clothing, as if she’s woefully out of her element in this climate. But her face… I recognize it instantly. Though I’m drawing primarily off someone with similar, younger-looking features. Those bright blue eyes. Golden brown hair.
“Please,” the woman pleads as I lurch for the door handle. “I just want to talk.”
“I’m busy.” I try to close the door, but she blocks it with her hand.
“Please.”
“How did you even know I work here?”
She cuts her gaze away, biting her lip. “After the article on you… I thought I’d put it all behind me. But seeing your name again, I couldn’t.” She sighs and runs a trembling hand through her hair. “So I hired a private detective to help me find you. I just want to ask you one thing, and I need you to look me in the eye when I do.”
I should slam the door in her face. Run. I don’t know why I don’t.
Guilt? Deep down, a part of me knows the truth I don’t want to face. She doesn’t deserve any of this.
“Do you know what happened to her?” she demands. “Do you know what happened to my daughter?” She holds my gaze with an intensity that makes me look down at the pavement.
“No.” I try to close the door again. “Please, go—”
“Wait! When Lexi… She had a bracelet, but they never found it. She wore it everywhere. But seeing as how you were so close with her. Do you know what happened to it?”
“No. I’m sorry, but I don’t.” I step inside the shop and close the door before she can stop me.
“Hannah!” She knocks. “Hannah, please!”
The sound becomes insistent. I slam my hands over my ears, but I still hear her.
“I’ll leave my card. If you remember anything, please. Just call me.”
I don’t move. Just when I think she’s finally gone, the door shudders again.
“Leave me alone!”
“Hannah?” The voice isn’t a woman’s this time.
I whirl around to find Liam on the other end, his expression puzzled.
My hands shake as I wrench the door open and force a grin. “Hey…”
“Hey.” He eyes me warily, his hands in the pockets of a navy jacket. I notice that he’s not wearing his uniform today, swapping it out for a shirt and a pair of jeans. “Your brother seems to be worried about you,” he says. “He wanted me to keep an eye out. Everything okay between you two?”
In some ways, it’s alarming that Branden isn’t here himself and sent a proxy instead. I may avoid him, but he knows I don’t have it in me to shun everyone.
“We’re fine,” I croak.
Liam nods. “Well, if you’re not busy, I could spot you for a coffee, and you can bitch to me about him.”
“I can’t…” Leaving the store at all feels daunting. Impossible.
But not because of Branden, a part of me hisses. He isn’t who you’re hoping might come by. That’s why you’re here.
“No worries. Oh, and is this yours?” He hands me something I crumple into a fist without looking at it—a business card. “Anyway, if you’re busy, I’ll leave you to it—”
“Wait.” I head inside for my bag, dropping the card inside it, and fish out my cell phone. As it powers on, dozens of messages crop up, filed under one contact—Bran <3. If I were hoping they’d reinforce my decision to keep hiding, they don’t. It’s the same demands over and over again. Where are you? Answer me, Hannah!
But not every message is from him. As Mara said, she’d texted me the other day, but her most recent one is from barely an hour ago. Wish me luck! ;)
When I return to Liam, there’s an ache in my throat that wasn’t there a minute ago. “Can we just walk for a while?”
“Sure.” He nods, letting me set the pace and direction, but it’s somehow still a shock that we end up in the part of town we do. If he recognizes it, he doesn’t say. Looking at his face, I can’t discern if he was Branden’s initial informant who spied me in a certain tattoo shop just up ahead.
Rather than pass it, we enter a sandwich shop across the street and split a sub.
Liam regales me with stories about his suburban upbringing and cracks jokes about what it’s like on the force. His voice has a way of setting me at ease, lightening the atmosphere of even this dingy shop. His mood is infectious, and despite everything that’s happened within the past forty-eight hours…this almost feels normal. Two