Page 143 of Endgame
Self-pity’s as pathetic as the sob that escapes me.
“It’s fine. I’m fine.” I stalk off toward the main road.
Since I ran out of money on the ride over, I’m trying to figure out the way to Everett’s house on foot. Just a few more miles—at least, I hope. Then I’ll be there. With him.
I’ll be home.
Where Everett could shout at me. He could zap me.
He could fuck me until I pass out.
After that, he’d be gentle again. While I’d sleep, he’d offer me some type of warmth.
I need it more than air right now. It’s fucked up, but I do.
I just do.
26
EVERETT
“Where’s my wife?”
That was the first question I barked at Cormac when he called me around noon.
As soon as his name flashed on my phone, I knew.
My cases, my job, the lunch I had delivered to my office. None of that mattered.
Aurora was gone.
“She ran off. I can’t find her.”
Straight to the point.
My wife disappeared, and since then, I’ve been looking for her.
First, my driver took me to the hospital, hoping for clues. Cormac had watched the security tapes tracing her last steps, but I needed to see them for myself.
There was nothing on them that could tell me where she’d gone.
Without a credit card or money, it made sense that she couldn’t have gotten far.
I dismissedmy driver and took the car, roaming the streets by myself. I needed to be the person to track her down. To protect her.
Me.
Around and around I went. Pulled up to every storefront in the area. Entered each one looking for her.
She couldn’t have gone to her parents. The things she told me about them, there was no chance she’d turn to them.
So I looked for her anywhere else for two hours straight.
Looking for another missing girl I cared about dragged me down the worst kind of memory lane. Yet there I was. Scouring for her.
During this time, my nerves were frayed. The worst-case scenarios ran through my head.
I cursed myself for being too vain to install a tracker in her collar.
