Except I couldn’t say that.
“It might be good to be honest with him about what’s happened,” I said. “Then maybe he’ll be more comfortable with you staying here.”
I stepped into the hallway, giving Giovanni a nod, and they joined us in the kitchen. As soon as Vaughn set his eyes on Logan, he rushed over, wrapping his arms around him.
“Son, I’m glad you’re all right,” he said. “We’ve been worried.”
“I know,” Logan said. “I’m sorry.”
“I understand why Georgiana feels you need to be here, but you should come home. We can protect you.”
Logan glanced at me, then back at his father, and he drew a breath. “I need to tell you something. Before Audrey died, she found something. A locket. It belonged to a girl who went missing many years ago.”
Vaughn raised a brow. “What does this have to do with you?”
“Everything. Audrey was convinced the girl wasn’t missing. She thought she was dead, that someone killed her. I think she was right.”
Vaughn clenched his jaw a moment, then softened. “What made you both believe she was murdered?”
“There’s this old cabin in the woods. It’s where we found the locket. But I think Audrey found something else—a bone—a human bone.”
“Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?” Vaughn asked.
“I just … I wasn’t sure, and then Audrey was murdered, and then someone left a note on my truck telling me to leave the past alone or I’d end up like her.”
Vaughn froze, and I watched his face. The flicker of his eyes. The tightening of his mouth. The way his breath caught, then steadied.
Was it grief?
Fear for his son?
Or something else?
I couldn’t be sure.
“I understand now why you left,” Vaughn said. “But even after all you’ve told me, I’d like you to come home. Your mother and I can protect you.”
“I’m safer here,” Logan said.
“You’re being ridiculous. You don’t even know these people.”
“I’m staying,” Logan said.
Vaughn turned toward me, finger wagging. “This is your doing. You’ve put a bunch of nonsense into his head. You don’t even know why Audrey was murdered yet. Might not have anything to do with this missing girl.”
“It has everything to do with her,” I said. “And as for your son, it’s like I told you before. Staying is his decision.”
“You’re manipulating him, both of you.”
“I’m looking out for him. Someone left a note on his truck. That doesn’t concern you?”
“Of course it does. But it doesn’t mean he needs to sit in this house until the investigation is over.”
“He’s staying,” I said.
Vaughn leaned closer to me, and Giovanni stepped between us.
He didn’t touch him, and he didn’t speak.
