Page 80 of Please Remember

"This has to be it," I say.

"We need to call the detectives. Now," Drew says.

We turn and follow Drew's voice, and we find him around the house by a freestanding garage I hadn't noticed when I left that night. It was positioned just right that I couldn't see it at the angle I ran. Drew looks pale, and Jax moves to shine his flashlight into the window on the side.

"Oh my God," Jax gasps.

"What is it?" Sage asks.

"Allie's Jeep," Drew says.

I run to the window, standing on my tiptoes to see over the ledge, and I feel like I might pass out when I see it. That's it. That's my car.

"Whose car is that next to it?" Sage whispers. "Does someone live here?"

Next to my Jeep sits a silver or gray late nineties vehicle, and I shake my head. "There was no one here when I left. There's next to no furniture inside. Just mice."

"Then who's car is that?" Benji asks.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Jax

Allie runs away from the garage and falls to her knees in the grass, and I run after her.

"Sage is on the phone with the detective," Drew calls out. "Is she okay?"

Bending, I rub her back as she vomits onto the ground, her body retching as the contents of her stomach lands on the grass. I'm glad it's dark because I'm not sure I could keep my dinner down. Her physical reaction to this place makes my mind run wild with the different scenarios that could have happened here. All of which make me hate Laura even more.

"Are you okay, baby?" I ask as she seems to calm down.

Her heaving turns into sobs, and I reach out to pull her to stand and rest against me with my arms wrapped tightly around her. I wish she'd talk to me to let me know what's happening, but I'm not certain she could find the words right now. She clings to me as I half carry her away from the vomit to avoid any mishaps.

Benji runs over to us while Drew walks around the front of the house with Sage. "What's wrong?"

"I'm okay," Allie says and wipes her eyes.

"It's okay if you're not," he says, and I'm really glad I called our friends to come with us.

Pulling away, she shakes her head and sighs as she looks at the house. "I know I needed to find this place. Knew it would be the last thing we need to figure out all the missing pieces, but I completely ignored the memories it would invoke."

"That bad?" Benji asks, his hand taking hers.

"Until we found it, it wasn't fully real. It's very real now, again, and it just... It hit me like a ton of bricks."

"Do you want to leave? I think Sage and Drew can handle things here if you want to go."

I've never been more grateful for my friends than in this very moment. They care and worry about my girl as much as I do, and it's easy to forget. We were just so engrained in each other's lives that we sometimes overlook things that inevitably get taken for granted because of how common they are. The way Benji and Drew came into the house looking more serious than I've ever seen them, to the way Benji tries to console Allie when he knows I'm struggling for words makes me love them even more.

Allie shakes her head. "I want to wait. I want to see this through. It's just... It's a lot to try and take in at once."

We walk to the front of the house to join the others and see headlights driving down the dirt and gravel road. Lots of headlights. Allie just sits on the ground with her knees pulled up to her chest, and she rests her arms on them with her chin on top.

"You okay?" Drew asks me, his voice quiet.

"I'm not the one who went through all of this," I say, my eyes locked on Allie's form in the dark.

He pulls me back a little way to try and keep our conversation between us, and he looks at me. "Jax, talk to me. This is affecting me, so I can only imagine what it feels like for you."

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