Seeking Happily Ever After (Ever After #8) - Elena Aitken Page 0,65
subsided, and she wrapped her chubby fist around Charlotte’s finger. It was the last thing Char remembered before losing consciousness.
Chapter Seventeen
Nick had taken a guess, and he’d been right. Charlotte’s car was parked outside the cabin she’d last been working on. The one where they…no. He wouldn’t let himself go there. He had to focus. He was out of the vehicle and running to the door when Stephanie appeared from inside the cabin and stopped him.
“She’s not in there.”
“What?” He glanced around. “When did you…where is…is Amelia in…”
“No. Amelia’s not—”
“And Char?”
Stephanie shook her head. “I don’t know,” Stephanie said. “We just got here, but—”
“We?”
“Travis is inside.”
In a different circumstance, he might have let his brain process what his friend was saying, but it wasn’t important. He could only focus on Charlotte and Amelia.
“What’s he—”
“There’s a man in there, Nick. He’s unconscious and…there’s a lot of—”
He pushed past her into the cabin and stopped short.
Blood. Lots of it.
Travis Bishop was crouched next to a big man, his fingers on his neck. “He has a pulse. Do you know who he is?”
Nick shook his head. “What the hell? Where is all this blood from?”
“There’s a gun.” Steph bent and picked it up.
“It’s not from him,” Travis said. “He looks like he was hit with this.” He gestured to the ax lying next to the man.
Charlotte.
He looked back to the man and the spot on the floor where he’d found Charlotte upset after a phone call.
Billy.
Fuck.
Why had he let it go? When Char told him Billy had called her, that should have been enough for him to go after the man and make sure he could never get to her. He’d failed.
Nick ran a hand down his face and took a breath. He’d been too wrapped up in everything else, he’d let Charlotte get hurt. If she wasn’t okay, he’d never forgive himself.
“I think this asshole is Billy,” he said. “Charlotte’s ex. But where is she?”
And where was Amelia?
Nick spun in a circle. “She was here.” His eyes landed on the blood trail he’d stepped over in his haste to get into the cabin. So. Much. Blood. “Where is she?” A dog barked from somewhere outside, but Nick couldn’t make sense of anything.
“It’s Tinker Bell,” Steph said. “Maybe she’s found something.”
Nick again looked to his friend in confusion, but Steph only grabbed his hand. “Come on. Maybe she found Char.”
“I’ve got this,” Travis said. “Go. I’ll call for help.”
Together, Stephanie and Nick ran through the woods. He didn’t know where he was going, only that he hoped and prayed it was to Charlotte and Amelia. Somehow, he knew they were together. They had to be. But…the blood.
No.
He couldn’t let himself think of the blood and what it might mean. Was it Charlotte’s? It had to be. Or…
“This way.” Steph led him over a log and toward the barking. It was getting louder.
When did Stephanie get a dog?
He couldn’t think straight.
“Here.”
They reached the main lodge building, where a giant puppy bounced around on the porch, barking and scratching at the closed door. Headlights shone over them as another vehicle arrived. Damon maybe? He didn’t wait to find out. Stephanie called the dog away and Nick yanked the door open. The room was dark but with the headlights illuminating the room from outside, he could make out the shape of a woman.
“Char?”
He ran to her and dropped to his knees next to the still form, but it wasn’t Charlotte. “Jessica?” She was limp, but breathing. A packet of what had to be the drugs she’d bought was on the floor next to her. He picked her up by the shoulders and shook her. Fear rose in his chest. “Jessica! Where’s the baby? Where’s Amelia?” He shook her again. Still no response.
Abandoning Jessica, he turned around and that’s when he saw the blood. His heart sank and his entire body went numb with fear. But he forced his legs to move. To follow the blood trail around the corner.
“Char?”
She was propped up against the wall, not moving. Amelia was wrapped in a blood-stained blanket, cuddled up against Charlotte’s chest, sleeping, her hand wrapped around Charlotte’s finger. And the blood. There was so much blood. Nick dropped to his knees. His hands were everywhere and nowhere all at once. The baby, startled by the fuss, woke and immediately started crying.
“Oh thank God, Amelia.” He wanted to weep with relief for his baby, but he couldn’t look away from Charlotte. She wasn’t moving.