Chapter 60
Chapter 60 You Can’t Go Home Again
Chapter 60 You Can’t Go Home Again
Lana’s POV
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Kade was a very bad influence, and yet, I kind of liked that about him. He pushed me out of myfety zone, forcing me to see life from a different perspective.
If I wanted to find out who I was, where I came from, I needed that necklace. Which meant that w would have to break the rules.
Kade was so confident, so strong. With him at my side, I believed that maybe we could accomplish this even if it was against the law.
I glanced away from Kade and back to my father. “How could I leave him, though p>
“I’ll be here,” Nurse Jen said.
“We will return the minute he wakes up,” Kade added.
Kade wouldn’t lie about that. He was the one who brought my father here. And with Nurse Jen keeping watch, I didn’t have any reason not to trust. Still, leaving him felt like I was abandoning him, even if I knew that this was what he would want.
Holding his hand, I leaned down and whispered in his car. “I’ll be back soon, Dad. Please get well again p>
I felt a twitch of his hand against mine, like he was trying to hold mine back and assure me. I took comfort in that and slowly pulled back.
“I’m ready now,” I told the others, and let go of my father’s hand.
After collecting my things from the hotel, Kade drove us to the airport, and from there, we took his private jet back to the Eastern pack. He rented a car there, and we drove to the hardware store, where we purchased a pair of shovels. After throwing them in the trunk, we continued on toward the home where I was raised.
It hurt, knowing that it wasn’t in the family anymore. I had grown up there, so the house had so many memories of me and Dad and especially Mom. With her gone, only a few places remained where I felt close to her. The house was one of those places.
I knew my way there like it had been ingrained on my bones and gave Kade directions as we returned to the streets of my old neighborhood. After another turn, there it was. It was a simple cinderblock house in a row of cinderblock houses. There was nothing particularly thrilling or unique about it. Small, the paint on the exterior walls needed redone, and the roof had a tarp over a spot of it like it needed new shingles.
“This is it,” I said, pointing.
Kade parked the car on the side of the road, then looked over, taking in the house.
I held my breath, expecting some sarcastic remark about how small or rundown it was.
Instead, Kade said, “Where’s the tree p>
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Chapter 60 You Can’t Go Home Again
“Around back. Near the edge of the forest p>
“I pull around the corner. We can hide in the woods until it gets dark p>
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The sun was already lowering in the sky. It would be sunset soon, and then dark. It made sense to wait until we had the cover of nightfall, so we wouldn’t be seen as we dug up under a tree that didn’t long to
Kade drove around the corner and we parked behind a line of cars, blending in. Then we grabbed for shovels and headed into the woods. We came up behind my childhood home through the woods staying hidden among the trees.
In the center of the yard was the tree with the swing. Or at least, it had once had a swing. The swing itself had been cut away now, but the ropes still remained somewhat, tied in knots up at the top of the branch Whoever had removed it hadn’t been particularly careful about it, still leaving the ropes like that.
It annoyed me that whoever bought the house wasn’t showing it the kind of love and care my parents had It might have been small, but my parents still treated it like it was everything. To us, it was.
“That’s it?” Kade asked.
“Yeah p>
We found a secluded spot, shielded mostly from the house by trees and brushes, and got comfortable there, sitting down in the dirt.
We sat in quiet for a while. I couldn’t stand being alone with my thoughts.
“I spent a lot of time in these woods,” I said, then frowned. “I guess this is where I was found. Somewhere in here p>
Kade looked around, searching as if he could find my past somewhere in this forest among the tree and brush. The forest held no answers though. I knew that. The answers I needed were in my father’s lockbox.
“We’ll find out who put you there,” Kade said. A muscle in his jaw ticked. “Then I’ll have a few words with them p>
“I’m the one who should have words,” I reminded him.
“I’ll back you up,” he said.
I imagined that whatever I had to say to my birth parents would be much more effective with an Alpha heir standing behind me, so I didn’t argue. Instead, the thought made me smile a little.
We were quiet then, but only for an hour or so. Then the sky darkened enough to hide us as we crept forward from the forest.
The lights were off in the house. Perhaps they went to bed early? I didn’t know, but there wasn’t time to delay. The sooner we did this, the sooner we could leave.
“Which side of the tree?” Kade whispered to me as we approached it.
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Chapter 60 You Can’t Go Home Again
I thought of my father. He would have hidden it from the house and the road. “Over here.” I gestured to
hind the tree
Kade dug the shovel into the dirt. I wanted to help, but he waved me off. “Keep watch p>
He continued to dig, but he didn’t have to dig too deeply. Six inches down or so, the metal of the hovel clanged against the top of the lock-box.
Hurriedly, he dug around it, and then he lifted it from the ground. It wasn’t very big or heavy, maybe six inches wide by six inches long, with only three or four inches of depth.
He handed it to me, and I cradled it to my chest, relief flooding through me straight down to my ones
But then, a light in the house clicked on.
“Kade!” I hissed.
A figure moved in the house, coming toward the back window.
“Back to the woods. Now,” Kade said, and gently shoved me. He grabbed both shovels as we went, but then dropped them right as we hit the tree line. They would be hidden by the tall grasses, but we would still be
seen.
Just as the back light turned own, illuminating the yard, Kade grabbed me and pressed me up against the side of a tree. He covered me with his body, keeping me still, with only the lockbox pressed between us.
I held my breath, my gaze locked on the side of Kade’s neck.
In this particular spot, we were hidden in shadow.
Kade swallowed hard. I watched the muscles of his throat work. Foolishly, I wanted to press my lips there. I scolded myself at once.
Only a moment later, the light clicked off again, and Kade finally stepped back.
Finally, I breathed again.
“We should get out of here. Wait to open the box until we are in the car,” he said.
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
In the car, with the shovels stowed in the back, and Kade driving us away, I opened the box. The necklace was right on top, wrapped in a handkerchief.
It was gold, with a hanging pendant. On the pendant, an insignia was marked. I didn’t think I’d ever seen that symbol before.
At a red light, I showed Kade. He looked over, and then immediately looked again, in a double take. His face went hard and a little pale.
“Do you recognize it?” I asked, hope rising.
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Chapter 60 You Can’t Go Home Again
He looked away. “No,” he said flatly.
Bu with that reaction… I didn’t believe him.
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