Locke 2 (Blackwater Boys #4)

Fifteen

Locke

T ime didn’t exist in a linear way for the desecrated soul. It happened all at once. The Hole, his mother’s death, the raven following him as he brokenly found his way back home. Charlotte was there for him for a time, when things got too tough to handle on his own. When the aggression had mutated him, changing his form into that of a true demon. Back when it hurt.

He didn’t feel that same hurt anymore.

He hadn’t for a while, and he almost thought it was because he was finally free.

But, alas, that wasn’t the case. He had simply numbed himself to endure the loss of that damn woman. She’d come into his life an injured bird, and he recklessly took her, thinking he might save her. He’d liked the idea of it. He would rescue her, and she would want him forever. Wasn’t that how the story went? So, he offered her a deal. One last hoorah: to get away from him as a way to reclaim herself, a powerful battle against the past that plagued her. She’d run from him, proving to herself how strong she was, then he’d find her, and she’d ultimately surrender to him.

That didn’t happen.

None of it went according to plan.

For so long, Locke had been terrified of himself when he committed such evil. But then he found this damn woman and he didn’t fear the past as much as he feared her.

◆◆◆

A man in a green trench coat took him.

She knew those words would trigger Locke. She knew that was the clincher. Which meant she knew what happened to him wholly.

Fucking Conor Thames.

He had no right to let her know. That should have been up to Locke, but he quietly reasoned he might not ever have let her know.

It didn’t matter anyway because now there was a boy involved.

Was this a ruse? A lie to get him to explore this boy’s disappearance? But she didn’t look like she was lying, and she was bad at it, anyway. Her heart may have been buried under the jagged walls she erected to protect herself, but it was big and pure.

And he fucking wanted it.

Locke wanted Kali’s heart deeply.

He left her house and drove around the quaint town for the next hour, eyeing the neighbourhoods, the cute business district, the happy signs and warm greetings. Was this seriously what Kali wanted? This Hallmark type shit with the festive orange lights strung up and cheap vampire blowups to celebrate Halloween.

Thank God it wasn’t Christmas.

Goergewel could have been a dying town. The mill had slowed down, the town had gone stale for almost a decade. But then a do-gooder blew through town investing in infrastructure. He threw money into local businesses, and he probably built a fucking park or two.

That was usually how it went.

So, who was this do-gooder?

Locke would find out everything about him soon.

But first he needed to know this boy disappeared.

A man in a green trench coat took him.

He catalogued his next movements. He’d need to find the mother. That was the first goal, which might prove to be tricky. Either she would be easy to find, or she’d be using cash, leaving no trace behind. Regardless, he’d find her, but it might take days, and if this boy was truly gone, truly hidden in a hole, his days were numbered.

But could he really be in a hole visited by a demon hiding in a town as righteous as Georgewel?

A man in a green trench coat took him.

A flicker of trepidation raced through him. He remembered the little boy in him, staring up at the door of the hole as it opened. His terrified eyes connected to that man in the green trench coat. The man that smiled coldly down at him.

“How old could he have been?” he whispered to himself. “Thirties? Forties?”

Logic told him this could not be the man Kali was talking about. That man was old now, maybe even dead. He gripped the steering wheel tightly. Please, don’t be fucking dead.

He pulled over into the parking lot of a deserted grocery store. He removed the list from his breast pocket and unfolded it slowly. It’d been folded and unfolded so many times, it was going to fall apart any one of these days.

Trenchcoat Man

Thornby

Pearson

Man in the red shirt

He stared at the line until it didn’t make sense to him.

He should forget about this other boy. Chances were he was taken by his drunk mom to some other town. He could lie to Kali and tell her that was the case. That would speed this whole process along, and then he could have her—finally have her.

Even though she didn’t want him at all.

What a miserable realisation that was. His fingers shook. There was a lot of pain in that. She would have continued to live her life. She didn’t want him. He didn’t blame her. Still. She didn’t want him, and it still hurt even as he understood why she didn’t and shouldn’t.

He thought he might have her, but she didn’t want him. He didn’t have anyone.

No one wanted him.

Charlotte wasn’t his to need anymore.

Conor was rebuilding himself.

Dominic was scarred and altered.

Jem…

Locke tapped the steering wheel and cleared his throat, trying to banish the strange knot sitting there.

Jem.

He gritted his teeth, shaking his head to shake away the thoughts but…Jem was like him. Jem had no one. No one wanted Jem.

The broken truly were forgotten.