Into the Fading Twilight (Starlight Grove, #2) (67)

I let a slew of curses fly at that. “Keep going.”

“Note, written in boxy black lettering, said, ‘It’s not over.’”

All the blood drained from my head as I struggled for composure. There were only two options now. Copycat or Travis wasn’t as dead as we all thought. Both made bile churn in my gut. But something else flagged in my memory. “It’s not the first note.”

Roger’s spine snapped straight. “What are you talking about?”

“Someone left news articles and a note on Nova’s car when she was mountain biking with Mav. She thought it was the reporter in town, but Mav wasn’t so sure, so he bagged it.”

“Gonna need that for processing,” Roger gritted out, his annoyance clear.

“I’ll get it to you.”

“What did the note say?”

“‘Never forget.’”

It was Roger’s turn to curse. “This isn’t fuckin’ good.”

“No, it’s not.” My gaze moved over the crowd in the parking lot: the people working, the onlookers. I tried to take stock of any faces that shouldn’t be there, but there were too many. “Ask Livie to take some shots of the crowd. Just in case.”

“You’re thinking copycat,” Roger surmised.

I scrubbed a hand over my stubble. “I’d take that over Travis still being alive. Wouldn’t you?”

Something streaked across Roger’s expression. Pain? Guilt? I wasn’t sure. But having your best friend turn out to be a serial killer had to mess with your head. Probably in a similar way to finding out your father was one.

“Something else,” Roger said, his voice tight.

“What?”

“You gotta watch your back with Pete and play that more careful. He was over there cursing your name and all but plotting his revenge.” Roger’s gaze locked with mine. “Said you’re too close to the vic and he could get you fired for it.”

Fire and ice battled in my veins, but I locked everything down—something I was so damn good at. I pulled on a mask of nothingness and shoved away everything I was feeling. I knew I’d been reckless, letting my protectiveness of Nova show, letting myself get too close to her. But I would get fired before I let him anywhere near her.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN


Nova




ASHIVER RACED THROUGH ME AS I WATCHED THE DIFFERENT law enforcement officers working the scene. The air had gotten chillier over the past hour. Or maybe it was just the fact that Kol hadn’t looked at me once. I told myself it was because he was working and focused, but something niggled. As if things had shifted between us.

I’d gotten spoiled, I realized. So used to him always being 100 percent attuned to me. And now that the connection was gone, everything felt colder. But it was more than just me feeling cold.

I also felt so damn alone.

“I think I need to go home,” Cora said next to me.

Her voice was so soft I barely heard it. But as I turned, I realized I wasn’t the only one affected by all of this. Cora’s skin was just a bit pale, and she held her hands together so tightly that her knuckles were free of color.

Just thinking the word knuckles had heat blooming across the back of my hand, where Kol had skimmed his fingers over my skin.

I shoved that thought down. “I’m sorry. You didn’t have to stay.”

Cora shook her head quickly. “I wanted to. I just … I think I hit my limit.”

I nodded. I understood it so well. We had the kind of messed-up bond that no one wanted to share. But here we were. And I was glad that neither of us was in it alone.

Wylder looked back and forth between us, indecision playing out over his face. Finally, his focus stilled on Cora. “Want me to walk with you?”

“You don’t have to. I—”

“There are a lot of people out there,” Wylder said softly.

God, he was such a good guy. Always looking out for those around him.

Cora glanced at the crowd of onlookers we could glimpse only part of at the end of the driveway between the Boot and the building next door. “Sure. That’d be good.”

Wylder’s gaze flicked to me. “You’ll be okay right here?”

It was part question, part assurance. “I’m good.”

Those two words were such a lie, it was almost comical. But I said them with enough confidence that Wylder nodded.

As he and Cora started down the driveway, I let out a sigh of relief. It was better this way—to be alone, the way I almost always felt. It was like I no longer had to pretend.

Fiona had taken off thirty minutes ago, needing to get to the grocery store before it closed. The deputies and other personnel gave me a wide berth, only glancing at me occasionally. Except for one.

He wore a Forest Service polo shirt, and when his brown eyes cut in my direction, there was anger there. It didn’t make sense, but I felt it nonetheless.

“Are you ready to go home?”

I jumped at the deep, familiar voice. I hadn’t heard Kol approach, but here he was. Only it wasn’t the Kol of my memories. This one wore a mask so impenetrable I wasn’t sure a missile could pierce it.

But I didn’t have the energy to try. Everything hurt. And the pain vibrated, giving me that familiar twitchy feeling. I needed to run, to hurl myself off a cliff, to fly down the side of a mountain. To breathe.