Epilogue

One Week Later

I t was hard to work through the suffocation of heartbreak. After losing Alasdair, who was everything to her, Mila found herself quite unable to function, not knowing what to do with the constant heartache that consumed her. It was hard to breathe, let alone work, but even more crushing was the thought that she had led six teens to their doom.

When the honeymooning couple who said they were with the FBI had told her what Alasdair was into, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to believe it at first. It seemed so surreal, like a nightmare or something. But the more she went about her day, the little things reminded her that, yes, this was real. She couldn’t call him. His phone number had been disconnected and his phone was probably in an evidence locker, somewhere. He, himself, was locked up somewhere near where they’d arrested him. And the newspapers? Oh, they made her stomach churn.

Local teacher in cahoots with trafficker, Alasdair Crosby.

Alana Fleming. Someone who considered herself to be in love with Alasdair, meaning that he’d played her, too. So her sweet dreams of romance and exclusivity were nothing but a patsy. He’d played her! And she fell for it.

How could she ever look Susanna in the eyes again? She couldn’t. She’d quit her job at Breakers and figure out some way to fight this legal battle that she was now entangled with because of what she had done. She had gone in, turned in her resignation at Breakers and received a cold glance of indifference as a result. Not because she was quitting. But because of the reputation that now stained her, wherever she went.

She lost everything she loved. Her job at Breakers. Her small hometown; she couldn’t stay here. And the man she thought she loved.

She rubbed her hand over her tattoo. She was going to use her last paycheck to remove that stupid thing from her arm. How could she have been so dumb? And how could she have helped this despicable human being take down innocent teenagers and sell them into something so horrible, that she didn’t want to think about it?

The parking lot was getting dark. She preferred to travel at night when the chances of running into a photographer or anyone who recognized her were slim. Her apartment complex towered above her and she had opted to park in the back where no one could see her car and know she was home. Even though that meant walking through the alleyway to get to her apartment. She wasn’t going to be here much longer, anyway .

She started toward her apartment but caught the sound of someone behind her. She turned and stifled a gasp. Her eyes went wide as a man approached her, a smile playing across his lips. She’d never seen him before in her life, but he seemed to know her very well. Especially when his lips moved and a cold voice hovered just enough for her to hear.

“Hello, Mila.”

Her anxiety skyrocketed and she couldn’t find the energy to turn and run from this guy who seemed to know her so very well.

A sudden, unexplained pain followed a gunshot muffled by a silencer that no one else in the apartment complex could hear.