Page 54 of Sachie's Hero

“Did he say whotheywere?”

“No. He wouldn’t tell me anything. That’s what made me mad.” She paused. “The last time he saw me, I was mad. And I wasn’t even mad at him. I was mad at whoever was pushing him to do whatever it was he didn’t feel right doing. But I took it out on Luke. I didn’t get to tell him I loved him.” Her voice faded off.

Teller bit down on his tongue to keep from firing off all the questions that crowded his mind. Kylie didn’t know another person was listening in. He couldn’t be certain how she’d react if she did. And Sachie was the professional counselor and doing a good job of wading through the heartbroken teenage girl’s emotions to get to the facts.

“Kylie, what friend was he worried about?” Sachie asked in that same, soft, caring tone.

“Mark,” Kylie said. “When Luke started working at the club, Mark showed him around. He learned that Mark had come from a broken home and didn’t like his stepfather. They bonded over their poor excusesfor fathers and video games. They even traded some of those games.”

Teller wanted the girl to get back to her argument with Luke. Patience wasn’t always his strong suit.

It was Sachie’s. His respect for the counselor grew stronger by the minute. What made him fall for her even more was how much she cared for her patients and how far she’d go to figure out where she’d gone wrong with the one she’d failed.

“Was Luke very close to Mark?” Sachie prompted.

“Sometimes, too close. Luke said they thought so much alike, it was as if they shared thoughts. He said they finished each other’s sentences.” Kylie snorted softly. “At first, I was a little jealous, but Luke still made time for me, and he’d never really had a good guy friend. He said Mark was like the brother he’d never had.”

“There were other children in his foster home,” Sachie pointed out.

“Not like Mark.”

“Did you meet Mark?” Sachie asked. “What was he like?”

“Luke wanted me to meet him, but the timing wasn’t right. They went their separate ways once they left the club. Luke would come spend time with me, and Mark went to his home. Then Luke started changing. He went from being happy and doing wellin school to frowning all the time. Where we used to talk nonstop on the phone well into the night, our calls got shorter and shorter. He wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. I thought he wanted to break up with me. When I told him that, he got angry. He said he loved me, but he had a lot on his mind. I pushed and pushed until he blew up and said all those things about someone threatening to hurt his best friend if he didn’t do whatever it was they wanted.”

“Did Luke say how they would hurt Mark if he didn’t do what they wanted?”

“No. Just that he couldn’t let it happen, even if it meant doing what they wanted.” Kylie huffed. “Whatever it was must’ve been bad for Luke to be so upset about it.”

“Luke said he couldn’t let you do something. That he grabbed your arm to stop you, and that’s when you fell,” Sachie said.

“I told him to go to the police and turn them in. He said he couldn’t. It would make things worse. He didn’t say how. So, I told him I was going to go to the Boys’ Club and find whoever it was trying to get Luke to do something he didn’t want to do and tell them to back off.” She gave a shaky laugh. “I didn’t know how I would do that, considering Luke didn’t tell me anything useful. I just couldn’t stand by and watch the guy I loved drifting further and further away. Hegrabbed my arm. I yanked it free. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital with a headache, only to learn my boyfriend had committed suicide.”

“Oh, Kylie. I’m so sorry.”

“You were there,” Kylie said. “What happened?”

“He told me basically what you just said, and he blamed himself for hurting you. He didn’t want to be like his father and was afraid that he was.”

“He was nothing like his father,” Kylie said. “Nothing. He was kind and caring, and I loved him for who he was.

“He really loved you, too,” Sachie said. “He thought the only way to protect the ones he loved was to do what he did.”

“He was wrong,” Kylie cried. “I died when he died.”

Sachie didn’t respond to the girl’s comment. Nothing would make her feel better at that moment.

Teller knew how hard it was to lose someone you loved, but he also knew that the living kept living. Kylie was young. The heartache would fade over time.

“Kylie, if you ever need to talk to someone, you have my phone number now. Please, call me.”

“Thank you,” Kylie said. “I feel like you might be the only one who really understands.”

“I feel the same about you,” Sachie said.

“I have to go before my mother comes looking forme,” Kylie said. “She hovers over me like I might break at any moment and even has me homeschooling. I haven’t left the house in two weeks. I think she’s got me on suicide watch.”

Teller’s heart squeezed hard in his chest. If Kylie were his daughter, he’d have done the same.

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