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“Why do you guys say my name like that? With such…I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s a mixture of disgust and admiration.” I tried to find the words.
Carson stuffed her mouth with pasta, chewing slowing. Her brows furrowed in contemplation. “The upstairs room is off limits because of Liam’s ex-girlfriend.” She navigated my questions hesitantly. I noticed a pattern with her responses. Shewould always change the topic off of anything she didn’t wish to talk about.
“Girlfriend?” I laughed. “He doesn’t seem like the type.”
“Oh, he isn’t, but he was for her. For some reason. I never could tell what he saw in that girl, to be honest.” She shook her head, the dark curls falling from behind her ear.
“So, she dumped him, and now he’s not letting anyone in the room?”
“No, she died,” Carson answered as if she was asking me to pass the salt. There was no grief or remorse. There were only facts. One day, Liam’s girlfriend was alive, and the next day, she wasn’t. “I swear she takes up more space now she is gone than she ever did alive.”
Instead of pressing, I searched for a new topic. I wanted Carson to get comfortable with me because then maybe I would get some answers that everyone was determined for me not to get. “What happened to your neck?”
Carson’s stare narrowed, the spark in her eyes diminishing. “What always happens.” She shrugged.
“Was it recent?”
“Does it look recent?” she asked, her body tensing.
“Well, no, I guess not.” I looked down at my pasta, embarrassed. I failed miserably. Why I thought her wounds would be the best topic change was beyond me.
“It happened in high school, I was…" Carson whispered. Her stare moved far away before her phone rang, interrupting the growing silence. “Hello?” she answered, her face going blank.
Screams were audible from the other end, so loud I could hear them from across the table. Carson jumped to her feet, snatching her keys.
I followed on her heels, abandoning the pasta and gorgeous garlic bread.
“Just keep her calm. I’ll be there as fast as I can,” she instructed whoever was on the other end. She was out the door, not even paying attention to me following.
She hung up the phone, making her way to the blue SUV parked out front. “Go back inside,” she said.
“No, I…what’s happening?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. But the growing pit in my stomach only had one name being summoned to my mind:Kai.
“It’s just…it’s a side job I do,” she said. “It doesn’t have to do with Kai.”
“I want to come,” I said before I thought about the words.
Carson stared at me, gears grinding in her brain. “Fine, only because I don’t have time to argue.”
I suffocated a squeal before making my way to the other side of the car. The drive was short as Carson sped down the darkened streets of the city I thought I knew. I thought I had seen everything, been everywhere. But with each turn, the roads became more and more unfamiliar. Carson gripped the steering wheel tight, not saying a word.
I shouldn’t have been excited, being familiar with what Carson’s side job was. I shouldn’t have been on the edge of my seat, but being cooped up with a very overprotective grizzly bear…I lived for the rush.
Carson threw the car in park, not waiting for the car to stop. She ripped out her keys and made her way into a normal-looking house.
A small snake statue stood at the edge of the gate, the number 606 illuminated under a small lamp. I made my way onto the porch. Carson left the door open.
Screams echoed down toward me, along with her cries.
The woman’s screams echoed deep in my heart, reminding me of my own—at least what I could remember of them. Sweatgathered in my palms as I took the final step through the threshold of the door.
“Audry, get in here! I need help!” Carson yelled. On her order, my feet moved. I was like a ghost, hovering toward the sound.
I turned into the kitchen, and a frail woman sat curled on the floor. Her blonde hair was tinted brown from mud. Her clothing was ripped, barely hanging on. Bruises lined her arms and her thighs. Blood dripped from her cut lip that swelled on her face. Her left eye was swollen shut, her blue eyes barely visible.
She cowered in the corner of the floor, her knees curled up to her chest. Screams tore from her lips.
“I didn’t know where else to bring her,” a tall woman in a tight pink dress said softly to Carson. “She won’t speak. Anyone who gets close to her, she just…well…" The woman motioned to the girl.
