Page 263 of At the Edge of Surrender

I immediately went to the police and told them I found the man who’d been responsible. They said they would look into it, but nothing has come of it.

Except I’m being followed. I know I am.

Desperate, I told you I needed you to watch Maci again because I had another work trip to LA, but I went back to Moonlit Ridge and watched Kane from a distance.

“She was here.” Kane’s grating voice drew me from my sister’s words. “Fuck, she was here. She came for my help.”

I couldn’t respond, could only gulp around the sorrow before I continued reading.

I saw him with a little boy. A child I found out was his nephew.

And I think I knew then that he was a good man. But I hadn’t quite discovered what that really meant.

I tried to get up the nerve to talk to him, and I went in and sat at the bar at the club he owned. There was a bartender. Her name was Mallory. She kept watching me strangely, chatting with me a little before she leaned over the bar top and asked if I was in trouble. She said I couldn’t be in a better place if I was.

There was something inside me that twisted with the way she said it, and I knew I was on to something. So, I told her I was. She was hesitant. Swearing me to secrecy. Saying the hope of so many was riding on it.

She told me about Kane’s secret group called Sovereign Sanctum. These men who would help me. It was something they did in the shadows. Behind the scenes. I don’t know all the details yet. I couldn’t find it on the internet. But I think it means that he will help us. That he has the power and the will to do it.

I tried to get up the nerve to go and talk to him right then, but I lost it at the last minute.

I have to go back. Ask him for help before it’s too late. So, I took the bracelet. You know the one. You thought I didn’t know, but I knew you kept it hidden at the bottom of your drawer for all these years.

I don’t know how you got it, but I saw him wearing it that night, and I believe he will know exactly who I am when I show it to him.

I know what it represents to you.

Those horrible three days.

Everything we lost.

Our innocence.

Our belief.

Jana.

But to me, it’s come to mean something else.

I’m sorry. I’ll give it back. I promise. But I need to do this first. I have to face him, demand to know his involvement, beg him for help.

But if something happens to me and I can’t get to him, Emery, I think maybe you can.

I left the letter for you to go to him, and I have faith that once you meet him, you will discover what’s happening and get into this folder. I couldn’t leave this out in the open for someone else to find it.

Understand now why I wrote you that first letter for you to go to him. Why I believe he’s the best thing for Maci.

He’ll take care of her.

I believe he’ll take care of all of us.

Take this folder to him and give him the information. It has Tyke’s address plus pictures of the places in LA and Seattle I believe he is using to smuggle girls. Kane will know what to do with the information.

I believe it. I trust it.

I’m so sorry I did it this way. I wanted to protect you. Make right what had gone so terribly wrong. Bring back your heart and your belief.

I hope you know through it, I would do anything for you. For you and Maci. And for Jana.

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