Help Me Remember (Rose Canyon, #1)(75)

I pick up the frame and chuck it at the wall as hard as I can. It shatters even more, glass flying everywhere and the frame breaking apart at the joints.

Good. That’s how I feel inside.

As I look around, I keep hearing Quinn’s words in my head. If I could prove to her that I am absolutely not the killer, then maybe we can find a way. Maybe I can show her that the one thing I have never lied about is how much I care about her.

I could give her the past back by showing her the truth. There is no other way that I can see to fix what’s been broken between us. Brielle needs to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what we have is real and fucking perfect.

That means that I have very little time to do my job.

I walk into the room I haven’t been in for a long time—my office.

I sit at my desk, running my palms over the cool wood that hasn’t been touched in months, and then slide open my laptop. “I need help,” I say to the room, and then I look at the photo of Isaac, Holden, Emmett, and me from Isaac’s wedding. “I need you to help me, Isaac. Help me see and help me make her happy.”

With my hands hovering over the keyboard, I do exactly what I told Brielle to do. I go back to the beginning, and I write for the first time in a year.





Chapter Twenty-Seven





BRIELLE





I have finally stopped crying. It took me over an hour to calm down enough to tell Charlie what happened. The whole time I was talking, she sat and listened without judgment.

“You did the right thing,” she says for the fiftieth time.

“Did I?”

“Were you scared?”

I nod.

“Then, yes. You did exactly what that button is intended for. You were panicked, which we all saw, and our job was to get you to a secure location.”

“And he can’t come here?” I ask again.

“No. No one can until you’re truly ready,” Charlie assures me.

How crazy is this? I am afraid of the man I never thought I could be. Nothing in my life is right, but I would still give anything to have it be a nightmare. At least then, it would be over when I woke up.

But this is my life, and there is no over for me until I really have my memory back and know that it’s true.

It’s as if there’s a gaping hole in my chest where my heart should be, and the thought of staying in this town a second longer has me wanting to crawl out of my skin. “I want to go to my mother,” I tell her.

“You want to leave?”

“You said a secure location, right?”

“Yes, but . . .”

“Well, my mother is in California, and she absolutely is not the killer. I can’t be here. I’m not safe, and I can’t . . . I can’t be in the same town as him right now.”

She takes my hand in hers. “We are here to protect you, Brie. The team is on high alert, and no one is getting through that door, okay? You are safe.”

“And what about when that ends? What then? I know this sounds incredibly childish. I get it, but I want my mother. I want to be with someone who I know loves me to my core. I . . . I thought . . . I thought I had that. I need that, okay?”

If Addy were here, it would’ve been her, but she’s gone. My mother is close enough that we can get there in a few hours, and I just need my mother to tell me what the hell is going on in my life.

“Okay. We’ll make arrangements now. I can’t make the trip with you because I need to head back to Virginia, but Quinn will be with you every step of the way, and I’ll pull in Jackson, who is the owner, as well. We’ll handle it.”

A sob of relief and sadness breaks from my chest when she doesn’t tell me I’m crazy. Charlie wraps me in a brief hug before pulling back. “Go get packed so you’re ready to leave when we have everything settled. It should only take an hour or two.”

I get to my feet, wiping my cheeks. “And will Spencer know?”

Charlie gives me a sad smile. “Not unless you want him to.”

A part of me wants to tell her to call him, let him in here so I can talk to him. The other part of me doesn’t trust it. I am too raw to deal with him. He’ll either convince me that nothing I think is true or I’ll convince myself that he’s lying. Right now, I’m not sure I would believe the truth if someone played video proof of it. Even though my heart says there’s no way he could ever hurt me or Isaac, my head isn’t aligning with anything.

“Not until we’re on the road.”

“All right.”

In under two hours, Cole Security is ready to go. Quinn will be with me the whole way, which per Charlie, is more than enough, and Jackson will meet us at my mother’s.

She and Mark take my bags, and when we get to the door, my heart sinks. Emmett is there, his eyes full of confusion. Charlie’s hands grip my shoulders. “You don’t have to . . .”

“It’s okay,” I say and move toward him. I wrap my arms around his neck, and he crushes me to him. “I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

“I have to go.”

“I know that too,” he says, cinching me a little tighter.

When he releases me, the damn tears are back in full force. “Will you go to him?”