Page 45 of Broken Moon

I reached across the littletable and took her cold hand. “It’s okay, Lucy. You can trust me.”

“I know. I know that without adoubt. I saw that inside you, as well. You’re a good person. A good damnperson.”

I squeezed her hand and waited.

“My father died as well,” shestarted. “He was my mother’s entire world. She was pregnant when hedied—nothing sinister, he was simply in a car accident and was pronounced deadbefore they reached the hospital. My mother went into labor the same night hewas killed. The shock, I suppose. The huge emotional trauma. It nearly killedher. She wanted to die, but she had me at home—I was seven—and this new babybeing born on the same night my father died.”

She took a drink of her coffeeand a bite of her cake, but I could tell she didn’t really taste either. “Thebaby was what kept her alive, though, and do you know why?”

“Because she thought yourfather’s spirit went into the child when he was born.”

She stared at me, surprised.“Yes. Yes, that’s right. She never saw Elliot as…asElliot. But my God,Kait, he was her life. He was her everything.”

And I could see the little girlshe’d been. Neglected by a mother overwhelmed with sadness, grieving for herfather, confused, and then a new baby who her mom thought was her dead husband…

“Good God, Luce. I’m sorry.”

But she wasn’t finished. “Sowhen I’d just turned fourteen and my little brother was seven, I had a coupleof friends over. Friends I wanted to impress, of course. My mother had to go towork—some sort of emergency. She was a surgical tech, and she was on call. Shenormally had my grandmother come sit with us when she had to go to work, but Iwas fourteen, and she told me she trusted me to take care of Elliot.”

She stopped for a minute andstared blankly into space, and quite suddenly, I absolutely did not want tohear the rest of her sad story. Did not. But I drank my coffee and I listened,because Lucy needed to talk.

“So my little brother keptcoming into my bedroom and doing stupid stuff, you know how boys are. He wasembarrassing me in front of my friends, and I was afraid they’d leave.” Hersmile was bitter, now. “I yelled at him, told him to go to his room and playand leave us alone. He went.”

She was crying now, licking thetears off her lips and smiling this horrible smile that was not really a smileat all, and I knew that every second of every day she was filled with thisawfulness that had lived inside her since she was fourteen years old.

“I’ll just hurry to the end,”she said finally. “The end for my brother. He found my father’s gun. He shothimself. He died on the old carpet of my mother’s bedroom floor, and she neverforgave me. I never forgave myself.”

She took a drink of coffee. “Eightyears ago,” she whispered. “And it seems like yesterday.”

“Luce,” I said. “That wasn’t onyou, honey. Your mother left a loaded gun where a child could get to it. Thatwasn’t your fault.” But I knew my words would matter not at all. It was okay. Iwas there, I was her friend, and I was never going to judge her.

And I knew something else.

Lucy needed me just as much asI needed her.

ChapterTwenty-One

I texted Jared so I could checkon Lennon before I left for my appointment with Patricia Simon. I’d moved thatappointment up because I was in a hurry to go look for my blade. When he didn’treply, I called the little clinic. There were people there minding the doctor’soffice, but the doctor and his nurse were not present and the girl who answeredrefused to tell me anything.

Next, I called DetectiveMoreno, because he wouldn’t text unless he was sending an address or aparticularly gory photo, and I wanted to make sure there was no noise from thedemon. Maybe he’d actually faded. I could hope.

And I needed to ask thedetective something else. “I might have some information on an abducted girl,Detective. What do you have in missing girls in the last month from Jakeston?Anything stand out to you?”

His voice was sharp. “Whatinformation?”

“Dammit, Rick. Can you justanswer my question?”

“Kait, we get anywhere fromeight to fifteen missing persons reports a day for the county. Over half ofthose are Jakeston alone.”

I blew out a hard breath.“That’s fucking horrible.”

“Pretty average for a city thissize.”

“This girl. She’s probably ateenager, middle or late teens. She has red hair. And she has a noticeable gapbetween her two front teeth. That’s all I got.”

“Who gave you this information,Kaitlyn?”

I sighed. “I have this friend. Lucyhas dreams where she sees…things. Mostly people in trouble. People who need help.She dreamed of a redheaded girl trapped in a box, screaming. Someone comes into hurt her.”