Page 10 of Mending Scars

Her tone peaked with curiosity and excitement. “How did that go?”

“Better than I’d expected, but we didn’t talk about Kaleb much so that’s probably why.”

“What did you talk about then?”

Pulling out of the garage, I merged into traffic. “Kamden’s issues. He blames himself for everything. He thinks he’s a terrible person for killing Kaleb. He called himself a failure and a murderer.”

“What?” Her voice raised with anger. “How can he think that? It was in self-defense!”

“That’s what I said. But he refuses to listen—he’s so stubborn,” I said in irritation.

“Coming from the queen of stubbornness herself,” Nori joked.

“Ha ha, very funny.”

Traffic slowed to a crawl.

Ugh, it’s going to take me forever to get home.

“There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh, really? I hope it’s about sex with that hot man of yours.”

I laughed. “Sorry to burst your bubble but no. I got this weird text from an unknown number today.”

“Weird how?”

“Hold on, I’ll forward it to you real quick.”

Traffic was stopped at a light, so I was able to pull up the message and send it to Nori. I put the phone back to my ear. “Just sent it.”

“Okay, lemme check.” She paused for a few seconds. “Creepy. Did you tell Ryker?”

I blew out a frustrated breath. “No—I don’t want him to overreact. It’s probably nothing, right?”

Nori didn’t reply for several seconds. “Yeah, it’s probably some punk teenagers or something.”

“You don’t sound so sure.” I said as the cars in front of me moved past the intersection.

“I was just thinking about who would send something like that to you. But I think it was a onetime thing, maybe even a wrong number.”

I hope so.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I just wanted to talk to someone about it.”

“Well, you picked the right person. If you get another one, let me know, okay? I’m here for you.”

“I know. Thank you.”

We chatted for a little longer, then made plans for lunch later that week, making the drive a little bearable for a while. As I continued to fight traffic on the way home, I thought about the events of the day, hoping that everything would turn out all right.

Kaiya felt lifeless in my arms.

Please, God no.

I slumped to my knees, cradling her to me as the warmth of her blood soaked through my shirt and coated my arms. My fingers smeared blood over her fair skin as I framed her face in my hands. “Open your eyes, Warrior! Damn it, open your eyes!”

My entire world crumbled down on me as my life lay, dying in my arms, slowly slipping away from me. “Kaiya! Don’t do this to me, baby! Come back to me!” My voice was hoarse and full of desperation—desperation I’d never experienced before.

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