I blinked slowly. Exploded? That shit happens in movies. “Was he in it?”

“Walking toward it.”

“Thank God,” I whispered, but my mind wouldn’t shut off. Seriously. That’s movie shit. “All right, I’m on my way, just try to stay calm. I’ll call you when I see him.”

Ending the call, I drove as fast as Friday morning traffic would allow me to the hospital, and was quickly taken back to where my dad was. Fear flooded my veins and weakened my knees the closer we got to his room. I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t know if he was in a coma, I just didn’t know anything.

“What the hell happened?” I asked, my tone coated in relief when I saw him sitting up in the hospital bed.

“You’re asking the wrong person. Is your mom okay?”

I shot him a look and sighed as I sat in the chair next to the bed. “Not even close, but she’s on her way. You don’t look anything like what I was afraid I’d find.”

He laughed shakily. “Just some scratches and a bump on my head from where I hit the walkway. I mainly can’t stop shaking and my ears are still ringing.”

“Christ . . . you scared me, old man.” I squeezed his outstretched hand and called Mom.

“Eli?” she answered frantically.

“He’s fine. I’m sitting with him now. He’s just a little shaken up.”

She breathed a deep sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God!”

“Yeah.”

“Tell him I love him and I’m on my way.”

I looked up at my dad to see him smiling, and I knew he could hear her. “Will do, see you soon.” Once I ended the call, I sat back again and rubbed my hands over my face. “She said you were walking out to your car?”

Dad blinked quickly. “The alarm went off on my car . . . I figured someone hit it with the newspaper or something. I tried turning it off with the key fob inside the house, and when it didn’t stop, I walked outside. I was about”—he thought for a second—“halfway down the walkway to my car when it just blew up. I have no idea what happened, and I was never knocked unconscious, but I was out of it. Everything was so loud and just shaky. I still—I still can’t believe that just happened. It doesn’t feel like real life.”

“I was thinking that,” I said gruffly. “Sounds like something you see in movies.”

There was a knock on the door, and two police officers walked in. “Mr. Jenkins, I’m sorry, but we had a few more questions.”

I patted my dad’s arm and stood. “I’m gonna go make a call.”

Walking out of the room, I fell back against the wall and dropped down to the floor, letting out a shaky breath as I ran my hands through my hair. He was alive, he was fine . . . but there had been so much adrenaline pumping through my body that was now quickly fading, that I felt like I was about to crash.

And I needed Paisley.

Grabbing my phone out of my pocket, I pulled up her number and stared at it for long minutes. Just as I started to press down, I heard my name being called. Looking to my left, I saw my mom jogging down the halls and stood to meet her. She had makeup streaming down her face, and her body shook as she cried against my chest.

“Is he okay?”

“Yeah, there are officers in there talking to him.” Shoving my phone back in my pocket, I turned her toward the room. “Come on, let’s go in there.”

I JERKED AWAKE when I heard a scream early the next morning. It was still pitch black in the room and outside the window, and it took me a second to realize where I was. It wasn’t until I heard my mom and dad yelling loudly that I remembered I’d stayed at their house in case Dad needed anything. They didn’t know why his car had blown up, but that shit didn’t just happen out of nowhere, so I’d also wanted to be here in case anything like it happened again.

Scrambling off the bed and out of my old bedroom, I ran toward their room and nearly broke the door off the hinges when I didn’t twist the knob enough and threw all my weight into it.

“What’s happening?” I yelled as soon as I was in.

I looked wildly around their room as they both ran in and out of their closet. My mom was crying as she packed a suitcase, my dad was trying to calm someone down on the phone.

“What is going on?” I asked again, and my dad turned to look at me, his face filled with the terror I’d felt yesterday morning as I’d driven to the hospital.

“Rachel,” he whispered to me, and shook his head, trying to convey that whatever had happened to my sister . . . it wasn’t good.

Chapter Five

September 7, 2013

Eli

IT FELT LIKE I was in a daze, like none of this could possibly be real—but somehow it was. I sat in the waiting room with my parents and younger sister Candice as I waited for the time when I could go into Rachel’s room again. Candice clutched at my arm as her body shook steadily, even through her sleep, and my mom cried quietly against my dad’s shoulder as they whispered back and forth to each other.

Rachel and Candice were three and a half years younger than me, and both were living in Austin attending the University of Texas there. While only Candice was blood, I’d never considered Rachel anything other than my sister. I’d just been with them a little over two months ago when I’d had a business trip here . . . and now Rachel was hooked up to a bunch of machines in a hospital room because of a stalker. The same man had apparently had people following all the members of my family, and had been behind my dad’s car blowing up.

Rachel was alive and would live a normal life, and she was whole, but she in no way would be okay. Not only had she been stalked and tortured by a psychopath, she’d also found out while being rescued that her fiancé was an undercover cop. I couldn’t imagine that conversation was going over well between them in her room, and I hated knowing that my sister was completely broken.

Removing Candice from my arm, I stood and walked to the other side of the waiting room to get away from them as I tried not to break down. Running my hands down my face, I let out a shuddering breath and tried to make sense of all this, but there was no way to. It still didn’t feel real. I just had to be thankful they’d been trying to send a message with my dad, and not trying to kill him; and thankful for Rachel’s fiancé, Kash. If it weren’t for him and the other detectives, they wouldn’t have found her in time.

My throat tightened at the thought of losing my sister, and like I had so many times over the past twenty-four hours, all I could think was that I needed Paisley there with me.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I walked out of the waiting room and down a little vacant hall. After going through the contacts, I stared at Paisley’s name for a long time—just like I’d done yesterday—before finally pressing down on it.

It rang and rang until her voice mail picked up, and my head fell back to the wall when her voice filled the phone. I rubbed at the ache in my chest as I wished once again for all of this to be some fucked-up nightmare.

“Hey, Pay, happy birthday,” I choked out, and cleared my throat. “I wish I could get a box of cupcakes and split them in half with you, but I’m in Texas. Some bad stuff happened to Rachel—and well . . . I’m just in Texas. So go get some cupcakes and eat the tops for me, sound good?”