It was a big mistake when he should be focused on other things, but she’d left and run her hand down his arm before she let herself out.
“Stop goofing off.”
He turned his head and there was Rene sitting in the chair in his rental house. Or he thought she was. He was dreaming again.
“I’m not.”
“You are. You’re getting worked up in more ways than one. I brought you here for several reasons. Make sure you don’t forget that.”
“What reasons?” he asked.
His sister laughed. “You have to figure that out. Stay open to the possibility that not everything is as it seems. Don’t get played. Don’t fall into the trap again.”
“What trap?” he asked.
“Watch your back.” Rene clapped her hands in front of his face and he was sitting up in bed.
What was that noise?
He waited a second and then heard it again. It sounded like a car door shutting.
When he looked at the clock flashing across the room he saw it was two in the morning.
He threw the covers back and went toward the front of the house. The light was on in his car. What the fuck?
He was going to open the door but was standing there in his boxers.
Screw that. He did it anyway, and just wished he’d had his gun on him. But he wasn’t able to bring it with him across state lines and the last thing he needed was to get arrested when he was poking around.
He whipped the door open, then heard footsteps rushing through the yard, but couldn’t see anything and wouldn’t give chase being in his underwear.
He swore his car doors were locked. He always locked them.
Once he had jeans and sneakers on, he went outside with a flashlight that he’d found and looked around his car. Nothing seemed out of place other than the back door wasn’t shut all the way.
When he was back in the house, he locked the door and decided to go through his sister’s trial again.
He was on the right track. He was getting warmer.
The burning up in his dream. That was it.
He was hot. Sweating. This was it, he felt it.
For years, every clue, every statement, every time he thought he was close, he’d have a dream and be freezing in it. Even in the height of summer, he’d be freezing.
But this time, he was burning up and he just hoped he wasn’t confusing it for what he felt for Gale.
“Son of a bitch.”
There was heavy breathing in the dark, his footsteps stopping as he dodged behind a tree, his heart racing more than it had in fifteen years as he inhaled and exhaled several times and waited in silence for his next move.
That was too close for comfort. He shouldn’t have shut the car door as hard as he had, but he wasn’t thinking, just reacting like he’d done that one fateful night. Then he just wanted to get the hell out of there once he got the information he needed.
Now he knew who the guy really was. But the question was—what was Rory Connors doing back here after all this time? Did Rory know something no one else had ever found?
Would his secret come out?
No. It couldn’t. He wasn’t going to let his life be destroyed over one stupid mistake.
