Текст книги "Fear me"

Автор книги: B. B. Reid

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Текущая страница: 25 (всего у книги 25 страниц)

Chapter Thirty-Three

Someone once told me that pain didn’t last forever. I remember hearing it after finding out that my parents were missing. Over the years I found that to be complete bullshit. Pain was forever. It was love that didn’t last forever. I looked out the window while listening to the phone conversation.

“Lake, when are you coming home? We miss you and you know who is brooding again.” Willow said. It’d been a week since my fallout with Keiran. I never made it back home after overhearing my aunt’s conversation with my grandmother about my parents.

“Yeah, dude is seriously out of control this time,” Sheldon added, bringing me back to the present. “I caught him driving by your house yesterday.”

After he played me so brutally in front of the entire school, I did everything I could to forget him.

“And Dash says if you don’t come home soon he’s rounding up a search party.”

“Guys, Keiran must be worried about his brother.”

“Yeah, but even Coach is talking about benching him. It’s the first game of the season. The town is going to be pissed. Dash said there will be scouts out there and he could blow his chances if he doesn’t pull it together.”

“Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? I think he made it pretty clear that he didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“So you’re just going to let him go?” Willow asked.

“Are we really having this conversation right now?”

“It’s fine. You have to come home sometime.”

“No…I don’t. Look, I didn’t want to say anything too soon because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but I think I’m going to finish the rest of senior year up here.”

“What!” they both screeched.

“Lake, no.” Willow sounded as if she was on the verge of crying.

“What are you thinking?” Sheldon asked with hostility.

“I’m thinking I need to get control of my life. I think it will be really good for me if I get away from Six Forks for a while and I can’t miss school. Guys…I already put in the transfer papers.”

The line was silent for a moment before I heard Sheldon growl, “Fuck that” before hanging up.

“Lake, are you sure?”

“Yes, Willow. I’m sure. It’s easier this way,” I admitted. I guess she didn’t have much to say after that because she ended the call. I rested my head against the back of the couch and thought about where the past two months have led me.

“You know running away from your problems never solves anything. They only catch up to you later.” My godmother and my aunt’s best friend, Karen, had come into the living room to sit next to me after I hung up with Willow. “I’m sorry I eavesdropped but I couldn’t help but overhear. It sounds to me as if you have people who care about you back home. Are you sure you want to give that up?”

“I don’t think I’m giving it up Aunt Karen. I’m just giving it a break.”

After hearing the news about my parents, I woke up in a hospital for the third time in my life. Apparently I passed out cold from shock and dehydration. They called it a mental meltdown. My aunt didn’t say any more about what I’d heard and I didn’t ask. I wasn’t ready to know what happened.

After the doctor cleared me to go home I started having a panic attack all over again. All I kept thinking was how I couldn’t go back and so my aunt and I came to an agreement that I needed a vacation. We were able to finagle a doctor’s note excusing me from school for a few days. My aunt called up Karen who agreed to watch over me. It was only supposed to be for a few days but every time I thought about going home my anxiety rose.

Keiran had finally done what I think he was always trying to do. He ran me away from home and everyone I loved. He could have Six Forks and the school but he couldn’t have my sanity.

“Well if you ask me I think this boy deserves the kissing end of my nine up his ass.”

“Aunt Karen!”

“Hmmp! What ever happened to the days when a boy simply bought a girl flowers and if she was really special he’d buy her candy before sex too?”

“I think it died in the seventies,” I laughed.

“Shame.”

I’d told Aunt Karen all about Keiran and me the first night I was here. I felt guilty for confiding in her and not my aunt but it just all came out. I knew sooner or later I would have to tell her. It wasn’t fair for her to not know anymore. She took me in when I wouldn’t have had anybody. I owed her so much and I would start by giving her my honesty.

“Have you talked to Carissa yet?”

“No, not yet. I just need some time.”

“Time doesn’t wait for anyone Lake, remember that.”

We sat and talked for hours and before I knew it, night had fallen. Aunt Karen left to go make dinner and as I was watching TV the door opened and Uncle Ben, my godfather, walked in.

“Hey, Lake. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

I laughed. “No, Uncle Bennie. I’m not eight anymore but I do think it’s past yours.” He chuckled and ruffled my hair before rushing off to find his wife. When he entered the kitchen, I heard her giggle like a schoolgirl with a crush and the unmistakable sound of heavy kissing. I always thought they were the most romantic couple I’d ever known.

The three of them had been best friends since college. It had been love at first sight and they have been happily married since their senior year. Their only bad time was when Aunt Karen suffered two miscarriages before her body and the couple gave up on trying. It broke Aunt Karen’s heart that she couldn’t give him the children they always talked about but Uncle Ben said she was all he ever needed. It’s been five years since her last miscarriage and now they were talking about adopting.

I guess happily ever after was only meant for a few.

* * *

My vacation was drawn to a halt the next day, when I got a phone call from my aunt telling me there were detectives looking for me. I immediately panicked, thinking they somehow found out about my being kidnapped by Mitch and how much they might have told my aunt. I rushed back to Six Forks and drove straight to the station, reciting the story Keiran told me to give that night if anyone ever asked. I walked into the station with my nerves in my stomach and threatening to come up at any moment.

“Miss Monroe, so nice of you to pay us a visit,” a detective who I believe said his name was Daniels spoke to me. He looked and acted like the typical ass hat detective with thinning hair and a bushy mustache. He also tried too hard to be intimidating. If I weren’t already so nervous, I would have laughed.

“My aunt said you were looking for me?”

