The Ahern Brothers Collection - Claudia Burgoa Page 0,35
could she say that when we barely knew these people? I followed right behind them. Ava began to walk a few steps after me and Shaun joined her.
My heart stopped when I heard his creepy voice. “Dad got us a new toy. You’ll cooperate, won’t you, sweet Ava?”
“Until I turn into an elephant,” Wes says, thumping his hand against the table.
“What?” I frown at Wes, who’s talking nonsense.
“Are you okay?” Wes looks at me in bewilderment.
“Yes, why would you ask?”
“You’ve been staring at your food. I’ve been talking to you, and you’re just nodding and shaking your head.”
Peyton reminded me of them … Corbin and Shaun. The girl. Poor little Ava, who is finally at peace after having to live with them.
“Can we go?”
“Yes. We can order something and eat at the office,” he says taking me into his arms. “I just want you to remember that you’re safe with me.”
“Of course, I am, silly. And I’m okay.” I lie, scratching my head hard. Letting my nails dig deep into my scalp. The pain releases the anxiety building inside my gut.
Nothing is going to happen to me.
Yet, the dread is overtaking me so swiftly that no amount of self-inflicted pain will help me.
What if they see me?
I have Wes by my side.
“I don’t want to pry,” he says as we board the elevator. “But who died that night?”
“Ava.” I stare at the floor.
“Who was Ava to you?”
“Ava was …” I remember the thin, little blonde girl who barely spoke and was afraid of her own shadow. When I met her and her family I knew something wasn’t right. Shaun’s bloodshot eyes coupled with his weird comments during dinner. The way he touched her knee with a fork and ran it over her leg. It was so bizarre and sickening.
“My mom met a guy when I was fifteen. They got married a year later and moved in with us,” I explain trying to filter my story.
This isn’t the time to be open with him. We’re just starting a relationship. How would he react if he knew what I lived through, what I saw, and what I had to do … would he ever understand?
“He was a single parent, too,” I continue, swallowing the lump forming in my throat.
“Corbin had two children—twins. Ava and Shaun.”
“We were told that Ava was your sister,” he says with an inquisitive tone.
His hands tap lightly against the table. He’s dying to throw multiple questions at me.
“But she was like your sister?”
I shrug. We weren’t related, nonetheless by the end we’d shared so much. Ava and I barely exchanged words. Yet, we had a bond that would keep us together until …. My heart thumps fast remembering her last moment. The way she lay on the floor bleeding but finally leaving the pain behind.
Though, it almost felt like when she died, she left all of her anguish behind for me to pick up. Every second that I lived with her, what we lived through in that room together, is coming back to me now. It feels like it happened last night and like I should be hiding in case he comes back.
“What happened to Shaun?”
I freeze at his question; my heart accelerates.
“You say one word, bitch, and you’ll die. Do you understand?”
“Kill me,” I begged him. “Just let me die.”
Chapter Eighteen
Wes
“Stop,” she says, her voice trembling.
Fuck, she’s shutting down. I had her right where I wanted for a few minutes and now … she’s about to run away. But we can’t stop right now.
“Abby, it’s just a question,” I reassure her, gently.
“What are you doing, Wes?” She shakes her head, stands from her seat and walks away.
I stare at her silhouette for a few seconds thinking about everything she just told me. It doesn’t sound like much, but I feel like I just opened the vault and I’m about to find the secret. Or, in her case, hopefully I’m about to find a way to help her. In order not to lose this window, I follow and catch up with her before she steps out of the coffee house.
“We’re done with story time,” she says firmly.
She’s shutting down. This can’t be it now that I know that there’s so much more to the story. If only I can convince her to answer a few more questions. I link our fingers together and realize that she’s trembling.
Fuck, I mouth.
She’s shivering, and I didn’t realize it until I touched her. What’s going on inside that mind of hers? Abby