Fated to My Cruel CEO novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Fence

He didn't take me home.

He drove east out of the city, past the last strip mall, and turned onto a county road I knew in my sleep.

It was nearly dark when the car stopped.

Greer House had been torn down years ago.

All that was left was a concrete slab with weeds splitting the seams.

There was a gravel drive, and a long chain-link fence that nobody had ever taken away.

Ansel got out and stood looking at it with his hands in his coat pockets.

I got out and stood beside him.

The wind smelled like cut grass and cold water.

"The laundry room was there," he said, and pointed at the far corner of the slab.

My stomach clenched.

"I know where it was."

"The east wing was behind it. The ledger room was at the end of that hall."

He walked to the fence and put his fingers through the wire.

"This is where you went over."

"You boosted me."

"I did."

"You said, Don't look back."

"And you looked back."

"Once," I said.

He turned and leaned against the fence, and the last light caught the scar across his eyebrow.

"I got the little one through the window," he said.

"I went back for a girl in the east wing who was hiding under her bed. I got her out, too."

He touched his eyebrow.

"I got cut on the wire. Then the matron grabbed my collar, and every light in the house was on."

He looked at the road.

"I remember thinking, Mona is on the road. Mona is fine."

"I wasn't fine."

"I know that now."

He reached into his pocket and took out his keys.

He held up the half card, and it turned in the dying light.

"Whoever gets out first comes back for the other," he said.

My eyes burned.

"We match the halves," I said.

I pulled the chain out of my collar and unhooked it.

I put my half in his palm beside his.

They fit.

They fit exactly, the ragged edges locked together.

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