Locke 2 (Blackwater Boys #4)

Fourteen

Kali

“H elp,” he repeated, like he was tasting the word on his tongue. He didn’t prod for information. His shoulders dropped instead, and something flashed in his eyes. Yes, it was that disappointment and the wretched look from before, but it was worse. So much worse than I expected.

Worse than that, he stopped looking at me and focused on a spot on the floor. I felt like I lost something there, as small as it might seem. He didn’t want to look at me, and that hurt.

What had become of us, I wondered. We were red hot at the start, and it was like this time apart had cooled us right down and left us with these…ugly, broken emotions.

I gathered my thoughts, trying to breathe through these gaping emotions I didn’t expect to have. Truly, I thought he’d be goading me or humping me or fucking with my head. I didn’t expect this look of. . . betrayal on his face that I put there.

“A boy went missing,” I blurted out, trying to add steel to my voice.

Detached, Locke blinked slowly, finally looking up at me. He waited for me to continue, and I felt like I was just a faceless person in front of him now.

“Focus,” whispered Aurora, standing between us, her eyes hard on mine. “Tell him, Kali.”

I took a deep breath. “The story is that his mother fled town with him because of debts she owed and a pending eviction. There was a sighting of her in a moving van, and there are claims the boy was with her, waving, but I think the story is fishy. She’s known to be a drunk, and it doesn’t make sense to me that she’d suddenly rent a car and leave. His name’s Lenny and he’s six years old. I think something happened to him.”

“What does this have to do with me?” he asked, briskly.

“You have the means,” I said quickly. “You have a network and contacts and…”

He didn’t cut me off or ask questions. He waited patiently, watching me curiously as I fumbled.

“We have to find him, Locke.”

When it was clear I was finished speaking, Locke crossed his arms and leaned his back against the dresser. “Kali, I came here to collect you.”

Was that seriously his response? “To collect me?” I spat out. “I don’t belong to you, Locke. I’m not a thing .”

“We made a deal.”

“Over a year ago”

“A deal’s a deal.”

I shook my head. “Are you not listening to me? There’s a boy that disappeared from this town, Locke.”

“That has nothing to do with me.”

“It has everything to do with you!”

He was back to ice, his eyes chilling me as he retorted, “And because I disappeared once, too, you think I’ll feel tethered to this boy somehow?”

“You might not feel tethered to that boy, but you’re still tethered to the past. It’s why you hunt your abusers down, isn’t it? For your revenge.”

“Kali,” he said in warning. “I didn’t come here to play hero. I came here for you.”

“I’m not going to Blackwater!”

“We made a deal—”

“Fuck the deal, this is bigger than us! It’s bigger than you and your revenge. Are you so unfeeling that you can’t spare a single thought of a little boy trapped somewhere—”

“You don’t know that he’s trapped,” he cut in, moving to me again, his patience leaching out of him. “He’s got a drunk mom that fucked with the wrong people and now she’s fled town, and that’s unfortunate for him, but there’s nothing I can do about it, Kali. I’m not that kind of man you want me to be, but you knew that.”

I took a large step away from him, glowering. “But you are that man. It’s why you put these monsters in the ground, isn’t it? It’s why you freed your friend out of prison. You do care.”

“I care for what’s mine.”

“Me, you mean?”

“You,” he confirmed. “Only you. From the start.”

I slapped a hand to my chest. “What about what I care about?”

If he was as emotionless as he wanted everyone to believe, what I cared about would mean nothing to him. But I’d seen glimpses in him. I heard him chanting my name in a dark room. I felt his touches growing tender. I’d seen the desire and want in his gaze to know it wasn’t just about him.

It was why I had to agree to that damn deal. I wanted to run because the feelings he put in me terrified me. We had somehow connected in ways I didn’t realise would follow me through distance and time. I couldn’t shake the man, and now that he was here, I didn’t want to, and it terrified me all over again. Made the itch to run grow tenfold, but I bottled it down because it wasn’t about me, or us.

My words annoyed him. There was no magical breakthrough, just mere exhaustion. He looked like he wanted to strangle me. He took a step toward me, raising his hand like he just might. I stood my ground, peering up at him with defiant eyes. He brought his hand down and turned his back to me. I watched as he ran a hand through his hair, his body tensing, but the rage wasn’t there. Just defeat as his shoulders slumped. Thinking, he sighed long and slow.

Finally, he turned to me and said, “I can look into him, Kali.”

My heart jumped.

“Find him,” I demanded, adamantly.

“I’ll find him,” he returned, nodding. “But I’m taking you back to Blackwater—”

“No!” I took another large step away from him. “If you take me back to Blackwater, I’ll hide from you again.”

He paused, his eyes narrowing on me. Yes, I had admitted it. I hadn’t run. I hid. Fine. I was willing to admit it, anything, for this.

“This is bigger than us,” I implored now. “Bigger than you. This is a boy that we can save.”

“You’re so certain he disappeared.”

“Because a man took him,” I said, voice cracking.

“How do you know that?” he questioned.

“His friend told me.”

Locke’s gaze hardened. “What did he say exactly?”

“He said a man in a green trench coat took him.”

Locke’s movements slowed. There was a faraway look on his face. I watched his reaction closely, knowing I’d finally broken through.

“Locke?”

He shook his head, silencing me. His gaze refocused on mine. His lips pressed into a hard line. Then he came at me again. Before I could even have a chance of backing away, he grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. My chest crashed into his. I looked up at him, eyes wide as he looked menacingly down at me, growling, “If you’re lying to me…”

I responded to his menace with my own. “I’m not.”

His eyes hardened. He looked like he didn’t believe me. “We’ll see. I’m going to make some calls, Kali, about this boy. If I come back and you’re gone and this has all been a trick, I’m going to find you and I’m going to steal you. There’ll be no escaping me or my wrath. I’m going to keep you. Heaven fucking help me, I will finally have you. Do. You. Understand?”

He barely registered my nod before he let go and left the room.