Page 148 of Out for Blood
“What did you say?”
Her eyes struggle open, clouded and unfocused. Then they find mine, recognition shines in her eyes.
“Ca…Cass?”
The world stops.
My heart stutters as a lump forms in my throat.
No. No. No.
My gaze searches her face. Past the bruises. Past the blood. Past the gaunt features and exhaustion. Past the alterations forced upon her. I look beyond everything they did to her until I finally see her. Really see her. And everything inside me shatters.
“Marie?”
The name tears out of me.
“Marie?!”
A sob rips through my chest.
“Oh my god.”
My hands cup her face.
“It’s really you.”
I choke on the words as my tears spill freely now.
“Marie.”
Two years. Two years of morgues. Two years of Jane Doe files. Two years of hoping and searching. And she’s here.
She’s alive.
A weak smile touches her lips, not the painted smile they’d forced onto her face.
A real one.
The same smile I’ve spent two years trying to find.
I cradle her against my chest and hold on with everything I have, my tears soaking into her hair.
She’s here. She’s here.She’s here.
For a few precious seconds, nothing else exists. Then I think of Sofie. I pull away slightly, my hands shaking uncontrollably.
“Where’s Sofie?”
The words scrape their way out of me.
“Marie.”
Her name comes out raw.
“Where’s Sofie?”
Her smile crumbles.
