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The names of all her friends and acquaintances.
Fuck.
And at the very bottom, beneath everything and anything someone would need to find Spencer Maddox… my darkest fucking secret, with a video file attached.
My heart races and I whip around to face Zeke again, “Zeke, can you find the identity of the person on the sending end of this text message?”
“Can I find… psh… of course man. Let me see.”
He takes the phone from me, and within 2 minutes, he has a file with everything I need.
Opening the file, I look it over carefully. He has a name, a mailing address, a physical location. While I’m grateful for the information he finds, my stomach knots instantly when I read the name.
It can’t be.
What the hell does he have to do with anything?
What the hell would he want with my secrets? Tracking down Spencer, ok, maybe I get it. But why would he even need to track her down? Is this who she’s running from? And if he has everything he needs to find her, why the questioning? Why not just snatch her up?
Nothing makes any fucking sense.
My breathing speeds up, and I feel like I can’t catch my breath. My chest tightens and my limbs develop that tingling pins and needles sensation. I can’t fucking breathe. Everything in the room goes blurry. Riot says something to me, but I can’t hear him. I can’t hear anything except for my chest pounding. The room spins, and I feel myself falling, then everything goes black.
My house is quiet, the heavy thumping of my boots on the hardwood floor is the only sound echoing throughout the emptiness. I wanted to go back to Afterlife tonight after I left Zeke’s studio. I was fucking blackout angry, and I wanted to go back to rip every last scrap of flesh from ol’ Jimbo’s body until he spilled his guts on why Grant fucking Maddox is tracking down his own daughter. On why and how he knows my secret. But the anger coursing through my veins told me it was a really bad idea.
It’s quite fucking possible that I’ll kill the piece of shit that’s tied up in the basement if I go down there tonight, and I really need the asshole alive. When I snapped out of the blind rage I was in, Riot told me both him and Zeke had to hold me down. Riot’s bottom lip was split and I knew it was my fault. I feel like such a piece of shit, the kid is so damn loyal and I swung on him.
I kick my boots off, and shake my jacket down my shoulders, tossing it on one of the stools at the kitchen counter. Trudging up the steps, I make it to my bedroom and strip my clothes off as I head for the bathroom. Turning the shower on, I let the water run until steam engulfs the entire room in a thick layer of fog.
I step inside and lower my head, letting the scalding stream of water wash over my head and run down my face. Closing my eyes, I let myself go back to the place that I left behind.
I thought I felt her hand brush mine, but when I opened my eyes this morning, the bed was empty, and I was alone. Just like any other day, except it’s not. Not today. I did what I needed to do, and I can finally have her back. I don’t need to wake up every morning with the ghost of us haunting me. I can finally make good on my promises and run away with her. I can finally hold her, and breathe her in again.
Yep, today was the day.
Gripping the steering wheel of the beat up Honda I refuse to get rid of, I look over at her house. I’ve been watching for hours, but it seems like no one is home. I haven’t seen anyone come or go, and there are no cars in the driveway.
With a sigh, I fling the driver’s side door open and decide to go inside. I’ll wait for her there.
I’ll surprise her.
She might be angry, but she will get over it when we look into each other’s eyes again.
These last two years may have hardened me in a sense, but I still have some humanity left, and it all exists for her. Only for her.
Striding up to the front door, I quickly reach up above the doorframe, plucking the spare key from the incredibly obvious hiding place that the Maddox’s have been using for years. My heart races as I slide the key into the lock. With a turn, the audible click makes my knees weak.
Pushing the door open, I peek my head inside.
“Spencer?”
But my voice echoes through an empty space.
The foyer is empty. Looking side to side, I notice the front office is empty, the dining room is empty. As my heart falls out of my fucking ass, I run up the steps and throw her bedroom door open.
Empty.
Everything is gone.