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“The guy Rory was talking about?” My voice was hoarse, barely loud enough for West to hear, but he nodded as we both looked down the road.
Other officers had gotten Miles’ call to action and jumped in their squad cars, peeling out from the fire scene to help. Captain Reed came over to me, insisting I go home until they could get inside the garage, or make contact with Jesse, but I refused. What good would that do?
After several minutes, I heard a commotion ahead of me and I stood, hoping Jesse had returned home. But when the noise rounded the side of the fire engine that blocked the road, I saw Miles escorting a man in handcuffs.
“Fuck,” West jumped up, and I was right behind him, rushing toward where other officers had gathered.
Miles was giving them a breakdown, but all I heard him say was, “Get him to talk.”
I fought through the crowd of officers, pushing the man against a patrol car and holding him by the neck. “What did you do? Where’s Jesse?”
He smirked, but didn’t say anything. My brothers were trying to pull me away, trying to make me calm down, but I was too strong and irate at that moment to budge.
Then I saw it.
With only the street lights giving a low glow, I saw his eyes, his mouth. They were the same color as Max’s, and his lips were the same shape. My head started to shake in disbelief, because while I thought this had been about Rory, it became clear that it was really about Jesse.
“Clay?” I asked, eerily calm.
He just smiled, but neither confirmed, nor denied, that I was right.
“This is the guy I saw Rory with at the bar that night,” Miles confirmed. “I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence that he was here so I chased him down. What do you know, East?”
“This is Clay Tamlin, Max’s father,” I spat the word out, because calling him afatherwas too kind. “Why would you do this to them?”
Again, he didn’t say anything, just smiled and winked.
West was pulling my arm again, knowing that he had to get me to move backward while I was still in shock, or I wouldn’t move at all. I’d strangle that man, I’d knock the teeth out of his head, and I’d make sure that he went to jail that night with a fucking cast on his legs.
So I let West win, and I backed away.
“Rory is being chatty,” Miles assured me. “She’s telling us everything this piece of shit isn’t, and I’ll let you know everything she says.”
I nodded and turned away. There was no way I would ever be able to process the fact that a man was able to hurt his son in the way Clay had. Not just by the fire but also by being absent from his life. It didn’t make sense that someone would choose not to be around Max, who was so fucking phenomenal that it was hard to believe he shared DNA with Clay.
“Take me home,” I finally croaked out to West. I needed to get away for a few minutes. I needed a safe place where I could break down and spiral because more than at any other time in my life, I felt dangerous. Not just to Clay and Rory, but to myself. There was a chance my next move wouldn’t be walking away, but walking directly into the ash and embers of the first place I ever laid eyes on Jesse. The first place we kissed. The first place we made love. The house where just hours earlier I had told her I loved her and prayed she felt the same way.
“I have a car here,” West patted my shoulder, guiding me to a blacked out SUV that he had undoubtedly called in fromAtlanta. We both climbed into the backseat, and the driver, who I recognized as West’s right hand man nodded at me solemnly in the rearview mirror.
“Take us to Easton’s house,” West informed him, and he took off quickly, knowing the way since he had been there a few times before.
My head fell into my hands and I groaned, suppressing the scream that I had wanted to let out. I began to cry, my shoulders shaking, and my throat burning.
“Ms. Ellison has been updated and she’s staying at Grams’ and Gramps’ house tonight. Miles is headed to the hospital to talk to Rory. I’m gonna stay withyoutonight,” West added. “And as soon as they break into that garage, Captain Reed said he’d call and give us an update.”
West was helping by being organized and on top of things, letting me know that there was a plan, and what to look forward to as the night went on. But I was barely listening, much less looking at him. He started telling me we needed to charge my phone and that the cops were tracing Jesse’s phone, but it's turned off. He added that he had someone getting my truck from our grandparents’ house and bringing it home for me in case I needed it.
We turned onto the dirt road that led to my house, and as the SUV wobbled down the bumps and divots, my body gave out and I fell into my big brother’s lap. He patted my head, as if he were Gramps, or our dad, trying to be as soothing as he knew how to be when he had always been the least emotional of us all.
“I’m not leaving,” he assured me. “I’ve canceled everything in Atlanta and can stay in Harmony Haven until we find Jesse and Max. I know it's not—who’s that?”
His abrupt change of subject and tone made me sit up and look around at whatever he was seeing. My eyes were so blurrythat I could barely register the blue metal and the way the lights of the SUV reflected against the chrome outlines.
Jesse’s car was parked where I’d normally put my truck, and I jumped out running my hand over it just to prove to myself that it was real. Max’s seat was securely in the back, his favorite snack strewn all over, and the toy trucks I had given him were tucked next to his seat belt.
When I looked toward the house, I saw a light on from the main window and I took off running, praying that Jesse was inside. West was right behind me, and together we burst into my front door, nearly breaking the hinges.
The house was quiet, no one was around, but I knew the lamp next to the window was off the last time I left. It was right after Jesse called asking me to come over. It was still daylight, and there was no need for a lamp to be on.
