Chapter 5

Keelan

A fter the SUV dropped me off at the getaway car near Wildwood Canyon, I drove a few miles north to the tattoo shop. As I traveled down the road, I heard several sirens behind me, making their way up the mountain. Then, twenty minutes later, a helicopter passed overhead. The authorities were aware of the crash now and that I was long gone. I reached for the police scanner Gavin had left and switched it on. While I navigated the city with trepidation, I listened to every call the cops radioed to each other. So far, they were searching nearby neighborhoods and woods, so they hadn’t reached town yet. My instructions were absolute from Gavin: get in the car left at the mouth of the canyon and get the hell out of town. There was no time for a family reunion.

Gavin had months to plan this for me and prep the car for my escape. Hidden beneath a suitcase of clothes in the trunk’s floor panel were a couple of weapons, stacks of cash, and fake IDs. Though he had thought about everything, there was one more thing I had to do .

After parking the car in the alley connected to the shop’s street, I quickly crept onto the sidewalk, the cool breeze brushing against my cheek. I stood there a moment, taking it all in. It was finally silent—no sound of helicopters flying overhead or sirens blaring down the main road, only cars and people walking. I felt the tension in my body slowly dissipate, and a sense of relief washed over me.

Even though the prison didn’t keep me locked in my cell twenty-four hours a day, I knew now the air I breathed was mine and mine alone.

It meant freedom.

The block was already teeming with city folk. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the cops came here. Since it was November and unusually cool that morning, I shoved my hands into my pockets, hurrying down the row of shops toward mine.

Once I spotted Sinful Marks Tattoos, I moved to the back alley and lightly tapped the steel door by the dumpster.

Within minutes, it cracked open, revealing Gavin’s bright hazel eyes, wide with shock at the sight of me. “Jesus, Keelan! Get the fuck in here,” he said, gesturing for me to come inside, but he wouldn’t let me pass him in the hallway that led into the shop. His light-brown skin flushed, and he visibly tensed. “You weren’t supposed to come here. I gave you specific instructions to—”

“I know, but I need the box and a few other supplies you didn’t put in there,” I said, watching his body go still. “Please tell me you still have her box?”

Gavin swallowed nervously and nodded. “It’s in a safe inside my apartment. I moved closer to the shop a year ago after you got locked up. I’ll grab it and meet you somewhere else. ”

I shook my head. “Maybe it’s better if I get it and you stay behind. Your apartment might be the first place the police go looking for me.” He didn’t respond to that, only his dark brows pinched together. “I won’t get caught,” I added.

Gavin scoffed. “Yeah, that’s what you always say, and look at what happened a year ago.” There was a long pause before Gavin’s lip pulled up into a grimace. “It won’t matter. The safe is fingerprint-coded. I’m the only one that can get inside. Just give me an hour.”

After a moment, Gavin reached out and pulled my muscular frame into his lanky arms. His curly golden-brown hair was shorter now, barely touching the top of my shoulders when he pulled me into a hug.

“Good to see you, cousin.” I hugged him tightly. “How’s Mia?”

We pulled back, and he gestured with his head into the shop.

Fuck.

I glanced over his shoulder and saw my half-sister, Mia, busy sanitizing a table at the front right as she prepped for the shop’s opening in a few hours. “Gav, please tell me she’s your assistant or, better yet, just visiting?”

Gavin shook his head. “Naw, she’s the real deal, man. Mia’s getting good, too. Mom says she’s almost as good as you. A few more months, and she won’t have to be my apprentice anymore.”

I swallowed down my nerves. This wasn’t the life I wanted for her. Ever.

“Don’t worry,” Gavin said, seeing the look on my face. “She’s not doing that other shit. What she draws and sells is legit. I won’t let them drag her into this. ”

That didn’t calm my nerves one bit. The fact that Mia was even inside that tattoo shop made my stomach clench.

“You need to get out of here,” Gavin said while my eyes stayed on my sister. “One hour, and I’ll meet you at Roma’s Cafe.”

Before leaving the shop, Gavin gathered a few more items for me I had requested, and I slipped through the back alley and into the getaway car. I kept Gavin’s hoodie zipped high on my neck and the hood over my head. The thing barely fit, but I was too recognizable with my tattoos.

Once at the café, I slipped inside the front door, brushing my shoulders with a customer exiting through the doorway. No one paid me any mind. They all had lives and jobs that were too important to notice beyond that.

I chose the table farthest from the door but stayed alert, observing each person entering to order their drinks. I lowered my hands, concealing the tattoos that stretched from the top of my knuckles to my wrist. If anything, my tattoos alone would identify me to every officer in the city. I couldn’t stand out. Gavin had to take his precious time, so I tapped my fingers on my thighs, waiting.

