“Camden, Carly died years ago. Now where are Nina and Grace?” Jake is close to me I think. It’s so hard to tell.
“Carly didn’t die. Neither did my daughter. They were just with me. Carly, you get out here, or one of them will die!” No!
“Nina, stay where you are, babe.” Jake is pleading. I can hear the worry in his voice.
“Carly you have five seconds!” Grace is shaking.
“Five”
What do I do?
“Four”
He is crazy enough to shoot one of them.
“3Three”
I can’t let him hurt Jake.
“Two”
Carly, please protect me.
I move Grace to the side, signaling for her to stay put then I crawl out of the tree. I’m in the middle of them. Camden on one side, Jake, Ryan, and Mason on the other.
“Nina! Come to me!” I take one step toward Jake.
I hear Camden cocking the gun, and I freeze.
“Don’t you fucking move!” I look behind me and Camden looks completely unglued. His eyes are wild, and he is running his hands through his hair. “Where is my daughter, you bitch?”
“Camden, you are sick. I’m not Carly; I’m Nina.” My voice is calm. I’m trying to convince him of this fact. To make him remember that we lost Carly.
“I want my daughter!” He waves the gun toward me. “Show me where the fuck she is, or you die.”
“Camden, we will find your daughter. Just put the gun down.” Ryan is trying to talk him down.
“You will not touch my daughter ever again, you goddamn psycho!” Mason yells, his voice surrounding us.
“Daddy!” Grace runs out of the tree.
No! She runs straight for Mason as a loud bang sounds. I scream as I see Mason fall to the ground right before Grace gets to him. I make a run to get her when I hear one more bang. Camden falls to my right. I look over to where Jake and Ryan are. They are okay, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Both of them run to where I am holding Grace back from an unmoving Mason.
I scream as another bang sounds, and I look up to see Jake falling backward. Jake’s mouth opens in an O as a moan escapes his mouth. In the next second, he completely disappears from my sight.
“No!” I run to where he was. He fell down a hill. I slide down and land next to him. “Jake!”
He looks up at me. Blood is pooling around him. “I love you.”
“No, don’t you do this to me. Don’t you dare leave me. I love you so much. I’ve wanted to tell you for the longest time. I was just scared. You can’t leave me. You have to stay here.” I’m pleading with him now. Tears falling freely, marking small drops on his shirt.
He looks up at me. “You’ll be okay, Sparky.”
His eyes close and a gut wrenching scream rips through me. “Ryan!” He climbs down the hill, but he is alone. “Where is Grace?”
“The EMTs just got here. She’s with them.” I see medics coming down the hill.
“You have to save him!” I’m pleading with them. “Please! Please! Help him!”
Ryan’s arms wrap around me. “Nina, move away. You have to let them work.” I struggle against him I need to be with him. The medics examine him and begin CPR. Then they stop. They look at one another and shake their head.
“There’s no pulse, Detective.”
“No!” I break free of Ryan and collapse on top of Jake. My hands grip him trying to keep him here with me. He can’t leave me.
I can’t survive this.
Chapter Twenty Seven
Nina
“Hey, babe! Mason is here, you sure you’re okay hanging out with the monster tonight?” I jolt awake, tears streaming down my face. Jake? He is standing in front of me. I jump up and into his arms my hold so tight praying that this isn’t a dream. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
I can’t answer him. I don’t want to find out that this isn’t real. He sits down with me on the couch. My entire body is shaking as I cling to the man I thought I lost.
“Babe, talk to me. You’re scaring me.”
I pull back and look at him. “I love you.” My mouth crushes to his as I still hold onto the hope that this is real.
When he pulls away from me, he looks shocked. “I love you too. I have wanted to tell you for a while. Can you please tell me what’s going on now?”
“You can’t leave. Something is going to happen. You have to stay here. Call Ryan. We are going to need him.” I tell him about my dream, about Camden, about all of my suspicions.
