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.The no-name person claimed he was hiding in the Jackson suite at the time and saw him, yes him, stab Lindsey.AJ’s whole body shivered in dread.“Could it be true?” And why after reading the note, which had an unusual odor, did he feel lightheaded and strange?***“Where could he have gone?” Shannon asked as she paced the floor of her living room for the hundredth time since learning of Cameron’s running away.Nobody answered her, which she’d expected, because nobody knew the answer.Her body twitched and her heart raced from all the caffeine she’d drunk and poisoned her body with.She paused and looked out the windows.Mother Nature was in a rare mood.The clouds hung low, dark and menacing.It would only be a matter of time before the rain pelted them in wind driven sheets.Gusts howled and the waves were a surfer’s dream come true.The ocean looked like one large endless white cap after another.The weather could not have depicted Shannon’s mood any better.As she turned her back on the windows and surveyed the gloomy faces of her family, she wondered what the hell she was doing here.She should be out looking for her son.It had been two days and not a single word had been heard from him.When she craved his voice, she listened to his message on her machine.“Mom, I’m sorry but I can’t take Dad anymore.Don’t worry about me.I love you.” She had sat in the dark the first night she’d found out he’d run away and listened to the recording over and over, at least fifty times.She finally had to stop as her grasp on sanity hung tenaciously by a thread.If she hadn’t stopped, she would have lost it and who knew if she would have come out of it.Shannon had not seen nor spoken to John in two days.Every time she called, Cheryl told her he was locked in Cameron’s bedroom.He wouldn’t come out, nor let anyone in.Jesus John, a fine time to fall apart.So, to take matters into her own hands, she called anyone Cameron was even remotely friendly with, and unfortunately no one had seen or heard from him.She called the bank and knew he had cleaned out his account.Shannon had felt a small, short-lived relief knowing he at least had money on him.The next thing she did was call her private detective friend, Scott Danvers and hired him to find Cameron.And so far she had heard nothing from him.They couldn’t trace his phone because he’d left his cell at home.Her brother Mitch arrived with take out, jarring her out of her thoughts.She’d not had time to speak to him in private about the vice-president lady he was in love with to find out what happened when he went to her home in Texas to fly her back to Boston.Shannon hoped he had something good and juicy to tell her because she needed a break from the constant state of worry and doom her life had become.She knew at some point she needed to confide in her family about the incident in Chicago, but they had enough to worry about with Cameron without adding that to the mix.So once again, she put the danger to herself into the recesses of her mind to be visited later.Ever since John told her about Cameron, she felt as though something physically squeezed her lungs, choking off her air supply.Add to that the walls were moving in, and she had to constantly stand on her porch gulping air as her pulse raced and her head spun.Needless to say it was not a pleasant feeling, and she didn’t see things changing anytime in the foreseeable future, unless she heard from Cameron.She loved her family dearly, but their hushed voices and their eyes constantly following her everywhere, expecting her to breakdown any minute, was not helping her anxiety attacks any.“Shannon, honey,” said her mom in her placating tone.“Come eat while the foods hot.”She walked over to the table, sat down and stared at the food on her plate.Eggplant Parmesan, pasta and garlic bread sticks, her favorite food from her favorite Italian restaurant.If only she could stomach it.Even sitting here smelling the food was too much for her tonight.She went for the wine her brother poured for her instead and downed every last drop.Perhaps if she got good and drunk she’d pass out.Glancing around the table, she realized this pictured not your typical Gallagher gathering.No talking, no laughing, no jokes and no wild story telling.The only other time Shannon remembered such a somber dinner happened the day she told her parents she was pregnant.And oh God, what an awful day that had been as her mother proceeded to cry all day and her father couldn’t look her in the eye as though he were ashamed of her.Ashamed of what she had done with John.She could read her father’s thoughts—How could his little girl have sex?All she had to say was thank God they’d liked John.It had made it a little easier for them to handle the fact their oldest daughter was pregnant and getting married at seventeen.And now here they were some seventeen years later.Her mother trying hard not to cry and her father once again having a hard time meeting her in the eye, but she knew it was because he felt helpless to solve the crisis.Bridget and Rachel were quiet, not like themselves at all.And not once had Bridget made a comment about Cole.Thank you, God.Now—Mitch—God love him, sat in his seat and tried his hardest to act normal, but he couldn’t do it alone.He had taken several days off from work and had moved into her guest bedroom while her parents were sleeping at Bridget’s house in her extra bedroom.She appreciated her family wanting to be close to her, but at this very moment she needed space, she needed air.She heard herself mumble something unintelligible, and then she left the table, grabbed her jacket and ran down to the beach.The rain had finally begun, and in no time her hair stuck plastered to her head and she couldn’t tell whether it was her tears or the rain blocking her vision as she stumbled down toward her favorite jetties.Or what was left of them because the tide had risen so much higher than normal thanks to the storm.Shannon stood shivering on the rocks, battling the wind and trying to keep her footing on the slippery surface while the spray from the ocean beat against her face.The wind whipped her body from every direction, the waves crashed and churned out in the ocean while the rain flew sideways, pelting her from every conceivable angle.Everything happening around her was also happening inside her body.Never had her insides hurt so badly.Before she knew it, she threw her arms out, lifting her face up to the sky and screamed, “Cameron, where are you?” Of course, her screams were swallowed up by storm sounds surrounding her and her heart bottomed out.How would he ever hear her?***“John, you can’t stay in there forever,” he heard his wife say through the closed bedroom door [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]