“This is not a discussion we’re having. We’re going to be late because my bride-to-be thinks she’s Columbo. I gotta go.”

“Who?”

“Forget it. I’ll see you in a bit. And thanks, Anna.”

By the time I exited the subway up on 151st Street, it had started pouring. As soon as I could get cell service, I called Peyton’s phone. She didn’t answer.

“Fuck,” I grumbled to myself and went to stand against the nearest building. Rain pelted down diagonally, and I had to cover my phone with one hand just to keep it dry. I hit redial and waited for Peyton to answer. She didn’t.

“Goddamn it.” I knew the makeshift homeless community wasn’t far, and I assumed Peyton hadn’t bothered to wait. Pulling up Google maps on my phone, I found the area of the park with the trestle. It was only three blocks away, so I started to walk in the rain. Every thirty seconds, I hit redial. I grew more and more anxious each time the ringing went to voicemail. There was a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, and after the third unanswered call, something made me start to jog.

Another redial.

Another voicemail.

I turned the corner and saw the area under the trestle that Peyton had described off in the distance.

Another redial.

Peyton’s voice came on, telling me to leave a message at the tone.

Something felt off. Horribly off. My jog turned into a run.

By the time my phone vibrated in my pocket, my heart was pounding in my chest. Seeing Peyton’s face flash on the screen should have calmed me, but for some reason, it didn’t.

“Chase, where are you?” Her voice was shaky; I could tell she was scared.

“Where are you?

She didn’t answer.

“Peyton? Goddamn it. Where are you?”

The clank of the cell phone tumbling to the ground was loud in my ear. But it was what came next that would haunt me for years to come.

Chapter 22

Reese

I woke to the sound of Chase gasping for air. It was a gritty, raw, ear-splitting noise that felt like it should come after being pummeled in the gut. There was no hesitation before I woke him this time.

“Chase…wake up.” I shook him vigorously.

His eyes flew open, and he stared at me, yet I could tell he didn’t actually see me.

“You were having another nightmare.”

He blinked a few times, and his vision came into focus. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. But you…sounded like you couldn’t breathe. I wasn’t sure if it was a nightmare or you were really having some sort of respiratory distress.”

Chase sat up. His face was damp with sweat, and he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Sorry I woke you.”

Just like yesterday, he got out of bed and spent ten minutes in the bathroom with the water running. When he returned, he sat on the edge of the bed again, so I followed suit and straddled him from behind—only this morning I was wearing a T-shirt.

“You okay?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Anything I can do?”

“You could take off the shirt. Your tits pressed up against my back does a lot to stop the nightmares.”

I pointed out the obvious. “Umm…you’re already awake. I don’t think that would help with this morning’s nightmares.”

“Maybe not, but there’s always tomorrow.”

I smiled, leaned back, and lifted my shirt over my head. Pressing my bare skin to his, I asked, “Better?”

“Sure is.”

We stayed like that for a good ten minutes, our breaths synchronizing in the quiet, dark room.

“Peyton’s dad took off when she was little, and her, her mother, and her two sisters ate all their meals in a shelter for a while. When Peyton got older, she wanted to give back, so she volunteered at a few local soup kitchens. She made friends with this one guy, Eddie. He had issues with people coming too close to him, so he refused to sleep in the shelters. Eddie was being harassed by a group of teenagers. They’d show up at night at a homeless camp—where a lot of people who had nowhere else to go slept—and start trouble. It was a game they played. Every few days he’d come in with a gash on his head or bruises.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Yeah. Peyton went to the police, but they didn’t do much. Eddie didn’t speak more than a word or two here and there, and Peyton couldn’t let it go. She started following him at night to see where he was staying, thinking if she gave the police more specifics they might look into it further. I told her it wasn’t safe, but she didn’t listen. The day of our engagement party, Eddie showed up at the shelter with a broken nose and two black eyes. Peyton had figured out where he was staying, and went down there that night to see if she could pry more information out of others since Eddie didn’t talk much. She was supposed to wait for me at the train station.”

“Oh God.”

“I found her a few minutes too late. Eddie was cradling her and rocking back and forth, sitting in a pool of her blood. Knife wound. She must have gotten in the way of their game of beating up homeless people.” He took a deep breath in and out. “She was gone before they got her in the ambulance.”

My throat burned, and tears stung my eyes as they slid down my face.

Chase must have felt the wetness on his back. “Are you crying?”

The passage from my chest to my lips was clogged. It was hard to speak. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Chase. I can’t even imagine what you went through.”

“I didn’t tell you to get you upset. I wanted you to know so there’s nothing between us. I hate that the nightmares came back at all, but this is the first time I’ve felt anything more than physical for someone since Peyton, and I don’t want to screw it up before it even has a chance to get started.”

“You’re not screwing things up—just the opposite.”

Chase turned, pulling me from behind him onto his lap. Pushing a piece of hair behind my ear, he said, “I’m not the hero your brother is.”

My eyebrows drew together. “What are you talking about?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t keep Peyton safe.”

“Keep her safe? What happened wasn’t your fault. How could it be?”