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it.
    “I’m going home,” I replied softly. I was starting to make myself sick thinking about going back, but I had to do it.
    Aiden nodded. “When do you want to leave?” he asked before taking another sip of his coffee.
    “What time is it over there?” I really didn’t want to turn up at my house in the middle of the night and have my old neighbour , Mrs. Carson, call the police on us.
    “ Ahh …” He paused while he grabbed his iPhone. “It’s about five in the afternoon.”
    Good. At that time of year, we still had a couple of hours left before nightfall.
    “You want to go now?” he asked with a surprised tone.
    “No. After we’ve finished our coffee.”
    “Smartass,” he said with a smile, which I returned.
    I got out of bed and joined Aiden on the sofa. “I guess I’ve been hanging around you too much, hey?” I joked, bumping my bare thigh against his.
    “All jokes aside, how are you feeling?”
    I didn’t want to think about how I was feeling. I would have preferred to squash any feelings I had about the last time I was at my house. I wanted to pretend they didn’t exist; otherwise, I didn’t know how I was going to cope with going through what I was about to do.
    “You know I can help you with that.” He was offering to do what he had done for me shortly after I had seen my mother’s body lying in a pool of blood.
    I shivered at the thought of her lifeless eyes staring up at me, as if pleading for me to help her. Yet I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do. She was gone, and I still felt as though I had failed her somehow. Why I felt like that, I didn’t know, but the fact remained that I did. And maybe, going back to find who did this to her might bring some sort of closure for me. I could only hope.
    “I may just take you up on that,” I said, knowing without a doubt that I wouldn’t be able to get through it without his help.
    He leaned forward, placed his mug on the coffee table, then got to his feet. “I’m gonna go find Dave and Anna to let them know that we will be heading off soon.”
    He walked over to the bed, threw off his towel, and put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. The guy had a massive walk-in wardrobe off his bathroom, and yet he still preferred to leave his clothes lying around everywhere. I just hoped they were clean.
    “Yes, they’re clean,” he said, as he strolled over to the door. “I won’t be long.” He left, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
    It wasn’t as if I could distract myself by getting ready, because I had nothing to change into. I would have to grab a heap of clothes when I went home. And there I was, thinking about home again and all the memories it held. Damn. I was probably going to need Aiden to work his magic before I even got there.
    Not knowing what else to do, I picked up Aiden’s iPhone and browsed his latest music downloads.
    Before long, he was back. “You ready?”
    I took a deep breath. It was time to go home. Time to face my demons. Time to find my mother’s murderer. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
    Aiden sat down beside me and laced my fingers with his. “Let’s do this.”
    I closed my eyes and thought about home. I wanted to land us in my old bedroom, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself from thinking about the lounge room where my mother’s bloodied body had lain.
    When we landed, I was too afraid to open my eyes. My heart was jumping inside my chest, and my stomach felt as if it was going to empty all its contents.
    Aiden squeezed my hand. “You can open your eyes.”
    I shook my head. “No, I can’t.”
    “We’re in your room.” He sent some of those feel-good thingies pulsating through my body, but it wasn’t enough. I thought I was ready, but I obviously wasn’t. I couldn’t even open my damn eyes. “Want some help?” he asked.
    I nodded. The next thing I knew, all my fear and anxiety about returning home were gone. I didn’t know if I’d ever get used to how he could manipulate my feelings so