What seemed like ages later, we arrived at our destination. Instead of pulling into the driveway of the remote cabin, I parked up the road, and we went on foot. I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to escape into the woods. The last thing I felt like doing was going on a wild goose chase through the wilderness. All I wanted was to get this over with so I could get back to Sutton.
The cabin was nothing special, probably only big enough for an open concept kitchen-living room, bedroom, and small bath. I experienced a flash of deja vu, the entire thing reminding me of the cabin owned by the Prom Night Arsonist, and the place they’d taken Crew to kill him a few years back.
But if anyone died today, it would not be me or the twins.
Directing West around back to be sure there wasn’t a rear entrance, Finn and I approached the front.
Our footfalls were heavy as we climbed the steps to the porch that ran the front of the structure. My knock on the door reverberated through the otherwise quiet woods.
I sensed movement inside, and a beat later, the little sheer curtain at the window twitched to the side. Johns and I made eye contact, and I could sense the panic on his part, his fight or flight response kicking in.
Flight won out, and he turned on his heel, racing through the house.
Confident West had things covered at the back, I went inside and walked calmly through the space, toward the sounds of a struggle.
West and Johns were tussling on the ground outside the back steps, rolling around in the snow. Finally, West got the upper hand, restraining Johns’ arms behind his back and hauling him to his feet.
When I could finally look the man in the eye, I said, “Hello, Johns. I think it’s time you and I had a talk.”
forty-six
. . .
SUTTON
THREE MONTHS LATER
“Are you excited?”Lane asked, his nose nuzzling mine.
“Yes,” I admitted. “But also nervous?”
“You’ll be fine, sunny. It’s like riding a bike.”
I smacked him playfully on the shoulder. “I know how to do my job. I’m talking about facing everyone after everything.”
He brushed my hair back from my face, his hand resting on my cheek. “You did nothing wrong, sunny. You were the victim of a very emotionally unstable woman and a jealous man. If anyone gives you shit for it, you send them my way, and I’ll deal with it.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to whine to my boyfriend if people are mean to me.”
“Why not? I don’t know if you know this, but your boyfriend? He’s kind of the sheriff of this whole county.”
“How could I forget, Chief?”
Lane playfully smacked my ass and dragged me closer.
Though I knew he was trying to reassure me, I didn’t think I’d fully be able to shake these nerves until tomorrow when Ifinally walked into the firehouse for the first time in, hell, almost four months. Logically, I knew Lane was right, but I worried my colleagues would still look at me differently.
At least I’d have Crew there.
It had been a long three months of healing. In addition to a pretty severe concussion and the wound to my abdomen we still couldn’t explain the source of—my memories of the actual accident were a blackhole, and for that, I was thankful—I’d also broken my wrist. I was now the proud owner of a gnarly scar on my stomach and was prone to headaches if I spent too much time staring at a screen.
Addie had also survived the accident and, in a cruel twist of fate that pissed me off to no end, had been declared clinically unfit to stand trial. Because I had no energy to prolong the process, to wait around for months or even years for Addie to be declared “sane” again, Berkley had instead reached a settlement agreement. Hopefully, Addie stayed locked up forever. I was grateful she was out of our lives for good, but it still irked me to know she would likely get out one day and be free to terrorize the world yet again.
Still, we filed restraining orders against her as a failsafe in case that did happen, and we were trying to move on with our lives.
I’d spent a lot more time in therapy, often having three or more sessions a week. I had so much I needed to unpack, the whole ordeal triggering a lot of things I thought I’d moved past.
The settlement agreement was a big one. The fact that, yet again, someone who had deeply harmed me wouldn’t serve proper prison time for their actions.
