legal aid…well, I don’t know what else to say. But when I saw the file, I was—”
“Is she in danger?”
There was a hesitancy on the other end of the line, and it was all Nick needed to know.
“Off the record, Nick?”
He waited.
“I know what the law says, but if I were you...”
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
He ended the call and immediately dialed Damon. “We need to find her, now. Tell me Remi located them.”
“I was about to call you.” Damon sighed. “Remi said his contact reported seeing her.”
“His contact?”
“A dealer. He’s known to the cops.”
“Wait. A dealer? As in drugs?” Nick was going to throw up. “But she’s clean. She—”
“Not anymore, apparently.”
“Fuck.” What had he done?
“That was about an hour ago. Last she was spotted, she was headed through town on the road that leads up to Lynx Creek.”
“Lynx Creek?”
Charlotte. The cabins. Lynx Creek.
“I’m on my way,” he said. “I think Charlotte’s probably out there, too.”
“Char? Why would she—”
“I’m at least fifteen minutes away. Dammit. Meet me there. And call Steph. Maybe she’s out there.”
Open your eyes.
Open your eyes.
They were so heavy. It took all her effort to open her eyes, and when she did, she immediately wanted to close them again.
Blood. So much blood.
And Billy. He was lying on the cabin floor. Was he dead? Surely she hadn’t hit him that hard.
The gunshot.
Slowly, Charlotte brought her hand to her right side and pulled it away, covered in blood. Oh my God.
She had to move. If Billy wasn’t dead, he would wake up, and she couldn’t be there. She needed to get to her phone.
Slowly, she managed to pull herself to her feet. She used the wall for balance as she moved as quickly as she could to the door.
The fresh air felt like freedom and she almost sagged to the ground in relief, but she wasn’t safe yet.
Phone.
She needed her phone.
With laser focus, she left the porch and the railing that was supporting her, and lurched toward her car and the salvation of her phone. Her feet wouldn’t work properly. She tripped over a root, or herself—she couldn’t be sure—and she hit the ground on her hands and knees.
The pain ripped through her side and clouded her vision in white.
No.
She couldn’t pass out. She needed to stay—
A baby’s cry shattered the silence of the forest.
A baby?
Charlotte couldn’t wrap her head around it. Why would there be a baby crying in the forest? She was hallucinating. The stress of losing Amelia and the pain…she was dying. It wasn’t real.
Another cry.
Amelia.
That was real. That was Amelia’s cry.
She may not have given birth to the child but she loved her in a way that couldn’t be properly put into words, and she’d know that cry anywhere. Even when she was barely conscious.
Still in the dirt on her hands and knees, Char turned in the direction of the cry and forced herself to her feet. It didn’t make any sense that Amelia would be crying in the forest at Lynx Creek, but it didn’t have to make sense.
She needed to get to her.
That was the only thing that made sense.
It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, but it felt like hours as Charlotte stumbled and fell and made her way through the darkness toward the cries. She tripped and fell, her knees landing hard on the wooden step of the main lodge. The cries were closer now.
“Amelia. I’m coming.” Her voice was barely a whisper. She was so weak. Even the pain in her side had subsided. She couldn’t feel anything as she crawled into the lodge.
It wasn’t until she saw Jessica, passed out next to Amelia—sitting up on a blanket next to her mother, tears running down her face—did Charlotte know for sure that she wasn’t hallucinating. With all the energy she had left, Char moved to the baby and gathered her up in her blanket and held her close to her chest.
“Shh,” she whispered. “I’ve got you.”
Unable to feel her legs, Char couldn’t stand. It wouldn’t be safe if she fell holding the baby. So instead, she dragged herself somehow with the baby in one arm, to the far side of the cabin, where she would be out of sight if Jessica woke up or if Billy came to.
She leaned back against the wall and propped herself in such a way that she wouldn’t drop Amelia. “Shh,” she murmured. “It’s going to be okay. It’s all going to be okay. I’ve got you now.”
In her arms, Amelia’s sobbing