I pant, and for a moment, he doesn’t move. He can’t leave me. He can’t stop. He’s going to lift me up and rip off my clothes…
But he backs away.
And I clench my teeth in anger.
“I’m coming,” he calls out.
Holding my eyes, he lets me go, and my body almost leaves the wall as if being pulled as he goes.Don’t leave me.
Damn him.
Hawke doesn’t drop Aro. There’s nothing more pressing to him than her.
And it would take an earthquake to get Hunter off Dylan.
I deserve better than this.
I stand there—for one second, then two.
An earthquake.
What if there is one thing more pressing to him than me? Just one thing? The one thing that made him leave eight years ago. Still unresolved.
Taking a step, then another, I follow him, peering around the corner and seeing him climb the small hill toward the front of the house. Slipping behind the tall hedges between the basement and the hill, I crouch down and crawl, following after both of them.
Slowly sinking one hand and knee after another into the black mulch, I hear Winslet, as if those memories in the diary are mine.
*dark
*water in the air
*scent of earth
*keys like claws
I curl my fingers into the dirt, lifting my eyes to find glimpses of him and Farrow through the thistles.
Farrow turns to him, standing close as if he has something private to say, but his body language is cautious. Not confident.
Since when do he and Lucas have shared secrets?
Farrow pants to Lucas, out of breath as the silence stretches.
Then I hear him say, “He knows where the body is.”
Lucas
There’s only one way the location of that body is known to anyone but Reeves and me. Reeves told Hugo Navarre.
And he must’ve told him recently, too, because Hugo didn’t seem to know the other day outside of Fallon’s shop.
Drew is in the area. I knew it from my second day back in Shelburne Falls, and I will never deny my gut again. I knew it.
Maybe Hugo’s bluffing. To get me to leave. To make a mistake. But it’s best to assume he’s not.
“He’ll leave you alone if you give him the building,” Farrow tells me. “He wants to meet.”
Raking my hand through my hair, I shake my head. So blackmail, it is, then. I’m almost impressed. He could just kill me.
