Page 79 of Beautiful Scars: Unshakeable

I've been where he is. The guilt of knowing I'm responsible for putting him there threatens to choke me.

I was the one who pushed for getting them outside again. I was the one who designed the security protocols that failed. I was the one who didn't watch until I saw she was completely inside.

"We underestimated him." I force the words out, letting the word 'again' die in my throat because it won't help either of us.

"Yeah, you think?" His laugh is bitter. "I don't know how I can do this, Z. I keep thinking about that phone call with Sunny. About what he—" He cuts himself off, hands clenching into fists.

He kicks at a pile of blackened rocks.

"One hour." Colt's voice is deadly quiet. "You said give you an hour to find something. It's been almost an entire day, and we're no closer than we were when she disappeared."

"I know." The admission burns. "But we keep looking. We analyze every frame of footage, check every camera in a hundred-mile radius, run down every possible lead until we find something."

"And what if we don't?" He finally looks at me, and the raw fear in his eyes matches the knot in my gut. "What if this time, we're too late?"

I have no answer for him. No reassurance to offer. Because he's voicing the same fears that have been eating at me since we discovered Jade was gone. We've always been able to get the answers, come up with the plans, the solutions. But now...

"Z?" Wolf's voice in my ear again. "We've got the new security measures online, but... " His voice trails off and there is a long pause before he continues. "Just get back here."

I key my mic. "On my way."

I follow Colt back to the house and inside. The living room falls silent as we enter—a heavy, suffocating kind of quiet that makes my skin crawl.

Sunny's awake in the armchair, but her eyes are vacant. She's staring into the distance, fixed on something only she can see. Her knees are pulled tight to her chest, arms wrapped around them in that defensive posture I haven't seen since we first brought her home from the warehouse.

"Angel?" I keep my voice soft, approaching slowly. She doesn't respond, doesn't even blink.

Levi kneels beside the chair, his hand hovering near but not touching her. The fear in his eyes when he looks at me twists something in my chest. "She woke up screaming. Won't let me touch her."

"Sunny..." I try again, crouching to meet her eye level. Nothing.

"It's my fault." Her voice is barely a whisper. "He took her because of me. Everything he does is because of me."

"No." The word comes out sharper than I intend. I force myself to soften my tone. "This isn't on you, Angel. None of it."

She shakes her head in a jerky, almost violent motion. "You don't understand. He's never going to stop. Not until..." Her breath hitches. "He's going to hurt her like he hurt me. Because of me. Because I wasn't good enough, wasn't careful enough, wasn't—"

"Stop." Levi's voice cracks. "Please, Sunny, don't—"

"Should've known better." She continues like she hasn't heard him, words spilling out faster now as she digs her nails into her leg. "I'm so stupid. So fucking stupid."

I reach for her hand but she flinches away, pulling further into herself. The movement is so familiar—exactly how she reacted those first days after we got her back.

"He's going to kill her you know." The words come out dead, emotionless. "Like those other girls. To punish me. He's going to make sure I know it's my fault. Because I didn't learn. Because I thought I could get away."

"Look at me." I try to put every ounce of authority I possess into those words. She doesn't respond. "Sunny. Look at me right now."

Her eyes finally flicker to mine, but there's nothing behind them. Just emptiness where my fierce, brave girl should be.

"We're going to find her." I hold her gaze, willing her to believe me. "And then we're going to end him. For good this time. I promise."

"You can't promise me that." Her laugh is hollow, wrong. "You couldn't protect her. Couldn't protect me. He's alwaysgoing to win. Don't you see that? And I can't..." Her voice breaks. "I can't watch anyone else get hurt because of me."

Levi makes a sound like he's been punched. I know exactly how he feels. We've seen Sunny scared before, seen her hurt and angry and ready to give up. But this... this emptiness, this defeat...

"Angel, please." I risk touching her cheek. She allows it but doesn't lean in like she usually does. "Stay with us. Don't let him take you back there."

"I never left." The words steal my breath. "Not really. He made sure of that. And now Jade..."

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