Page 68 of Catch Me When I Fall

“Jesus,” Hayes muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“You found her,” I assumed, my voice tight with anger. I was beginning to see red, and suddenly, this woman in Ash’s story wasn’t just a stranger. She was my sunshine.

My Carrie.

“Yeah, I fucking found her,” he confirmed, his voice dark. “Found her naked and starving on the fucking bed with cuts so deep in her fucking wrists from the cuffs, you could see bone.”

Hayes inhaled a deep breath through his nose as he braced his hands on my desk, his head bent.

“Why didn’t you tell us that?” I asked.

Ash said nothing, looking away from us.

I took a step forward. “One call, brother. One fucking call, and we would’ve had her. You know that.”

“I told her that,” he said softly, looking at his feet. “Fuck, I begged her to let me…”

“She was afraid,” I murmured when he trailed off.

“Fucking petrified,” he growled, his anger radiating off him in waves.

“Do you have her name?” Hayes asked quietly.

“No.”

“You remember what she looked like?” I asked, hopeful.

Ash’s eyes met mine for a second time. “I’ll never forget.”

“Then we have something,” I declared.

Half an hour later, Ash was heading home for the day to get some much needed rest while Hayes and I remained in my office.

“Fucking hell,” he muttered, taking a seat on the couch in the corner.

I leaned back in my chair, looking up to the ceiling. Silence filled the office, Hayes and I both thinking the same thing, but neither of us wanting to say it. This could destroy everything we’d built. I swallowed the lump in my throat, my fingers itching to pull up the cameras in Carrie’s house. I’d installed them the day before I kissed her while she was at work, hiding the devices in places she’d never look. Even if she knew they were there, she’d never find them.

I’d only gotten to check on her once or twice in the last six months. With everything going on, I knew I had to focus and not worry about her. The first time I checked on her was the night I got back to Denver, right before I started the hunt for Ash. She’d been sleeping, curled up in the center of her pretty bed, at peace.

Over the last few months, that was how I imagined her: safe and resting. After everything she’d been through, that was what she needed.

The second time I checked on her was two months ago, after Ash coded twice. We almost lost him—twice. I couldn’t handle the hospital anymore, so I drove to the office, sat in the dark, and watched her talking with her friend on the couch. She had her legs tucked under her, holding a glass of wine, a box of tissues sitting next to her. She’d been crying.

The sight gutted me almost as badly as nearly losing my friend.

I knew why she’d been crying. I hadn’t come back. I saw the way she looked at me. I saw the light in her eyes sparking after what we shared, and I knew she saw the light in mine as well.

Carrie Hale possessed me, body and soul, and it scared the shit out of me.

“You know what we have to do, right?” Hayes asked, breaking the silence.

All thoughts of Carrie vanished and I was back to this shit reality with nightmares I’d never want her to face. “Yeah,” I confirmed softly, keeping my eyes on the ceiling.

“We’ll need to vote,” Hayes added.

“You know Dominic and Jake won’t hesitate,” I said. They wouldn’t, not for for something like this.

This woman—this innocent life—was too important.

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