The officer nodded. “We’ve found it.”
I glanced at Flint again, but he seemed locked in a silent battle with control. I’d never seen him so tense.
Flint had been at my side the entire time I spoke with the police. Energy poured from him, but he kept his rage in check. I knew as soon as we got home, I was going to get an earful, but I also knew he was beyond relieved that I was okay.
I turned back to the officer. “Aaron has probably been attacking women ever since he left Hideaway Hills. I couldn’t let him continue.”
The police officer sighed heavily while looking at me with his kind brown eyes. “You do know you could have been killed. What you did was very dangerous.”
Flint tensed even more.
“Yeah. I know. I guess I’m lucky it didn’t turn out that way.”
The policeman shook his head and shared an incredulous look with his partner before turning back to taking notes.
Dawn had almost come by the time Flint and I left.
Flint didn’t speak to me as we walked to the station’s front doors, but he kept his arm around me and refused to let go.
I glanced up at him as we pushed through the doors. Outside, our entire family waited, including Jacinda and Father.
They all rushed at me, and I was engulfed in hugs. Mica apologized over and over again that it had taken her so long to call the police. Aaron and the professor had sneaked out on the back driveway road, so she didn’t see them leave.
Di and Raven scolded me for doing something so dangerous while holding me fiercely. The twins merely shook their heads with relieved smiles on their faces while Amber sniffled before giving me a tight squeeze.
Susannah, Luke, and Edgar let everyone hug me before they stepped forward.
I embraced Susannah in a tight hug. “Do you remember coming to the forest?”
She nodded as her long hair brushed against my cheek. “Of course. I knew I could get to you first, which is why I flew. I was ready to tear out another throat if I needed to.”
My eyes widened when I pulled back.
She laughed softly. “As a last resort, of course.”
I laughed with her before I turned to Luke and asked, “Did you see it? Did you see what was going to happen?”
Luke shook his head, as a stumped expression grew on his face. “Di always told me you were hard to track.” He crossed his muscular arms over his chest. “Until tonight, I didn’t fully appreciate that. None of us suspected anything until after you’d been taken. But then it was too late to stop you.”
I ducked my head and shrugged sheepishly. “Apparently, it’s my impulsiveness that can make it difficult to see my future.”
Edgar gave my hand a squeeze. “Just don’t make a habit of it. Okay, love? You really scared all of us.”
“I won’t.”
I glanced up at Flint, who still hovered at my side. Waves of power rolled from him. The fact that he still hadn’t said anything did not bode well.
I swallowed tightly. “But Aaron’s been caught now. The police said they have DNA evidence from the other assaults, so they should be able to tie him to those attacks too. And the professor has a line of women ready to testify against him. That, along with what he did to me, means they’re both going to jail.”
Fatigue lined Father’s face as he pulled me into a tight embrace. “But you put yourself in danger, Lena. You shouldn’t have done that.”
Jacinda’s sniffles came next when she grabbed my hand tightly and squeezed. “That was so dangerous!”
Guilt filled me at the worry I’d put my family through. I wrung my hands when I was finally free. “But I had to do it! I just had to! I hope eventually you’ll all understand that. I couldn’t let him get away. Not after what he’d done to me and what he was doing to the women in this town.”
“I understand why you did it.” Father straightened his glasses and dabbed at the corner of his eyes. “But it could have turned out much worse.”
I darted a look at Flint before replying, “I know.”
The ride back to our apartment was quick. Since everyone was exhausted from a sleepless night, especially following a night where we’d spent most of it on top of Abigail’s roof, we agreed that everybody would return to their own homes to rest and recuperate. It was hard to believe in three short days, we had accomplished what we’d set out to do.
I smiled, knowing that. We’d found the serial attacker, he was currently being held without bail, and no more women had been hurt. And on top of that, he’d turned out to be Aaron. My attacker from two years ago was now facing justice, and my professor was finally being held accountable for his acts.
Retribution had most definitely arrived.
But my smile faltered as I kicked my shoes off in our entryway. In the process of doing all of that, I’d lied to my boyfriend, had treated my best friend horribly, and had deceived my family. My entire plan hadn’t gone as smoothly as I’d hoped.
When the last of our family members finally left our apartment, Flint turned toward me. The rising sun illuminated the walls in our living room. Fatigue rolled through my body, yet I had a feeling I wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon.
I stuffed my hands in my back pockets and winced when my jeans rubbed on the raw skin of my wrists. A puffy bandage covered my cut. I gave Flint a pleading look. “Say something.”
Powerful waves of energy emanated from him. A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“I’m sorry, Flint. I know I lied to you, and I know I deceived you, but I couldn’t let him get away. Please try to understand that!”
He stayed at the door’s edge. His expression was unreadable.
“Please say something.”
A full minute ticked by. The anxiety within me grew.
“What am I supposed to say?” He finally said softly. “How am I supposed to trust you?”
My stomach dropped. I rushed to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. He didn’t hug me back. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!”
He just stood there as I held onto him as tightly as I could. Finally, placing his hands on my shoulders, he pushed me away.
