Page 40 of Shadows Relived
He didn’t respond, only sighed softly in his sleep, the tension in his shoulders loosening the smallest bit. And even though her heart was raw with uncertainty, Meaghan knew one thing with absolute clarity.
She wasn’t alone anymore.
She slipped quietly from the room, careful not to wake anyone, and stepped out onto the walkway that overlooked the empty parking lot. A single plastic chair sat near the railing, weather-stained and warped. She sank into it, pulling her knees up, arms wrapped tightly around them.
The Florida night air was humid but welcome. It clung to her skin like the memories clinging to her chest.
As she sat there, staring into the darkness, she couldn’t stop thinking about her father.
How many birthdays had he missed because of “last-minute business”? How many times had she waited at the window for him to show up, only for the hours to crawl by in silence? The memory of her seventhbirthday returned unbidden, streamers drooping in the Georgia humidity, her mother trying too hard to salvage the party, the untouched slice of cake with her name written in frosting still cold in the fridge the next morning.
He was always somewhere else. Always unreachable. But now, now he’d gone from absentee to dangerous.
She wasn’t just angry anymore. She was scared.
A shuffle of footsteps drew her from the memory. She turned as Callen appeared in the doorway behind her, his silhouette framed in the dim motel light. He leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, his expression unreadable, one hand pressed lightly to his side.
“I was wondering where you went,” he said, voice low and rough with exhaustion. “Not exactly smart to be out in the open like this. We’re supposed to be hiding, remember?”
“Just needed some air,” she whispered.
He moved slowly, being careful of his wound at his side, joining her, lowering himself onto the concrete beside her rather than taking the other chair.
For a moment, they sat in silence. A car rumbled past on the nearby highway. Somewhere, a dog barked, and the sound of a garbage can being knocked over echoed through the night. But there, on the edge of nowhere, it was just the two of them.
“I can’t stop thinking about it,” Meaghan finally said, voice barely above a breath. “About what my father’s gotten me into. What he’s gotten them into.”
Callen didn’t speak, but she could feel his attention on her, the weight of it as tangible as his presence beside her.
“He was supposed to be… better. Maybe not a great dad, but at least a good man. Someone trying to do the right thing, even if he wasn’t always there.”
Callen exhaled, slow and quiet.
“He might’ve started out that way,” he said, “but something shifted.”
Meaghan nodded, her throat tightening. “I’m scared, Callen. Not just of what’s coming. I’m scared that I’ve been nothing but a pawn in whatever game he’s playing. That he used me.”
She paused, then added, voice brittle, “And I’m scared that I let him.”
Callen turned slightly toward her. “You didn’t let anyone do anything. You made a life for yourself. You did what you always do—you cared. You looked out for those kids. You tried to do the right thing. That’s not weakness. That’s who you are.”
She met his gaze then. The vulnerability in his eyes mirrored her own, but something else lived there too, an unspoken restraint. He was holding something back.
Maybe he thought she was too fragile now to carry more. Maybe he didn’t trust himself not to say too much. But she didn’t want careful tonight. She wanted real.
“You don’t have to protect me from your feelings, Callen.”
His eyes flickered. “Maybe I do, because once I let them out, I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold them back again.”
A moment passed between them, thick with unsaid things.
Before Meaghan could answer, headlights slashed across the parking lot, sweeping across the stillnesswith an abrupt glare. The beam swept across the cracked pavement and flickered briefly across the front window before going dark. A black SUV rolled to a stop a few spaces down, engine humming before it idled to silence.
Meaghan tensed, pushing herself out of her chair, panic for the kids filling her. Her pulse kicked up. Too fast. Too sudden. No one was supposed to know where they were except Blaze.
She wished she had brought something out with her, something she could use to defend herself, to protect the kids.
The driver’s door creaked open. “Anybody order the cavalry?” came a low, feminine voice laced with humor.
