But who?
The bell chimes as he leaves, and I watch through the window as he climbs back into his van. But he doesn't drive away immediately. Instead, he sits there for several minutes, photographing the street, the storefronts, documenting everything. Showing pictures of Rona to the few passersby who braved the cold this morningand walked by his van.
"Coast is clear," Elga calls softly, but I hold up a hand, still watching.
Gribble finally starts his engine and pulls away, heading north toward the Saltwater Lodge just like Elga suggested. But I don't relax. If he's this well informed, he'll figure out the lodge is a dead end soon enough. And then he'll be back.
It’s only a matter of time before we run out of luck and someone recognizes Rona. Or me. Everyone in town knows who I am.
I turn to Rona, who watches me with wide eyes, her face pale but determined.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Yeah," she says quietly, "but someone told him where to find me."
"Someone did." The words come out rougher than I intended. "Someone who knows our exact movements. There’s not a long list of suspects here."
Elga’s expression is grim. "This is bad, isn't it?"
"It's worse than bad," I tell her. It takes me about two seconds to decide to come clean to my old friend. I know I can trust Elga with anything. "Rona has been the target of a deepfake video, probably to hurt her mother. I brought her here to keep her safe from the press while her mother investigates the footage, but it seems whoever's targeting Rona has people on the inside and her location was leaked."
A small hand closes around my upper arm, trembling slightly.
"What do we do?" Rona asks, and I can hear the strain in her voice despite her attempts to stay calm.
"We get you out of sight," I say, already moving toward the shop's rear exit. "I need to bring the SUV around back. No way I'm walking you down Main Street now."
"I'll watch the front," Jennifer offers. "Make sure he doesn't come back while you're moving the vehicle."
“We’ll get the word out to folks to keep their mouths shut,” Elga says with a fierce scowl. "And we’ll bring you provisions up at the cabin so you won’t have to come into town again."
The loyalty in their voices, the immediate willingness to help, makes something tight in my chest loosen slightly. I’d forgotten how it felt to have people who were there when things went sideways. People who make a whole town feel like home.
I squeeze Elga's shoulder briefly. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," she says with a fierce grin. "Thank me when we get that little weasel to give up and leave town."
I slip out the back door into the narrow service lane, the cold air hitting my face like a slap. Snow crunches under my boots as I move quickly but quietly toward the street where I parked the SUV.
The black vehicle sits exactly where I left it, undisturbed and anonymous. I climb in, start the engine, and navigate carefully through the narrow lanes behind the shops. When I pull up behind Monster Heart Florals, Rona is already waiting by the back door with Elga and Jennifer flanking her like bodyguards. Herface is drawn with stress, but she moves quickly and efficiently, sliding into the back seat without argument.
"Thank you," she tells Elga before closing the door. "For everything."
"You take care of yourself, honey," Elga replies, then fixes me with a stern look. "And you take care of her."
"Always," I say, and mean it.
We pull away from the shop, heading for the back roads that will take us to the cabin without using Main Street.
The peaceful bubble of the past few days has burst, and the reality of the hunt is closing in. The cabin appears through the trees like a refuge, solid and welcoming. I park in the cleared area and kill the engine, the silence of the forest settling around us like a protective blanket.
"Home," Rona says softly, but there’s no warmth to her tone.
I catch Rona's reflection in the rearview mirror. She's staring out at the winter landscape with an expression I've never seen before. Not fear, exactly, but a kind of grim resignation that makes me want to break something.
I’ve seen her afraid. I’ve seen her angry. I’ve seen her bubbly and mischievous.
I’ve never seen her defeated. And I never want to see that look on her face again. Someone on the inside sold her out, and I'm going to find out who.
