26. Kali

CHAPTER 26

Kali

Each street passes by, and I slow down to read each sign, searching for Parker Road, even though the navigation system insists I still have half a mile to go. I’ve been racking my brain over why Paxton wanted to meet but told me not to tell anyone where I was going. Make up an excuse to go to the store were his exact words.

“Make the next right. You’ve arrived at your destination.”

Next question—why are we meeting in a deserted gas station that is surrounded by empty storefronts? The place is a ghost town.

I ease into the parking lot, spotting the back of Paxton’s Jeep in the rear of the gas station, the only car in sight. An instinctual unease creeps over me, urging me to turn around. What if the guy who kidnapped me got to Paxton and is luring me here? Fear prickles my scalp as I slow my speed to a crawl, keeping my foot on the brake, debating what I should do.

I’ve seen all the scary movies, and I’ve seen this scene before. The one where it’s so obvious that the girl is about to be killed, but she keeps going into the creepy shed. I exhale a sigh when I see Paxton alone. At least, I hope he is. I keep going even as Zander’s voice echoes in my head about reading the room.

I’ll just drive by and see if he’s alone before parking. Paxton slides out of his Jeep and waits for me to park. His smile erases the tension in my shoulders. I still haven’t been able to stop thinking about our weekend getaway. I rub the wings on my necklace. My life is finally moving forward, and for the first time ever, my future is defined. It’s more than a dream. And I’m falling in love.

Paxton is so skilled at construction, maybe he bought one of these abandoned buildings to fix it up. It wouldn’t surprise me. He’s so talented.

“This isn’t sus at all,” I jest as soon as he opens my door for me. “You had me kind of freaked out.”

His smile fades, and he runs his hand through his hair. “Sorry. I just…we need to talk. With no one around.”

I stare at him as I step out of the car, confused.

“Can you take a ride with me?”

“Uh…” I pause. My brows pinch as I scan the deserted lot. Something about his tone has me shaking my head no. I grip my phone in my palm. “There’s no one here, Paxton. Can we talk here?”

As if this is safer than his car.

His attention flickers around, searching the area, a panicked expression flittering across the handsome features I’ve fallen for. Part of me wants to reach out to him, reassure him, for what, I don’t know. The other part feels like jumping back into my car and hauling ass out of here. I hate this. He’s supposed to be my safe zone.

He paces, stops a few feet away, and then turns his body toward me. “Kali, don’t hate me.”

Never start a sentence off with that. It’s the telltale sign that what comes next will not be good.

“What… what did you do?”

He swallows hard. I watch his Adam’s apple bobble, but he can’t spit it out.

“For what, Paxton?” I yell, tears threatening to fall as I fear the worst. The monster got to him. He told him how to find me.

“I didn’t do it. I swear to you, I didn’t do it. You have to believe me,” he pleads.

I do a double take. Is he asking me… “Do what?” The two words come out slow.

“They think I’m the one who kidnapped you.”

I jerk back, clearly having heard him wrong. Who would think that? “I’ve never thought you did.” It’s been three months, and never once have I questioned if he did it.

I could never fall in love with the man who tortured me.

Could I?

“Someone is trying to frame me,” he says, almost frantically, as he paces again. What is he talking about? Who would frame him for this? He takes a deep inhale, blows it out, and drops his head. “The day I saved you wasn’t the first time I had seen you,” he admits. I try to snatch hold of his words and make sense of what he means because I’d never seen him before.

“When? When had you seen me before?” He mumbles and I catch a few words—something about his Jeep. “Dammit, Paxton. Tell me!”

Finally, he stops pacing and casts his eyes down. “I had a hat on and was wearing glasses. I didn’t have a beard.”

Our eyes meet, and I narrow mine. It was him. He’s Mr. Pie Guy. “Your eyes were green?”

He slowly nods. “Contacts. Before I stopped in, I had been undercover for a nearby case. I forgot I had them on. The moment you said hello, I was drawn to you.”