I swallowed tightly as tears filled my eyes. He’d never done that before.
“Relationships are supposed to be based on trust.” His jaw tightened in anger. “You broke that trust.”
My eyes widened as my heart pounded so hard I couldn’t breathe. “What are you saying?”
He raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t know.” He strode away from the entryway into the living room and paced it a few times, never once meeting my gaze.
I stepped closer to him and stood directly in his path, which forced him to stop. I tentatively balled my hands in his shirt. Try as I might, I couldn’t get my heart rate under control. It felt like it was galloping in my chest.
In a shaking voice, I said, “Flint. I know I messed up. I know that. But please understand I had to do it. I knew you wouldn’t agree with my plan, and I knew you wouldn’t let me go. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
Agony filled his dark eyes. “You could have died!”
I swallowed tightly. “But I didn’t, and if I hadn’t confronted him, he never would have been caught. He would have continued hurting women for who knows how long.” Tears spilled onto my cheeks. “Please understand that’s why I did it.”
“You should have told me.” He pulled back, which forced me to let him go.
Frustration rose inside me. I seethed inwardly at how incredibly stubborn he could be. “And if I had told you, what would you have done?”
His dark eyes narrowed before he looked away.
I threw my hands up. “You know what you would have done! You would have tied me down to keep me from getting hurt, but I’m not that fragile, Flint! Don’t you see that? You can’t always protect me! Sometimes, you’re going to have to let me go and understand that I’m an adult who can make my own decisions.”
“Impulsive decisions?”
“That’s not fai
r. It wasn’t an impulsive decision. I actually thought it through and decided not telling you was the best decision.”
“Even if that decision almost got you killed?”
“But it didn’t!”
His eyes glittered in the morning sun. “You should have come to me, Lena. What you did was wrong.”
I tilted my chin up as my cheeks flushed. “Maybe I should have, but you also need to not be so protective.”
His brow furrowed. “I’m not that protective.”
I snorted. “Seriously?”
He took a deep breath and said gruffly, “Okay. Maybe I am, but you would be too if you were in my position. You constantly do things that put you in danger.”
“I’m not constantly doing things. Just sometimes doing things.”
An aggrieved sigh escaped him. “Are you really not going to take any responsibility for this, babe?”
My shoulders fell, and I looked down. “Okay. Yeah. You’re right. What I did was stupid and reckless. It wasn’t fair to you or anyone in our family. I shouldn’t have done it.”
“But you’d do it again in a heartbeat, wouldn’t you? If you had to do it all over again?”
I snapped my gaze up when I heard the hurt in his words.
Pain swam in his irises.
“Flint . . .” I stepped closer to him and tentatively laid my hands on his waist. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
He looked away, breaking eye contact, but the pain stayed in his eyes, making my heart rip in pieces. “I know, Lena. I know you’re sorry.”
I placed my hand on his jaw and forced his gaze back to mine. “I know your protectiveness stems from everything we’ve been through. But right now, I need you to understand that I did what I needed to do.” I stepped even closer to him until our bodies brushed. “And it kills me that it hurt you so much, but please meet me halfway on this. If you weren’t so protective of me, I would have told you what I planned to do. I would have gone to you, not Mica, but I couldn’t because of how you always try to take control of the situation for me.”
With a groan, he pulled me tightly to him. “The thought of losing you scares me so damned much! It’s the only thing that will bring me to my knees.”
I clung to him, and his scent washed over me. My heart rate slowed at the feel of his arms around me and the absolute belief that everything would be okay between us. “I know, and I love you just as much as you love me, and you’re right. I lied to you. I shouldn’t have done that. It’s horrible that I did that.” I paused as those words sank in—really sank in. “I won’t do that again. Next time, I’ll come to you. I won’t lie, but can you try to listen and not fly off the handle? Can we both work on this?”
A heavy breath filled his chest. “Yeah. I’ll try to, but it’s not easy for me.”
I squeezed him tightly. “I know, just like it’s not easy for me to not rush headfirst into things.”
“I guess we both have stuff to work on.”
I muffled a laugh. “We probably always will. It’s hard to fight instinct. And my instinct was to rush after Aaron before he could leave town.”
“And mine was to tie you to the bed.”
I laughed then, a real laugh. Pulling back just enough to place my hands on his chest, I asked, “So what do we do from here?”
He sighed heavily. “If you promise to come to me first if anything dangerous like this happens again, I promise to listen to you and try to work with you. Deal?”
Tears filled my eyes. I loved this man so damned much. “Deal.”
He leaned down and nuzzled my neck.
I trembled when his hands gripped me around the waist. “Thank you for loving me like you do,” I said breathlessly. His tongue was doing amazing things just below my ear, making all coherent thought threaten to vanish.
He nipped my skin lightly. “Maybe in fifty years, we’ll have all of our issues sorted out, and then we’ll never fight again.”
“If we’re lucky, maybe it will only be twenty years.”
He laughed before scooping me into his arms. In a blurred move, he raced us to our bedroom. Laying me gently on the covers, he tenderly pushed a lock of hair from my face. “Does it hurt anywhere?”
