Page 70 of Never the Same

“And we obviously can’t check footage to see if Benjamin or another criminal was at the rave because of the CCTV issue,” Ryder noted. “What about flights? Do we know if he was in town that way?”

“Benjamin has a boat slip at a marina in Naples. His yacht was docked there the night of the rave. If he went to Rome from there, I haven’t been able to get a hit. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, but it may just be his son was vacationing in Italy with him and that’s why he threw the party in Rome and not Naples—so his father wouldn’t catch him. The kid begged me not to speak to his father, terrified of getting in trouble, so . . .”

“This is something, at least,” Hollis said, her tone soft and tentative. “If you found this lead, you think my brothers did, too?”

“Probably,” Ryder answered. “Did you ask the Putcheski kid if anyone else reached out?”

“I did, but his no could be bullshit. I pressed him, but not hard enough that he’d shit in his pants. He’s not my enemy. Not yet, at least. Not looking to make one of his father at the moment, either, but I will if I have to.” Constantine kept quiet for a few seconds, before adding, “I’ll talk to Benjamin if need be as well.”

“If you’re asking people if they recognize me,” Hollis slowly began, “you may want to change up my look a little. Something tells me I’d go in disguise.”

“I already thought of that. I had Gwen put together a couple different photos of you. Glasses in one. Different wigs in a few others,” he confirmed.

“Red,” Hollis said in a hushed voice, lightly shaking her head. “Just . . . try that one, okay?”

“Will do. We’ll also try to get our hands on some cell phones from inside the rave. Might be our best bet at seeing footage, since the security systems and CCTV were wiped. Be in touch when I know more.” He cut the line without a goodbye.

Audrey rested a hand on Hollis’s forearm, supporting her the way I wanted to. “You remembering something?”

“I thought I might, but whenever I try to remember anything, I always go back to that dream.” She shook her head. “It feels like a reset point. I don’t understand it.”

Reset point? I stared at the floor, trying to wrap my head around what this meant. I’d known about her dream, but I didn’t know that she also . . .

My stomach wrenched as a sinking feeling hit me, and the truth blasted into me like a round from a shotgun.

It made sense now, and I almost hated that it did.

The dream, the one she clung to like a lifeline, served as a wall. A fail-safe someone had planted in her head to keep the truth buried behind it. And whenever she tried to recall her memories, she landed on me and those three kids.

“The dream, that perfect picture in your head, it’s there to stop any real memories from surfacing,” I said under my breath, thinking out loud.

Hollis stayed locked on me, eyes wide in understanding. Like she could feel the ground tilting under her, too.

You don’t actually want to marry me. Have kids with me. Not before, not now. Someone just used me—the last man anyone would ever expect for you to want—to keep you from clawing back to get to the truth.

“What dream?” Ryder asked, but I couldn’t give him my attention.

Hollis pushed her chair back and stood, one hand covering her mouth as though holding something in.

“Anytime you reach for the past,” I continued, my voice gravelly, “you land on that dream because it is your reset point.”

Her breath shuddered, and my chest became raw, like her pain was carving into me. Like I’d just lost her and those three kids that were never mine in the first place.

It really was an illusion. This feeling. It wasn’t real, and as fast as the hope for more between us had come—just like I predicted would happen—it was swiftly taken away from me.

“You feel safe with me . . . because someone wanted you to.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Reed

Hollis lowered her hand from her mouth, shoulders trembling. She looked at me like she was standing on a cliff’s edge and I was the only solid ground left. “I, um, need a minute alone. Excuse me.” She took off before anyone could stop her, and Ranger wasted no time in trailing after her.

“Plan on enlightening the rest of us what that was about?” Ryder removed his ball cap, dragging his hand through his hair.

I glanced at Audrey, curious whether Hollis had told her about this. She read my thoughts and shared, “While we were watching movies yesterday, she pulled me aside out of Chase’s earshot and told me about the dream.”

“Mind filling them in, then?” I asked, and she nodded.