Page 125 of Out for Blood
I thought about her every day, hoped we’d meet again under other circumstances.
And not just her. I thought about Jasmine and Nia and all the other girls who hadn’t been found too. They were out there somewhere, and it was hard to go back to our normal lives, to trust that the FBI would keep looking for them.
That they wouldn’t be forgotten.
But I’d done all I could, had taken the story as far as I knew how to take it. I’d followed every lead left by my parents.
Now it was time to live my own life.
And this time, I wasn’t alone.
I smiled as a cheer went up from the living room. Vigo was on his feet with Hawk, Remy, and Poe, high-fiving and slapping each other on the back while Ray panted at their feet, eager to be let in on the fun.
Bram set the turkey down on the table and called everyone over, and Jagger and I helped Maeve carry the side dishes.
Then we were all sitting around the same table, not fighting, but laughing.
Loving.
We’d come through the other side together, our own version of family, and I thought of my parents, wondered if they could see us.
Wondered if they were happy. If they were proud.
We’d taken everything they’d left us and built something new. Now I was going to hold onto it with both hands.
Because when something was taken from you — suddenly, violently — it was only natural to try to hang on to the good things, and as Hawk took one of my hands under the table, Jagger the other one, I looked across the table at Vigo and knew I had good things in spades.
Not in spite of what had happened to my parents.
Because of it.
I didn’t pretend to understand how it all worked. How something terrible could be transmuted into something beautiful.
But I knew it was possible because I was looking at the evidence of it with my own eyes.
And I was going to hang on.
Forever.
