With her, it wasn’t just snakes. She had that same way with people.
All those times he made me feel safe but hazy. Slightly drugged. Or drunk. Peaceful. But off-kilter. Like I couldn’t think straight.
Did I let him do that to me?
Had I let him soothe and charm me with magic eyes and an ocean-deep voice and a touch that took my breath away?
That tingle of bare skin against skin.
So that I never saw the danger? Like a cottonmouth hidden in the weeds.
The wind has picked up, and Hart’s curls blow around the edges of his eyes. Elizabeth is coming for us. She’ll be here . . .
soon.
The word reminds me of that one-syllable love note.
“I found something,” I say. “Tonight. Hidden in Elora’s room.”
Hart’s staring at me. “We tore that room apart lookin’ for clues. Me. Mom and Leo. Sheriff. The boys from the state police. None of us found shit.”
“You didn’t know where to look,” I tell him. And he laughs that dead-sounding laugh again.
“What’d you find?” He’s eyeing me warily. Like I’m a strange animal he doesn’t quite trust.
I pull out the piece of folded notebook paper and hand it to him. “Zale must have given it to her,” I say. And I feel so stupid. I look down at the water, so Hart won’t see the pain in my eyes.
But I know he feels it.
Hart unfolds the paper and stares at the delicate gold bracelet with the tiny charm. That little red heart. And the one-word love poem.
Soon.
The odd slanting S and those two egg-shaped o’s.
A fierce wind blows across the dock, and chimes ring out like alarm bells.
Hart’s face goes hard again, and he looks out toward the river. I follow his gaze, but there’s nothing to see. Without saying a word, he wads up the paper and pulls his arm back. Then he pitches the note and the bracelet as far as he can out into the dark river. And I cry out, because it feels like watching the last little bit of Elora vanish from my life forever.
“Why did you do that?” I’m close to tears. Everything seems so unfair. “It didn’t belong to you!”
“It didn’t belong to you, either.”
“You’re an asshole!” I tell him. And I mean it. “Maybe I wanted to keep it.”
“Why?” Hart turns his back on the river. “Get yourself another souvenir. The guy who gave her that obviously didn’t turn out to be the person she thought he was.”
Maybe that’s true. But maybe none of us are the person we think we are.
“You don’t know that Zale –”
“Zale killed Elora, Grey.” My heart races and my knees feel weak. “There isn’t any other answer. And you know it now as well as I do. He’s the missing piece in all this. He killed her because Leo killed his father. And he was gonna kill you, too.” Hart crosses to me and puts his hands on my shoulders. “For what your mama did that night at Keller’s Island.”
“This whole town covered it up,” I whisper, and Hart nods. But I still can’t really believe it. “All these years.”
“That’s the problem, Greycie.” Hart’s jaw is set, and I see the veins throbbing in his neck. “That’s always been the problem with this place. It’s too damn easy to cover things up down here.” There’s something in his voice I can’t put my finger on. Something still unspoken. “All that black water.”
I think of the bayou stretching back toward Killer’s Island like a dark and shallow sea. How it washes over everything.
Conceals all our lies.
Our sins.
And our twisted roots.
How it drowns us all. One way or the other.
“But this is where it ends.” Hart’s voice is strangely calm now. His words are careful. Even. “You need to get to bed. Honey’ll have you up early in the mornin’。 Gotta get out before the storm hits.”
“What about you?”
He grins at me then, and if I wasn’t already terrified, I am now.
“I’m goin’ huntin’ tomorrow. Back at Keller’s Island.”
Hearing him say it makes me feel sick. Something burns in the back of my throat.
“What if you end up dead?” I ask him. “Like Elora.”
Because if Zale doesn’t kill him, Elizabeth will.
Hart shrugs. “What if I do?”
We duck back under the safety rope, and he walks me up to the porch. He promises he’ll see me in the morning. To say goodbye.
And he reminds me to lock the doors. The windows. Double-check them all, he says.