Page 139 of Moth to a Flame

“Regan!” I shout intoan empty home, hauling ass up the stairs.

At this moment, in this very fucking second, I hate this house more than I ever have before.

The size of it. The enormity of this small mansion I live in.

This hope, I can’t stand it.

My lungs seize as I sprint into the bedroom. My throat locks from all this goddamn hope.

For the long seconds it takes me to get there, I pray I’ll find Regan waiting for me.

My stomach sinks to the floor when I don’t.

The bedroom is empty, the sheets tangled and crumpled on the floor. Regan wouldn’t have left the bed like this. She cares for our home. Either she or I make the bed every morning.

She wouldn’t have left the front door open.

I could pull out the CCTV footage and see what went on while I was gone. Check if she was taken. I did that once while stalking Lester’s apartment. Everything was intact.

That damn hope won’t let me.

She might be in another room.

There are so many rooms in this goddamn house. Bedrooms and bathrooms. The living room and den. An office on the second floor that I never use.

A childish part of me wishes she’d be in one of those.

As I throw myself into every room, look behind every door, I wish for her.

She could’ve fallen asleep reading a book. Exhaustion could’ve gotten to her, and she’s here. Sleeping.

She might be here, in the—No, damn it, she’s not in the den.

“Regan!” Silence. “Regan!”

I knew it. I should’ve seen it coming a mile away.

The moment I parked outside Lester’s building, I could tell something was off. Call it a sixth sense.

Call it intuition.

Something wasn’t right.

It didn’t stop me from waiting there for him. One of the guards I’d bribed assured me that Lester had been released. That he had nowhere else to go, and in five hours, the Greyhound bus would drop his ass in the city. Another thirty-forty minutes in the subway and he’ll be in Queens.

I stalked his apartment building for hours.

Fucker didn’t show up.

That was when my gut feeling turned into lead in the pit of my stomach. Alarm bells went off inside my head.

He wasn’t coming.

That left only one option, and that was that he’d gotten to her.

Regan’s old apartment turned out just as empty.

Going to her parents’ apartment would’ve been a waste of time. They hired security. He couldn’t have made it past them.

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