Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(131)

“What purpose am I serving?” I rasped, my voice raw.

Travis’s fingers tightened even more. “Do you know how boring it is working for the sheriff’s department in this town?”

Confusion washed over me as I tried to put that piece in place.

“Don’t get me wrong. I was fucking fascinated by Edmond Archer—all those women he stalked, tortured, killed—and being so close to that kind of power by befriending his sons. But it was Cora who really showed me what I was meant to do. When her mom went missing in high school, I thought…this. This was what I needed. To be in on the action, the search, the high of finding someone and holding their life in my hands.”

The sickness roiling inside me intensified as the picture became a little clearer.

“But you know what’s even better?” Travis’s smile widened, entering into manic territory. “Working the case while knowing exactly where the person is. If they’re dead or alive. Watching people scramble like ants, knowing I’m pulling all the strings.”

Dead or alive. He’d hurt people. Killed them. Nova.

“I’ll never forget the first one. Dumb bitch sniffling at a campsite parking lot. Got in a fight with her boyfriend and wanted a ride back to town.” His creepy grin got even wider. “I offered to take her where she needed to go. Straight to a grave right over there.” Travis pointed with his knife to a field with a mix of wildflowers and grasses.

I struggled not to vomit.

“I killed her, and I got to work the case. I got to watch her mother sob and her brother fall apart. I got to feel their pain, control it. Because I had all the answers. It was even better when Cora got involved with that little Compass crew.” A low chuckle left Travis’s lips, grating against my skin. “I got to hear all about their little sobfests. Even talked my way into attending a few meetings.” He shook me hard. “A total fucking high!”

“Nova?” I croaked.

I needed to know. The truth. Finally.

Travis just laughed harder. “Wanna see where your bestie lived? Where she cried out for you when I told her you weren’t looking? All those stupid articles. You didn’t know she was right here for so long.”

He dragged me by the hair toward the shed, my feet scrabbling in the dirt, trying to right myself. Travis hauled open the door, but there was nothing out of the norm. A space for the ATV, normal tools. And then I saw it. A door in the floor. One with a complicated, expensive-looking lock.

Travis bent, pressed his palm to it, and then threw it open. Dark. So dark I couldn’t see a thing. And then Travis hit a switch on the wall. Fluorescent lights flickered on, bathing the space in a fake, blue glow.

Bile surged up my throat. Metal stairs led to a room of nightmares. The space was finished in the sort of material garage floors sometimes were. There was a hole in the floor that looked like a makeshift toilet and some sort of shower next to it. A stained mattress lay against one wall. And it smelled. But worse, there were chains with what looked like shackles.

“I tried keeping one alive before Nova. Alma from your little support group? Her daughter. But she had no fight. Starved herself to death before a month. But Nova…” Travis’s hand tightened in my hair. “She wanted to live. And goddamn, it was fun. Using her phone and some stupid software to call you while I got to watch in the damn bar.” Glee filled his voice. “Making her record the audio to put with the dummy. Priceless.”

It took everything I had not to throw up or fall apart.

“Made it just over a year. You were so close yet so far.”

Pain—unbearable, soul-crushing pain—swept through me. Nova. My Nova had been alive all this time. I’d almost gotten to her in time. But I’d failed her. It took everything I had not let my sob free. But I refused to give him that pleasure.

“Now, it’s time for a new toy. Welcome to home sweet home, Brae,” Travis singsonged.

The hell it was. Rage like I’d never known before spurred me into action. I hauled myself upright, barely feeling the pain in my scalp.

Surprise lit Travis’s gaze, but my knee was already moving—that same skill I’d used on Vincent but with a hell of a lot more power. I hit true, my knee striking his groin with enough force that Travis’s eyes went wide in pain and shock, and the knife clattered to the ground. He managed one brutal blow to my ribs as he went down, but it didn’t matter; I was already running.

I had no idea where I was. I just knew I needed to find cover. I ran straight for the trees, pushing my muscles as hard as they would go. But they hurt, cramped so badly it stole my breath. It had to be the aftermath of the Taser shot, but I kept pushing.

Cursing sounded behind me, and a fresh wave of panic hit. I pushed harder, leaping over fallen logs and around brush. My skin burned where branches tore at my flesh, but I didn’t stop.

The sound of the river hit my ears. I moved toward it as if it could save me. Closer and closer, the roaring water getting louder and louder. I’d take it for escape, even at the risk of drowning.

Fingers snagged in my shirt, hauling me back in a vicious jerk. “You’re going to pay for disobeying me,” Travis snarled. “I’m gonna kill you, and I’m gonna make it hurt.”





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