Dead in Bed by Bailey Simms, The Complete First Book by Adrian Birch Page B

out of town. I haven’t been able to get any answers.” He
turned around and looked into the house. He was obviously worried about his
kids overhearing. “There’s not a damn thing on the news,” he whispered. “None
of the stations have picked anything up yet.”
    “They won’t let any of
us leave town? At all?” I knew things were going badly, but I never dreamed it
could be as big as this. “How is that even legal?”
    “It’s not,” Ian said,
“but they’re doing it.”
    “Why, though?” I asked.
“I don’t understand. Just to find this guy who attacked a little girl? I mean,
obviously they have to catch him, but none of this makes sense.”
    Ian leaned back in the
chair and took a deep breath. I could feel the weight of his body in the sway
of the porch swing. He glanced inside the house again and lowered his voice
even further.
    “It’s not just that,
Ash. They’ve got that little girl at the hospital—the one who was
attacked. When I went there last night, there were armed guards all around her
room, and they wouldn’t let anyone inside. Not even her parents. These guys—the
guards—were from way out of
town. Maybe out of state. Not cops—military. Some kind of special ops or
something.” Ian lowered his voice even further. “And they got him. They got the
guy. They killed him. They already killed the guy who attacked the girl.”
    Ian stared at me for a
second, looking unsure of what to say next. Maybe he was unsure if he’d told me
too much already. I could tell he hadn’t shared any of this with Danielle,
though, honestly, I wasn’t sure why he was telling me. After I’d helped him in
the locker room, he must have thought I could handle it.
    “So, what does this
mean?” I asked, keeping my voice low. “What’s going on, then?”
    “All I can say is that
I’m sure there’s a lot more going on than we know at this point.”
    This time, I did start
to cry. I couldn’t hold it back anymore. Ian didn’t try to comfort me, which I
was thankful for. He just sat there as the tears spilled down my cheeks and I
tried to process everything he was telling me. I still didn’t understand what
all of this meant, but for some reason it made me feel even more guilty about
cheating on Shawn. It felt like such a small and stupid thing to have done,
especially now. And I was worried that Ian knew more than he was telling me.
    “I blacked out last
night,” I confessed at last. “There are a lot of hours I don’t remember at all.
The truth is I don’t remember much of anything after the bar.” I turned to look
at him. “But I found your stuff in my car.”
    Ian searched my eyes.
There was something in his look that told me he definitely did know more than he was saying, but he also looked relieved when
I told him I'd blacked out.
    “You don’t remember
anything at all?” he asked.
    “I’m so stupid.” I
tried to dry my eyes. "I haven’t drunk that much since high school.
Everything’s pretty much a complete blank.”
    “I went out looking
for you after you disappeared from the bar,” Ian said. “I couldn’t find you
anywhere. To be honest, I think I was even more worried than Shawn.”
    He wouldn’t look at
me. Ian just kept folding and unfolding his hands and staring at them. He
cleared his throat.
    “After they started
evacuating everyone,” he whispered, “I was worried about you. Really worried.
You know? I didn’t have time to go to the motel, so I looked for your car in
the lot.” He shrugged. “I figured eventually you’d make it back there. I didn’t
want you to be cold. And I wanted to make sure you'd be safe. You still have
the gun, right?”
    I nodded.
    “Good.”
    Ian's phone rang while
he nodded back distractedly.
    I was used to Ian
getting lots of calls, but this time when the ringer chimed, it really startled
me.
    I saw the name of the
incoming call flash on the screen before he picked up.
    It was Morgan.
    She was screaming. She
was screaming so loud I