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Jesus, how the hell was I going to tell Caleb about this? Thank fuck he’d gone back to sleep after I’d woken hias and supplies After his adet asto figure out what to say to hi s, but when he’d asked et the infor I never talked about… to anyone

I returned to the boat as fast as I could without attracting attention to ot the boat started and headed back to the inlet where we’d spent the night It would hopefully be quiet enough that Caleb could sleep a little longer and I could get ure out what to do next

I dropped the anchor and then grabbed the groceries and went below deck I’d just reached the last step when I saw one of the drawers fro on the floor, the contents inside of it strewn all over the place My heart leapt into s

“Caleb!” I shouted and then I was running to the bedroom It took just seconds to reach the room and rip open the narrow door

What I saw chilled my blood

Caleb was standing by the bed, right are knife in his left hand – it was the single butcher knife that Dalton kept on board

The television was blaring in the background It was turned to the sa The anchors and co Caleb’s case

“Caleb,” I said softly as I putany blood on Caleb’s arm or on the blade of the knife, I was more scared than I’d ever been

Tears streamed down Caleb’s face “I didn’t lie!” he shouted “I didn’t, Jace!”

“I know you didn’t, Caleb Please put the knife down”

He looked at the blade as if just then realizing he had it “It hurts too much,” he whispered “It’s too much”

“Baby, look at ed, even as I took another step toward him Caleb raised his eyes

“I proain,” Caleb said softly “I… I lied about that, but I… I don’t want to let you down”