Sarah’s been gonefor about twenty minutes, headed to the chapel, when Belle calls.
“Hey, Belle. You’re fast.”
“Listen, I found something. Tell me Sarah’s with you.”
“Actually, she’s not.”
“Fuck. She’s in trouble, Tanner.”
ChapterNineteen
Sarah
Ipark at the curb in front of the chapel and discover that I must have beat Luna, since mine is the only car here.
I hope it’s a secret room, or maybe even a vault, or a secret burial place in the basement that June wants to show us. Sure, that’s all dramatic and something out of a movie, but it could happen.
I stop to admire the hydrangeas that are starting to bloom out front, on either side of the steps that lead to the heavy wooden doors. The flowers around this building have always been beautiful for as long as I can remember. The ladies of the church tended to them, and it showed.
It still does, as the perennials come back every year and brighten up the whole block in bold blue and pink, red and purple.
With one last sniff of a bloom, I climb the stairs and turn the knob, finding it unlocked, and then I walk inside.
It’s chilly in the chapel, so I tug my sweater around me a little tighter.
“June?” I move toward the two lone pews near the front of the sanctuary where the altar once lived. “June, I’m here!”
Huh, where is she? Maybe the basement?
I walk toward the door that leads downstairs, but before I can reach for the doorknob, something hits me from behind, and I feel myself falling.
And then I feel nothing at all.
My head is screaming.I try to reach up to touch the back of my head, but my hands are tied.
I open my eyes and find that I’m sitting in a chair, in the middle of the mostly empty chapel, and my hands are tied, palms up, to the arms of the chair.
“June?”
“Don’t be silly.”
My head whips around in time to see a woman, averypregnant woman, walk across the room toward me.
“You’re awake.”
“You?” I shake my head in disbelief. “From the campground.”
“I fuckinghateto camp,” she says, and then jerks a shoulder. “But, we do what we have to do, I guess. I’m Bridget, by the way. We never exchanged names.”
“I don’t know you, Bridget.”
“No, you don’t. But I knowyou.” Her eyes go cold, and her lip turns up in a snarl. “You’ve ruined my entire fucking life.”
“Me?” I shake my head again. “I don’t see how that’s possible, since I don’t know you. Are you the one who broke into my house?”
“If you’d justbeenthere, we wouldn’t have gotten this far,” she says impatiently. “Everything could have been resolved so quickly, but no, you just had to make it difficult at every turn. So really, we’re here because of you.”
“I see.” Except, I don’t see at all, and my heart is racing, pumping blood so loudly in my ears, I can hardly concentrate on what she’s saying. “How did I hurt you, Bridget?”