“Babe, you had a nightmare, it’s okay.” He rubs my back to comfort me.
“No. It wasn’t a dream.” He studies me for a minute.
“Okay, listen, I’ll call Ryan and have him be on standby.” There is a knock at the door, and I can hear Grace outside. “I’ll explain to Mason what is going on.”
The entire time he is gone I’m uneasy. Was it really all a dream? It felt so real. It seems like forever until Jake comes back from answering the door. “Okay, listen, Mason and Grace are gone. Ryan is on his way; he is going to park down the block and then wait in here with us. If what you said really happens we are going to get him, okay?” I feel like he is a little reluctant to believe me, like he may just be pacifying me.
I wrap my arms around him still in shock that I didn’t lose him. When the EMTs said he was gone it felt like my heart had been ripped in a million pieces. I couldn’t breathe. I kiss him again needing to convince myself that he is real.
His eyes lock with mine. “Hey, I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
“I need to know what happened to my sister, Jake.” If what I heard from Camden in the dream was true, then there is so much more to the story. I need to know what happened to her. Maybe it's why I’ve never been at peace. Maybe it’s subconsciously why I couldn’t move on. “I’m scared that something will go wrong.”
“I promise you that if that fucker comes in this house he will not touch a hair on your head. I will break his fucking hand if he tries to.” He pulls me closer to him so that I’m flush against his chest.
The front door opens, and Ryan walks in. Even with the skeptical look on his face, Ryan begins to speak. “Okay, Jake, you and I are going to wait on the steps. If he is coming, he will more than likely at least look in a window and make sure she’s alone. Nina put the TV on and do whatever you were doing in your dream.” I nod. I hope he believes me and he doesn’t think I’m psycho. I didn’t hear what Jake told him on the phone. They could both think I’ve had a mental breakdown. They wait on the steps, and I move into the kitchen as I would have. “Nina. You cannot leave this room.”
I look back at Ryan. “Okay, before I was in the kitchen.”
I mess around with things pretending as if I’m organizing papers, and that’s when I hear it. A door. I look up to see Camden about to hit me over the head when I scream and am pulled backward.
Jake is holding me behind him. I’m clinging to the back of his shirt. My heart is beating so loudly I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear it. “Don’t you fucking touch her.”
“Put the gun down!” Ryan is screaming at him, as he reaches for his walkie with one hand while still keeping the gun trained on Camden. He calls for back-up. We did it. We stopped him, Car.
“Carly! Come with me!” Camden screams at me. “Where is my daughter, Carly?”
“What did you do to her?” I scream. I need to know what happened.
He looks at me and laughs. “Nothing that wasn’t deserved.” His voice comes out in almost a growl.
“You bastard! How could you hurt her?” Tears start to fall and his face twists in anger as he looks at me.
“God, all you did was fucking cry. It’s not my fault you weren’t in the mood. But I could see it in your eyes. Your good girl act wasn’t fooling anyone. You wanted it, and you wanted it hard, so I gave it to you. Then all of a sudden you wanted to tell someone, but I knew if you did, our love would be over, and I couldn’t have that. You
knew what was good for you and didn’t say a fucking word. Those were the best four months of my life until you started getting sick all the damn time. You took her away from me. Our blessing, my baby! You killed her, you fucking whore!” No. That’s the doctor she was seeing? An abortion doctor? “You deserved to die that night, you bitch, and I thought I did it. Then I see you walking around town with my kid and this asshole!”
Oh my God. He did kill her. I start to cry for my sister. For all that she went through. Why didn’t you come to me? I could have helped you.
Suddenly everything goes to shit quickly. Camden lunges for us and I hear two shots ring out. He and Ryan both fall to the floor.
“No!” Jake kicks the gun away from Camden’s reach and then rushes to Ryan’s side. I can hear sirens approaching.
Please don’t let this be like my dream. I’m frozen in place. That’s when I see him getting up.