This just took an unfortunate turn off the what-if cliff. The idea has me backing up, wedging myself between the door and the car. He reads my fear, and like the gentleman he always is, he takes two large steps back, allowing me some distance between us. I’d thank him if I wasn’t so mortified.

“I went back once, trying to find the courage to talk to you again, but when you left the restaurant in what looked like a bad mood, I chickened out.”

My brows furrow, trying to figure out when that might have been.

“I was going to try again a different day but got busy with another case. And then just a few weeks later, I’m digging you out of a grave.”

“I don’t understand,” I roar, anger overtaking the fear. “I slept with you. I’m falling in love with you, and you never mentioned any of this. Why, Paxton?”

He shoves his hands into his pockets. “Kali, please believe I would never hurt you,” he pleads.

Liar! This fucking hurts.

It’s difficult to imagine the man before me capable of such evil. But I never expected him to lie to me either. The possibility that he tried to kill me is out there in the world. The notion leaves my stomach feeling twisted. I squeeze the bridge of my nose, trying not to throw up. Why is everything so difficult in my life? Dating him was easy. He was the perfect guy. I imagined myself with him ten years from now.

“I’ll take a lie detector test to prove to you I didn’t do it.”

“I’ve heard people can trick the system.”

“That’s pretty rare.”

He didn’t say impossible.

“I’m going to prove to you I didn’t do it. I’ll spend however long it takes to clear my name. They’re searching both my properties, and I can promise you, they won’t find anything because I. Didn’t. Do. It.”

Everything clicks. The meeting in the middle of nowhere, the not telling anyone that I’m meeting him, the confession. A headache threatens at the base of my neck, the tension knotting into a tight wad of what is happening?

“You’re a suspect.” It’s not a question, but he nods. “Would you ever have told me? If you weren’t a suspect?”

“Yes. I would have had to, eventually.”

What the hell does that mean? People who skirt the truth rarely tell it if they never get caught. What am I missing? “Why?”

He runs his hand through his hair again, pulling it at its ends. His dark eyebrows pull together. “There’s more…” He pauses and draws in a harsh breath. What more could there be? Isn’t this enough? “The accident…where your parents died.” My confusion grows tenfold. Where is he going with this, and what does this have to do with us? “My brother was in the other car.”

His words steal my breath. Our meeting wasn’t a coincidence. “You knew who I was?”

“I did,” he whispers. “But it’s not?—”

“Not what I think, Paxton? Do you know how cliché that sounds? I don’t know what to believe. You’ve been lying to me. About everything.” I sit down in the car, unable to move. “Why did you look for me? Because you felt sorry for the girl left behind because your brother killed her parents?”

His mouth falls open before he snaps it back. “Is that what everyone told you?” He throws his head back, looking up at the sky, and squeezes his hands into fists before finding my gaze again. “Kali, that’s not even what happened.”

Excuse me? I can’t get out of the car fast enough, the rage building. “That is what happened!” I storm over to him, getting in his face. “Your brother drank and drove that night. He took my parents away from me! He stole the only people on this earth who loved me unconditionally!” I scream.

“Kali.” His emotions get clogged in his throat as his voice breaks. “I’m sorry your parents were taken from you that night. I am. If there’s anything I wish, it’d be that night never happened. But it wasn’t my brother who was drunk.”

The earth shifts beneath me. “What are you saying?”

My mind jumps back to my eight-year-old self. The police coming to the babysitter’s house. CPS taking me that night to a home. They told me there was an accident. I overheard one saying that alcohol caused the accident. My parents didn’t drink. At least never around me. There wasn’t even alcohol in our house.

I shake my head, backing up. “No. You’re wrong.”

“Kali, wait.”

“No.” I hold up my hand to stop him from getting closer. “We’re done. I can’t do this. You are a liar!”

I slide into my car, slamming the door, needing to get as far away from him as possible. I cover my sobs with my hand as I drive away.

Everything I thought was a lie.