Page 50 of Keeping Her Safe

“But you love him, don’t you?” Zoey squeezed her body to her.

“Zachary? For what seems like forever at this point,” she admitted.

She pulled away from her. “Are you really a Hart?”

“Yes.” She didn’t have the energy to lie anymore.

Zoey whispered, “I thought so.”

The silence was deafening for Zephyr. Not only were the stories gone, but she had no idea what Zoey was thinking. In all the scenarios of her telling her sisters about her, it was never silence that greeted her revelation. Anger, joy, sadness, but never silence. Deafening silence.

Pushing her sister's arm off her shoulders, Zephyr got shakily to her feet. It was time to go home. Danger was everywhere, and she couldn’t outrun it. She had brought danger here, and now was the time to take it away Zephyr had done what she had set out to do: she told one of Kate’s girls who she was, and Zoey could tell the rest of them. Now that it was over, she could go on with her life. She now knew that they did not want her, just like their father and mother.

Stuffing the tears back where they belonged, she started back to Evie’s house. Zachary had to take her home. He had forced her here, and she would force him to take her home. Then he could do whatever he wanted. She had two books to edit within the next few months.

Looking one last time around the farm where she could have been raised if things had been different, she committed it to memory. Sights, sounds, and smells. But she really didn’t need the memory; she already had the spirit in her since birth. In reality, she was glad she had gotten to see it once. It was her home, even if she had never been there. She wished she could have seen it in all seasons.

With a small smile, she knew her next book would be here also. It had started forming in her mind yesterday, and this morning at Evie’s table, it had become clear. It was all right here again. But this time, there was going to be a little beach in it, just a little.

Walking away from Zoey, she took the first step into her new life, the one where she was truly alone. Now she would not have a hint of Zachary or Kate’s girls. It was just Zephyr now, alone.

“Where are you going?” Zoey called from behind her.

“Home.” Zephyr didn’t turn around.

“But this is your home,” Zoey said the words that she had always wanted to hear.

“No, I don’t belong here. Kate made sure of that,” Zephyr replied. Walking back was going to take a lot longer than getting there, Zephyr decided as she headed towards the road that would take her back to Evie’s.

As she passed the barn, she paused. She had never been in a barn. Moving forward, she decided she never would. Oddly, now she was finally getting cold. When she had walked out of the house, she hadn’t taken her jacket with her. She was just wearing her white sweater. The fight and her run must have kept her warm enough, but now that the adrenaline was gone, she was feeling the cold seep through her clothes. Zephyr forced herself to enjoy the chill because she was never going to be here again.

Reaching down, she pulled a blade of grass and looked at it. It was green, the green of her books. No, the green she wanted in her books. The color was right there in her hand. Analyzing it as she walked, she tried to find the words to bring this green to her books. It still wasn’t there. As she walked onto the road that connected Evie’s driveway to Zoey’s, she dropped the grass, leaving it on the land it had grown on. She would never capture the green she imagined. The book was published anyway, and as Zachary said, it couldn’t be changed.

As she walked, she wasn’t paying attention to anything happening around her except the item she was focusing on. She would just have to find that one item that turned the story in the right direction.

Zephyr picked up a rock and slipped it into her pocket. She would keep it and take it back with her. Taking a deep breath, she smelled the air that held no salt or brine. It was so different from Florida. Would she even remember the smell in ten years like her mom had, though she had no daughter to tell about it?

CHAPTER 19

After watching Zephyr run from him, he knew he should follow her. He needed to follow her, and not because she was in danger, but because he needed to hold her in his arms. Hold her until the anger and pain were gone and tell her he was sorry. He’d kiss her until she believed him.

Zoey ran past him, following Zephyr down the road. Even he could see the older sister could outrun the younger, but she let her run ahead—not catching her, just following closely. Zoey had a gun and knew how to use it. She could protect her younger sister.

Gabe jogged past Zachary and said, “What the hell, man?”

Zachary followed the older cop as they followed the women. They turned at the end of the driveway, and Gabe asked, “You called her ‘Hart.’ Is she one of them?”

Zachary knew it wasn’t his place to say anything; it was up to Zephyr. He hadn’t even realized he had called her that, but he usually called her Zephyr Hart when he was angry. And today, he had been angry. “I can’t say, okay?”

“I will take that as a yes. I think your secret’s out, though. Once we get her back, she will have to tell,” Gabe replied as they turned down his driveway.

What met Zachary’s eyes had his heart aching. Zephyr was slowly walking away from her sister. Her sister was yelling at her, but Zephyr was not responding, just walking. Even from this far away, he could see she had turned inward. Just like when her story had changed, she was not really there.

When he stopped on the road, Gabe also stopped, and they watched what was happening. Zephyr was walking painfully slow as she looked around like she was a tourist trying to see everything at once. She stopped at the barn, and he thought that she would turn into it, but she started moving again, occasionally bending and picking things up and looking at them.

All the while, Zoey was behind her, talking to her. But Zephyr was gone; she wasn’t hearing her sister’s words. As they drew closer to the road, she could hear the words of a concerned sister. ‘What’s wrong? Just talk to me. Stop.’ But the words didn’t reach Zephyr.

“What’s wrong with her?” Gabe asked.

---