Page 42 of Broken Hearts

18

Celeste

At a quarterpast seven that evening, Alex was still gone. It was still raining too, thick sheets of water sliding down my window, and I was bored out of my skull. None of the books or movies in my room appealed to me now; I was well and truly sick of staring at a page or a screen. I wanted to do something else, like go outside and check the greenhouse, but of course, with Alex out, that wasn’t an option.

I went into the walk-in closet and pulled the stolen photo of Evangeline out of a coat pocket. I originally had it hidden under my mattress, but after the knife incident, I knew Alex would check there regularly, and so I’d carefully re-hidden it.

I stared at the girl’s expressive brown eyes, wishing she could somehow communicate with me and give me the answers I needed. If I just knew what happened to her, then my thoughts and feelings wouldn’t be so jumbled. I’d know if I could trust Alex or not. I’d know if I should actually love him or not….

I nearly jumped a mile a moment later when the power went out. My room was immediately shrouded in darkness. At the same time, an alarm started to wail somewhere outside the house. Shit. Alex’s security system had been tripped. That meant someone had broken through one of the doors or windows.

With a metallic taste of fear in my mouth and my heart pounding, I slipped the photo in my pocket and tiptoed out of the closet. Then I headed toward the bathroom. I had a vague memory of someone once telling me that bathrooms were the safest place to hide in an emergency, although now that I was thinking about it more, that may have been in regard to storms. This obviously wasn’t a storm—this was a home invasion.

Okay, so maybe the bathroom wasn’t the best place to hide in this case. All wide open space, unless you counted the shower or the tub, and it wasn’t like they were great hiding spots anyway. I turned and headed back toward the closet, figuring I could try and hide somewhere in there instead.

Before I was even halfway there, a big hand closed over my mouth from behind. Adrenaline flooded my system, and I struggled against my assailant, trying my best to scream through their fingers.

A man spoke into my ear in a soft murmur. “Shh, Celeste. Calm down, you’re safe. I’m sorry for scaring you. I just didn’t want you to scream the place down.”

I frowned, immediately recognizing the voice. No, it wasn’t possible….

The man removed his hand and gently spun me around to face him. It was Dwyer, one of the ASACs at the field office in the city.

“Oh my god! It’s you.” My heart was racing at a million miles a minute, threatening to explode out of my chest. I sank onto the end of my bed, my legs almost buckling. “How…. How….”

My hands shook. I couldn’t form coherent sentences anymore. Dwyer leaned down and put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, I’ve got you. You’re safe now, okay? We’ve secured the place, and Magnusson isn’t here. So just breathe. Breathe.”

“Is it just you here?” I managed to choke out. Alex could probably overpower him if he came back, even if Dwyer had a gun.

“Of course not. Our team is surrounding the rest of the property as we speak. Are you okay?” He peered at me in the dim light.

‘Okay’ didn’t exactly describe me very well. I felt like I was about to collapse from all the emotions streaming through me. I was trying to remain calm and push the feelings aside for now, but it was like trying to stop a tsunami with one little bucket. I was riddled with angst, confusion, uncertainty, dread, disbelief; all that on top of what felt like a flood of tears about to erupt out of me.

I sucked it up as best I could and nodded, trembling. “I think so,” I mumbled, wiping my eyes as the tears began to spill. “How did you find me?”

“Jason West. Remember him? He’s been working for weeks trying to track you down. He had a theory that the Heartbreaker might’ve taken you, and he was right. It is Magnusson, isn’t it?”

Of course it was, and yet, I somehow didn’t feel right betraying Alex to the FBI by admitting that I knew he murdered all those men… even though the FBI had once been my own damn people. It seemed like they already knew—they must’ve found some evidence—but I didn’t want them to hear it from my own lips.

I shook my head. “I… I don’t know for sure. He’s kept me locked up the whole time.” Dwyer raised his thick brows, as if he simply couldn’t believe I’d been here for two months without learning a single thing about my captor. “All he told me was that there’s a group of people he was chasing after,” I added lamely, figuring I had to give them something.

He nodded. “West figured that out too. Apparently there may be a secret society of sorts, and they could have tattoos to mark them. He noticed that the killer always removed some part of their arm, possibly to cover it up. Did he tell you anything about that?”

I let out a defeated sigh. They obviously knew everything. “Alex, um… he mentioned that,” I murmured. “He said they’re called the Circle, and that they torture and rape children and teenagers. My father was one of them. Alex said they were after me.”

Dwyer put a firm hand on my shoulder. “We’re looking into all that, and if there’s any merit to those claims, those people will be found and arrested. They won’t be able to harm you any more than him. But for now, we need to get you out of here, okay? Do you feel strong enough to walk?”

My legs were still shaking, but I nodded. “Yes.”

He extended a hand and helped me to my feet. “That’s it. Good girl. You’re doing so well. Just a few steps, and we’ll have you out of here.”

“What’s going to happen to Alex?” I asked with a tremor in my voice as he slowly guided me out of my room and down the hall.

“We haven’t located him yet, but we figure he’ll come back here at some point. So we’re surrounding the place, and when he gets back, he’ll be arrested and held in a county jail while we carry out a full investigation.”

The thought of someone arresting Alex, or worse, shooting him dead if he tried to resist, made my stomach curdle. I wanted my freedom, sure, but I didn’t want him dead. I wasn’t even sure I wanted him locked up. My mind was still fighting this silent battle over him, one half of me wanting to believe him, love him, stay with him, while the other half screamed for me to not trust him, not have feelings for him, not stay with him.

“Where’s Agent West?” I asked, tears pricking at my eyes.

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