Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Afterward, I carry her to the bedroom and lay her down on the bed. We clean up quickly, then curl up together under the thick quilt. She tucks herself against my chest, leg thrown over mine, and I wrap my arms around her like I will never let go.
For the first time in months, I feel peace.
We talk quietly in the dark for a long time. About the future. About where we might live once everything settles. About visiting Sadie once it’s safe. About maybe getting a dog and a house with a big porch where we can sit and watch the mountains. Normal things. Real things. The kind of life I never let myself want until her.
I’m just starting to drift off, her breathing slow and even against my skin, when my encrypted phone vibrates on the nightstand.
I reach for it carefully, not wanting to wake her. A new security alert from the perimeter system. Motion detected at the tree line.
I sit up slowly. Anniston stirs beside me. “What is it?”
“Motion sensor,” I say, already pulling on my jeans. “Probably a deer. But I’m going to check the feed.”
She sits up, clutching the sheet to her chest. “I’m coming with you.”
We head down the hall together. I grab my pistol out of habit and turn on the security monitor connected to the exterior cameras. The feed loads. At first I see nothing but dark trees and moonlight filtering through the branches.
Then a figure steps into the clearing.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Moving with a slight limp. Blood on his torn shirt. Graying hair. A familiar scar above his left eye.
My father.
Billy Hawthorne stands in the middle of the clearing, looking directly at the camera like he knows exactly where it is. He’s alive. He’s here. And he looks like he’s been through hell and back.
Anniston gasps beside me, her hand flying to her mouth.
On the screen, my father lifts his gaze to the lens. His voice comes through the speaker, low and exhausted but unmistakable.
“Boys… you shouldn’t have come looking for me.”
Then the feed cuts to black.