Page 68 of Give Me Redemption

Now they stand in the shadows and hunt. Two little girls run across the park, hand in hand, smiling. One’s dressed like a cat, the other a dog. It’s a funny thing to see. My heart does a nosedive, splashing into a dark pond of memories.

“I bet I’ll get more candy than you,” she says, smiling up at me with one tooth missing.

“How about we put the candy in a pile and share?” I ask her.

She looks ahead, clearly thinking hard about this one. She’s wearing a black dress with glitter on the lace and a tall witch’s hat. Her nose is green, and her socks are orange and black striped.

She shrugs. “Okay. Deal.”

I nod and we walk hand in hand through the neighborhood. Kids our age and some a little older run from house to house. Pumpkins are lit up down driveways, and orange lights hang from porches. Someone has a fog machine and fake graves in their yard, while another has an enormous Charlie Brown blowup in theirs.

After about the tenth house, we head back to ours, laughing with chocolate covering our mouths. Mama will be mad. She wanted to check the candy first, but Chloe can talk me into anything.

“Hey,” we hear. I turn my head toward the voice.

A man stands in the shadows, but steps into the road. Still, I can only see the outline of his face from the streetlight behind him.

“You girls get a lot of candy?” he asks.

Chloe chimes in excitedly, “We sure did!” But I don’t have a good feeling about this man, and I realize we’re mostly alone, save for the people far ahead of us.

“Come on, Chloe,” I say, gripping her hand tighter.

“Aw, what’s your hurry?” he asks, stepping toward us and my eyes go down to his pants. His private part hangs out, and Chloe sucks in a sharp breath.

“Look, Low, his thing is out!” She points.

“Harlow!” I hear from down the street. It’s our mom.

“Run,” I say to Chloe.

My phone rings in my hand, making me jump. I look down at the screen.

It’s Jace.

We haven’t spoken since he walked out of my apartment the night I drove to my old neighborhood.

That was more than several weeks ago. I got a new phone obviously, but I’ve avoided going to Hudson’s, and this isn’t the first time Jace has called.

I’m losing my mind here.

I’ve lost my mind.

After I called Davy drunk, he told me to take some time off. The case with Bryce is cold right now. No one is talking, and there’s no fucking proof. Davy put eyes on him and let me hang back so I could get my shit together.

My shit’s not together, but I’m good at pretending.

Regardless, I’m thankful he’s let me take some time. I needed to step away, get my head right before I go back in.

I can’t be with this guy.

That’s not part of the rules.

I have to take down his brother. It’s my job. That’s what I chose to do. Take down the bad guy and move on to the next.

Taking a break from Grant’s case, I did get to work on others I care more about. I found two missing kids over the past few weeks. One was a baby stolen from his parents and then left behind a dumpster a few miles away.

I’m still fixated on Chloe’s case, going through her files over and over. The night she vanished, the days following. I end up passed out on the couch with a half-empty bottle of liquor and thick files with papers that lead to nowhere, just like Jace saw.

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