Rushing in, I scooped him into my arms and ran right back out, because I sure as hell wasn’t wasting any time.
Veronica’s voice was desperate. “You can’t just come in and take him. I’m calling the cops.”
I flew out her broken door. “Good, call them, Veronica. Let them see the shit you live in. The things you’re involved in.”
Liam’s little arms clung to my neck as I hurried faster, jogging down the hall and bounding down the steps.
“You can’t take him. I won’t let you!”
I didn’t take the time to spare her a glance. “He’s not safe, Veronica. You know it. For once, think of him.”
In a frenzy, she scrambled down the steps behind me and out into the blazing light of day.
I ran for my car with Liam in my arms and then all the breath left me when I skidded to a stop.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Alexis
“Pick up, pick up, pick up.”
I paced in front of the bay window that overlooked my garden, listening to the phone ring and ring on the other end.
It went to voice mail for the fourth time.
“Crap,” I muttered, resting my cell against my lips as I tried to fight the mounting worry.
Zee and I had spent the morning together, curled up on my couch watching a movie.
Like we were just a normal couple.
He’d been there to support me through the sadness my sister always left behind. He’d held me and brushed me with a million tender kisses to my temple as he whispered promises that had come alive in my spirit and taken root in my mind.
He’d left an hour ago, and I’d finally gone back to my room and grabbed my phone where it’d been charging on my nightstand.
Avril had left me a frantic message. “He’s so pissed, Alexis. So pissed. He knows I went over there. He knows. I messed up. I think I messed up bad.”
Now she wouldn’t answer.
Panic crawled into my senses. Growing and building into this terror that I knew from experience was unwarranted.
This wasn’t the first frantic call I’d received from Avril.
But there was something about it that gnawed at me.
Once again, I listened to her voice mail, and again I dialed her number, but it kicked me straight to the robotic voice, asking me to leave a message.
“Shit.”
I lightly drummed my phone in my palm, knowing better, that I should let it be. My sister had done this to herself. Gotten herself into this mess.
She’d been doing it for years. Twisting and manipulating. But my gut warned me this was different. The way she’d shown up this morning was so out of character, and she hadn’t asked anything of me but to stay away.
“Don’t do it,” I muttered to myself. But when it came to Avril, I never seemed to listen to that voice of reason.
I thumbed into my phone and activated the family locator.
I was the one who paid for Avril’s phone. I’d rationalized I needed to be able to get in touch with her and she with me. We never knew when there might be an emergency.
This qualified, right?
The little red silhouette with Avril’s name popped up on the map. Right back in that crummy area where she’d kept leading me.
God this was stupid.
So, so stupid.
But I couldn’t ignore this feeling.
This intuition.
I dialed her again as I grabbed my purse and keys and headed out the door, leaving another voice mail. “I’m coming to get you, Avril. No more excuses. This has to end.”
I ended the call and pressed the fob to unlock my car, jumped into the driver’s seat, and backed out into the street.
I pulled up Zee’s number and pushed call in the same second I put my car in drive.
Voice mail again.
Frustration and a shot of fear attempted to climb into my chest, but I sucked it down, focused on what I needed to do.
“Hey, it’s me. Avril called…something’s wrong. I need to go over there. I know you just left, but you told me to call you. Do you think you could maybe meet me down there? I’m driving, though. Doors locked. I won’t do anything stupid. Promise. Call me back if you get this.”
I ended the call and connected the Bluetooth to Maps.
I needed to get to my sister.
Shock paralyzed me, and I clutched the steering wheel where I had pulled to a stop in front of the run-down building where Avril was supposed to be.
Hurt twitched through my body, and I started shaking. Shaking and shaking and shaking.
I couldn’t focus beneath the force of the blow.
I guess it was autopilot that had me reaching out to unlatch my door. Or maybe it was just finally coming face to face with the reality of what he’d been hiding that had me floundering to my feet out on the sidewalk.
Zee careened to a stop.
Guilt on his face and a child in his arms.
The same woman from his loft that day was behind him, screeching and tearing into his flesh, demanding that he give the little boy back to her.
Our gazes were locked.
Horrified.
Telling.
I took a step back as I felt everything crack. Splinter and crash.
I stumbled and tried to hold myself up on the door of my car. “You lied to me?”
“Alexis…just…I can explain, but this isn’t the time. You need to get in your car and go straight home.”
My head shook.
Stunned.
Speechless.
Destroyed.
He was suddenly right there, a hand on my shoulder, his voice a warbled echo against the ringing in my ears as he tried to force me back in the car. “Go home. Now. Lock your door and don’t open it. I’ll call you as soon as I can. It’s not safe.”
It’s not safe. It’s not safe. It’s not safe.
I’d always known it was really my heart that was at risk.
“Avril,” I mumbled, incoherent.
Zee touched my face, the child clinging to him with fear and panic in his eyes.
“I know,” he said. “I know…but you’ve got to go. Trust me. I’m going to fix this. You need to get out of here, and you need to do it now. I’ll call you later.”
The woman was still flailing and screeching behind him as she tried to rip the boy from his arms, screaming that he’d betrayed her. That he’d promised.
Trust. That was the thing about it.
When you broke it? It was gone.
Chapter Forty
Zee
Anthony was already waiting for me back at the loft when I barreled inside.
He shot to standing from the couch. “Zee.”
I held my hand against the back of Liam’s head, holding him close and bouncing him like the few times I’d gotten to do when he was an infant, trying to get him to settle down.
To get him to stop crying. Praying he’d feel safe. Begging him to understand I would protect him, even if it cost me my life.
When I’d taken him out of the car, I’d done a quick check for visible injuries, thanking God I didn’t find anything.
Still, I knew not all scars were visible.
I needed to think of him first. Make sure he was comfortable before I started bombarding him with questions I knew would be difficult for him to answer.
“I’ve got you, little man, I’ve got you,” I kept telling him while I eyed Anthony from over his shoulder.