Page 156 of Give Me Redemption

I bring it to my lips, and then my skin tingles. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and my hand starts to tremor when my eyes focus on the far right corner of the bar. A man stands up from the chair he was sitting in. He walks slowly to the bar, resting his hand on top. My eyes look at black and red ink and I know.

It’shim.

Chapter Sixty-Three

Jace

I slam my hand down on the steering wheel. “Fuck!” I yell as I turn into a gas station and pull around. I spin tires as I exit the parking lot, heading north to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. What the hell is she doing going by herself?

Where’s Monroe?

I don’t have his number, but I look him up on social media. One hand on the wheel, my eyes darting from the road to my phone, I shoot him a message. It’s raining now, coming down in soft sheets, distorting the lights and making the roads slick.

My phone starts to ring after I see that he’s seen the message.

“What the hell?” I say, picking up the phone. “What is she doing?”

“She isn’t thinking clearly, Jace.”

“Well, I’m headed there,” I tell him.

“You shouldn’t be doing that. You need to leave it up to us.”

“Fuck that.” He thinks I’m just going to go home and sit around while my girl chases a lunatic?

I hear him exhale and keys jingle. “I’m leaving the house now,” he says. “I know exactly where she’s going. I called our computer guy, assuming she called him after she got the email. He gave me the address of where she thinks this fucker is.”

“Good. She’s not answering her phone. It’s going to voicemail.”

“It’s probably dead. She doesn’t have a charger in that car. I’ve been telling her to get one for weeks now,” he says. “I spoke with her earlier. She sounded too calm. She’s not herself, Jace. She loses focus when it comes to this shit.”

“I know,” I reply, thinking about the night I came over to her place and lifted up the side table. All the photos that flew in the air, the way she fell apart in front of me. I remember the files that she had when I carried her to her apartment. I’ve noticed holes in her wall near her desk from thumbtacks which made me question if she used to have those photos hung up to look at.

When she talks about the case, darkness shows behind her eyes. She becomes this other person. It’s unsettling.

“I’m going to try her radio. She’ll answer that.”

“Okay, let me know,” I reply. I hang up and watch the road.

What are you thinking, Dalton?

Part of me hopes she doesn’t find him, but the other part wants her to so she can be free of this. It’s consumed her, and I fucking hate it.

I press the gas harder, flying down the interstate.

____________

It’s well after midnight when I get to Tennessee. Because Monroe had to stop for gas and had a blowout, we caught up with each other in Chattanooga. He flashes his lights at me, and I pull into the courthouse as he does.

I roll my window down as he leans out of his. “Let’s ride together,” he says. “One car is better than two during shit like this.”

I nod and shut my truck off before stepping out and climbing into his. I kick away a few empty coffee cups and a candy wrapper or two.

“Sorry about the mess,” he says. “I spend a lot more time in here than I’d like.”

He pulls out onto the road, splashing through a puddle. The black pavement resembles a mirror as we cruise to the bar. It’s eerily quiet. Like the whole town shuts down after midnight.

I look through the windshield as Monroe drives at a slow pace.

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