Page 65 of Counting Quarters

Chapter Twenty Eight

Kyle — Past

IstayedwithMason and Asher long into the morning. Police took their statements, combed the house for evidence, urging us to find some place else to stay for the night. When Mason refused, a couple of the officers who were closest to us in age—who knew Bonnie personally—hung back to help clean up.

Once they had all cleared out, the four of us remained on the floor of Storie's room, the rhythm of her tiny breaths filling the silence.

“We have to leave,” Mason croaked. It was the first time he'd spoken in what felt like hours.

I went to object, when Asher nodded her agreement.

“What? No. We have to make that fucker pay for what he's done,” I argued. I still wasn't even sure what, exactly, Rayner had done here, but he was as good as dead, nonetheless. “We can't let Bonnie's death go unpunished.”

“He came here for Storie. Bonnie sacrificed herself to save her,” Asher gently explained.

“Bonnie gave her life to save our little girl. I can't let that be in vain.”

My friend had changed. Not just since he found the love of his life dead mere hours ago, but in the past nine months. He was different now—a true family man. Nothing meant more to him than his girls, and now that one of them was gone, I could tell he was floundering.

“We’ll make sure he doesn’t touch Storie.” I’d stand guard outside this house myself if I had to. Let Rayner try this again with his Movement bullshit.

“We have to go, Kyle,” Asher’s tired voice said. There was no room for argument in her tone. They made their decision well before I walked through that door.

“Okay, fine. When do we leave?”

“We’re going. You have to stay here.”

Mason stood from the floor and started packing the diaper bag with random things. A pacifier. A stack of diapers. A package of wipes. He paused when one of Bonnie’s hair ties fell out of the diaper caddy, staring down at it like it had grown a head and come to life.

Asher gently leaned over to set Storie in the crib, then walked over to her brother and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. They shook under her grip with the quiet sobs he was finally letting free, and I decided it wasn’t the time to argue.

Whatever they had planned, I knew it would be what was best for Storie. That’s really all that mattered at this point.

I lifted my body off the carpet and pulled Asher into my chest. I don’t know how long the three of us stood there like that, mourning the loss of our friend. She was the glue that held us together. A future without her seemed bleak and gray, but we’d get through it. We’d make things right, for Storie.

Asher and Mason didn’t change their minds about me staying back. They spent the early morning packing up Mason’s car with anything they could think of, working together in silence. When Storie was secured in her car seat and Mason was in the driver’s seat, Asher pulled me off to the side.

“I can come with you. We don’t even have to stop at my house. Everything I need is in that car,” I begged one last time, gesturing behind her.

She shook her head, wrapping her hands around her torso in a hug. “You can meet us when we land somewhere,” she offered, and something about the way she said it told me it was a lie to make our goodbye easier.

Still, I nodded, then pulled her into my chest, inhaling her sweet scent for the last time.

“I love you so much, Ash. I love you all so much.”

“We love you, too, Kyle. But we have to handle this as a family.”

As a family. Those words stabbed into my chest like a dull knife.

They were my family. If the roles were reversed, it wouldn’t have been a second thought to throw them into the car and head off together. I thought they felt the same way about me, too. But for some reason, in the darkest time of their lives, they decided their blood was thicker. A deeper bond.

I held her until her hands pushed against my stomach. We locked eyes one last time.

This was it. I knew it, but I wouldn’t allow myself to believe it.

This isn’t what Bonnie would have wanted. Still, I fooled myself into thinking it was the right thing to do, because they believed so deeply that it was.

As she fell into the passenger seat, I leaned down to shake hands with Mason, pulling him into a one-armed hug through the door, whispering in his ear, “I love you, man. Stay safe.”

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