Chapter 49
Gable
“Ilove you, you love me, yay! Happily ever after.”
I smile, and Ella cuddles me.
“You’ve spooned me all night.”
“I have not,” I mumble.
“Have too—”
I open my eyes to darkness. To isolation. Still here, seventy-two hours later. I guess when you break an officer’s jaw, you shouldn’t expect any less.
I don’t remember fighting in the visitor room, but I’ve heard I knocked out six officers before I was taken down. The only reason I know any of that is true is my broken knuckle and bruises from where I was beaten until I was almost unconscious, and even then they said I was calling Ella’s name.
Turning onto my side, I stare at the cement wall. I don’t know what’s worse—going to sleep without her or waking up and remembering it all over again.
How she was taken from me.
The last words I heard her say.
The life I promised her even though I knew I’d fail.
I failed her.
So much worse than I ever thought I would.
Light splinters the darkness. I wince, shielding my eyes, the heavy metal door opening.
The brightness is blocked out by a familiar frame. “Up.”
Guy.
I sit up, and some light fills the darkness that’s invaded my heart. This is it. He’s come to take me to her.
“Cuff him,” Guy instructs, and an officer enters the room. I stand without argument, a little dizzy after days of no food. “Out.”
I do as I’m told until it’s just the three of us in the hallway.
“What are you gonna do with him?” the officer asks. I don’t recognize him.
Guy stares at me, nothing behind his eyes. “He got my kid killed. What do you think I’m gonna do with him?”
Whatever hope I had is diminished. Stamped out. Obliterated.
The officer smirks. “Well, paperwork will say he was being moved and escaped. Do whatever you want with the fucker.”
Fighting is for when you have something to fight for, but when I look at my life, there’s nothing for me.
My father figure betrayed me.
My brother is dead.
The woman I love was murdered.
Motor will be happy with Guy.
Guy must see the defeat in my expression, because now the officer is gone, he uncuffs me as we leave.
In the cover of darkness, he places me in the back of a cruiser.
We begin our drive.
Scenery passes. The desert is beyond the darkness, but we can’t see it.
I can smell it through the vents, feel the approaching heat as the sun begins its slow ascent.
The sky lightens from the inky black we’ve traveled through, a periwinkle clearness above us that I always hated as a kid.
I wanted dark skies and rain, gray clouds and snow.
We leave the desert behind.
We stop for gas.
We keep going.
Not a word passes between us.
I don’t know what I’d say anyway.
Rain falls, the skies darken again, and we keep going.
Then, finally, Guy speaks.
“It took a week for my wife to die,” he says, and I lift my head to watch him in the rearview.
He keeps his eyes on the road, the darkness ahead.
“She had stomach pains, and when I took her in, they said she didn’t have much time left.
Cancer … it’s a fucking nasty son of a bitch.
” He pauses, tapping the steering wheel.
“Ella was nine, and the day we buried her, she cried so much I didn’t know what to do.
I’ve always kind of winged it as a dad, but that day …
I was truly lost.” He pulls up on the side of the road, and I hear the familiar loading of a firearm.
Rain taps against the car, and I listen to the last story I’ll ever hear, and I’m glad it’s about her.
“Everyone said to give her time, but what kind of advice is that to give? What did I do in the time between her mother dying and her accepting it? Ignore her cries? I couldn’t.
One day, I panicked and asked if she wanted to bake with me.
” He laughs, then sniffs, wiping away a tear.
“Her mom baked sometimes, so I guess that’s why I thought of it.
To my surprise, Ella said yes, and it went horribly wrong.
We burned the cookies, broke the bowl, set off the fire alarm … but she laughed so damn hard.”
I smile. “I can imagine that.”
He nods, then falls silent for a few seconds.
“The first time a boy broke her heart, we baked again. When her first book submission was rejected, she turned up at my door with tears and ingredients. Baking is our thing.” Headlights fill the rearview, and I turn to look at the car behind me, but the lights are too bright.
“That’s what she’ll need when she’s sad. ”
I face him again, my heart lurching up my throat. “What?”
His eyes meet mine in the rearview. “Now you know what it’s like to lose her. Do everything in your power never to feel this way again.”
I throw the door open and step out in the rain.
And there she is.
Her hair is already wet. Her cheeks are red. She’s in her leggings and sweatshirt that I’ve seen her in a thousand times.
Alive.
So goddamn alive.
She runs to me, I think she calls out my name, and I lift her into my arms.
Life sparks inside of me.
And as Ella clings to me, she sobs, and I do, too. I bury my face in her shoulder and cry for everything I thought I’d lost, for a life I wanted so desperately.
A life I’m about to get.
“You’re crushing me,” she squeaks, and I set her on her feet, cupping her face. She smiles a smile I never thought I’d see again. “Hey.”
“Hey? Fuck you, ‘hey’.” I kiss her and she laughs against my mouth, tears and rain on her face. “You’re here. You’re really fucking here.” I pull her against me again, soaking up her warmth, her embrace, everything about Ella Gibson.
“Did you wish for me, Gable Flynn?” she whispers in my ear.
Every. Damn. Day.