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My arms fucking shook, and my teeth ground as I forced out, “What’s your name? Your real name?”
Charleigh flinched then hung on tighter as she breathed, “Chastity Winston.”
No.
She was dead.
Chastity Winston was dead.
I’d seen it myself.
Had seen that car go over the bridge.
I’d only been able to save one person in that car.
Levi.
“Chastity died in that car wreck.” The words were gravel. Shards and stone.
Charleigh trembled like razors were dragging across her flesh.
“No. It was my cousin,” she choked. “She was in the car. A decoy so I could meet my parents at the right place so they could help me and Levi get to safety.”
That energy that had connected us bashed against the walls. A howl that thundered and shook.
“Levi was killed,” she whimpered. “The news said…”
I gripped her tighter, holding her through the hurricane that beat around us. “I got him out, Charleigh, I got him out.”
A sob tore from her mouth and Charleigh lost strength. Shecrumpled to the floor. I went with her and pulled her onto my lap and let her sob. My hands stroked through her hair. Again and again.
While the truth whirled around us.
Nolan was her son. Nolan was her son.
“How?” she begged. “I didn’t…my father…”
She couldn’t even form the questions, and I tried to fill in the pieces that loomed around us.
“Your father contacted us for help to get his daughter and grandson out of an abusive situation. We were supposed to meet on the other side of the bridge where the accident happened. I was waiting. They were being chased by an SUV. No question, Frederick’s men. They were driving recklessly and caused the accident. I watched the car go over. The SUV immediately took off, and I dove in. I was able to get Nolan…Levi…” I corrected, “…out.”
My tongue stroked across my dry lips, my body a fucking live wire. Zinging with disturbed energy.
“I wasn’t able to save the rest of them.”
Charleigh’s tears seeped through the fabric of my shirt. “But my father gave me an address in Ohio where I was supposed to meet them. I don’t understand.”
My head shook. “I don’t, either. It was supposed to be the two of you I was picking up.”
“He separated us,” she choked.
I kissed her head, gutted by the loss she’d sustained but realizing what he’d done. Knowing Charleigh would have died in that crash if he hadn’t.
“They all died because of me,” she whimpered.
My lips brushed back and forth over the top of her head. “No. They died because of Frederick.”
“You saved him,” she wept. “And you…you kept him? You raised him?”
