gonna forget us.”
Kyle started the ignition to the car, turned up the radio to a deafening volume, and grabbed my hand. He grinned as “Heroes” by Postmodern Jukebox blasted.
I gave him a wary smile. Whenever he played that song, he always got in a weird mood. At that moment, he was giddy to a point I’d never seen. He’d been having these highs and lows a lot more recently.
And they scared me.
So much so that I’d called the police. Told them something was happening. They’d never come.
Kyle did illegal things. Things that I chose to overlook because I loved him. Because he treasured me.
But his behavior had become strange, and I feared he'd hurt himself. Or maybe others.
He grabbed the back of my head and smashed his lips to mine. The kiss was bruising. Something beyond passionate. And where I usually settled with his touch, that kiss set me on edge.
When he ripped his lips from mine, he was breathless. “You”—he pointed at me—“are my inspiration.”
Those were the kinds of words I’d eaten up from the time we’d started seeing one another. They were the reason I fell so hard and fast.
I touched his cheek, but words failed me. Tell him you want to go back to school.
I dropped my hand. Now wasn’t the time. Not when he seemed so high. I didn’t want to upset him.
He threw the car in reverse and we squealed out of the driveway of our townhome. I gripped the seat as he sped down the street. His hand was tight on mine as he raced around cars and blew through two stop signs.
Another driver slammed on the brakes to avoid crashing into us.
“Kyle. Can we slow down please?”
His answer was to press down harder on the gas.
As we rocketed up the ramp of the I-66 freeway, he sang at the top of his lungs.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Blood thundered in my ears. My heart pounded so hard my chest hurt.
He released my hand and reached behind us. I turned to see him yank a blanket off the backseat.
Bile rose up my throat.
A pile of guns big enough for a small army lay innocently on the cloth seat.
Kyle grabbed one. He cocked it.
I stared in horror. Frozen.
Is he going to kill me?
He turned up the radio.
4:37 p.m.
Why am I looking at the clock? Why don’t I do something?
In slow motion, he smiled at me. Turned his head. Rolled down the window. My hair blew in my face.
He lifted the shot gun. Aimed at the car beside us.
Boom.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Holt
One look at her and I knew the truth.
She was ashen as tears leaked from her eyes.
“I tried to stop it.” Desperation clung to her words. “I tried.”
Trish bolted across the living room to her side and threw an arm around her.
I blocked out the noise from the TV. I remembered that day well. Most of America did. Some asshole took a joy ride through the capital, shooting innocent people as he went. It wasn’t the deadliest killing in our history, but it ranked up near the top of most fucked up.
“Did you—” I couldn’t finish the question. Couldn’t connect the woman I knew with that.
“I was in the car.”
Mrs. Quinn cleared her throat. “You’ll have more privacy in the kitchen.”
I nodded once and went straight for the fridge. Half a beer was down before I felt Easy enter.
A phone rang from the other room, but all I could focus on was Baker. Her arms were folded around her middle like she wanted to make herself small.
I exhaled long and slow. “Tell me your truth. The raw version.”
She lifted her eyes to mine. “Why’d you come back? Just give me that before you hear the ugly facts.”
“For you.”
Her mouth quivered. A few more tears escaped down her cheeks. She lifted her chin.
“I was fifteen when I met Kyle. If there was a god, he was mine.”
Immediately, I hated the guy. Not only for what he’d dragged Baker into, but that he’d owned her heart.
She swallowed hard. “He was twenty. I didn’t care that he was too old for me. He felt right. In here.” She pointed to her chest, and I wrung the neck of my beer bottle.
“He was good to me. Said we were going to do big things. I believed him. He made me believe in him.”
She turned away for a moment. I was impatient for the rest of this story, but I’d give her the time she needed.
“It was little things I had to give up at