Camden. The bastard that killed my sister.
I don’t even think, I just move I grab Ryan’s gun by my feet, aim, and fire it right at the asshole. Jake jumps at the sound and Camden falls to the floor. Jake looks over at me, before returning his focus to Ryan.
The EMTs come rushing into the house and head straight for Ryan. Jake stands up and walks over to me taking the gun from my hand and placing it on the table beside me. “Hey, are you okay?”
I nod unable to take my eyes off of Ryan. They lift him onto the gurney as another group of medics come in and attend to Camden. “Is he going to be okay?” They don’t answer me, they simply rush him out the door.
Jake takes out his phone and calls Brian telling him to call everyone else and meet him at the hospital. I hear Camden coughing and am disappointed that the fucker is still alive. They take him out and leave Jake and me by ourselves. “Do you want to come to the hospital?”
I nod. Ryan got hurt because of me. Two detectives walk through the door. “I need to get your statements. What happened here?”
“Listen, Ryan’s our friend and was just shot. I need to go to the hospital to make sure he’s okay. Can this be done there?” Jake’s tone is rushed as if he already has one foot out the door.
“That’s fine. We’ll follow you.”
Jake grabs my hand, and we head to the car. On the way to the hospital, we don’t speak much. I don’t know what to say. I feel horrible that Ryan is hurt because of me. I’m reeling from Camden’s confession about Carly. And I just want him to say something. To give me some sort of assurance. I guess that’s selfish of me, though. I’m asking him to comfort me when his friend is in the hospital, and we don’t know what is going on.
When we get there, everyone else has already beaten us. They are all in the waiting room, along with a half dozen of officers. I guess word got out about Ryan.
I say a silent prayer to Carly to keep him safe like she did for me.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Nina
One week later
As I stand at my stepbrother’s grave, I don’t know what to feel. I hate him for what he did, for my sister’s pain. He was coherent enough when the cops questioned him to tell them everything. He had been raping Carly for months. Hitting her and threatening to do worse if she talked to anyone. That was why she was so depressed. He found out she was pregnant when he came upon the test in the trash. When he followed her that day and found out what she had done, he snapped. He put her entire bottle of pills in the food processor and forced them down her throat. A couple days after his confession, he began hemorrhaging in the middle of the night and passed away before the doctors could save him.
Hearing the details from the detective made me physically sick. My sister was an amazing person and he stole her innocence and then her life. I will never forgive him for what he did to her. I’ve started to work on forgiving myself with Jake’s help. I will never get over the fact that I might have been able to do more, but I am learning that even if I did force her to tell me, I might not have been able to stop Camden. Not only that, but he might have taken my life so I couldn’t tell the story. I hope that she is at peace now, and he is rotting in hell like he deserves.
“I will not visit you again. You are the devil. We trusted you. We welcomed you into our house. You deserve no better than to be here. My sister could have been something amazing, she would have been, but you took that chance from her.” I have so much more I want to say to him, but all it would be are ugly hateful words. While he deserves every one of them, I refuse to let him impact my life, or feelings any more than he already has. I feel a hand on my back and turn to face Jake. “Let’s get away from here.”
He nods. We walk across the cemetery to join our waiting friends. I squeeze Jake’s hand letting him know that I’m here for him. All these months he has been my rock, now it’s my turn. The framed picture of Ryan in his uniform looks beautiful. The American flag is draped over his coffin, and the priest begins his speech.
I look around and see the faces of the people I have come to think of as family, they are devastated. I didn’t know Ryan for long, but I know that he was an amazing person. He came to my rescue and gave his life trying to save me. A tear slips down my cheek as I think of how Camden has taken another life too soon. My mother and stepdad were absolutely devastated when they heard about everything. My stepdad called to apologize to me, but I told him it was no reflection on him.
