She stepped on a rock at a bad angle and cried out as she went down, the twist of her ankle sending pain shooting up her leg.
Quickly, she crawled behind the closest tree and grabbed her calf in an attempt to stem the pain flowing up her leg. When she glanced up, she finally realized where she was…right near the edge of one of the mountain drop-offs. It was a foggy area of the mountains that people rarely visited, just because of how steep the trails were.
Jesus, it would be so easy for Pixie to corner her here.
As if the universe heard her fear and laughed, Pixie’s voice sounded again. “I heard you, Tilly. I know you’re here. What happened? You fall and hurt yourself?”
She was close, and she’d stopped moving, which meant it wouldn’t be long before Pixie found her.
“You know, I never wanted any of this to turn out the way it did,” Pixie said, voice almost defeated. “I’m just desperate toget out of here andlive. Like,reallylive. Watching someone you love die before your eyes changes you. And having all your money drained by medical bills, only for your loved one to die anyway, makes you realize you deserve so much more.”
Deserve more? So she feltentitledto everything she’d stolen from Linda?
Slow footsteps drew closer. “I thought that taking money wouldn’t hurt anyone. Linda doesn’t even remember putting it there. If only fucking Macy hadn’t walked in on me.”
None of that gave her the right to kill someone.
“I was searching for the second safe in your office the day you walked in on me. I didn’t have a weapon, so I shoved you. When I couldn’t find the second safe, I robbed the hardware store,” Pixie continued. “But I didn’t get hardly anything.”
More footsteps. God, Tilly wished she had a weapon.
“I still have nightmares about the way I stabbed her, you know,” Pixie said softly. “But every time the darkness tries to close in on me, I remind myself why I’m doing this. I deserve a ticket out of this town. Ideserveto be happy.”
Even if that happiness came at the cost of others’ lives. She was sick.
“When I realized I lost my watch, I took a break in the middle of every shift to search for it. Someone was looking out for me that day when I stumbled upon Jake looking at it in the dirt.” Pixie’s footsteps stopped. “I can see the patch in the dirt where you fell, Tilly, and marks where you crawled behind that tree. Just come out. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
Tilly’s heart slammed against her ribs. The woman wanted to make killing her easy? Her mind scrambled to come up with a plan, anything to save herself.
But it was too late. Pixie moved around the tree, gun aimed. “Get up.”
Tilly was slow to rise to her feet. “It doesn’t have to be like this, Pixie. I can help you.”
“I don’t need help. I just need all of this to be someone else’s fault so I can take my money and get out.”
“We’ll pin it on my father,” Tilly pushed desperately, her mind working a million miles a minute. “We’ll say that we caught him stealing from the safe and he attacked us. One of us was able to jump on him, take his gun, and our only option was to shoot him.”
Her brows pinched. “Why would you do that to your own father?”
She wouldn’t, no matter how badly he’d hurt her. But Pixie didn’t realize that. “Because it wasn’t just this town he hurt. He took my mother’s savings, her jewelry, everything of hers and mine that was worthanything, and he ran, deserting us. His actions forced my mother and I to leave our home. And now, even though I’m back, I’m certainly not welcome.”
Pixie’s frown started to smooth out. Was she actually considering it?
“Come on, Pixie.” Tilly worked hard to keep the desperation out of her voice. “I can see you don’t want to hurt anyone else. And you don’t have to. Plus, I can help you. I already have Kayden and Eastern on my side, and they hate my father. If you let me tell this story, they’ll believe me.”
Pixie’s eyes flickered between hers, and in that moment, Tilly couldn’t breathe—because the woman was deciding between letting Tilly live or die.
“How do I trust that you’ll stick to your story?” Pixie asked.
“Why wouldn’t I? This town only blames me for what my father did because they have to blamesomeone. But if we let the town know what he did, and he’s here to arrest, then the blame will go back to him, where it belongs, and I can finally live my life in peace.” She inched forward a step. “Plus, I’ve been waitingfive years to get revenge on him for what he did to me and my mother. And what a perfect revenge this would be.”
When still Pixie looked unsure, Tilly took another hesitant step forward. “While you’ve only ever wanted to leave, allI’veever wanted was to come home. This is where I grew up. Where all the memories of my mother and I were made. I don’t want to leave. And maybe now, with your help, I might be able to stay.”
Several beats of silence passed, and every one of them had Tilly’s hands growing clammier…until finally, Pixie lowered the gun. “We need to get our stories straight.”
Every musclein Kayden’s body was tense as Eastern drove them to the visitors center. He’d gotten his neighbor to look after Avery and had called his deputies to get down to the mountains. Kayden had also called Theo and Hendrix in case they were needed, because they knew these mountains better than anyone.
But where the hell was Jake? He’d called his damn number a dozen times and it kept going to voice mail.
