“You’re safe now,” I said softly.
Her throat bobbed. “I know. I just… Eric, I saw him behind you. I thought?—”
“I’m here. We’re both okay.” I brushed my thumb across her cheek. “Look at me. I’m right here,” I repeated a second time, allowing my words to penetrate.
Her breath broke, a tiny sob escaping before she could swallow it. She didn’t crumble. But she leaned into me like her body finally gave permission to feel everything she’d been holding back. Becket cleared his throat and angled his flashlight toward the trail.
“We need to move. Storm’s getting worse.”
Dad nodded. “Eric, you take her. Stay close.”
I wrapped my arm around Harmony’s waist and guided her down the path. Her head rested briefly against my shoulder; her voice barely audible above the wind.
“He wasn’t trying to kill me.” She trembled. “He was trying to take me.”
A surge of rage mixed with fear rushed through me.
“Then he’ll have to go through all of us,” I said. “And he won’t touch you again.”
But Harmony’s next words twisted everything, “It didn’t feel random.” She swallowed hard. “It felt like he knew me.”
My steps faltered.
Becket looked at her with a sharp focus. Dad did too. But no one spoke.
“We’re getting you home,” I whispered, brushing a kiss to her temple. But as we descended the ridge, the wind curled around us like it knew a secret and it whispered the truth I didn’t want to believe.She wasn’t safe yet.
CHAPTER 48
Harmony
Warmth should have felt like relief. Instead, when I stepped into the Thorne house, it pressed against my skin like a weight I didn’t know how to carry. The storm raged outside, wind slapping the windows, but inside everything was still, quiet that was so complete it made my pulse sound too loud. Eric helped me out of my coat with fingers gentle and careful movements that made something in my chest twist.
“You’re freezing,” he murmured.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
I wasn’t fine at all, but saying I was fine seemed to be my default. My hands shook. My breath stuttered. My mind kept replaying the large man he fought and how close that man had been. How his every movement was deliberate and planned. There was also something familiar that I couldn’t place.
I sank onto the edge of the couch. My body felt like someone else’s; my bones were heavy, my thoughts fuzzy. Pierre stoked the fire, never straying too far from where I sat, his worry hovering like a second fireplace. Becket paced near the window, phone in hand.
“We’ll send a team out at first light,” he said. “Tracks will be rough in this snow, but we’ll see what we can get.”
Pierre nodded. “He wanted her alive. That changes everything.”
My stomach hollowed.
I swallowed hard. “Please… don’t talk like I’m not here.”
Both men quieted immediately. Eric sat beside me, close enough that his thigh brushed mine. “You should rest,” he said softly. “You’ve been through hell tonight.”
Rest.The word felt foreign. If I closed my eyes, I’d see the cabin door creak open. If I slowed my breath, I’d hear the snow shift under someone else’s weight. If I let myself feel. . .
I stood abruptly. “I’m going to wash up.”
Eric’s hand caught mine before I could pull away completely.
“Don’t disappear on me,” he whispered.
