Page 89 of Pretty Stolen Dolls

Pushing the door open, I jerk my gun from its holster and creep through her apartment. All the things I left unsaid to her plow into my mind like a nuke going off inside me, obliterating my soul. She doesn’t know I love her. I didn’t say the actual full words. She doesn’t know.

And I lied.

I didn’t protect her.

I let him get to her.

I letthemget to her.

I reach her bedroom and acid surges through my blood and settles in the marrow of my bones.

A disturbed bed sheet sits crumbled on the floor and there’s blood.

Fuck.

Screams buzz from the corridor and I don’t want to go see why. Tears burn in my eyes for the first time since Laney died. My chest is tight and compressing in on itself. I’m moving toward the commotion. A woman is screaming at the door of another apartment. She’s pointing with one hand while holding the other to her mouth.

“She’s dead.”

My feet move in slow motion.

Thud. Stomp. Thud. Stomp. Thud. Stomp.

Entering the apartment, air I was holding in my lungs leaves my body in a hiss.

It’s not her.

It’s not fucking her.

Thank fucking God.

“Oh sweet Jesus, someone killed my therapist,” the woman sobs.

And although it’s fucking horrid seeing a woman’s head floating in a fish tank, I know it’s not my girl. Not my broken, lost girl.

They fucking have her.

And I’m going to get her back.

Jade

MY NOSTRILS STING AND MYbody aches.

Sensitive and bruised.

I roll my neck and force my heavy lids to open. It takes a couple tries, but they open and burn as they do. My sight is blurry as my retinas adjust to the light. The memories of my dream rush to the forefront of my mind and I quickly raise my hand. There’s blood there.

Thud.

I sit up and my head swims. I’m woozy. The walls around me come into focus and my lungs seize. Air hisses from me when my eyes dip to see I’m naked.

No.

Thud.

Clank!

I jump from the tiny bed of the cell from so many years ago.

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