When Love Walked Away novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Back Window

I put my hand on the glass, and it was hot enough to hurt.

"Tilly!"

The car did not answer.

Inside it, the unicorn seat sat empty.

She wasn't in it.

I pressed my face against the rear window and shaded my eyes.

On the floor behind the driver's seat, a small body lay curled on its side.

Her yellow daycare shirt was dark with sweat.

Her cheek rested on the carpet, and her eyes were half open and rolled up.

"Tilly!" I hit the glass with both palms. "Tilly, wake up, baby, wake up!"

She did not move.

"Locked," Gabe said, and yanked every handle. "All four."

"The key is with the valet."

"We don't have it."

"Break it."

Gabe was already running.

He came back from the pickup with a four-way wheel wrench, long and black.

"Stand back from the window," he said. "Cover your face."

I stepped back and turned my head.

He swung it once into the rear passenger glass.

It didn't break.

The window cracked into a white web.

He swung again.

The glass collapsed in one piece into a thousand pebbles.

Heat poured out of the car, and it was so hot it smelled.

I reached through the hole with my bare arm and cut it on the frame.

I didn't care.

I unlocked the door from the inside and pulled it open.

"I've got her," I said. "I've got her, I've got you, baby."

Her skin was burning.

That was the first thing that terrified me.

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