Page 30 of Amnesty

Without realizing, I held my breath and peeled back the curtain at an embarrassingly slow rate. Squeezing one of my eyes closed and looking with the other, I peeked out.

Of course nothing was there, just the yard, the moon, and the lake. Telling myself I was beyond dramatic, I opened both eyes up and pulled the curtain back to stare down to the water.

The waves shimmered beneath the moon, glittering like diamonds.

I let out a cleansing breath, trying to exhale the horrible dream. I was so lost in thought I didn’t hear Eddie behind me until his body heat announced him and his own nakedness pressed against mine.

“What are you doing over here?” he whispered, groggy, into my ear.

Desire stirred in my lower belly. His voice in my ear and the feel of him against me was intoxicating.

“Couldn’t sleep,” I whispered, sliding my hands along his arms and hugging him closer.

His voice was still sleepy when he softly spoke again. “You’re drawn to the water just as I am.”

“It definitely has a pull.” I agreed.

I felt restless, as though something were niggling at the back of my mind, but I didn’t know what. Even though I opened up to Eddie, things still felt unsettled. Maybe they would always feel that way. Until I knew. Where I’d come from, what brought me to the shore of Lake Loch months ago.

Was I Sadie? What was my connection to Widow West.

Leaning my head back against Eddie, I stared out the window, letting the questions consume me.

Way out in the distance, a light caught my eye. So small I probably shouldn’t have noticed it. But I did, and once in my line of sight, it was all I saw.

Gasping, I moved forward, laid my palm flat against the cold glass of the window, and stared out.

“Do you see it?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“There’s someone out there,” I murmured, almost an afterthought. Like an idea that didn’t occur to me until it was already out of my mouth. The words didn’t sink in untilafterI spoke them.

My breath caught, the pads of my fingers pressing harder against the glass. “That’s it,” I told myself.

“What is?” Eddie asked, moving forward to keep us pressed together. His chin settled on my shoulder, the unshaven roughness of his jaw slightly prickly against my skin.

I turned my face just slightly, angling toward him a bit more. My eyes slid back out toward the island, searching for the mellow light captivating me.

“What if Widow West really was taking me back to Rumor Island? What if there really is someone else out there,him?”

The sleepy quality to his voice vanished, and a fine, humming tension coiled beneath his skin. “Him who?”

“The man I keep remembering, but never actually seeing. The one who kidnapped me. The one who wants me back.”

“The police searched that island, Am. So many times.”

“Yeah, nearly twelve years ago. What if he left, went into hiding until the search ended, and I—Sadie—was presumed dead? Have they been there since?”

Eddie fell quiet.

The words tumbled out of me, the tone of my voice hollow, almost haunted. “What if he’s there now? Wandering the island at night, waiting for the widow to come home. Waiting for her to bring me back.”

“There’s no way a man could live out there all this time and no one know.”

“There’s also no way a girl could disappear in the lake and then wash up eleven years later.”

His arms pulled me snug against him. I knew he didn’t like the path my thoughts were taking me, but I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t. I felt this sense of… truth.

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