“He had a kid with him. A young child,” she said. “Bethany.” Her heart raced. “What if I got it all wrong? You can’t just kill a child’s father.”
“No, there’s no way Reaper would have a kid. He hates kids.”
“The man I spoke to, he had a fucking kid with him.” She didn’t want to cause a scene or have a man hurt because of her. She felt sick to her stomach, scared, angry, and worried. All she wanted to do was to be free of all of it.
“You’ve got to be mistaken.”
“I know what I saw, Preacher, and I’m telling you, he had a kid.”
She turned to look behind her when bikes approached. She saw her father along with a couple of the men arrive.
“Please.”
“I’m sorry, Robin. This is the closest we’ve come to finally ending this, and not me or one of my boys are going to walk away from this opportunity.”
“Even when I ask you to?”
“Even then.”
He climbed out of the car, and Robin refused to be part of this. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she got out of the car, but instead of following after Preacher, she walked away.
There was no way she was going to let him think for even a second she would accept this. She had asked for him not to pursue this man, and he’d done so anyway.
She left the supermarket and started the long walk back to town. She was pleased she wasn’t wearing heels. Most of the shoes within her closet were flat pumps or walking boots. Her past self was a practical woman, and she liked that about herself.
Robin didn’t know how long she’d been walking until Preacher finally decided to catch up to her. He rolled down the window and called her name.
She ignored him.
“You’re pissed at me, I get that. But I care about you.”
“You know, a lot of people keep throwing those words out at me as if they actually mean anything to me anymore. I care about you, Robin. What happens to you means something to me. Yet, no one is ever asking about what I want. What I’d like you to do. All of you are doing whatever it takes to appease yourself but not to help me. I don’t know who that man was but you were going to go after him. He had a young child.”
“If that was Reaper, aren’t you curious as to how he got the kid? For all you know, he could have kidnapped her.”
“Or maybe it’s my kid. You ever thought about that? What if during those two years I had a baby, Preacher? You could be killing my child.” She felt sick. She stopped walking, going a little light-headed.
“No, it’s not your child.”
“You don’t know that.”
“The man was gone. We couldn’t find him and we didn’t see any sign of a man walking into the supermarket. We checked the tapes.”
“I know what I saw.”
“Yeah, but did you see him go into the supermarket?”
“No.”
“Then we will never know if he’s the right man or not.”
“Do you think I’m lying?”
“Robin, I don’t know what to think.” He got out of the car, rushing to her side. “Please, get in. You’re clearly tired and need to lie down or something.” He stroked some of her hair behind her cheek.
“What if I didn’t speak to anyone?” she asked. “What if I’m seeing things?”
“You’re not. You’re exhausted. It’s all the extra hours at the library. You’re not sleeping well. You’re having nightmares every single night. You think I don’t know you’re falling apart and trying to pretend you’re holding it together? You don’t have to be strong for me.”
“I’m trying to be strong for myself,” she said. What if the man wasn’t even there? Was she thinking things up now? Trying to create a life where it was easy? None of this made any sense to her.
Preacher cupped her face, tilting her head back. He brushed his lips across hers. “It’s going to be okay. All you need to do is rest and it will be fine.”
“Rest. Right. Rest. Then of course there’s the party.”
“I can cancel it. It was supposed to be fun but I don’t want you stressing out about this.”
“No, no. It’ll be fine. It should be fun, right? I can handle some fun. Dancing. Drinking. I can handle it.” She dropped her head to his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. “Please, Preacher, take me home.”
She asked for home, but she didn’t know where home really was.
****
“Is she okay?” Bear asked.
Preacher looked back upstairs and shook his head. “I don’t know anymore.”
“There was no sign of the guy she spoke of,” Bear said. “I’ve called Randall and he doesn’t know of anyone who manifests dreams like this. You’re saying she has dreamed about this and told you about it.”