I didn’t even take any pictures of Aiden.
A tear slipped down my cheek, and I wiped it away quickly. I placed Dad’s picture back on its shelf and headed to the bathroom for a shower. I had run myself clear out of shower gel and ended up using shampoo to wash off. Once I was as clean as I was going to get, I stepped onto the bath mat and tossed the empty shower gel bottle into the trash. It hit the white, cylindrical pregnancy test I had taken the week before.
Negative.
Thank God.
My period had started the very next day, and I’d sat on the toilet and cried for an hour. I should have felt relieved at the additional confirmation, but all I felt was emptiness. I had even considered going to one of those clinics that tested for STDs, but I didn’t actually seek one out. I was due for a yearly exam next month and figured if there was some kind of bad news, it could wait until then.
I lay down on the couch and stared at the kitchen remodeling show that was on. I wasn’t actually listening to it, but staring at the moving screen was at least enough to lull me a little. I closed my eyes and tried to take slow, calm breaths.
The phone rang, and I looked down at the unfamiliar number. I didn’t usually answer when the number was unknown, preferring to let it go to voice mail and calling back whoever it was later if the call was legitimately for me. However, I was hoping for a call from Nate’s recruiter, and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to talk to him, so I answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey, is this Chloe?” The voice on the other end was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“Yes,” I answered tentatively.
“Chloe, this is Redeye. I was hoping maybe you could spare a little time to chat with me.”
Oh, shit.
It was completely unexpected, and I considered just hanging up. If Lo had called, I might have been less shocked, but I also would have recognized the number. I’d added it to my phone just in case I ever needed it before throwing away the card he had given me.
“You still there?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Would it be all right if we talked?” he asked again.
“Um…well, I guess so,” I said. “What about?”
As if you don’t know.
“It’s about Hunter,” Redeye confirmed. “I know you all didn’t exactly part under the best of circumstances, but I’m at my wit’s end here. I’m about to give up hope.”
As his words and tone sank into me, my fingers and toes went numb. I almost dropped the phone. Had something horrible happened to Aiden?
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked.
“It’s not good,” Redeye said.
A thousand things went through my head. Had he gone to jail as I had suspected he might? Was I going to be subpoenaed as a witness? What would I say to a judge about what I had seen? What if he’d gotten away from the police, gone after those people again, and been shot? What if he was dead?
My hand started to shake, and I switched the phone to the other one.
No, that couldn’t be it. He had tried to call me—I just hadn’t answered. Besides, Redeye wasn’t talking about him in the past tense. I took a deep breath as Redeye continued.
“Well, I’m not sure exactly what’s wrong,” Redeye said. “He won’t talk to me. He won’t talk to anyone, which is why I was hoping you could help.”
The words were far from what I was expecting. He wouldn’t talk to anyone? What did that even mean? Why would Redeye reach out to me anyway? Was he now trying to pull me into whatever the hell was going on?
I was not going to be made a fool of again.
“I really don’t think I want to talk to him,” I said definitively. I sat up straight on the couch. The distance between Redeye and me and the impersonal vibe a phone call creates made me feel braver than I would have felt in person. “In fact, I’m sure I don’t.”
“I was afraid of that.” Redeye sighed. “I was just thinking you might be the only one who can get through to him right now.”