PART 2, SECTION 10

“It’s not just that, Ash. They’ve got that little girl at the hospital. The one who was attacked. When I went back there last night there were armed guards all around her room. These guys were from way out of town. Maybe out of state. Not cops, military. Some kind of Special Ops or something.” Ian lowered his voice even further. “And they got him. They got the guy. They killed him. They already killed the guy who attacked the girl.”

Ian stared at me for a second, unsure what to say, maybe unsure if he’d told me too much already. I knew he hadn’t shared any of this with Danielle. And, honestly, I wasn’t sure why he was telling me.

“So, what’s this mean?” I asked, keeping my voice low. “What’s going on then?”

“All I can say is that I’m sure there’s a lot more going on than we know at this point.”

I started to cry. I couldn’t hold it back any more. Ian didn’t try to comfort me, which I was thankful for. He just sat there as the tears spilled down my cheeks and I tried to process everything he was telling me. I still didn’t understand what all of this meant, but for some reason it made me feel even more guilty about cheating on Shawn. It felt like such a small and stupid thing to have done, especially now. And I was worried that Ian knew more than he was telling me.

“I blacked out last night,” I confessed at last. “There are a lot of hours I don’t remember at all. The truth is I don’t remember much of anything after the bar.” I turned to look at him. “But I found your stuff in my car.”

Ian searched my eyes. There was something in his look that told me he definitely did know more than he was saying, but he also looked almost relieved when I told him I'd blacked out.

“You don’t remember anything at all?” he asked.

“I’m so stupid.” I tried to dry my eyes. "I haven’t drunk that much since high school. Everything’s pretty much a complete blank.”

“I went out looking for you after you disappeared at the bar,” Ian said. “I couldn’t find you anywhere. To be honest, I think I was even more worried than Shawn’s been.”

He wouldn’t look at me. Ian just kept folding and unfolding his hands and staring at them. He cleared his throat.

“After they starting evacuating everyone,” he whispered, “I was worried about you. Really worried. You know? I didn’t have time to go to the motel, so I looked for your car in the lot.” He shrugged. “I figured eventually you’d make it back to your car. I didn’t want you to be cold. And I wanted to make sure you'd be safe. You still have the gun, right?”

I nodded.

“Good.”

Ian's phone rang while he nodded back distractedly.

I was used to Ian always getting calls, but this time when the ringer chimed it really startled me.

I saw the name for the incoming call flash on the screen before he picked up.

It was Morgan.

She was screaming. She was screaming so loud I could hear her the sound of her voice as soon as Ian answered. She was screaming for help.

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