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road. “What happened at a hospital?”
    I lean my face into my elbow. My hands hurt bad. I can’t stop shaking. There’s still glass in there. I can feel it. I groan a little and try to stay quiet.
    Curves and curves. We’re going down.
    And then we’re not. We’re not moving at all. I crack my eyes open and find us on a rocky shoulder. “Luke, please talk to me. I’m so worried about you, and I’m not sure what to do.” She starts to cry.
    “Please don’t. Don’t cry. I’m sorry.” I reach for her, but she’s easing me away.
    “Don’t move, okay. Don’t move. Baby, please.” She’s sobbing as she pulls onto the mountain road. “Just hang on. I’ll take you somewhere good. Somewhere they can help you. I’ll go with you. I won’t let anybody treat you bad. I’m sorry I’m crying.”
    She looks just like Shelly.
    Calm settles over me. Numbness. I feel so heavy. So detached. “It’s my fault,” I tell her. “It’s my fault you were taken.” I choke on the words.
    “What do you mean?” She looks wild, pale and aghast, awash in tears and blood. My blood.
    “I didn’t think she would do it,” I hiss. “She said you would be mine.” My body is so light now. My voice is barely audible.
    “What are you talking about, Luke? What are you saying?”
    “Shelly.”
    I’m so tired. I just can’t stay awake.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    Lucas
 
    I see Leah’s pale blonde hair, shorter now and moving in a streak around the room. It’s all blurry. Her face and body are blurry, like an over-pixilated photo.
    My hands hurt.
    My eyes sag shut as my heart pounds in my hands, but I work to keep them open. I know it’s her hair. I can’t really see her face, but Leah’s out in front of me. I want to touch her, but she doesn’t seem to know I’m here.
    Leah.
    My stomach clenches, like it’s hungry for her.
    I watch her through the spikes of my eyelashes as she moves about the room. I don’t know what room I’m in, but I feel peace because she’s in it with me.
    The needy, clenching feeling in my stomach turns a little sour as the pain in both my hands intensifies. I drop my gaze down to my hands, and find them propped on pillows, elevated out in front of me.
    The sheets are white. I never buy white sheets.
    My pulse trips as I look around and see a metal pole holding a plastic bag, and a thin tube running to the inside of my right elbow.
    Oh, fuck.
    I’m in a fucking hospital.
    One of my hands lifts up on its own accord. The pain of it makes me want to moan. I lock my jaw and feel my body start to shake.
    Leah…
    I’m too tired to figure out how to say her name, but I can still see her. I hear a beep beep beep. She turns around to me and I remember seeing Leah drive my car. Why would she drive my car?
    Maybe she’s going to tell me, because she comes over by the bed and peers down at me. One of her hands goes to my forehead; no, my eyelid. There’s a bright light, and my head hurts.
    “Hi there.”
    “Leah,” I rasp.
    I don’t like this. Where is Leah?
    I look left and right, swamped now by the awful pain in both my hands, struggling to think around the distraction of my roiling stomach. Then I hear a creek, I see a flash of pale hair, and I’m even more confused, because Leah is gliding toward me—the real Leah—with a baby monitor in one hand. It’s Echo’s monitor. For when he has nightmares. So I can see.
    I shut my eyes because the lids are so heavy. Exhaustion drags me down, the kind that…isn’t real. It’s fake, with pills. I force my eyes back open, and am rewarded by the best sight in the world.
    She leans down and kisses my cheek. Her face glows with love. Her hands stroke both my shoulders. Bare. I’m naked?
    “Hi,” she says. She sits beside me on the white bedding, and I can feel her warm eyes on my skin.
    I watch her reach over somewhere beside the bed. She smiles as she leans a little closer, and something cold slides over my ears. The world snaps into focus.
    “Is