The One That Got Away

by Nicky James

I was an adult, but too many people didn’t see me as such. They saw me as mentally deficient. Broken. They treated me like a child, and I wasn’t a child.

After all, he was the man who’d rescued me all those years ago. Detective Graveman had my safety and best interest at heart.

Seventeen years ago, he and his partner at the time, Pugsley, cracked an ugly case wide open. A kidnapping and underground child sex-trafficking operation.”

You’re not a bad person, but you’re hard to like. Take down some of your walls, and maybe you’ll see the whole world isn’t against you like you think.”

“Because they’re your favorite,” a voice from the abyss said. Without warning, darkness blanketed my vision, my ears rang, and I couldn’t breathe.

“He’s barely spoken three words in a week. You just had a full twenty-minute conversation with him.”

I studied Archie for another minute before piercing Sofia with a hard glare. “Stop fucking drugging him. He doesn’t like it.” Then I marched down the stairs and left.

I couldn’t explain what it was about Charlie that calmed me down when everyone else in the world seemed to rile me up.

“The day the person took the picture was the same day he made me take a blood oath. A pact. Brothers. Best friends. Always.”

“I’m so getting my ass fired. It’s a good thing you’re cute, Charlie. When the unemployment office asks me why I don’t have a job anymore, I’m going to show them your picture and ask them if they could say no to you.”