Make Me Forever Read Online Free

be? Is that how she’d remember him, as a killer?
    State troopers and two FBI agents arrived at the station during the sheriff’s questioning. They joined in the interrogation. Occasionally the adults talked tensely with each other in a muted tone Jake couldn’t make out. The overhead lights in the police station felt very harsh on his dry, burning eyes. He and Harper just sat there on two straight-backed chairs, gripping each other’s hands tightly.
    There was talk of organizing a search party to find Emmitt. Jake volunteered to go with them to the location where he’d stabbed his uncle. The two agents wouldn’t agree to that plan, however. Instead, they got a map and Jake pointed out their path on it as best he could. One of the deputies who was familiar with the area told him that his descriptions of the landscape were top-notch and extremely detailed.
    “Jake’s an expert in the woods,” Harper told the group of men. “He saved my life more than once.”
    “You were lucky Jake was there. We all were,” one of the agents agreed, patting Jake on the shoulder before he walked away with the map in his hand. Jake flushed in mixed embarrassment and pride at that, ducking his head to hide it. Harper just held his hand even tighter.
    The EMTs arrived. After examining them both, they proclaimed them essentially healthy. They told Sheriff Maddington that the worst of their combined injuries was the knife cut at the corner of Harper’s mouth. She required stitches.
    Harper squeezed his hand so tight it brought tears to his eyes while the female EMT put four stitches in the wound. He knew she suffered far worse, though, so he didn’t say a word.
    “Mr. Maddington, has someone called my parents?” Harper asked after the EMT had finished. Jake noticed she was visibly trembling.
    “Do you think she could lie down somewhere, Sheriff?” Jake asked before Maddington could reply to Harper.
    Maddington looked over at Jake, and then at Harper, and nodded. “That’s a good idea, young man.” He called out a request for some cots to his deputy. “And your mom and dad
have
been contacted, Harper. It was one of the first calls I made. I understand they’ve been staying at a hotel over in Poplar Gorge ever since you went missing. They’re coming here to the station, and should be here soon. Those are going to be two relieved parents.” Maddington transferred his gaze to Jake. “I put in a call to your grandma too, Jake. I need to check the number you gave me, though. It said that line was out of service.”
    “It’s the right number,” he said, embarrassed. “She hasn’t had the money to pay her phone bill for a while,”
    Maddingon nodded. “I’ll send up one of my deputies to her place whenever we get a free moment here.”
    The deputy brought over the cots and set them up in the midst of the large common-area office of the police station.
    “Lie down too, Jake,” Harper whispered to him when the deputy walked away to get some blankets. He started to lie down on the cot next to her. “No. Here,” she whispered, scooting over on her cot to make room for him.
    He hadn’t realized how numb he was until he lay down next to Harper and she put her arms around him. Her body felt warm and good next to his. It thawed his shock. They huddled together, chasing each other’s shivers away. After the deputy came over and covered them with a blanket, Harper whispered to him.
    “You did it, Jake. You saved my life.”
    She pressed her lips to his cheek softly, the bandage at the corner of his mouth tickling his skin. It was the first kiss he’d ever gotten from a girl.
    It was the sweetest caress he’d ever received in his life.
    “They’re going to split us apart soon,” he said through a swollen throat. He knew that by some unspoken agreement, they didn’t speak of the invisible bond between them, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself at that moment.
    “No they’re not,” Harper whispered fiercely, pulling him