Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
I started pushing the cart around, grabbing things at random for a few different dinner ideas. I wish I could’ve texted her and asked her whether she wanted to make anything in particular, but… no phones.
“Dillon. Didn’t think I’d see you in here today.”
I turned at the voice and saw Hank standing behind me, giving me his crooked smile. I grinned back for a second before turning to the produce.
“What’s new? Is—” He looked from side to side, ensuring that no one was watching us before turning back to look at me. “Is the girl—”
I shook my head at him quickly. “We’re not going to talk about it here.” Or anywhere, if I could help it. I wasn’t about to put Macy in harm’s way, not for anything.
I stared at him hard, willing him to get the hint, until he nodded. “Understood.”
As far as I could see, Alex wasn’t in the store, but I wasn’t going to take any chances as far as who he’d gotten to and who might be looking for her.
When I got to the front of the store, I was taken by surprise by the little missing sign that I saw on the wall showing a familiar face, clear blue eyes and rich auburn hair tied back to reveal a beautiful, sweet face. The posters stated that “Macy Keene” was missing, and if they had any information to call the store’s number.
“At least they’ve been getting attention,” I heard a man say behind me, and I turned to see the manager of the store—an older man named Harry—talking to Alison as he saw me examining the poster. “Have you heard anything from her lately?”
“No, she hasn’t reached out to me,” she said, looking worried as she looked from the poster to me. I could feel her staring hard at me, as if willing me to say something. I wanted nothing more than to be able to tell her that Macy was safe and cared for… but I didn’t know whether she was in contact with Alex. Macy herself had told me that she didn’t open up to anyone. I knew for sure that Macy hadn’t told Alison; she’d kept those walls up until she’d decided that I was worth telling about her ex-fiancé.
I couldn’t know that Alex hadn’t snuck in and persuaded that Ally that he had her best interests at heart. I wouldn’t betray her.
18
MACY
I was lying on my bed when I heard the front door close, but I didn’t bother to get up from where I was. I was too annoyed.
I was trying my hardest to have compassion for where he was coming from; I’d known for weeks that he was hiding something about his past that obviously caused him a substantial amount of pain, and that was just my assessment of him in the first few days I’d known him. I’d also been able to tell that whatever it was had to do with the fact that he’d left the force—that had been as clear as day from the beginning, since he’d had trouble discussing everything about his past as a detective every time I asked him about it.
I also was having trouble believing he’d just stumbled upon my ID in my room. I had a weird feeling he’d come looking for information about me while I’d been in the shower, which was a riddle in and of itself.
Had he done it because he’d found himself trusting me or because he’d been tempted to? I couldn’t make sense of it. And moreover, I couldn’t make sense of what it meant to continue living with someone who expected consistent honesty from me and yet refused to offer me the same thing.
As dangerous as I knew it was out there, with Alex in town knowing where to find me, I needed to make him see that I wasn’t willing to put up with him and his bullshit anymore.
I woke up to the sound of Dillon’s truck pulling back in, and I pulled aside my curtains to look out at him climbing out. He went to the back seat and started pulling out bags, and as much as I wanted to be bitter and stay inside, I knew it wouldn’t suit me in the long run.
I threw open the door and walked out onto the porch, leaning against one of the pillars as I waited for him to look up and notice me. His eyes flicked up to me, and amazingly, he did smile nervously.
“Do you need help?” I asked.
“That would be great.”
I walked over to the truck and started pulling out the bags, which were full to bursting with fresh produce and other groceries. My eyes popped, and I looked back at him in surprise.
“You do know that vegetables go bad pretty fast, right? This means that you’re going to have to go back down to town in less than a month to get more groceries.”