Into the Fading Twilight (Starlight Grove, #2) (54)

Livie crouched to snap a shot of the latest footprints. As she straightened, she stumbled slightly. I reached out to steady her, and her cheeks flushed. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. This trail is uneven.”

She bobbed her head in a nod. “Yeah.”

I moved deeper down the trail, seeing a spot where a few branches had been broken when someone stepped off the path. There was a cluster of trees that would’ve made the perfect makeshift restroom.

And then I saw it.

All-terrain vehicle tracks. My blood went cold. “Rog,” I said, my voice low.

“What?” He was by my side in a second.

“Look.” I lifted a hand toward the tracks.

He let loose a stream of curses.

Travis had used an ATV to kidnap a number of his victims. He’d incapacitated them and then tied them to the back of his four-wheeler.

“Copycat?” Rog asked.

I hoped like hell it was. But one thing swirled in my mind. After Dex shot Travis, and he fell into the river?

No one had ever found his body.





CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE


Nova




STEPPING OUT OF MY SUBARU, I CLOSED THE DOOR AND tipped my face up to the sun. It was one of those magical fall days, when even though the temperatures had dropped, the sun took the edge off. I felt … lighter.

And when I closed my eyes, I swore I could still feel Kol’s arms around me, his big body almost cocooning me. Those rough fingers ghosting over my jawline.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about so hard over there?”

The familiar voice had my eyes flying open and my hand fisting around the adorable angry cat key chain Kol had given me. Reese Gatlin stood about twenty feet away with a grin on his face.

Anger surged as I reminded myself to breathe. The back door of the Boot was only ten feet away or so. If I screamed, someone would come running.

“Wylder’s going to have you arrested for trespassing,” I warned the reporter.

Reese simply grinned at me. “I’m on the art gallery’s property, actually. So I think I’m safe.”

I muttered a curse as I saw that he was, in fact, right. “What do you want?”

He held up both hands in surrender. “I’m not trying to make your life harder. I’m really not. I was over the moon when they found you alive. With all the time I spent covering your case … I feel like I know you.”

“You don’t,” I snapped. I thought about asking him about the news clippings, but something told me he’d get a charge out of my discomfort. Better to make him think it hadn’t bothered me at all.

He lifted one shoulder and then dropped it. “I bet I know more than you think. I know that you come from a tough family situation. Mom has been arrested for public intoxication five times. Dad lost his license after a second charge of drunk driving. Brother in prison for armed robbery.”

My fingers curled tighter around the angry cat key chain. It wasn’t as if people hadn’t dug up those details before; it was just that they weren’t usually hurled at me in person.

“You worked hard to get yourself out of that situation,” Reese went on. “Worked hard to break the cycle.”

I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood. Because he wasn’t wrong. I’d known from an early age that I didn’t want to be anything like my parents. Didn’t want anything to do with the stuff they drank that burned when you smelled it. I didn’t want to fight and throw things like they did. I didn’t want to have kids and then ignore everything about them.

“Let me tell the real story,” Reese cajoled. “Beginning to end. In your voice.”

“Not interested,” I clipped and stalked toward the back door of the Boot, making sure to keep the reporter in my periphery.

“Come on, Nova,” Reese called. “I’m gonna tell it with or without you. Don’t you want to have some control?”

Damn him to hell. Of course I wanted some control. That was the thing I’d clung to my whole life. A safety blanket—one that had been ripped out from under me and torn to shreds when Travis took me. Because I realized I’d never had any control to begin with. No one did.

I punched in the code on the Boot’s back door and yanked it open, stalking inside. The moment it snicked closed behind me, I stopped. I took a second to breathe because I knew if Brae or Wylder saw me now, they’d know that something was up.

In and out. Nice and steady.

Reese could write whatever the hell he wanted to write. He could make a stupid documentary. It wouldn’t be my voice, my story. Because that would always belong to me.

The reminder helped. With a long exhale, I started down the hall toward the voices. We had about fifteen minutes until opening, so the music was still turned down low.

“I’m telling you,” Piper said with a sigh, “he is the absolute dreamiest. And a true gentleman. He opened doors, paid for dinner, walked me to my porch, and only kissed my cheek.”

“What’s going on?” I asked as I took in the crowd around the bar.

Cora and Brae were refilling salt and pepper shakers while Fiona was working on the ketchup. Aidan frowned as he sliced lemon wedges, and Piper was pink-cheeked and practically vibrating.

Brae grinned at me. “Piper’s met herself a real live cowboy.”