Hollow (Hollow Point #1) (17 page)

TWENTY-FIVE

I sat in the cold, metal chair, my eyes dancing around the police station. Bikers in handcuffs were carted by me before a man in a suit stopped in front of me, pulling a card from the breast pocket of his suit jacket.

“Riley Vaughn?” He asked. I nodded, still in shock and unable to speak. “Your father is on his way, but he sent me to help you in the meantime.”

“Okay,” I whispered, trying to glance around him in hopes of seeing Tatum.

“Come on,” He gripped under my arm and helped pull me from the chair. My fingers went to the bullet flash drive that hung from my neck. I gripped it so tightly I thought it might crumble under the pressure. I’d given the police the files they would need on an old SD card. I still kept all of Knox’s secrets. He would have taken my secrets to his grave, and I would do the same for him.

“Wait, we can’t leave yet.” My eyes searched the building for Tatum, but they still hadn’t arrived.

“I was told to take you home and wait for your father and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“When will he be here?”

He pulled back the sleeve of his jacket and sighed as he looked at his watch. “They should be at your house within the hour. You will be on a plane an hour after that. We have to go.”

“Okay.” I let him pull me from the building in a daze. As we stepped out into the sun, I was face to face with Greta and Tatum.

Tatum’s face was red, her eyes swollen with the countless tears she’d shed. We stood frozen, no words left to say. She threw her arms around my neck and pulled me against her. I sobbed, clinging to her as if she held me to the earth.

“I tried to save him,” I whispered against her shoulder. Tatum nodded as Greta rubbed her hand over my hair.

“Ma’am,” an officer spoke up from behind me. I reluctantly pulled back from our embrace.

“Go,” I whispered to Tatum before stumbling a few steps across the parking lot.

***

I sat in the back of the sleek, black sedan as I stared off at the mountainside, not saying a word as we traveled back to my house.

I entered the code to my gate, no longer feeling safe on either side of it. “Will my father be coming back home with me?” I asked as the man’s eyes met me in the rearview mirror.

“Production on his show is being halted as they scout for a new location. Your mother will be waiting for you.” He offered me a small smile as he got out of the car and pulled open my door for me.

“Can you do me a favor?” I dug my car keys from my purse and handed them to him. “Make sure this car goes to Tatum Flynn. Tell my father it’s really important.”

He nodded before taking the keys from my hand.

I slipped up to my room to gather some of my belongings, avoiding looking at the tangled mess of covers on my bed that I’d shared with Knox.

There was nothing here that I wanted to keep but my memories of him. I curled up in the center of my bed and sobbed until I was too exhausted to hold open my eyes.

When I awoke, my father was standing over me with Piper at his side. Everything they said was a blur. None of the last few weeks felt real, and all I wanted to do was slip back into my old life as if this had all been a nightmare.

EPILOGUE

I’d spent the last year and a half keeping my head down. I worked harder than I ever had in my life. My old friends had tried to get me to come around, but I had no interest in hollow connections when I knew what it felt like to really care about someone.

“I can’t stand that you’re so grown up,” my mother whispered, her hand over her mouth as if she was about to cry. I rolled my eyes before pulling her in for a hug.

“If you cry, I’m going to cry.” I laughed before pulling back and wiping away a stray tear that had fallen.

“I just worry about you.” She placed a hand on either side of my face and smiled sadly before stroking my hair that was now cut to just above my shoulders in a simple bob.

“There is nothing to worry about. I’m just not ready to go off and start college somewhere right now. I need a break.”

“From me?” She asked, and I pulled her back against me.

“Of course not, Mom. I just need to get away, find myself. I’ll be back in time to see you get your two-year sobriety chip. I promise.”

Her arms fell from my sides, and she took a small step back. “Okay, go. Get out of here before I change my mind.”

I gave her a small smile before picking up my duffle bag and heading out of the door into the car my father had waiting for me.

Slipping into the back, I stared out of the window as we made our way down the highway, crawling along in traffic. My eyes fixed on a group of motorcyclists as they passed by, revving their engines as they weaved their way between cars and disappeared into the distance.

***

I’d slept through most of my flight and was now finally on my own as I struggled to check into my hotel room.

“I was worried you wouldn’t show up,” A voice called from behind me. I turned around dropping my bag as I wrapped my arms around my father’s neck.

“And miss a chance to get out of California?”

“We wrap up filming tomorrow, and they’ll be a big dinner. But after that, I’m all yours. We can go wherever you want, and I have cleared my schedule for the next three days.”

“Sounds perfect,” I smiled up at him. “I’ve already made a list of places I’d like to see.”

He cleared his throat as he looked over my shoulder. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.”

Turning around I locked eyes with a woman in a green maxi dress with sunglasses on top of her head, holding her hair back from her eyes. She smiled as she walked up to my father’s side and he wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Riley, this is Julianne, my girlfriend.”

I looked between them before letting out a gasp. “You didn’t tell me you were seeing anyone! I’m really happy for you, dad.”

“Well, I wanted to take my time and make sure this one was right.”

Julianne laughed, smacking him playfully on the chest. “How about you, Riley? Anyone special in your life?” She asked.

