Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 57943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
“Lia, you have some explaining to do,” she told her.
“Mom, Rich…this is Cale.”
At her words, Rich started for me again, but her mother grabbed his arm and dragged him back.
“Look, Cale and I worked things out last night. I’ve forgiven him,” Lia assured them.
“Hell no!” Rich roared back at her, glaring at me.
“Please just hear me out. I’ve never been a violent person or wanted to hurt a woman. It is beyond my reasoning as to why I would do something like what I did that night. This whole thing has never made sense, but I can assure you I am NOT that person. I love your daughter more than anything. She’s my life!” My chest heaved as I tried to make them understand.
Rich huffed at my proclamation, “Spoken like a true stalker!” His jaw was flexing as he clenched his teeth.
Finally, her mom interceded. “If it wasn’t premeditated, then how would someone come up with duct tape in the middle of the night?”
My mind raced at her question.
What the fuck?
I hadn’t even had duct tape in my car.
“Wait a minute. What if it wasn’t me, Lia? I didn’t have tape in my car. And didn’t you say your face was covered? I didn’t have anything like that in my car!” I exclaimed, my heart pounding at the possibility of not having been the perpetrator.
Lia threw herself into my arms, crying. “What color was your car?”
“Red. It used to be my favorite color. Now, it’s green,” I told her. I’d had a red car then and had a red truck now, but my angel had green eyes.
“I was in a black car. We hit a red one!” Tears were pouring down her face. “I almost lost you,” she whispered into my chest.
The joy in my heart was overwhelming. I hadn’t fucking taken her. It hadn’t ever felt right. Nothing about the story had seemed probable. I’d seen her because she had been in the other car. I couldn’t believe the luck of it all.
“Lia!” I burst out suddenly. “My dad got me out of a heap of trouble when I had that accident. I had been drunk driving and his reputation was on the line. Maybe he has the information on the other driver. Since it never went to the courts because Dad knows some influential people, I never heard of the name of that other person.”
She grinned. I was just as thrilled as she apparently was at the prospect of finding the real criminal in the situation.
I called and left my dad a message. It was in the middle of the work morning, so I was sure he was busy with a client or meeting. Once Rich and Lia’s mom, who I learned was named Cathy, realized that I wasn’t the bad guy, they became very friendly. Rich apologized for punching me but said that I needed a preview anyway if I was going to date his daughter and, if I didn’t put on a shirt, he was going to drag me out of the room. His overprotectiveness of her was admirable. Cathy seemed truly excited for her daughter to finally be in love.
Cathy and Lia were inseparable. I’d always known they were close from having heard Lia talk of her mother, but seeing them together was nice. We were just finishing our room service breakfast and coffee when my phone rang.
“Hey, Dad. Did you find anything out?” I questioned. Everyone had quieted down, listening to my end of the conversation.
“Son, yeah, I sure as hell found out some information. The other vehicle that Lia was in belonged to a Samuel Vickerson,” he huffed out.
“What the fuck!” I boomed into the phone.
All three of them looked startled. Lia seemed especially worried at what was happening.
“Even worse, Son. Sam made bail yesterday.”
No fucking way.
How is that even possible?
It made a whole lot of fucking sense though. Sam had apparently been stalking her for God knows how long.
YESTERDAY, THE JOY of finding out Cale hadn’t abducted me was overshadowed by the discovery that it had instead been Sam, who was now on the loose. We said our goodbyes earlier that morning to my mom and Rich. After getting the bomb dropped on us by Steve, we went on to try to enjoy the rest of the day and last night together.
The plane ride back to Texas was long. Both of us were lost in our thoughts, but we were still inseparable. It was like we were now invisibly tethered to each other—not that I minded one bit. I never wanted him to leave my side ever again.
When we left the airport and headed back towards Jonestown, it was dark. I was completely exhausted from the events in the past week.
“I want us to go to the police tomorrow morning and tell them the whole story,” Cale stated, his mind obviously in the same place mine was.