Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO CAME BACK FOR ME
Jared wanted Dominic brought to the penthouse immediately.
I wanted Nero stabilized first.
For reasons I still didn’t understand, Jared listened to me.
We moved Nero onto thick blankets near the windows. I started small amounts of food and water while Miles contacted a veterinarian Jared trusted enough to bring inside.
By 3:10 a.m., Nero had eaten more than he had in three days.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, I kept staring at the memory card.
“Evelyn hid that knowing somebody might search Nero.”
Jared nodded.
“She trusted the collar because nobody would cut it off unless they knew something was hidden.”
“And she put my name there.”
“She trusted you.”
“I barely knew her.”
“Sometimes that makes someone safer.”
I understood that more than I wanted to.
Brendan had taught me the danger of telling the wrong person too much.
Jared noticed my expression.
“Who is Brendan?”
My head snapped toward him.
“I never told you that name.”
“No.”
“How do you know it?”
“Miles ran your background before bringing you here.”
Anger hit immediately.
“You investigated me?”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“You have a restraining order.”
“Expired.”
“Against Brendan Shaw.”
“This has nothing to do with Nero.”
Before Jared could answer, Miles’s phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
Then at me.
“Maybe it does.”
Security footage showed a man standing across the street from my veterinary clinic.
Baseball cap.
Dark jacket.
Hands in his pockets.
I knew the way he stood.
My stomach dropped.
Brendan.
For eleven months, I had changed routines, moved apartments, switched phone numbers, and trained myself not to look over my shoulder every ten seconds.
Now he was back.
“What does he want?” Jared asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Has he contacted you?”
“No.”
Miles enlarged the image.
Brendan was watching someone.
Not the clinic.
A black SUV parked nearby.
Dominic Kensington’s SUV.
Jared and Miles exchanged a look.
I felt suddenly cold.
“What?”
Miles pulled another image.
It showed Brendan entering a restaurant three weeks earlier.
Dominic entered six minutes later.
They left separately.
Jared’s face became unreadable.
“Your ex knows my uncle.”
“No.”
“You’re looking at it.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Every muscle in my body locked.
Jared held out his hand.
I ignored him and answered.
Brendan’s voice filled the silence.
“Willa.”
My lungs forgot how to work.
“You shouldn’t have gone with them.”
I stood.
“How did you get this number?”
“You need to leave Jared Kensington’s apartment.”
Jared’s eyes went hard.
I put the call on speaker.
Brendan continued.
“Dominic knows Evelyn gave you something.”
“I don’t have anything.”
“Yes, you do.”
His voice softened in the exact way it used to before he told me what I was allowed to wear, where I was allowed to go, and who I was allowed to speak to.
“You just don’t know where she put it.”
Jared stepped closer to the phone.
“If you come near Willa—”
Brendan laughed.
“There he is.”
“Where’s Evelyn?”
A long pause.
Then Brendan said:
“Alive.”
Jared stopped breathing.
“She was alive the last time I saw her.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“I’ll tell Willa.”
“No.”
“You don’t get to decide.”
Brendan’s tone changed.
“Willa, remember the place where you finally left me?”
My blood turned cold.
Yes.
I remembered.
A roadside motel outside Albany.
Room 214.
The night I waited until Brendan fell asleep, took my shoes in my hand, and walked two miles to a gas station.
May you like
Brendan whispered:
“Evelyn Kensington is in Room 214.”
