Page 48 of Safe (King’s Heart #1)

Landon

I cautiously swing the door open, revealing a dark, seemingly empty room.

I take a few tentative steps inside, but I can already feel that he’s not here.

I flick on the light. Everything looks pretty much untouched. Even his bed is made and looks like it hasn’t been slept in, and Grant was never one to make his bed.

Mine, however, looks rumpled. Something warm and soft fills my lungs, thinking that maybe he slept in my bed because he… missed me.

But that’s pretty stupid, isn’t it?

People who drive you away by breaking your fucking heart, even if it’s fake, don’t miss you. They wanted you gone.

That warmth disintegrates, leaving behind the frigidness I’ve come to know in the past week.

I wander aimlessly around our space, becoming more anxious the longer I’m here. Memories from our time here attack my brain, forcing me to relive it all. The good and the bad.

Where is he?

Does it matter? He’s a big boy. I’m sure he’s fine. Off doing his own thing. By himself. Like he wanted.

There’s a knock at the door. So abrupt in the stillness that I gasp and clutch my chest.

Apparently I left it open, so some guy who looks like he’s in his twenties, dressed casually in a hoodie and jeans, is poking his head in. “Hello?”

I raise an eyebrow and walk over to where he’s lingering in the doorway. “Uh, hey. Can I help you?”

“Grant Caldwell?” he asks with a blank look on his face.

My eyes quickly dart to his hands, holding a manila envelope and patiently waiting for me to answer. My hackles raise and it makes me do something stupid.

“Yes.”

He smiles widely and hands me the envelope. “Here you go. Have a nice day.” Giving a little wave, he turns and leaves me.

I close the door and press my back against it, staring at the envelope.

For about half a second, I consider the fact that I should not open this. That it’s not mine. That I lied in order to obtain it. That I should respect Grant’s privacy.

But there’s that intense, gut feeling again. The one that made me come back here. A disgusting, nauseating one that is screaming at me to open it.

So I do, frantically ripping at the sealed seam and pulling out a few sheets of paper.

My eyes scan over them, trying their best to decipher what it is. It looks like some type of legal document. There are a lot of words I don’t quite understand.

I try to pick out the important parts.

“…subpoena…”

“...deposition to testify on behalf of…”

“...civil court…”

“...Defendant: Nathaniel Caldwell…”

My stomach jolts, intensifying the nausea and disgust that was already churning there.

It doesn’t say what the case against his uncle is, but…

I saw his reaction to him.

I saw how he cowered.

I think I might know where he is.