I can’t stay here and put all of you at risk. I know that all of you have gone out of your way to help get things ready for this baby, but I can’t sit here knowing that someone is coming for me and might hurt you guys in the process.”
“You don’t have a choice,” Jo said, leaning back calmly in her chair.
“Says who?” Charlie pushed back, holding a hand over her stomach.
“That baby.” Jo nodded to Charlie’s stomach and then lifted her eyes to look at her.
“You can go into labor any day, Charlie. What do you think is going to happen if you leave here and they find you? Do you think they’re going to let you live after they take your baby?
Trying to run from them is the worst thing you could do right now. ”
“So I’m just supposed to stay here, knowing that they might kill one of you—possibly all of you—trying to get to me? I can’t do that,” Charlie said, her voice breaking as she glanced at me.
“Charlie, I’ve told you already, I will put my life on the line to save yours. If you think you can walk away from us to try to protect us, you would be sadly mistaken. If you leave, you better believe we’re all coming with you.”
Charlie hung her head and shook it. The second I saw the tears running down her cheeks, my heart shattered knowing how much this was hurting her. There was nothing I could do except keep my promise that I would keep her and the baby safe, no matter what happened.