Page 23 of Give Me Peace

She stares back at me, her small nose scrunched as she valiantly tries to figure out how the hell she knows me. But she does. Some part of her recognizes me and my fucking soul sings. Why isn’t she saying anything? Shit, what if she can’t talk? Like maybe she regressed from the years of missed school. I’m vaguely aware that I’m verbalizing these thoughts, in the shittiest way possible, I might add. Fairly certain I use the word ‘illiterate’.

Saylor’s eyes widen, my name slipping from her lips as she stumbles back. Fuck me. That sweet, innocent voice hasn’t changed at all. It’s really her. A pitiful laugh tumbles out of me as my eyes fill with tears. I lunge forward to wrap my arms around her, but I only have a second to savor the feeling before she squeals and Roan pulls her away.

The guys are yelling at me, but it’s all white noise. I’m not actually hearing anything they say. I haven’t even processed what just happened, still standing there like a gaping goldfish, but Ro is kneeled in front of Saylor, whispering reassurances. Kash—goofy, sweet Kash—looks like he’s going to pluck my eyeballs out with a dirty pair of tweezers. And enjoy it. But I’m more fixated on the way my gruff and hard ass friend has been brought to his knees—literally—by the pint-sized girl I can’t take my eyes off of.

Is she really here?

The thought evaporates in the next second when Roan turns to me with murder in his eyes. I raise my hands and take a step back, knowing he could put me on my ass if he wanted to. He stalks forward, rage twisting his features, and I’m the sole recipient.

“Are you fucking stupid?” he seethes. My own anger starts to build, more at myself than him. It’s obvious I fucked up, but so did they. I just walked into a goddamn emotional ambush that they’ve all known about since Monday. Yet, no one thought to give me a heads up. From the corner of my eye, I can see Saylor trembling on the couch. It makes me want to kick my own ass.

“Back up, asshole.” My voice is cold. The last thing I want to do is throw down with him right now, but I’m feeling a thousand different things at once and his alpha male bullshit isn’t helping.

“Enough.” Lochlan pushes us apart. We’re both breathing heavily and glaring at each other like two catty high school girls. “We have a whole heap of shit to discuss, so if the two of you could put your dicks away for the time being that’d be bloody fantastic.” Fuck, he really is wound tight. Ro and I put some distance between us, but I keep the keyed-up giant in my periphery.

“Kash, could you help Saylor get settled? Her meds should be kicking in soon. I’m sure she’s tired,” Lochlan asks.

“Sound good to you, Best Friend?” Kash looks at Saylor, waiting to see what she wants to do. She nods, but he approaches her slowly, picking up the cornered animal look she’s got going on. More like an abused one that’s been held in captivity. I swallow hard and look away, refusing to let those thoughts take root. She’s here now. Alive. Whatever else happened, we can work through it.

And best friend? I think not, Sir Fuckwad.

The two of them leave, my eyes drinking in every inch of her. It takes herculean effort not to follow, but I’ve got questions and these assholes have a lot to fucking answer for.

“Care to explain?” I lean against the wall with my arms crossed.

“I didn’t know what we were walking into, Kade,” Lochlan sighs. “The last thing I wanted to do was get your hopes up for nothing.”

“Right.” I nod in agreement, his reasoning sound. “And when you realized it was something? Or how about day two or three? What about then? What’s your excuse for sitting on the one thing you know I, above anyone else, deserved to fucking know?” My voice grows with each question until I’m flat out yelling.

“Does it matter? It wasn’t justifiable. Regardless of how I try to paint it in my mind it was wrong of me to keep you away.” He looks ashamed—as he fucking should.

“You’re damn right it was wrong,” I sneer. “If it weren’t for me, none of you would even have a connection to Saylor. I’m ground zero, asshole! Me, Loch.” I slap my chest to emphasize my point, my anger so strong it’s taking every bit of restraint I have to keep my fist from greeting his face.

“I know that!” Loch growls. “If I had told you, you’d have thrown protocol to the wayside and flipped your middle finger at the job you were tasked with. It could’ve put our client at risk, not to mention the blow back to SOTERIA. I made the right call professionally, but not personally. That’s on me. I got you out of there as soon as I secured other arrangements for the Vantworth’s.”

“So, you thought you’d just surprise the both of us?” I throw my hands up. “Because it looked like Saylor had no fucking clue that I’d be here.”

“That’s why I booked your flight for later, you prick.” Krew glares at me. “We planned to tell her before you got here.”

Well, that’s what happens when you keep secrets.

“There’s a lot we haven’t told Saylor,” Roan chimes in. “She knows her mom died because some asshole cop blurted it out, but she’s yet to ask how it happened. I think she’s aware of how fragile she is at the moment, so she’s choosing to stay in the dark for now.”

“Start at the beginning.” I kick my boots off and take a seat on the couch. “Where’d you find her? How’d you find her? I wanna know everything.”

“For the past five years, Saylor has been held against her will by Liam Price,” Loch states. I stand back up, the uptick in my heartrate verging on stroke-level.

“I’m sorry, did you just say Liam Price? As in, Sheriff Liam Price?” It feels like lava is pumping through my veins. Loch nods grimly and I absolutely lose it. “Fuck,” I roar, my fist connecting with the wall.

“Kade,” Loch warns, glancing towards the hallway.

“You don’t understand,” I snap, pacing around the living room. “He put me in a fucking jail cell, Loch. Accused me of hindering an investigation. I personally went to every business between the school and Saylor’s house and asked if they had security cameras, and if they did, I begged them to let me watch everything they had from that day. Price insisted they’d already gone through it all and there was nothing worth noting. But it was just to steer me away. This whole time, I’d been so fucking close.” I drag my hands through my hair, tugging at the ends in frustration.

“How the hell were we so wrong? Where does the picture we found fit into this?” My thoughts are bouncing all over the place.

“We don’t know yet,” Loch admits. “Liam’s computer is currently being analyzed. Denvers is hoping to have some answers within the next few days.”

“And Liam?” I question, hoping someone put a bullet through his skull.