My body tensed over the next hour as I watched people come in and out to order their drinks. There were even a handful of officers at one point, but they never looked my way. Thank God it was the breakfast rush, so there were enough people to obscure my presence. “Come on, Gavin,” I whispered. “Where the fuck are you?”

After a middle-aged woman in a black blazer ordered her drink, she spun on her heel and rushed toward the door, as if she were late for work. The moment she grabbed the handle, Gavin walked in, almost knocking her over with the door while his head was down, his ball cap low and covering most of his face.

After Gavin spotted me, he moved to the back and sat down. He pulled his backpack off his shoulder, unzipped it, and reached inside.

“Thank fuck,” I cursed as Gavin retrieved the metal box and set it down between us. “That’s all I have to go on.”

Gavin gave me a strange look, his dark brows pinching together. “Do you honestly think you’ll find out where she’s hiding from the contents of this box?”

I shrugged. “Sadie hated her life. She kept everything that meant anything to her inside this box. It was a sacred gem she kept locked inside her closet on the top shelf. She didn’t let anyone look inside, not even me.”

“And what makes you think you can open it? You need a code.”

I smirked. “Because I know the code. I just gave Sadie the respect of never using it.”

Gavin let out a small chuckle. “And now?”

I smiled as I reached for the box, my fingers curling around the handle as I pulled it closer to my chest. I tapped my thumb on the cold, metallic lid, eyes narrowing on the numbered buttons. “My little princess put me behind bars, Gav. You think I give a shit about losing her respect right now?”

Entering the numbers, I sucked in a breath. Even though I knew it was her first dog’s birthday, Sadie could have easily changed it before she ran from me. But when 1203 worked, I smiled to myself .

The first thing that surprised me was her wallet. I flipped it open, and there was her driver’s license, a wad of cash, and even her passport below it. There was also a photo of a white house with black shutters and a cream-colored picket fence surrounding wildflowers. It looked aged, like she had taken it years ago while traveling across the country during one of their family vacations. It was one of the few times she felt like her father loved her.

“Well, she’s not using her name wherever she ran to. She didn’t bother taking any of this shit.”

I sifted around the box, pulling out more items and placing them on the table.

Most of it looked like letters, written in black pen and folded several times until you could fit them in the palm of your hand. I opened the first one and found a letter from her mother tucked inside, which took me aback.

She wrote it six months before authorities arrested me.

“Sadie hated her mother,” I noted. “They never talked, let alone wrote each other sentimental letters.”

Gavin leaned forward as I looked at it. “Well, what does it say?”

A decent man would have respected her privacy by folding it up neatly and placing it back where he found it. Except, I wasn’t a decent man.

Sadie,

We miss you. I know moving out and getting your own place was best for you. You’ve always had people taking care of you, and we never gave you the independence you needed to become the woman you were meant to be. But that doesn’t mean I don’t wish you well because I want you back. Maybe we can catch up and have dinner at your favorite restaurant, Bella Cucina, and have a glass of wine together. Please call me.

-Love, your mother

I leaned back in my chair and stared at the letter, tapping my thumb on the table rhythmically.

“What is it?” Gavin asked when my brows furrowed.

“This letter,” I said. “None of it makes sense.”

“What do you mean?” he questioned.

I looked at him, my eyebrows raised. “Come on, Gavin. You knew Aisling and Sadie weren’t exactly on friendly terms. Aisling is trying to tell her daughter something. Something she’d want to keep from Finn. Especially Finn.”

Everyone on both sides of the family knew nothing was safe around Finn. If you had secrets, you better find a damn good way to keep them hidden. Finn had control over everything Sadie did.

“True. Even if Sadie kept that box hidden, she’d be a fool to say something outright,” Gavin noted.

“Exactly.”

“So, what are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting that Sadie and her mother were much closer than Sadie made it out to be. ”

I moved more contents from the box around and found a copy of one of Sadie’s favorite books, Under the Yellow Sun , a gift from her best friend, Cait, when they were younger. She took that book everywhere and read it at least a handful of times. I stared at the cover a minute longer before putting it back. But as I turned the book with the pages facing down, something fell out, and I caught it before it hit my lap.

“What’s that?” Gavin asked, leaning forward slightly, but I didn’t turn it toward him. I was almost speechless by what I saw.

“A bleeding heart flower,” I said. “A laminated, pressed flower Sadie used as a bookmark.” I quickly slid it into my back pocket before setting the book back into the box. “It’s nothing.”

Irritation ran through me, but I swallowed it and cleared my throat.

“Alright, besides a few other letters, not much else is in here.”

“What now?” Gavin asked.

“Now,” I started, “I track down her mother. Because I promise you, she knows exactly where her daughter is hiding.”