Page 132 of Finding Denver

Ranger takes a breath, and a tense, painful silence stretches between us before he speaks again. “We’ll be dead before you find us.”

He hangs up.

The quiet is a gag shoved down my throat, robbing me of the oxygen I need to survive. My phone cracks in my grip, the metal biting into my palm as I try to calmthe rising anger. Panic bleeds into every thought, every sense.

Would Ranger do that? Kill her to make sure no one else could have her?

I close my eyes and I see her smile and a promise of forever that we both shied away from.

No, this can’t be it for us. I won’t allow it.

My phone rings, but it isn’t Ranger. It’s someone else.

BURNER ONE.

I answer.

JJ says, “I know where she is.”

Chapter 36

Denver

Drip. Drip. Drip.

In the darkest parts of my mind, water meets water. Thick fog hugs my brain, my eyelids too heavy to lift, my body a dead weight. Goose bumps creep across my legs, a bitter breeze climbing across my thighs, and I stir. Something tells me to wake up. To move.

I force my eyes open. My vision is blurred, and a solid throbbing at the front of my brain increases, even in the dim light of the room. Stained and matted material scratches my skin as I shift onto my back, sofa springs pushing into my spine. A mold-ridden ceiling stares back at me.

The room swirls when I drop my head to the side. A second sofa is across from me. It’s olive green, the material stained with dark rings of damp and dirt, and someone is sitting in the central seat.

“Hello, little bird.” A voice I know. One I used to love hearing.

Something feels … wrong, and I wonder if everything was a dream. My life. My marriage. I blink slowly, taking deep breaths, trying to figure out why he looks so strange. He’s holding something.

“Where are we?” I ask, my voice small and scratchy.

“Home,” he says, looking at whatever is in his arms. He rests his cheek against it. “We’re home.”

My eyes start to adjust, and my breathing stops when I realize what he’s holding.

Who he’s holding.

I recognize the rosy cheeks. The thick, dark hair, long lashes against pale skin. I tremble as I push myself up slowly, and Theo sighs, sleeping in Ranger’s arms.

“You had him protected,” he says quietly, his voice distant and strange. “But not enough. I made sure he didn’t see anything when I took him. I didn’t … I didn’t scare him.”

“Where’s his mother, Ranger?” I whisper.

“She’s fine.”

I doubt she is, knowing Theo has been taken from her. It’s a pain I know all too well.

“He cried at first, but then I think he knew me.” I sit up straight and grip the old couch cushion. “I only went to see him. But then when I did see him …” Ranger meets my eye. “He’s my son, isn’t he?”

The tears burn my eyes so quickly that I can’t stop one from falling. I say nothing, my words lost in a lie I told for so long I started to believe it.

Ranger’s gaze searches mine. “Tell me.” I nod slowly, my lip trembling as Ranger’s eyes shine, too. He kisses Theo’s head. “My son.”