Page 95 of You'll Never Know

“Hello, Bailey,” he says. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Chapter 48

REED

“Hello, Reed.”

She spits my name at me like a bullet. The fear that swept over her face when she first saw me recedes like a wave, leaving nothing but stone. Blood seeps from her wrist and pools on the arm of the chair. It looks like it hurts, but it’s nowhere close to the level of pain Officer Gunn will be in when he regains consciousness.

Officer Gunn, whose real name is Zane Jenson.

Zane Jenson, who’s the father of Sean Jenson, aka Officer Calvin Holston.

Sean who told me how to get here for this little reunion with my wife Avery Wilson, real name Bailey Nichols.

All of it lies. A happily ever after I should have known better than to ever think I could achieve.

Or deserve.

“I saw you die,” she says in a voice so low and cold, so full of hate, it feels like she thinks I’m the one who tried to kill her rather than the other way around.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

“How are you still alive?”

“Does it matter? Yourplan failed.”

“It wasn’t my plan.” Her gaze ticks left toward the kitchen. “It was his.”

Which I already know, Sean’s weakened voice scraping through my head in a slur.My dad said we couldn’t let you go. He said you’re … a liability.

I spent a few minutes considering my approach before I left the White property. I could break into the cabin or cause some sort of distraction to draw Zane outside, but either option would put him on alert and lower my chance of taking him by surprise. And then it came to me as I stared down at his son. A third choice I hadn’t considered, and a simpler one. After seeing me take three bullets to the back, Zane likely wouldn’t hesitate to open the door to someone dressed in the ghillie suit. Sean and I were approximately the same height. Zane would assume I was his son. It was an easy choice to make. But this—sitting across from Bailey who is still Avery in my mind—is the single hardest moment of my life.

I recline in the chair, and it’s all I can do to mask the sudden flare of pain the motion unleashes. My entire back feels like a pane of shattered glass. “How did you find me?”

“I didn’t.”

“Who then?” I nod at Zane. “Him?”

“Yes. But you helped.” She glares at me and for a moment I don’t think she’s going to continue, but then she says, “Zane managed to work through your aliases. I don’t know how he did it, but he did, and he uncovered your real name. He didn’t know where you were though, or who you’d become. You gave that to him yourself.”

“How?”

“Does it matter?” she says, spitting my line back at me.

“Yes. It does.”

She leans back in the chair, her eyes smoldering with hate. She’s trembling, but I know it’s not with fear. It’s with rage. “Your father.”

The statement is a fist to the gut.My father.I know immediately. “He had someone watching the prison, didn’t he?”

“Every day until you came.”

And then I led them right here.

I run a hand over my face in an attempt to keep it together. “Was any of it real?”

She smiles, and there’s something cruel in the shape, something sharp, like if I touched her lips they might cut. “What do you think?”