When We Touch

“Jackson?” Chad’s deep voice cuts through the panic paralyzing my mind. “What’s this about?”

“It’s a smokescreen. That’s not why they’re after me—it’s about a case. They’re doing this because I found evidence—”

“Come, Ember.” Her mother stands at the door, holding it open.

None of my words are making it through to my girl. I can tell by her body language she’s completely shut down. She’s shaking and crying. Tabby helps her to stand, still keeping her arms around her shoulders. I take a step forward, and I’m cut off at the knees by her icy green glare.

“Step back, Lockwood,” Tabby snaps. “You’ve done enough.”

Fuck this. Fuck all of this! I was searching for Tiffany to fix it. I dropped everything to race back here when I got Ember’s call.

My fists clench and unclench. I want to shout my innocence at all of them. I want to snatch Marjorie Warren by the shoulders and shake her until her teeth rattle. I want to take Ember in my arms and carry her with me to the cottage and convince her this is a sinister lie…

But even in the fury and absolute violence blanketing my thoughts, I heard the most important thing—the only thing that matters right now.

Marjorie is letting Ember be with Coco tonight.

Nothing I could do would make that happen. Her detective found Brice’s lie, and she’s using it to reinforce her own controlling agenda, whether she knows it’s a lie or not.

Ember hesitates at the door and looks at me, her broken heart in her eyes.

Marjorie’s voice snaps from the stairwell. “Make your choice, Emberly Rose. Come with me now or stay here with this monster.”

I’m breathing hard, fighting every instinct in me to stop her, but I don’t.

Coco needs her mother.

Emberly needs Coco.

“Go.” My voice is ragged, and my heart dies when two crystal tears hit her cheeks.

A soft noise like a sob follows her down, and I collapse against the wall, holding my cramping stomach. Emberly is devastated, we’re apart, Marjorie is wielding Coco like a sword to cut us in two…

“Fuck,” I groan.

“You’d better tell me what’s going on.” Chad stands over me like a brick wall.

“How much time do you have?”

Twenty-Two

Ember

My muscles are weak following that surge of adrenaline. I feel the cold recession of all strength from my limbs.

Dixie is abandoned at the apartment, and I’m in my mother’s town car, riding the very short distance to the house where I grew up. The lonely prison I stayed in for three years after Jackson left—until I was old enough to move into Aunt Agnes’s abandoned store.

“You rushed straight into his arms. No questions. No regard for your daughter’s safety…” My mother is relentless in her berating.

Thankfully, the car stops in the driveway, and I get out before she’s even finished speaking. Numb, I go slowly through the side entrance not even acknowledging the mountain of a storm trooper standing in the foyer, confusion lining his face.

Yes, I’m the same one you threw out of here four hours ago, asshole…

I continue straight up the familiar staircase down the creaky wooden floors of the hall to my daughter’s room. The room that once was mine. The room where I would lie in bed and stare at the ceiling dreaming of the boy who would sit outside in his car beckoning me with the noise of an engine.

Coco is curled in a little ball in the center of the queen-sized bed. She’s breathing just loud enough for me to hear, and I don’t even take off my dress. I slip between the sheets and slide across the cool mattress to curl my body around hers.

She makes a noise and moves toward me. I pull her closer against the twisting ache in my chest. Her sweet scent, her chubby hands, her soft hair, all these things soothe the pain and confusion. The words replay in my mind…