Love You Madly(47)

He fell back, moaning and holding his hands protectively over his groin.

The sound of sirens approaching reached her at the same moment that Travis burst into the room.

He looked down at the pathetic lump on the floor, disbelief and relief on his face.

Meredith was shaking, her body suddenly cold. That shot…

“What happened? Did you find Darcy?”

The pained expression that crossed his face didn’t bode well, and her stomach lurched. His warm arms wrapped around her just as her knees went out from under her.

She let him hold her as he explained what he knew until the cops came in and the whole place turned to chaos.





Chapter Twelve

It was close to two in the morning before Meems pulled her Jeep into Meredith’s driveway to drop them off. With her car stolen and Bonnie probably halfway to Mexico, Travis had called the irritatingly adorable and brilliant computer genius to pick them up, certain that she would probably be awake and willing to help.

Meredith nearly had to bite off her tongue to stop from asking him how he knew the hours the woman kept. It wasn’t her business. He could take up with whomever he wanted.

At least, that was the lie she was telling herself.

Fortunately, through her fatigue, disappointment, and irrational jealousy, Meredith had the wherewithal not to take it all out on the woman. Even when every instinct begged her to snap when Meems had asked the ridiculous question of how Meredith was feeling. Instead, she’d managed to smile and politely respond that she’d been better as she slipped in the backseat, even though that had to qualify as the world’s biggest understatement.

With Travis sitting shotgun, he and Meems spent the drive home discussing the property records he wanted her to research to see if there was any connection between the owners of the club and the house. Maybe see if the owners had any other property in their name that might lead them to where Darcy was being kept. But Meredith was barely listening to them. She was too exhausted and numb, the taste of disappointment still bitter in her mouth.

She had been so certain they were going to find Darcy tonight. Bring her home.

With Meems’s promise to get started right away, Travis and Meredith made their way to her front door and inside.

Meredith’s damp, wrinkled clothes clung to her skin, and she clenched her teeth from the chill in the house thanks to the low setting she’d left the thermostat on this morning. She had to get out of her clothes. Shower and warm up.

Wash away the horror from that horrible house.

“I’m going to shower,” she said and slowly headed up the stairs. Defeat making her feet feel like they each weighed fifty pounds.

Underneath the showerhead a few minutes later, she closed her eyes. Letting the water run down her face, along her back, washing away the filth and the stench of death that clung to her. Soothing her with its constant rhythm.

She didn’t know how long she stood under there, but Travis’s knock on the door pulled her out of whatever trance she’d been in.

“You okay?” he called.

He opened the door when she didn’t immediately respond, something she’d normally rail at him for. Right now, she didn’t have the energy. She was still considering his question.

Was she okay?

The question touched on something that she’d been ignoring for too long.#p#分页标题#e#

No. She sure as hell wasn’t okay.

Even before Darcy had stepped into that club and disappeared, throwing Meredith’s carefully ordered life into chaos, she hadn’t been okay.

No, she’d been lonely. And if she was honest, filled with self-loathing. Unable to stop the course her life had taken, starting as far back as… God. She didn’t even know anymore.

But she did know that as of this moment, she wanted—no, needed—to be a different person. A person people liked. Wanted to be with. Someone worth caring for. Someone whom Darcy would be able to love and care for.

And, being honest, maybe even someone whom a man like Travis would find worth caring for.

She took in a deep breath. “I’m okay, Travis.” Or she hoped she would be.

“We need to talk when you’re done.”

She turned her head, letting the water pound against her neck and shoulders. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

She opened her eyes and saw Travis’s silhouette through the steam and the frosted glass of her shower door. He was facing her, and for a moment she wondered how much of her he could see. Before she could turn away in modesty, though, he was gone, the door quietly clicking behind him.

And she was alone again.

Only now, instead of the sadness and defeat she’d been reveling in, she was driven with a new emotion as she lathered up, washing her hair and body, and finished her shower. She needed to know what Travis’s plan was. Their plan. How they were going to find Darcy.