I shrugged. “The skin around my wrists and ankles is raw, and my shoulders are still a bit sore from our excursion on Abigail’s roof, but this is nothing compared to being trapped in Marcus’s mansion.”
His jaw clenched as the sun grew brighter outside. “We’re never going to lead truly normal lives, are we?”
I shrugged. “Probably not, but you know what? This life is pretty damn good. And it certainly isn’t boring.”
He smiled and tilted my chin up. “No, it certainly isn’t.”
And then he kissed me.
EPILOGUE
Grace sat across from me in the smoothie shop. I was bone tired, but she didn’t know that. I’d skipped class again after the attack with Aaron, but I was back to school today. Despite all that had happened, I had made myself get up and come to class. We were at the end of the semester, after all, and finals were right around the corner.
However, my best friend still wouldn’t meet my gaze. My shoulders slumped. Her anger was understandable. I had hardly been a good friend to her lately.
Keeping her eyes averted, she sucked her drink and picked up the newspaper. Her eyes shifted across the words as she read the front page.
“Did you see this article?” Grace twirled her straw and pointed at the daily newspaper that somebody had left on the table. Outside, the sun beat down.
I struggled to keep my eyes open as I glanced at it. “What article?”
Grace rolled her eyes and pointed at the front headline. Serial Attacker and Accomplice Caught—University Stunned That It’s One of Their Own.
“This one,” she said.
I ducked my head and took a huge slurp from my smoothie so she wouldn’t see my satisfied smile. “Oh. Yeah. I saw that. I’m glad they’ve been arrested.”
She swiveled the paper back her way and bit her lip before saying quietly, “You were right about him—Professor Dillinger. I should have listened to you.”
I shrugged and did my best to ease the guilty look on her face. “It’s fine. I know you always assume everyone is as good as you, but they’re not.”
Her brow furrowed more. “They said a woman, who police said preferred to remain unnamed, had been tied up in his trunk when they caught him and that guy.” She shuddered.
Under the table, I fingered the raw skin around my wrists. Since I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, it wasn’t visible for anyone to see.
“I’m sure glad she’s okay,” Grace added. “Whoever she is.” My best friend took another sip of her drink and then pushed the drink away. “Are you ready to get going? We better head to the library since our final’s tomorrow morning.”
She stood before I could reply. The haste with which she moved made her chair squeak against the floor.
The guilt inside me grew. Grace had, once again, forgiven my erratic behavior willingly and without question, but I could tell that she was still hurt by how I’d been treating her lately.
Outside, Grace walked at my side, but her usual smile was absent.
I squinted in the bright sun and took a deep breath of the fresh springtime air. Wringing my hands, I once again debated if I should come clean with Grace and tell her who I really was. She’d been my best friend for over a year and had proven she was loyal and trustworthy time and time again. Yet the rules Father had instilled in us since childhood were hard to overcome. He was so terrified of us being exposed.
But Grace isn’t like that. She would never tell anyone.
Taking a deep breath, I grabbed her hand and stopped her mid-stride.
Her long blond hair swung over her shoulders from the abrupt stop, and she almost tripped. “Jeez, Lena. What the heck?” The familiar annoyance flashed in her eyes, but when she got a look at my expression, it vanished.
“What’s wrong?” Her eyebrows drew together.
A few other people passed us on the sidewalk, some muttering under their breaths when they bumped into us. I pulled her closer to a storefront.
“Can we go back to my apartment to study?” I still gripped her hand tightly.
The worried look on her face grew. “Um . . . yeah. Okay.” She gripped my hand back. “Are you all right? Because remember, Lena, you can tell me if something’s wrong. I’m always here for you.”
I chewed my lip before closing my eyes. She’s your best friend, Lena. She’s been nothing but supportive and kind to you since you met her, and her cloud is pure white. You can trust her. Of all the people you’ve met, Grace is someone you can trust with your life.
“Lena?” Her tone grew even more concerned.
Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes. “I want to tell you something about me, Grace. I should have told you a long time ago, but I can’t do it here, not out in public. Will you come back to my apartment with me?”
She gripped my hand again. “Of course. Wherever you want to talk, and whatever you want to tell me, I’ll listen. I’ll always listen. You know that.”
Tears threatened to fill my eyes at how lucky I was to have a friend like her. “I know, and that’s why you deserve to know the truth.”
“The truth?” She cocked her head.
I lifted the sleeves on my shirt to expose the red skin on my wrists.
Her breath sucked in. “Oh my gosh, Lena! What happened?”
I nodded in the direction of the smoothie shop. “Remember that article about the girl in the trunk?”
Her mouth parted as her eyes widened in shock. She looked down at my wrists again. Understanding dawned in her eyes. “What . . . How . . . You were that girl?”
I nodded tightly.
“But . . . how did you get away?”
I smiled, the first real smile I’d had all day, as a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. “Come on. I have a lot to tell you.”
CREATION
The Lost Children World
Book Two
THE LOST CHILDREN SERIES—BOOK 5
The Complete Lost Children Series Page 89
