Page 80 of Begin Again
Is that what happened to Nick?
My mind flashes back to the thought of the bloody shirt and the broken phone. Was this man the reason my husband went missing? So many scenarios run through my head of what could’ve happened…Each ends in my husband running for his life as this man chases him through unfamiliar territory. Each ends with my husband left bruised and bloodied—or worse—in the wilderness, left for nature to take its course.
The man heaves something out of his pocket and tosses it in the middle of the road, his eyes never leaving mine. When I realize what it is, tears prick the corners of my eyes and nausea rises in my throat.
Nick’s wallet.
The black Louis Vuitton wallet I gifted my husband for Christmas four years ago. He rolled his eyes playfully when he opened it, saying he didn’t need something so expensive to carry around his credit cards and ID. Despite his protests, he kissed me and began transferring his stuff over. My husband would have no problem buying me something so expensive—he liked spoiling me—but he’d never do it for himself, so I did it for him. I didn’t look at the wallet as a symbol of status. It was a gift, something heneeded, not just something he wanted.
When my eyes rise from the road, the mystery man smiles victoriously.
“Nina!” Beau’s voice rips through my head.
“W-what?”
“For fuck’s sake, I’ve been saying your name for a straight minute.” His voice sounds a little more distant and I can hear the wind in the background. He’s driving. But he’s almost twohours away, he’d never make it in time if this man decided to do something.
“He has it.” My eyes lower to the wallet again.
“What?”
“Nick’s wallet.”
“You can’t possibly know it’s—”
“I know what it is, Beau! I bought the damn thing. I’m telling you—”
“Listen to me right now.” Beau’s voice is deadly on the other end of the line. “Do not get out of that car. Rhett is on his way. You need to leave.”
“But B—”
He cuts me off before I can even say his full name. “Davina, I do not care if it’s Nick himself out there, donotget out of that car. You leave right fucking now. Do you hear me?” He stops me when I try to protest again. “Let Rhett handle it. I’m on my way and if you’re there when I get there, I’m going to arrest you.”
“Good thing you have no jurisdiction here, then.”
Beau doesn’t laugh at my attempt at a joke.
I scan over the man on the other side of the road again. He is so still. He stands as tall and stagnant as the mountain above us. I’m not sure he’s even blinked in the last three minutes. Has it really only been three minutes? It feels like we’ve been locked in this stalemate for hours.
“Nina,” Beau pleads. “Let us handle this. Please. Letmehandle this.”
“Because that’s gone so well for me up until this point?”
Beau sucks in a breath. “I will have Rhett arrest you for interfering with an investigation.”
He wouldn’t dare.
“Do not get out of the car.”
“What if he’s gone?” I ask, starting to let my foot off the break.
“We’ll find him.”
How? I barely saw him to begin with. Not until he wanted me to. Who knows how long he’s been hanging around? Watching. Did he watch us search last year? Was he a volunteer? Has he been here the whole time, hiding in plain sight?
“Nina, we will find him. I promise. Please, you have to leave. Elena can’t lose both of her parents.” Beau’s words lift my foot the rest of the way.
To my surprise, the man doesn’t move when I pull out of the lot. Glancing in the rearview mirror, I watch him. He turns his head, watching me leave, and my heart stops when I see the other person standing in the lot, directly behind where my car had been sitting seconds ago.
