Page 83 of Never Say Never

But there’s a baby crying, and I need to find him.

Soothe him.

“Shh.” I hold him gently in my arms. “Shh. It’s okay, baby. Momma’s here. And I’ll never leave you. I love you, sweet one.”

24

TRAVIS

I stare at the body,the blonde hair. Those green eyes shut forever.

The morgue is the last place I’m meant to be. But I had to come here.

Had to. I got to the house too late.

Way too late.

I couldn’t save her.

Tyler was already there when he called, about to go into her house.

The house I should have been at.

Brandi’s house.

Said something garbled in his call to me how Jessica lost her mind and had gone after Brandi.

And now.

This.

Dead.

I take a breath.

I’ve seen death before. Bodies broken and twisted. Those beaten and bloodied. But never someone I… Never someone who meant… Never.

I want to say she’s finally found peace, but how can I even begin to think that when I’m looking at her?

Knowing she’ll never laugh, cry, love?

Never sort herself the fuck out? Never breathe again?

I want to be kind.

I want to feel more than I do.

But I don’t.

Jessica’s dead, and it could be Brandi right there next to her.

She looks like the blonde woman in Brandi’s photo, her mother. And that’s what I was missing. In that picture of her holding Brandi, her mother was already a husk of a person. A corpse just waiting to die.

OD’d is the unofficial report. There’ll be an autopsy and tox reports and everything else. Right now Tyler’s finishing up with Brian. I got there too late to do anything other than ride in the ambulance with Brandi and Ty.

In all my life I don’t think I’ve ever felt so helpless.

My brother didn’t talk much to me on that ride and there’d been so much blood. On Brandi, on him. On me.