Because he’s dead now.
“And you found me,” I tell him, the emotion in my throat making it ache.
His palm finds my cheek and he strokes it with the pad of his thumb. “Will you love me like you loved him?”
Before I can answer him, the voice—the one that stole me from my sweet dream and turned it to a nightmare—beckons me.
“B-Baylee.”
My heart thumps in my chest. Brandon scrambles off the couch and is already stalking into the kitchen before I even roll myself off.
“This is all your fault, you bastard!”
I round the corner in time to see Brandon backhand Gabe across the cheek. Gabe makes a grunting sound from the force of Brandon’s hit. When he rears back to hit him again, I push him away.
“Stop it! I need answers and if you knock him out, I won’t get those answers,” I shout and give him another shove.
He grumbles under his breath but doesn’t go at Gabe again. Gabe, who doesn’t look much like himself because of his swollen face, bloody nose, and bright red cheek, lifts his head to look at me. His dark eyes lock with mine.
I expect to see anger or fury.
What I don’t expect is to see a flicker of regret.
“Why didn’t you tell me she died?!” My voice is shrill and I hug my arms to my chest to keep from hitting him myself. “I was here, getting violated by you, all the while unknowing of the fact that my mother had died.”
Brandon growls behind me, but I ignore him and keep Gabe in the sights of my rage.
“I didn’t know she died, sweet girl. It wasn’t until after I sold you that I learned the truth,” he says, voice dropping low as his gaze flits over to Brandon briefly. “When I came back, I’d learned she’d passed. I was planning on telling you today but you ran away…”
I search his eyes for deception but find none. If anything, I sense what appears to be despondency. An emotion I didn’t think Gabe was capable of. He’s sad she’s gone. Before he’d gone psycho by abducting me, he’d been close to my parents.
“Why wasn’t my dad looking for me?” I blurt out, the thought of my father causing my heart to ache. “War and I searched for anything related to my kidnapping and there was nothing. Is my daddy hurt? Did you hurt him?” Tears well in my eyes and I shudder. I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to hear the answer.
Gabe turns his head to glare at Brandon and spits out his words. “Why don’t you ask Brandon that question?”
I jerk my head to see Brandon’s chest heaving with rage. Before I can stop him, he darts forward and slams his knuckles across Gabe’s temple, rendering him unconscious.
“What the hell did you do that for?” I screech and throw my hands up in the air.
He lets out a fierce growl that chills me. “He was getting loose,” he says, motioning to the rope holding Gabe to the chair. “He’d managed to loosen the rope around his wrist. I’ll string him up tighter. Why don’t you go lie down and rest? You’re awfully pale, babe.”
Ignoring the wooziness from not having eating today, I hold my palm out to him. “Fine. But I want to try and reach my dad. Give me your phone.”
“It died,” he murmurs while working to tighten the rope in quick, sharp movements. “I don’t have the charger with me.”
I want to challenge him on his words, but I don’t. Brandon always carries a portable phone charger in his truck. Why wouldn’t he have it with him? My mind whirls with reasons as to why he’d lie to me, coming up empty. Brandon has never lied to me. Not once. He’s always been the one person I could count on.
“What did he mean?” I question, my thoughts lingering on Gabe’s earlier words.
Brandon flits his gaze over to me and frowns. “About what?”
“About my dad. What did he mean about asking you? Is there something you know and aren’t telling me?”
He throws his hands in the air and immediately he becomes defensive. “W—What? You think I have something to do with all this? Come on, Baylee,” he says with a hiss of disbelief, his eyes darting back between me and Gabe’s unconscious form in a way that has me on edge. “I checked in on your dad while you were gone. He’d lost Lynn and I knew you would want me to make sure he was okay. Jesus Christ! And then one day he upped and vanished. Why do I feel like I’m the goddamned villain now?”
Guilt floods through me and I shake my head in argument. “I just…”
“Believed that monster over me.” He clenches his jaw and I can tell he’s trying not to cry.
My emotions take over and I reach a shaky hand over to touch his shoulder. I want to comfort him. Because of my own exhaustion and grief, I’m taking it out on Brandon. I’m believing that monster over him, just as he says. “I’m sorry, Brandon.”
With a big sigh, he reaches up and clutches my hand that covers his shoulder. “It’s okay, babe. We’ll get through this together. I promise.”
I LIED TO her.
Again.