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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“I’M SO, SO SORRY, Gemma. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Tony’s millionth apology set my teeth on edge. For four hours, we’d searched for Kas, driving from the expensive hotel on the outskirts of town where the gala was held through streets, shopping districts, and parks.
An hour or so into the search, I’d found a pair of discarded dress shoes, kicked off in the middle of the street with a pair of black socks not far away, as if the man wearing them was shedding the unfamiliar and returning to what he was.
An animal who might never fit in with humans.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes, not caring about smearing my makeup at this point. My hair was a mess, and my mascara had long since run down my cheeks from all my crying. I was exhausted—mentally and physically—but I couldn’t rest until Kas was found.
God, please let him be okay.
Tony sat beside me on the curb outside the hotel where the gala had been dispersed. We were the only ones left. Others had offered to help search. Those who’d recorded the interaction between Tony and Kas tried to offer opinions on what’d happened. While others lurked around for the hell of it.
Tony had been the one to get rid of them all, and he’d not left my side since, patrolling the hotel grounds before taking me around town in his SUV, unsuccessfully hunting Kas.
We’d gone everywhere we could think of. We’d estimated how far Kas could’ve run.
And now, we had no other plans. Slumped and weary, we were left wondering how the night had gone so wrong.
Slouching over his knees, Tony sank his hands through his salt and pepper hair. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I hugged him. I know how flighty recovering victims are. I’ve tried to hug Isabella, only to understand that having a man in her personal space is the last thing she needs—even if I am her father.”
Tony irked me using the words flighty and victims.
They weren’t flighty—they were wary. And they weren’t victims—they’re survivors.
But I appreciated his heart was in the right place, and he’d had a rough time the past month, too. Patting his knee, I smiled sadly as his tears came again. “I’m truly so sorry, Gemma. I’ve made this so much worse.”
“Enough apologies, Tony. Go home to your wife and daughter.”
He shook his head quickly. “No way. I’ll help you find Kas. It’s my fault he ran off. I should never have opened my big mouth. I hadn’t pla
“Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll get what’s coming to them.” My voice was icy with knowledge and pride. I couldn’t tell Tony that the men and women who’d hurt Quell—I mean Isabella—when she was with Kas were now just a pile of forgotten bones, and I definitely couldn’t tell him that the more recent perpetrators were most likely strewn across some expensive carpet with their throats slit and entrails yanked out if Jareth had been the one to save her.
Just how much bloodshed had Jareth rained since we last saw him, painted in flame and tobacco smoke?
I shivered as the night chill settled over me. I peered into the darkness of the trees just past the hotel parking lot. I’d been grateful when we’d first pulled up here tonight. I figured it was an almost serendipitous location that the gala was being hosted outside the city, on the border where civilization met trees. I’d hoped it would help Kas feel less trapped. That we could go for a walk in the forest if it became too much for him before returning to the crowds and impressing enough key players to support a cha
But that was all over now.
Everyone had seen how Kas shoved Tony down. For a split second, I’d believed he was going to kill him. It honestly wouldn’t have surprised me if Kas had reached down and strangled him after the hug Tony had so stupidly given him. A hug while telling him about Quell, her trauma, and the real reasons we’d ended up invited to such a ritzy gala.
It’d been too much, too soon.
I was at fault for this too.
Ah, Kas. Where are you?
I looked at the clear sky, twinkling stars, and almost full moon.
It was cold tonight. If he slept outside, would he be warm enough in his tux? Was he even still wearing it? Or had he stripped naked, turned his back on his own species, and vanished?
Tears threatened again, but I swallowed them back.
I’d cried enough.
My tears hadn’t brought Kas back before, and they wouldn’t bring him back now.
With a bone-weary sigh, I stood and offered my hand to pull Tony to his feet. He took it, swaying a little as he righted.
“It’s almost midnight.” I cleared my throat. “Go home to your family, Tony.”
He shook his head again. “I won’t leave you. This is my mess—”
“I want you to go.” I crossed my arms, hugging myself against the cold. “Truly. I need you to go because he might not approach me if you’re still here. I have no idea what state of mind he’s in. It’s best for everyone if you’re not around me when he returns.”
“Will he return?”
I straightened my spine, lying, “Of course. I have no doubt he’ll seek me out once he’s in a better headspace.”
If only that were true.
If only I could trust in that.
But even after everything that’d happened between us, I wasn’t entirely sure Kas had the faculties to even want this life. A life with people who had once so wronged him.
Fear crushed me, but I held my chin high. “Goodnight, Tony.”
Searching my eyes and finding only resolution, he finally nodded. Shrugging out of his blazer, he placed it over my shoulders. “So you don’t catch a cold.” His unfamiliar smell and body heat settled into me. “Goodnight, Gemma. Stay safe.” He stepped off the curb, glancing toward his SUV in the distance. “You’ll...you’ll call me the moment you find him?”
I nodded.
“Okay then...” Grabbing his keys from his pants pocket, he shrugged. “I’m sorry again.”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not.” He spread his hands, the keys dangling from his fingers. “See, this is why I still believe he’d be great on a recovery cha
Tears I couldn’t stop rolled down my cheeks, stinging my eyes. “That’s what Kas wants too. His only purpose in life is to save those who’ve been preyed on the most.”
“In that case...when you find him. Tell him I’ll personally back any venture he wants to do. I’ll finance whatever he needs. He could be the hero for many, not just for my daughter.”
I sucked in a shaky breath.
Thanks to Tony, I’d now seen how trafficking affected everyone. I’d seen the very location where such defilement took place. I’d witnessed the healing from a boy who might never be whole, and now I stood before a father who was broken because of something he couldn’t have foreseen or prevented.
Kas was right.
They did need him.
The survivors needed him, their families needed him, I need him.
“Goodnight.” Tony gave me one last wave, climbed into his SUV, and drove away.
Leaving me alone in the dark.
Barefoot on the curb.
Worry all around me, despair deep within me, but absolute patience in my heart.
The fear that Kas would run and never stop ru
I knew him.
He was stronger than that.
Braver than that.
He would return.
He would find me.
Because that was who he was.
A hero to us all, even at the cost of himself.
I sat back down on the curb and waited.