The guards fire shots and I jump at the unexpected sound. Everyone is beginning to place the flowers on the coffin saying their final goodbye to an amazing friend. When it’s my turn, I pause in front of it. Thank you for saving me. I wish that none of this happened, that you could still be here with us. I can never express how much I appreciate you protecting me. You are a true hero.
I toss the flower and then return to Jake’s side. When the coffin is lowered, and the group begins to break up, I turn to Jake. His head is bowed, and his eyes closed. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
He shakes his head. His eyes are red-rimmed from the unshed tears he seems to be holding back. “I just can’t believe he is gone.”
He takes my hand, and we walk back to the car. They tried to save Ryan. He was on life support for days, but he showed no signs of improvement and the doctors had told his family that there was a very little chance he would ever be able to breathe on his own. When Jake got the news, he was inconsolable. He left the house and apparently went to the gym, beating the bag until his knuckles were bleeding. One of the trainers had called me and told me I should come and get him.
I remember how scared I was that he would blame me. That he wouldn’t be able to look me in the eye because of what happened to one of his best friends because of me. When I finally got to him, he collapsed on the ground. I held him and just let him mourn his friend. We sat on that gym floor for the longest time before he looked at me and reassured me that he didn’t blame me. He thanked me for being there for him, and we went home.
We get in the car and head to Mason’s house where everyone is meeting. Jake doesn’t speak on the car ride over, and I don’t try to force him. I know that he needs time to work through this. Each day he gets a little better, but I think after this group lost Lacey they were completely broken. Now losing Ryan has shattered them once more.
We are the last ones to arrive. When I walk in, Grace runs up to us and gives us a hug. We walk with her into the living room where everyone is sitting, and she runs climbing onto Mason’s lap.
“Daddy, I saw Unkey Ryan!” The room falls silent as we all turn her way.
“Honey, Uncle Ryan had an accident. He’s in heaven now.” Mason’s voice cracks as he tries to explain to her what is going on.
“I know he’s an angel. I saw him in my dreams.” She hugs her doll. “Carly was there too. She had even prettier wings. They told me to tell everyone they are okay.” Grace stands up and walks over to me. “Nina, Unkey Ryan said he is glad you are okay.” All of the air rushes from my lungs. She begins to turn away from me and stops. “I don’t know how you kno
w my dolly, but Carly wants you to know that it wasn’t your fault. She said she loves you.” She skips away from me and back toward Mason.
My eyes well with tears. My hand shakes as I cover my mouth with it. I have always carried the burden of Carly’s death with me. No matter what my mom or Jake said, I felt it was something I could have prevented. I feel like outing Camden might have set her free, and now she has done the same thing for me.
I love you too, Carly.
Epilogue
Nina
Five years later
As I walk into Sam’s house, I groan. I swear this damn pregnancy is going to kill me. I rub my swollen stomach. “Did you have to be four days late, kid? I mean it’s August, and I’m dying here.”
“She’ll be here soon, babe.” Jake rubs my back and even though he is trying to comfort me a part of me just wants to kick him in the balls for doing this to me.
I shoot him a look letting him know I am about to rip off his closest appendage. When I walk into the living room, everyone is already here. Jules and Brian’s son, Christian, is running around while she tries to keep him from waking up their newest addition, Chloe. Jules had her a few months ago, and I’m excited that our girls will be so close in age. That is if mine ever decides it’s time to come out.
Grace comes running up to us. “Aunt Nina, when is the baby coming out?”
“Soon, if she knows what’s good for her.” She laughs at me before rejoining her dad on the couch. I look next to Mason seeing a new face. I turn to Jake silently asking him who that is.
He leans in close to my ear. “That’s Lisa. She was Grace’s teacher last year. They have been seeing each other for the past couple months. Mason swore me to secrecy.”
I elbow in the stomach. “You should have told me.”
Sam comes up to us, a huge smile on her face. “You look like you’re having a rough day, girl.”
Claiming Her Page 10