“Yes, you missed your scheduled interview.” Shit, Trevor and Anya! With Mitch returning from the dead I’d forgotten about their disappearance.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t told…”

“A phone call was placed to your aunt who notified us that you were out of town. Any particular reason why?”

“I’m transferring schools.”

“I see,” he wrote something down before looking back at me. “Tell me about your relationship with Trevor Reynolds and Anya Risdell.

“Nonexistent. We weren’t friends.”

“Why is that?” he asked with suspicion.

“Were you friends with every person you went to high school with?”

“No, but there must be a reason why one of them would allegedly attack you in a bathroom stall and receive a broken arm by Keiran Masters for the trouble.”

“It isn’t alleged because Trevor Reynolds did attack me. Instead of treating me like the criminal you should be searching for him harder. He needs to be put away.”

“We’ve called off the search.” I didn’t bother to hide my surprise as I stared back at him. “I can see this news surprises you.”

“Why did you call off the search?”

“Because there has been a new development in the case. Trevor Reynolds and Anya Risdell were both found this morning.”

“So why am I here?” I stood to leave, not really caring about the answer. I needed to get the hell out of there.

“Because they were both found burned alive in a field just outside of town. They’re dead Miss Monroe and I think you know who did it.”

Dead? He didn’t bring them back?

“Who didn’t bring them back, Miss Monroe?” the detective asked and I realized I must have said it out loud. I slowly sat back down when struggled with the realization of what I had to do. He didn’t just kill them. He tortured them. I could practically smell their burning flesh as guilt ate away at my mind. “Lake?”

I finally met the detective’s gaze when he called my name again. I knew what I had to do. “I have to tell you something.”

* * *

I left the station feeling numb. What I’d done felt like the ultimate betrayal but I also knew it was the right thing to do. I just never knew choosing right over wrong was so damn hard.

He killed them.

He killed so many.

He shouldn’t be allowed to walk away from that. Right?

I didn’t head straight back to my godparent’s place. Instead, I went home because truth be told I had been feeling homesick. I didn’t decide to leave because it was what I wanted. I felt it was necessary because there was no other way I could stay away from Keiran. I was as addicted to him as he was to me.

Is that why you turned him in?

I shook off my thoughts and pulled into my driveway. My aunt’s car was parked outside and I was eager to see her and maybe finally catch up. I never got the chance to ask about her tour or tell her about the break in. I shut off the car to get out but the sound of my ringing phone stopped me. I read the screen and saw Sheldon’s name so I quickly answered. Over the past couple of weeks, Sheldon had not been in the best shape.

“Hey, Sheldon.”

“Lake, oh God. He’s going to die!” she sobbed brokenly into the phone.

“Sheldon, calm down. Who is going to die?”

“Keenan’s only working lung is failing. The doctors said it doesn’t look good for him and if he doesn’t get a lung soon, he will die.”

Finding an organ donor was like winning the lottery. It could take months and the match had to be near perfect and the perfect candidates were usually the parents.

“Sheldon, Keenan won’t die. He’s too much of a rebel for that. Did they test John to see if he’s a match?”

“Yes and they pulled his mother’s medical records from his birth to check for any record of family medical problems and all that other crap doctor’s do.” The line grew silent so I checked my phone to see if we were still connected.

“And?”

“John wasn’t a match.”

“Damn. He must have taken his mother’s blood type. So how long does he have before it becomes critical?”

“Lake, you don’t understand,” she said, her sobs becoming heavier.

“What don’t I understand?” Sheldon sounded near hysterical now.

“John’s blood was type AB and when they pulled Sophia’s medical records they found out that her blood was type A.”

I frowned when I couldn’t make the connection. “I wasn’t all that great with Biology you’re going to have to help me out here.”

“Keenan is blood type O. Parents with blood type AB and A can only produce a child with A, B, or AB.”

“Oh shit, so you mean –”

“John isn’t Keenan’s father.”

“But that’s insane! If John isn’t Keenan’s father then it has to be – oh God…”

“Mitch,” Sheldon finished.

* * *

Author’s Note

Thank you so much for purchasing Fear Me. Creating the characters and making the story come to life has truly been the best journey of my life. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review on my Amazon account and my Goodreads author page. I love to hear from readers, so please feel free to email me at [email protected] at any time. You can also join me on Facebook and follow me on twitter to be notified of new releases and teasers.

Be on the lookout for book two of the Broken Love series.

Coming this spring.

Looking for another great read? Check out Zel by Shantaye Brown

***Comprehensible Jamaican dialect is used throughout the story because the heroine 'Zel' is half Jamaican***

This is not your typical love story. The questionable 'heroine' is not the victim, she's the bad-guy you'll probably love and hate... Depends on your sanity.

Asher stalked her because there was something about her that was undeniable, she's a mystery and he's drawn to her like nothing else, but nothing could prepare him for what he found.

Zel makes people's problems go away. She's cynical, aggressive and has no regard for human life, but when Asher crosses her path he becomes a problem she couldn't possibly 'make go away' as easy as the others.

Asher finds himself in way too deep when the lives of everyone he loves is threatened and he has to play the willing captive to keep them safe.

Zel has her own problems, someone wants her dead and they're not shy about it. They both won't be safe until she gets to them first.

Secrets unfold, lies are told and sacrifices are made. Consequences be damned.

Warning: Extreme violence, graphic sex, filthy Jamaican language and an overly aggressive and possessive heroine 18+

Click here to purchase your copy of Zel (Deviants & Saints 1)