Chapter 17: Eight Months Later

CHAPTER 17

FIONN

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

“I’m sorry, but at this point, we’re not gonna find her.”

In a split second, I have Scotty’s throat in my grasp, squeezing the shit out of it. He’s the head of IT here at Caellach. He’s supposed to be able to find her.

“Back the fuck away.” Tynan grabs my arm and forces me back, my anger spiraling. “What the hell are you doing?” he shouts, clutching my shoulders while my breaths howl out of me. “You’ve gotta stop.”

He tries to reason with me, but all I see is her. Those eyes. They fucking haunt me.

“I need to find her. I’m not gonna stop until I do.”

“We’ve tried everything.” He sighs. “It’s impossible. You need to accept that she’s not looking to be found. You need to forget her.”

“Never gonna happen,” I grit, shoving him off me. “Stay out of my way if you’re not gonna help.” My attention reverts to Scotty. “Give me every Emily Daniels you have on file. I’ll personally go to every single one since you can’t fucking do your job.”

The whole IT room stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have.

“I just emailed it to you,” he says.

Turning back, I start to head out, but Tynan’s voice stops me.

“You’re spiraling, man.”

“If this was Elara, you would be too.”

Fuck them all.

SIX MONTHS LATER

She’s the last Emily Daniels on my list. If it’s not her, then it’s over. I’ve followed every single one of them and have been disappointed every time.

Why the hell can’t I find her?

She’s not a damn ghost.

Gripping the steering wheel, I squeeze until my knuckles go white. “Fuuuck!”

My inhales pound through my chest as I push the door open and get out, heading for the small, quaint coffee shop this Emily works at.

When I walk in, there are a few people behind the counter, all of them around Emily’s age. But none of them are her.

She’s not here.

She’s nowhere!

“God damn it!” I bang a fist on the wall behind me, and every single person here stares at me.

“Uh, may I help you, sir?” one of the girls asks.

“No,” I mutter, catching her nametag.

Emily.

She doesn’t even look like my little rabbit.

I need to get the hell out of here before I turn this entire place upside down.

When I find my Emily, she’s gonna pay for this, and she’ll never escape me again.

TWO YEARS LATER

“Where the hell is our money?!” I slam a fist into some asshole’s nose, breaking it again.

He spits out blood, holding out his hands as though that’ll do anything.

My brothers stand behind me, letting me do all the work. They know I need it. It’s the only way I don’t think about her. About how I’ve failed. It fucking haunts me every damn day.

It’s been four years, and I’ve not been able to forget her. It’s like a curse, and I can’t rid myself of it. When I shut my eyes, it’s like she’s there, conjured up in my subconscious as though she’s actually standing right in front of me with that same baby-blue sundress she wore the day of Tynan’s wedding.

Reaching into my pocket, I fist her panties, the only connection I have to her. My heart races, my body buzzing with rage.

Heading toward the wooden table in the storage room on our farm, I pick up a chainsaw. As soon as he sees it, he begs for his life.

“Please, I swear, I don’t know! I don’t know!”

He chokes on a sob, but it’s too late. The vroom of the chain feeds the sickness in me, decaying day by day.

“I don’t believe you.”

The teeth saw into his thigh as he howls in pain, but I don’t stop there. I don’t stop until he’s nothing but sawed-off pieces of flesh, rotting as much as I am.