A few feet from the gate, Liam stopped and turned to Tessa. Droves of people wound around them, but he didn’t care if they were in the way. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
Her answer was quick and confident. A testament to their relationship. Together, they were a bit wild and reckless. Two stubborn but free spirits, mingled together. But the unyielding trust they’d always held for one another was what made it all work.
In the truck, Liam turned onto the private road, ignoring the no-trespassing sign so many others were wiser to obey. The long way would have been smarter, as Old Man Franks was rumored to have returned early from his trip. But they didn’t have the luxury of time.
“I know about the house,” Tessa said as the truck bounced over a rut.
“You do?” It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Sophie almost let it slip a handful of times, and who knew if Cadence told her. Even if her sisters hadn’t revealed his secret, any number of people in town could have.
“I saw you out there the other day.”
“Oh.”
“I was looking for my necklace.”
The silver pendant burned a hole in his pocket. He’d been saving the precious piece of jewelry for the day he showed her the house. Maybe he thought it was more symbolic than she did. But now, he just felt guilty.
“I know you have it.”
Liam swallowed, wondering how she figured that out. Other than Ford, no one else knew. But then it dawned on him. Tessa’d been snooping. “Guess that’s why it ended up in the wrong shirt.”
“Maybe I—”
But Tessa wasn’t given a chance to finish her sentence because Liam floored the gas pedal. “Behind us.” The other truck grew larger in his rearview mirror. They had seconds to climb the hill and dip down a side road. Many of those paths were overgrown and hard to find, but Liam had spent more than a few hours poking around out here before Tessa came back.
Tessa gripped the back of the seat as she stared out the back window. “You were serious about him.”
“I was hoping to reason with Franks at some point,” said Liam as he took a sharp turn onto a heavily wooded path that was better suited for moose and ATVs than his large truck. But Old Man Franks liked his power, it seemed. The only thing that spoke to him was obscene amounts of money. “His road has shorter routes to so many different properties.”
“Yours included.”
“Yep.”
Liam tried to lose him on this path, but he caught the faint red of Old Man Franks’ bumper. “Hold on.”
Tessa braced herself with the dashboard and the grab handle over the door. Somewhere in this chaos, she’d found her seatbelt.Smart girl. The rutted path grew bumpier and narrower, and Liam worried he’d mixed up this trail with another.
“Why did you have my necklace?” Tessa had to yell over the noisy engine and the thunking of tree branches that were no doubt scratching the paint. “You knew I was looking for it.”
“We’re doing this now?”
Liam sped up when he spotted the clearing, relieved they were exactly where he thought. Three options lay ahead, and if he was quick enough, he could be out of sight before Old Man Franks had a clear view of which one he’d taken.
“Why’d you keep it?” Liam asked, another glance over his shoulder because he didn’t trust his mirrors to give him the full picture.
“Because.”
A shotgun fired. Tessa screamed. Liam’s heart pumped double time.
“I think he gotcrazier,” Tessa hollered. “He never shot at us before!”
Accepting that they would be a little late to tour the unfinished house, Liam aimed for the most direct route to a public road. It might not stop the old man, but it would slow him down if they encountered traffic. Franks was careful not to tangle with the law if he didn’t have to.
“Probably just a warning shot,” Liam guessed with feigned confidence.
After what felt like hours but had likely only been a couple of minutes, Liam’s tires hit pavement. He sped down the road, passing a couple of cars and a slow-moving fifth wheel. Any hint of the old red truck faded away.
