Hold On - Part Three (The Hold On Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

exactly what he asks. I scan the room, trying to find the best place to hide. I cower next to the bed trying to stay out of the light. I look toward the back door and wonder if I’ll be able to make a run for it if I have to. I wish now I had unlocked it so I could get out faster in an emergency.
    Alex holds a small gun in his hand; he presses his back flat against the wall beside the window, before leaning over to look outside.
    The tension in his body relaxes and he drops the gun to his side.
    He might be relaxed, but I’m not. My eyes dart between him and the front door wondering who is coming.
    Alex walks over to the door and opens it wide. Ethan steps inside and I whimper in response to seeing him. I’m overcome with such emotion that I feel like I’m going to cry.
    Ethan scans the room looking for me. The corner I’m in is dark but he sees me and walks in my direction.
    “Sarah, oh god, Sarah.”
    He lifts me up and wraps his strong arms around my body.
    “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I said those things.” He kisses my face and runs his hands over my hair and down my back.
    I pull away. I’m not ready to let him back in so quickly. I want to, but I can’t. “You hurt me.” My voice is shaky. I’m still unsure of so many things and everything feels like it’s hurtling at me at once.
    He lowers his gaze and I watch his shoulders slump as he sits down on the bed. He buries his face in his hands. “I know.” When he looks back up at me there is a hard resolve on his face. “I hated myself, but it was the only way I could protect you.”
    I can’t let him get away with this apology so easily. “Why? Why couldn’t you tell me what was really going on?”
    Alex walks over to us. “I’m going up to the road to keep watch. Once you are done here, we’ll track her position and go from there.”
    Ethan nods. “Thanks Alex. For everything.”
    Alex slaps Ethan on his back in a friendly gesture and leaves us alone. As soon as he walks outside, I sit down next to Ethan waiting to hear the answers about why he was so cruel. I need to hear something that makes sense.
    “I found out about her the night I disappeared.”
    I think back to the night he was gone. I never knew where he was and what he was doing. “You went to find the man who killed Winona?”
    “No,” he says with clenched teeth. “I didn’t.”
    “Where did you go?”
    “I went to the police.”
    I don’t expect him to say that. After everything that he and Lili said about not wanting to get the law involved, it surprises me that he did it anyway. “You were at the police station all night?”
    “Yep.” He lifts his hand and runs it through his hair. “I knew something was off with Lili’s story but I wasn’t sure what it was. I wasn’t going to put you, to put us, in danger. I needed to find out what she was up to.”
    “Us?” My bottom lip trembles. He still considers that there is an us.
    “Of course. You and me. I told you I would fix this.”
    He did. He asked me to trust him and for the most part I did. But then he told me he didn’t love me. I don’t have the words to ask him which one is truth and which one isn’t. I’m still unsure.
    “That’s the night they put me in touch with Detective Full.”
    “Alex,” I say.
    Ethan nods. “He’s been trying to catch her for years.”
    “He said he’s been tracking her for five months.”
    He runs his tongue over his bottom lip. “Yep, things heated up after Winona died. Before that Lili was just a folder file. Now it’s more serious.”
    “Winona? After the bad man killed her? The one you are supposed to be robbing right now?” I’m trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together before he tells me but I can’t make the leaps yet.
    He laughs a slow hollow laugh. “Yep, that guy.”
    “Why isn’t Alex arresting him instead?”
    A wry smile curls on Ethan’s lips and he reaches over and holds my hand. His strong fingers interweave with mine. “That guy was