“Like I said before…it’s just a ride.”
She nodded quickly and took a deep breath. “I know.”
She pulled onto the street, and he waited a couple of minutes before breaking the silence. “Can I ask you something?”
Her fingers visibly tightened around the wheel. “As long as it’s not about us getting back together, sure.”
Oh, they would be getting back together, and deep down, she probably knew that too. “Eloise, the woman who died in Cheyenne—did you know her family?”
Sky’s chest rose on a sharp inhale. “No. She was new at the dog café. None of us really knew her well.”
“Did she have a boyfriend?”
“Uh, yeah, I think so, but I only know that because she mentioned him once or twice. I never met him.” She glanced at him again. “Why are you asking?”
He should probably wait until they got home to mention this, but hell, this might be the only time she gave him. “There have been too many accidents for them to actually beaccidents…and I think you know that.”
This time, it wasn’t just the fingers around the wheel that tightened. It was every muscle in both arms and the muscles in her neck. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about. The fire. The car crash. The car engine. One person can’t be that unlucky.”
“Becket, there have been moments where I’ve wondered exactly that. But I just can’t allow myself to believe someone could have followed me.”
“Why not? You didn’t move across the country. You moved from one state straight up to the next one. And you would be easy to find. A simple Google search. You’re named as the owner right on the business website. You even have your picture there. Plus, social media pages for the doggy daycare…”
“No. I mean, I can’t allow myself to believe it because that’s crazy.”
“There are a lot of crazy people out there, Sky.”
She pulled into her drive, grabbed her keys and opened her door. “No.”
He followed her out. “Why?”
“Because that means someone’s so obsessed with hurting me,killing me, that they’ve uprooted their entire life just to get me.” She marched toward her front door. “It means Charlie’s death wasn’t an accident, that someonekilledhim.”
“I know it hurts—”
At the front door, she spun to face him. “It doesn’t hurt! It’s more than that. It’s so painful that Ican’tbelieve it.”
He inched closer. “Sky, you need to face reality before—”
“Before what? Before they finally kill me?”
“Yes.”
Fear flashed in her eyes. He didn’t want to scare her, but he needed her to grasp the danger she was in.
“I can’t do this right now.” She turned back to her door. “I’m going inside.”
“You shouldn’t be alone,” he said through gritted teeth.
She tried to put her key in the door, but she missed. Then she missed again. Her shoulders trembled, her breaths growing shallow.
He put a hand on her waist and reached the other around her body, wrapping his fingers around her hand. “Jesse and I are looking into it, okay?”
Her chest continued to heave, and her chin lowered to her chest. “You don’t need—”
“I do.”
