Sun Catch Her (Book 1: Three Rivers Deep series) COMPLETE

Chapter Six

It is odd how the same old pain always takes me by surprise, these violent recollections inducing a panic I should really be numb to by now. But as its fangs readjust their grip on my shoulder, I can't help the gasp that escapes me, and my mind turns to him. Screams for him. Begs him to show up faster this time before I am slammed so many times against cold steel that I cannot see his face when he holds me afterward—I never get to see his face.

The panic in my heart gives way to the unexplained quaking, and I can't help but wonder if he is even real as I begin to choke on the blood filling my mouth. Where is he? Oh god! Where is he? Why hasn't he saved me?

But he would save me, as he always did right before he vanished from the parking lot, and I pleaded within the context of what I knew very well by now was a lucid dream: Please don't go. Don't leave me again!

Lying silently inside of myself in the heat of a parking lot, I waited for the moment when the ground would begin to shake with the force of the battered apartment building falling. I waited and waited... I stirred. The asphalt cooled underneath my body, dissipating with the nightmare as I resurfaced. Fitfully, I rolled over, realizing now, yes, I was waking up, and my groggy mind began to meander through the details of what happened next that day: first, the bang of the car door and loud clopping of Indy's boots, then, the rough tug of my body being yanked up from the parking lot. The sudden, sharp pain as I was shoved into the backseat to be driven at top speed for nearly an hour before receiving medical treatment from people whose identities were all but a blur now.

"Aurora!"

I bolted upright at the sound of Indy's voice—and smacked my head on a shelf at the back of the closet. "Ouch," I cried out, then clapped my hand over my mouth.

"Aurora, are you awake up there? I want to leave for the mall by ten," Indy called from downstairs. Her boots were loud on the steps as she started up moments later in pursuit of a verbal acknowledgement.

I scrambled on hands and knees toward the light at the bottom of the door, frantically searching up the left side until my hand caught the handle.

I dove for the bed and yanked the sleeping bag over me just before my aunt crossed the threshold, looking her usual, high-strung self in a tailored blouse paired with navy slacks that struck her just right on the boot. The bobby pins were silver today.

"Did you hear me? I want to leave for the mall by ten."

"Okay," I mumbled against the mattress.

The sun was already shining brightly through the two bedroom windows that faced east. Cheddar, what time is it? I was shifting around under the partially unzipped sleeping bag, yawning as if I'd been there all night, when my foot came across a lump at the very bottom of the bag and I froze, dumbstruck at the familiarity of it. I thrust my foot into the pocket of the zipped lower half and the corner of a cardboard swing tag jabbed me in the ankle.

"I'm going to need your help unpacking later," Indy was saying. "The twenty-one storage units I had emptied arrived yesterday and the boxes are crowding the front entrance and the living room. We need to get them moved."

"What? I thought we were only emptying the one unit in New Mexico with our personal belongings? Why did you empty out everything for Whyte Wine in Los Angeles and have it transferred here? Where are we going to put it all?"

"I went over to the landlord's office this morning and signed the lease to the other house on this property." Indy's lavender eyes sparkled with enthusiasm in the morning light. "We will be setting up a workshop next door. So you'd better settle in, because we're staying here for quite a long haul."