Page 129 of Give Me Redemption

He’s here.

That’s a good sign, right?

After everything I’ve done, he’s here.

Does his family know? Or is this a secret? I look between his eyes, sapphire blues filled with a dare.

Take a chance on me.

Take a chance on us.

I risk the fall.

“So, what’s your story?” I ask him.

He clears his throat. “Rough childhood, was adopted at eight, grew up on a horse ranch, joined the Army when I was eighteen, had a few people close to me die, did something stupid to get booted out, and then I fell in love.” His backwards snapback makes him look so young and sexy, and the fact he said he fell in love makes my heart full to the rim with hope.

“You?” he asks, scanning his eyes over me.

I take in a deep breath before looking down at the napkin my beer is on. Condensation slides down the glass, puddling around the bottom. I reach my hand over and run my finger up the brown bottle. “How much time you got?” I ask, darting my eyes over to him.

“I got all night.”

Chapter Fifty-Two

Harlow

The sun has faded, causing the sky to look like a ripe peach. Orange-red and beautiful. Jace and I sit out on the balcony of his apartment. He smokes a cigarette, and I sit with my ankles crossed on the opposite chair.

“You haven’t heard anything from him since?” he asks, looking over the email I got a while back from that psychopath who took Chloe.

“No,” I confirm. “He’s disappeared all over again. It’s the most frustrating thing. We’ll get a glimpse of him, and then he’ll vanish. But those pictures of Chloe confirm she’s alive.” I lean my head back and look up at the sky.

She’s alive.

“Harlow,” he says.

I turn to look at him. It’s odd hearing my name slip from his lips. He’s called me Dalton this whole time, except when we first met. I’ll always, always hate the name Michelle.

“What happens when you find him?” he asks.

“I’m going to kill him.” I almost shock myself when I say those words out loud because I’ve never said them before. I’ve thought them plenty of times. God, how many times have they passed through my mind? The dark places I’ve gone when thinking about killing that man.

How would I do it?Would I wrap a fishing line around his throat and pull it slowly until it breaks skin and makes him bleed out? Would I puncture an artery and watch as blood pours from his worthless body?

“What then?” he says, grabbing my attention, pulling me from the shadows.

I lift a brow and cast my eyes to the street below us. “I’ve been searching for this man since I was a girl. The night Chloe was taken, I dove into the details. I played out how he grabbed her from the bed, how he got her out of the window without my parents hearing. He had to have drugged her first.

“Something quick. An injection of some kind because my sister would have fought. I worked it all out in my head. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t eat. I focused on finding her. I showed up at the police station daily asking if they had any leads.

“At first, they turned me away, but eventually they saw I wasn’t letting this go. I became a regular there, so much so that they let me occupy an unused office just so I could be close to the action. Close enough, so if they had anything, I would be there.

“I got to know the people working on her case. I would come home from school and do my homework there.

“I would sleep better there, because somehow I felt closer to her. Like I was actually doing something, even though deep down inside I knew I wasn’t.

“I begged my parents to let me get my GED, so I could start college earlier. They eventually gave in when I wouldn’t stop asking. Truthfully, I would have done it behind their backs if they wouldn’t have finally said yes.” I run a hand over my face, thinking back over those years. I was a messed-up kid.I’m still messed up.

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