“It’s my turn,” I say. “But I’m not leaving. Owen took my coffee; he can fucking do it. I’m busy trying to save Gabriella, remember?”
“I’ll go if it means getting away from him. He is a mad man right now.” Owen lifts his hands and walked away, slamming the door shut that leads to the garage. It’s the only way in or out. Jaxon is bound and determined to keep the Cliff House safe. Everything has a weakness, though. Like a few months ago when Quinn’s ex-fiancé was trapped in the house and somehow outwitted us.
Until Jaxon took his head off, literally.
I can’t wait to do that to Kendrick. Blood brother be damned. He means nothing to me.
“Sebastian, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I say, typing away on my computer again.
“You’re obsessing.”
My hand freezes on my keyboard, and when I stare at Jaxon, it’s like I don’t even know him anymore. “Obsess? Are you seriously using that against me right now? The man who objected at his ex-girlfriend’s wedding and locked her in a room against her will, and I’m the one obsessed? Are you kidding me right now?” My voice raises as I vent. “Of course, I’m fucking obsessed! She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved. At least you got to be with Quinn before you went to prison. I haven’t even kissed Gabriella. I never had the pleasure of that. Instead, my monster brother did god-knows-what to her, and you expect me to not obsess? Fuck. You. Jaxon. If obsessing kills me, I will do it gladly until I’m six-feet fucking under!” The computer dings and I fall over the stool to check it out. “Shit, damn it,” I barely catch myself on the counter before pulling myself up and kicking the stool away. The annoying metal object flies against the couch, then bounces off and scrapes against the floor.
The brand-new hardwood Jaxon just installed.
I press a few buttons, and the picture zooms in. It’s just her profile, a bit blurry, but it’s her. The blinking square around her face beeps, and the important peaks of her face have small dots connecting, signaling that it is a ninety-percent match.
“It’s her. It’s her!” I jump in the air and clap. “It’s really her. I fucking got you, baby. I got you. Where did he take you? Huh?” I ask more to myself than anyone else as I type away. Now that I have a lock on her face, getting the other images is easy. My smile fades when I see her being tugged along like a dog, a collar wrapped around her neck.
Wait a minute.
The collar.
I did see her.
I fall back, forgetting the stool isn’t there, and my head hits the floor with an unforgiving thud, ringing my brain.
“Shit, are you okay?” Jaxon tries to help me up, but I bat his hands away.
I stand and hold a hand against my head, waiting for the echoing sounds to clear. “It wasn’t just a dream. I did see her, but I couldn’t tell the difference between what I saw and the dream the other night. I fucking knew it, but as soon as I saw her, she was gone,” I comment, knowing no one will understand how I feel.
Has no one had dreams so real, they couldn’t decide what was a facade caused by the imagination?
I click on another image and hold my breath. She was staring right at me, holding a leash in her hand. She saw me, and she didn’t move? The air is knocked out of my lungs, and I press the power button the computer.
She saw me when I wasn’t looking, and she didn’t flinch. Does Gabriella love Kendrick? Is that what this is now? Has too much time gone by for me to save her? He has infiltrated her mind once and for all, and she is his.
“What’s wrong? What are you doing?” Jaxon pushes me out of the way to turn the computer on. My back hits the wall and I think about the last time I saw her, truly saw her. Something that is a memory, not a twisted dream.
“Leave it alone, Jaxon. She doesn’t want me. It seems like she stared right at me and didn’t move. She waited for Kendrick.”
Jaxon boots up the computer again and while the screen loads, he props his hip against the counter. “For someone so smart, you can be fucking stupid. Did you think, that maybe, just maybe, she wanted to go