The smartest thing he could do right now was to leave.
Kori punched in the code and pushed through the front door of Hollow House.
Inside was quiet. No television murmured in the distance or footsteps sounded overhead.
A note had been taped to the front desk:
At book club. Will return at ten. Call me if you need anything.
Kori headed down the hall to her room.
She was thinking about the look in Wyatt’s eyes when he’d said goodbye. There was something about it that stayed in her mind long after he’d departed.
She wasn’t sure what.
She barely knew the man. Yet circumstances had made her feel a quick attachment. If she was smart, she’d forget the feeling. Forget the look in his eyes.
Once she found Mackenzie, she was leaving. The last place she wanted to be was here in Blue Ridge Hollow with her memories of Flint and the betrayal that followed.
No, she had a nice life in DC. She needed to go back to that.
However . . . even though she’d taken personal leave and had asked for privacy, she was still fielding calls from her office and from clients. Apparently, privacy wasn’t a thing when you were a defense lawyer.
Was this really what she wanted for her future?
She’d been so certain it was. But now she wasn’t sure.
She didn’t know what had changed. Had Mackenzie’s disappearance put her life in perspective? Had it shown her what was important?
But hadn’t that happened when her parents died? It was when she’d thrown herself into her job. But was there more to life than just work?
Before she could think about it anymore, she reached the door to her room and saw it was slightly ajar.
She stopped.
She was certain she’d pulled it shut earlier. Had Maggie come inside to clean and forgotten to close it? It was a possibility.
Kori slowly pushed it open.
The air left her lungs.
Her drawers had been pulled from the dresser and upended on the floor. The sheets had been ripped from her bed. The closet doors were open.
Everything had been searched.
Her pulse pounded harder.
Had the person who’d done this found what they were looking for? Or were they just trying to send a message?
She wasn’t sure.
As she took another step into the room, the mirror near the door caught her eye.
Something had been drawn on it using what looked like a black marker.
A circle with a flaming tree inside it.
