Page 26 of I Will Find You

Whatever Rudy does, he’s doing it on the wrong side of the law.

Or the right side, depending on your perspective.

“Hey, man. What’s that?”

Newman’s not only a slob, he’s nosy as hell, too.

“Nothing.”

“License plate search?”

“Some jerk cut me off on the way to work.”

“Road rage? Planning to make his life hell?”

I close the window and return to actual work code.

“Something like that, Newman. Something like that.”

Chapter Five

Paigelynn

* * *

Nightmares are made of dreams.

But mine are nothing but terror.

There's a little girl inside of me. A part of me that never really grew up. She's still waiting for her mom and dad. She wants to be loved.

Needs to be loved.

She’s on a small rowboat, in the middle of a churning ocean, wearing nothing but a flowered nightgown, the salty water stinging her face, drenching her long hair. I’m there, too, an adult watching her, screaming her name over and over.

“Paigelynn! Paigelynn!”

She cannot hear me. I jump from my own boat into the water and swim, but suddenly, the ocean is nothing but blood.

It’s pouring from my back.

I reach behind me to find a hole in my back, the blood darkening the water.

A fin appears in the distance.

The little girl screams harder.

And then she barks.

Barks again.

“Cam!” I gasp into the air, but no one comes.

Just the fin.

In the cold water.

* * *

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