Chapter Sixty Three
**Brady**
By the time that I leave my parents house and make it back to Raleigh, it’s nearly one in the morning and exhaustion consumes my every thought. If I hadn’t wanted so desperately to get back to Raleigh, to find out if she is pregnant with my baby, I would have just stayed at home instead of leaving after Detective Morris finally gave up and left.
Fucking detective. He won’t let up. He just kept coming at me, over and over again he kept questioning me, askin the same goddamn things. He may have rephrased them trying to throw me off, but they were the same questions just the same.
“When was the last time that you saw Raleigh Stewart?” *This morning before school, when I had her cuming on my fingers.* Instead I said, “It was before her disappearance. She had cheer practice while we had football practice. That was the last time I saw her.”
“What was the nature of the relationship between you and Raleigh?” *I love her more than I could ever express.* “Raleigh has always been a really good friend. Someone who is sweet and cute. Our parents were close when hers were still with us. So, I’ve known her since we were just babies.”
“Do you want there to be more between the two of us than just that friendship?” *There was already more between she and I than friendship, there always had been, even when she didn’t know it.* “Right now, I’m focused more on sports and having fun than marriage.”
“Brady, would you ever do anything to hurt Raleigh?” * I would never do anything to hurt her ever again.* “Most definitely not. I care about Raleigh, I don’t hurt the people that I care about.”
“Do you know of anyone that had it out for, or who would want to hurt, Raleigh? *There are plenty of jealous bitches who would love to be in Raleigh’s shoes right now, but no one would dare lay a finger on my girl without my say so and I wouldn’t so much as let someone hurt a single hair on my girl's head.* “There were plenty of girls who were jealous of her and my friendship, the closeness that Raleigh and I shared. But, I don’t know of anyone who would want to hurt her, no.”
Slipping into her room, I close the door behind me and make my way to the bathroom. Once there, I place the boxes of tests that I bought for her down on the counter and then begin shucking off my clothes, making sure to put them in the laundry hamper instead of leaving them in a pile on the floor before going back into the room.
Crawling into bed with her, I slip beneath the covers and pull her warm body against mine, my entire being relaxing at having her against me, with me. Snuggling up with her head beneath my chin, her face against my neck, lust permeates my entire system, my cock immediately standing to attention as she murmurs, “What time is it?”
“It’s late.” I place a kiss against her hair, and then shift to get more comfortable and say, “Go back to sleep baby.”
I fall asleep with my girl in my arms and the possibilities of what could be endless.
**Raleigh**
I wake to the smell of smoke. Coughing, I look around the room that had become mine during my time here, confusion filling me as I try to figure out what’s going on.
It’s still early, not even light out yet.
The smell is strong and choking, fear slices through me as my heart pounds in my chest. I glance at the other side of the bed as I move to get out of it, swearing that at some point I hadn’t been alone. *But maybe I had just been dreaming?* I wonder, knowing how much I've been missing Lincoln and wishing desperately to be with him.
Going to the door, I don't stop and think about the fact that if I'm smelling smoke, there's probably a fire. I don't feel it to make sure it's not hot. I just pull it open, only after realizing what I'd done and letting out a relieved sigh that it wasn't hot and I'd not melted my hand on the hot door knob. Steeping into the hallway just slightly, I see a red glow and hear the roar of what definitely sounds like fire coming from the first story of the house.
Fear consumes me as a form comes rushing towards me. “Julia?” I question, confused. Once she stops in front of me, I take her in, noticing that she has black marks on her face. "Were you down there?" I ask, because surely she wasnt. why would she have been down in the fire and ran up here to me?
“It’s too bad downstairs…there’s no way out.” She states, then she shoves something at me. “Here. Call your brothers, your boyfriend. Say goodbye.”
I look down at my hands and find a rectangle object sitting in them.
It’s my cell phone.
The same cell phone that Brady told me had been crushed in the accident.
"What happened? Where's Brady?" I ask, as I look between her and my cell, as if it's a foreign object. *Why am I so scared to make the call?* Before I would have been ecstatic about havibg my phone, havibg a lifeline to my old life. But right now, I can't bring myself to pull up any of their contacts. Julia just shakes her head back and forth, her face a mask of sadness.
Turning back to my room, I close the door, grab the blankets off of the bed snd shove them at the door to try to keep the smoke from getting in and then run to the bathroom. Not bothering to strip down, I climb in the tub, turning the water on cold and then take a monent to just breath.
After that monet, filled with fear and desperation, I press the call button and put the phone to my ear, feeling too many things at once when I hear “Raleigh?!” on the other end of the line.
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