“Did you let the club know he was coming?” I asked, sniffing.
“No,” he answered. “I thought he’d be waiting out front for you.”
“They let him in, Jem.”
Jem muttered a curse. “I didn’t know.”
“So, how did they know he was coming?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
I shut my eyes tightly. Locke had given them his consent. “Locke knew he was coming.”
“That’s Locke for you, Char.”
Locke, who wouldn’t answer my never-ending stream of phone calls, but had picked up the fucking phone to let Conor through the door.
“I waited for him, Jem,” I breathed out raggedly, rubbing at my bruised heart through my chest. “Eight years and I missed him by minutes.”
“He’ll come back, Charlotte.”
Why did he leave in the first place?
I got off the phone a few minutes later and stood in the cold. I felt cool raindrops running down my shirt, down my spine, chilling me. I didn’t budge despite the desperate need for warmth. I stared up and down the street, fighting hard to notice anything out of the ordinary. But it was empty, not a soul lurked by. Still, I couldn’t find it in me to leave. I walked up and down the sidewalks, peering in alleyways, in cars, anywhere he might be in.
But the trail was getting cooler by the second.
He was gone.
He wasn’t at the house. Every part of me hoped, even anticipated, he would be waiting out front for me when I arrived. My heart couldn’t handle the heaviness.
I paid the babysitter before she left, then I spent the night looking out the windows, searching for him. I paced all through the hours and watched the minute hand crawl at a snail’s pace through the night.
How was it possible that this was worse than waiting all those years? Knowing he was out, every minute without him here with me felt like a brutal eternity.
Billy had to torment me, appearing only when I was at my worst. He didn’t say a word, though. He sat in the corner, watching me pace, a forlorn expression on his face. He was sad for me. I wished he’d just leave me to stew in my pain.
By one in the morning, I received a text message.
Coming.
A minute later a car pulled into my driveway, and I knew it would be business as usual. Locke came through the door, looking impeccable in his grey suit and pale blue tie. Without a greeting, without words, he followed me into my dimly lit study room where I opened the binder and threw the envelope – I threw it like it was made of fire – from tonight’s client across the desk where he stood. With both hands in his pockets, he stared down at it and made no move to take it.
“You’re distressed,” he said finally, looking up to meet my shaken gaze.
This guy was unbelievable. “You know why I’m distressed, Locke.”
He nodded.
“Did you know he was getting out early?”
“Prisons always make last-minute decisions –”
“Did. You. Know?”
He nodded again. “I knew.”
My mouth fell open. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”
Something about his gaze unsettled me. He didn’t answer. Nothing unusual there. Locke only parted with information when he wanted to. I had to take what I could get.
“You let him in the club?” I pressed.
“I allowed it.”
“Do you know where he is right now?”
“He’s around.”
“That’s it?” I spat, bewildered. “He’s around?”
His head tilted ever so slightly to the side and his voice lowered. “Watch your tone with me, Charlotte.”
The ends of my fingers shook at the look he was giving me. It was a warning. He didn’t like when he was repeated, or questioned, or pretty much anything these days.
I kept my tone in check, quietly saying, “You don’t know what it’s like, Locke, because you’re so arrogant in everything you do. You don’t have the slightest clue what it’s like not knowing. Eight years I’ve been kept in the dark where you’ve put me. Eight years I had to stand by knowing you knew how he was doing and giving nothing away. Then he shows up out of the blue months before his release date, and he flees before I even get to see him. I’m rightfully losing my mind, don’t you think?”
He listened intently until I finished, and that was the thing with Locke, he always listened to what I had to say, giving me his complete and undivided attention. It made him look so