Page 84 of Scorch

The words were coming out now, and I realized I couldn’t stop them.I needed to say it.I had started this, and I had to finish.

“I woke up one morning after being drugged.Billy and Carla were passed out with needles of whatever they were shooting up littering the living room floor.I knew I had to go.That I would have no other chance.I went to their room and found the stash of cash I knew Carla hid under the mattress, and then I ran.I took a bus to the next state, then got off and took a different one.

“I was living in a run-down motel room that I paid for weekly while working at a Laundromat when I started getting sick.The owner told me I was pregnant.I hadn’t even realized it.I was a kid, and I had to be told—” I let out a small wail at the memory.Because for one brief moment in my life, I hadn’t wanted my daughter.I had been terrified.

Gathering myself together to finish, I clung to Garrett as he held me closer to him.

“Juanita Gilfry—that was my boss’s name.She owned the Laundromat.She bought me a pregnancy test, and it was positive.She took me in to live in her two-bedroom apartment with her six kids, mother, and elderly aunt.I slept on the sofa.She helped me get Medicaid.Took me to doctor’s appointments.”

I smiled through my tears as I thought of the day I’d heard my baby’s heartbeat for the first time.I loved her so much in that moment.I wanted to give her everything I never had.

“I lived there until Gypsi turned one.I saved enough to get a small studio apartment in the same complex.We stayed there until I swindled the men in poker.You know the rest.”

Garrett pressed a kiss to my head, and I wrapped my arms around him.There was a lighter feeling in my chest.Sharing my worst nightmares with someone else, someone I could trust and who loved me, it helped.

“Come to bed.Let me hold you,” Garrett said in a husky whisper.

I went willingly.Letting him lead me, pick me up, and tuck me in against his chest.

When I closed my eyes that night, I didn’t fear the nightmares that slipped in sometimes.I knew I had a protector.Someone who would never let the evil touch me again.

Thirty-Nine

Garrett

Kenneth Houston took one last pull from his cigar before dropping it onto the overgrown yard at the run-down trailer we’d pulled up to.Gage stood with his usual amused smirk on his face as he waited for me to explain why I’d brought them to a trailer park in West Virginia.

“I’m looking for two people.Billy and Carla Day.Neither dies until I have what I want from them.Then, I want their deaths to be brutal, and I want to do it myself.I need their blood, agony, and death done by my hands.”That was the only information I’d given them when I called both men and told them to meet me at the plane before five this morning.

Kenneth studied the trailer, then turned back to me.“This must be personal.I can’t remember the last time you and I handled this kind of thing.”

I nodded once, then headed toward the door.

“Should Gage stay with the vehicle?”Kenneth asked.

“No.You’re here because you’re one of my closest friends.Gage is here because he’s a psychopath.He’s needed inside.”

Gage chuckled, as if my description wasn’t accurate.

I didn’t bother knocking, but stepped back, and with trained precision, I kicked the cheap-ass door in.A loud female shriek, followed by a man’s cursing, was instant.I stepped inside the doorway, taking in the scene.It was fucking disgusting.Empty bottles of cheap liquor, needles, and garbage littered the kitchen and living room area.

I immediately recognized the tall, skinny man with greasy hair and circles under his eyes, wearing a pair of dingy underwear.He was the man in the photos Levi had given me.Billy Day.He stood there, gaping at me before he reached for whatever weapon he had tucked under the cushions of his faded brown sofa.

“That would be a real bad idea,” Gage drawled, walking in with his gun already drawn and pointed at the man.“My finger’s itching to pretty up this place with some bright red blood.”

The man froze, his shifty gaze going from me to Gage.

“We didn’t take nothing from Johnny.He’s lying.We bought our lot nice and square and wasn’t from the likes of him.He’s lying, saying we owe him shit.We don’t,” the woman shrieked.

I turned to look at her for the first time.She was younger than Carla.Too young for Billy, but she did look legal.

Gage raised his eyebrows as he looked at me.He was clearly amused.

“You moved on from Carla, I see,” I said, turning my gaze back to Billy.

He narrowed his eyes at me.“What you know about Carla?”he asked.

“Who the fuck is Carla?!”the other woman shouted.

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