I cringed, shaking my head. “No, no one.” My hand went to my chest, feeling for the necklace that laid below the fabric of my t-shirt. I always kept his memory against my heart.

“Well, you are young. You have all the time in the world to fall in love, and there is no better place for romance than France,” she smiled, and my father shook his head, apologizing silently from above her.

“Let’s go get you settled in your room and then you can go relax on the beach for a bit.”

“You aren’t sticking around?”

“We have an early call time tomorrow, but I’ll be over as soon as we wrap.”

***

I stared out of the window of my hotel room, taking in the old architecture and watching the people move around below. My dad and Julianne had headed back to their hotel to rest up before an early shoot tomorrow. My body was exhausted from traveling but I could see the ocean waves lapping against the beach on the distance.

I had spent months keeping to myself and for the first time in as long as I could remember, I wanted to escape.

I quickly changed into a pair of shorts and sandals and made my way out of the building and onto the street. I crisscrossed my way through the streets until I was finally staring at the water, breathing in the salt air. Kids ran and played around me, tourists snapped photographs, and others laid out in the sun, soaking up the rays.

I smiled to myself as I kicked off my sandals and picked them up before letting my toes sink into the sand.

Off in the distance, several men were throwing a Frisbee. I sat down on the warm beach, my eyes focused on the horizon.

A man yelled something in French and another called back to him in English. I closed my eyes, letting the warmth wash over my face, remembering what it felt like on the back of Knox’s bike. A stray tear rolled down my cheek as a shadow was cast over my face.

“Excuse me,” I cracked open my eyes and he bent down, grabbing his Frisbee a few feet from me. “My friend can’t throw.” He smiled before heading back to his friends.

“It’s fine,” I mumbled before laying back on the sand. 

I fell asleep to the laughter of children and the gently rolling waves just as the sun was setting.

“You lost?” A voice called from above me. I rubbed my sand covered hand over my eyes as I slowly blinked them open.

“Ouch,” I groaned, as I tried to blink, my eyes tearing up. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because you don’t look like you’re from around here, Princess.”

I sucked in a ragged breath as my eyes landed on a bare chest, traveling upward to familiar blue eyes.

His hair was longer now, almost to his chin and he had a short beard and tanned skin, but I’d know Knox’s eyes anywhere.

I lurched forward, wrapping my arms around his neck as his arms banded tightly around my back, lifting me from my feet as he stood. I buried my face in his neck and closed my eyes. If this was a dream, I didn’t want to ever wake up.

“How are you here?” I asked as he pressed his lips against my cheek.

I held Riley so tightly against my chest, I was afraid I was going to crush her.

“They told us you...” she pulled back from me as if I was somehow a figment of her imagination.

“On the way to the hospital, I made a deal. The cops had been looking into the club for a long time. The information you gave them was the first break they’d had in a long time. They gave me my chance to get out.”

She shoved against my chest, shaking her head as the realization that she’d been mourning me for all of this time. “You lied to me.”

“Riley, this was the only way I’d get the chance to be back with you. They wouldn’t have let me walk away, not after Ivory and Topher died.”

“I thought
you
were dead. Do you know what that was like? To lose you after you made me…” Her voice trailed off as tears began to roll down her face and I pulled her back against me.

“It was the only way I knew you’d be safe. And Tatum and Greta.” I tucked her hair behind her ear as I pulled her face closer, pressing my lips against her forehead.

“How did you know I’d come here?”

“You told me if you ever had the chance, this is where you’d come. When I read that your father was filming here, I took a chance and contacted him.”

“But what if I didn’t?” She pulled back fractionally, her eyes searching mine.

“I would have waited forever for you, Princess.” 

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TERESA MUMMERT
grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania where she began dating her husband when they were only sixteen years old. They married at eighteen and soon moved to Louisiana as her husband began his military career. They are the proud parents of four children that they are raising in Georgia.

Teresa began writing when her husband was deployed to Afghanistan as a way to cope with him being away at war. She soon became a 
New York Times
 and
 USA Today
 bestselling author. Her work includes the word of mouth bestselling, 
White Trash Trilogy
, which landed her a three book publishing deal with Simon & Schuster. She has also written the 
New York Times
 and 
USA Today
 bestselling novel 
The Note
, the
 USA Today
 bestselling novel 
Safe Word
, as well as
Perfect Lie
, 
Pretty Little Things
, the 
Honor series
, 
Rellik
, 
The Good Girls
, 
Something Wicked
,
The Death of Lila Jane, Crave, Hollow,
and the
USA Today
bestselling co- written novel
Sweet Nothing
. 

Future releases include
Cruel, Depravity, Weeping Willow, Paper Doll, The Deep, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead,  Rocked, Before I Wake, Fall to Pieces,  Something in the Water, Superficial, When the Memories Fade, Ash and Dust, Defending Her Honor (Honor Series),
and
 Victim.  
She also has a Middle-Grade children's novel coming out soon titled 
The Seeker 
under the
 
pseudonym T.S. Mummert. 

Find more information at: TeresaMummert(DOT)com