Page 20 of Don't Leave Me

She got up, and I watched as she made her way across the street to the bakery. I didn’t follow her because I knew she didn’t want that, but I couldn’t leave. After a few minutes inside, she flipped the sign to Closed, locked the shop and got in her car. This time when she drove by me, I thought there was something different about the car. Something I should have registered but couldn’t, because my brain was still so filled with…Ash.

Numb, I made my way to my truck, then to my motel room. I crashed on the bed and looked at the ceiling and tried to process how I felt. Angry, because I was always angry.

And devastated. Absolutely gutted that she would do this to me.

I should call George. Tell him, she’s alive.

It was the right thing to do. To end his pain over the loss of a person he’d loved like a daughter. But I didn’t reach for my phone. The fear on her face when she talked about the possibility of me being followed was enough to stop me.

I needed to end Sanderson first. I needed to take him down. Watch his ass being thrown into jail. Then Ash might feel as if the nightmare of these last few years was finally over.

Then what?

I couldn’t think beyond Sanderson. I would see her again tomorrow. I would get what I needed to destroy Sanderson.

Only then would I consider what came next.