Page 33

Aries

The bright sunshine reflects off Taylor’s face, and I wish I could take a photo to capture her effortless beauty.

Wait…I can.

Slowly, so I don’t break her concentration, I slip my phone from the pocket of my sweats and snap a photo.

Her black hair is up in a knot atop her head and she is wearing one of my sweatshirts. The sleeve hangs slightly off her shoulder, the white bandage along with the black strap of her sling showing.

Her nose is scrunched, and she has her legs bent slightly to hold her laptop as she rests back against the headboard.

This has been our life for the past two weeks. We sit in my bed for hours on end and comb through footage of people we have known to associate with Clay in the past. The man seems to have become a ghost again, so this is Plan B until he reappears.

Ever since the shooting, I haven’t left Taylor’s side. She’s tried to push me away countless times, claiming she doesn’t need a babysitter, but I’ve ignored her.

Every time she tells me to go away, I tell her if the roles were reversed, just like they once were after my rescue, she wouldn’t dare leave my side. That usually quiets her protest until the next time I annoy her by asking if she needs anything for the millionth time in a day.

What can I say? I would worship the ground she walks on if she let me. And now that she is hurt because of me, I would give her the world if I could.

Dropping my phone on the bed, I rest my head on her good shoulder and look at her computer screen.

Together, we watch in comfortable silence as men and women enter and exit a rundown gas station that has been rumored to be connected to Clay’s crowd in the past.

For hours, there is nothing significant other than people coming and going, just like any other day.

Just as I feel myself falling asleep, something catches my eye.

Sitting up, I point at the screen. “Rewind that please, Hellhound.”

Her brows furrow, but she does as I ask and rewinds the video.

I blink a few times and pinch my arm because surely this is a dream. There is no way I’m seeing what I’m seeing. But after the third rewind, I’m sure of it.

My heart stops. My world collapses. The earth stops spinning and suddenly I forget how to breathe.

Clear as day walking inside the station are my daughter and her vile mother.

Tears well in my eyes, but I push them back.

She’s alive. Rayne is alive.

Suddenly, all the air is sucked out of the room, and my lungs burn. My vision turns hazy and for a moment I feel as if I were to blink, the world would disappear right in front of my eyes.

My baby girl is alive.

“Aries! Are you okay?”

Taylor’s worried voice cuts through my spiraling mind, and my vision comes back into focus.

Sitting in front of me, pain evident on her face, Taylor searches my eyes for a hint of what’s wrong.

Her arm lifts to brush my hair off my face. “Ace. You’re sweating profusely and your hands are bleeding. Tell me what’s wrong, baby. So I can fix it.”

Glancing down at my hands, I see crescent shaped marks in my palm, blood slowly trickling from the wounds.

Taylor winces once more and instinctively, I gently ease her back into the spot she once was.

Words fail me and the concern only grows on Taylor’s face as I point at the computer. Taylor leans forward, accidentally brushing her shoulder against me and eliciting a painful groan from deep in her chest.

Cognizant of the amount of pain she is in, yet still unable to find the words I’m for certain might not be true, I grab the computer and rewind the footage.

The moment her face comes into view, I pause the video.

Staring awestruck at the screen, it finally hits me that this may be real.

If it wasn’t for that adorable button nose with a freckle at the tip, I might not have recognized her.

Pressing play, I watch the feed for what feels like a millionth time until I’m certain who I’m seeing isn’t a ghost.

Tana. I’d recognize her in a dark room. Her presence alone is vile and would cause a damn murderer to wince.

My mind races a mile a minute.

If Tana and Rayne are alive, that must mean…

As if the devil conjured him himself, Clay saunters into the station.

White hot rage boils inside me so fiercely I feel as if steam is going to come out of my ears.

My entire body feels as if it is on fire and if I wasn’t sitting next to the woman who keeps my entire world grounded and spinning, I would be out of here so fast, I’d leave smoke in my wake.

“Baby. Please talk to me. You’re scaring me,” Taylor pleads, her fingers brushing against my face.

I’m coming, Raynie. And when I get to you, I promise I will never let that evil woman come close to you ever again.

I’m going to get my daughter and bring her home where she belongs.

Where she should have been years ago before I lost sight of her and let my guard down.

And I know just the woman who can make it all happen.

Taking a deep breath, I straighten my spine and turn to the woman who threw herself in front of a bullet to save my life, knowing I’m about to ask her to risk her life once again.

“Rayne is alive.”