The headlights carved the drive in pale gold.
Nothing moved.
She held her breath.
Flynn’s shadow crossed the window once—then didn’t return.
Heather’s fingers closed around her phone in a vice grip. The screen lit her lap too brightly. 999 hovered beneath her thumb. She waited, counting the space between heartbeats.
Something shifted outside.
A shape where there hadn’t been one before.
The passenger door jerked open.
Cold air rushed in. A hand fisted in her hair, hauling her out before she could scream. She hit the gravel hard, palms scraping, the world tilting violently.
“Where is it?” a man hissed.
He was on her in a heartbeat—solid, heavy, smelling of rain and metal. His grip twisted her wrist until pain flared white-hot.
“The journal,” he snarled. “Give me her notes.”
Heather gasped, kicking and clawing. “Let go!”
“What else did you find?” His voice dropped, tight with fury. “What did she leave behind?”
Lightning split the sky, illuminating his face in sharp relief: pale eyes, a familiar scar at the jaw, rain plastering dark hair to his forehead.
“David,” she breathed.
He struck her, quick and open-handed. Stars burst behind her eyes as she fell back onto the gravel, air torn from her lungs.
“I’ll ask again,” he said, crouching over her. “Where are thefuckingnotes?”
A roar tore through the rain.
“Get off her!”
Flynn hit Kerr like a storm breaking over the ridge, the two of them crashing into the mud near the gate. Heather scrambled backward, heart slamming, rain soaking her coat as fists flew and bodies collided.
“Flynn!” she cried. “Stop—he’s done!”
Flynn froze.
Rain streaked his face. Blood darkened his knuckles. Kerr sagged beneath him, half-conscious and groaning.
Heather staggered closer, ribs aching. “Flynn…”
He turned to her, eyes bright and feral. “He touched you?”
She nodded, shaking. “He wanted my mom’s journal.”
Flynn looked down at Kerr, jaw tightening. “Then we were right. He’s been followin’ us.”
Somewhere inside the house, a door creaked open.
Flynn straightened. “Get in the truck. Lock the doors, and go back to my cottage.”
