I rush him, bounding off the porch. The last step groans with a sharpcrackas I leap off it. In three long strides and with a ragged snarl, I plow into him. Fist clenched and muscles wound tight with rage, I rear back and send a punch across his face.
With a bone-crunching snap against his jaw, his head flings back and to the side. Brent stumbles, ankle twisting off one of the stone pavers, but he recovers and surges forward with a swing of his own.
My training kicks in and our bodies collide in a chaotic mess of limbs. The tall grass swishes under his boots, and I wince when my shoeless feet meet the random pebbles of gravel lost in the weeds around the stone walkway.
He throws a punch into my ribs, and it lands with a full, meaty thud. I drive forward, letting out a grunt, then slam him to the ground. “You knew. You knew this whole damn time!”
We hit the grass hard, and tumble down the slope of the hill, my back scraping against the stones. My fists fly between curses, and I jam my knee into his ribs. His hands grip the fabric of my pullover, shoving, yanking, and wrestling for leverage. Finally, desperate, he jabs a sharp elbow and clips my cheekbone.
“I swear,” he grunts. “Not until recently. He?—”
SMACK.I hit him again. “He told me he’s working an angle. I wasn’t to reveal who he is.”
Panting, I freeze, wrenching myself free from our tangled limbs. Chest heaving, I wipe the blood from the gash on my cheek. Why didn’t I press her about the poem message? I should’ve … I failed her.
Brent pushes himself up, spitting his blood into the mangled grass.
The roar in my ears slows, and Max’s growling bark rings behind the door.
I blink and tug at his shirt, pulling his sweaty face into mine. “What is he doing here? Is he here for her?”
He looks past me toward the house, and I shake him. “Answer me!”
A tree groans in the breeze, and he smiles, blood seeping through the cracks between his half-rotted teeth. “Let’s just say he isn’t leaving without her.”
Everything comes to a screeching halt, and I stumble back. The hill is suddenly steeper and my chest heaves as I struggle to catch my breath.
Lily.
My world tilts, and I shove Brent back, turning to run to the house. I need my keys and Max.
Crap. Lily.
She doesn’t know. The man who took so much from her life is here. Not only here, but here with a plan for her, and for this town.
How did he find her? Brent didn’t know who she was.
I think of the time in the hospital when we called back to Ruin after rescuing Lily—damn it. He found her when we called.I did this to her …
I bolt through the door, not bothering to glance to see if Brent has made a run for it. His voice echoes in the background, as if he’s on the phone, but it grows quieter, and I assume he’s taken off down the hill.
Max sprints after me as I run around the house, grabbing my keys off the kitchen counter. The pill container, still full of my mom’s prescription medication, slides off to crash to the floor. The top pops off and the mismatched colored pills spill out.
“Aus,” I tell Max, and he ignores them, heeling at my side instead.
We push through the door, and I race down the hill to my truck. Scrambling, I tug at the driver’s side door handle, not bothering to open the back for Max. Luckily, he knows. When we’re in a hurry for an emergency, he’s used to piling into the front with me.
A storm brews far off in the distance, the low grumbling of thunder cracking beyond the hill, and I click on my lights as the saturated gray clouds shut out the sunlight.
This man. This Raven. How can the man set on expanding his drug network here be the man connected to Lily?
I grip the steering wheel and throw the truck into drive, whipping out into the road from the driveway. Pedal to the floor, I clench my jaw and lift my ass off the seat to grab for my phone. I dial Lily’s number, but it goes straight to voicemail.
He hasn’t bothered her since he’s been here, right? She’s been working late all week and has been fine. Maybe I shouldn’t be so worried about her immediate safety. I’ll get to her, tell her, and take her home with me, never let her go anywhere alone again. Yes. That’s it. I’ll make her take me with her.
Then I think of the note.Miss me?How could I’ve been so careless to ignore it! I should’ve told her about Brent, his proposition, my past—all of it.
Damn it!
