Rowan??? Where are you? Is everything okay?
Another message followed immediately.
Thayer is dead, and everyone’s asking for you. Vince is losing it. Nobody knows what’s going on. People are already speculating.
Rowan swallowed hard.
Of course, they were looking for her. She’d walked away from a production she was tied to contractually. That alone could cause legal and financial fallout.
And Vince . . .
Her gaze dropped back to his messages.
You left at a very bad time.
Her breath caught.
Another message appeared almost immediately as her phone kept buzzing.
If you don’t call me, I’ll handle this my way.
Rowan sank onto the edge of the bed, her thoughts spiraling.
Should she have gone to the police?
The question surfaced again, sharper this time.
She’d thought about it in the car. Thought about turning around. Reporting what she’d seen.
But what would she even say? That she’d witnessed an argument that turned violent? That she’d panicked and fled?
It would be her word against Vince’s. And he was a legend in Hollywood circles. He had money and connections. No one would believe he’d do something like this.
Besides, he had her earring.
Would he really use that as evidence against her?
She suspected he would.
Now she’d run. Crossed state lines. Hidden herself away.
Every hour that passed made her silence look worse. Made her look more guilty.
Her gaze drifted toward the window, toward the quiet mountains surrounding Refuge Cove.
No one here had any idea what she’d brought with her.
Maybe coming home had been a mistake.
Wes and Remington continued walking beside Caleb along the edge of the property, his gaze moving from trees to fencing to the open ground as he assessed potential threats.
But his thoughts kept straying back to Rowan. To what she was doing here. To what might be going wrong in her life. To what kind of trouble she might be in.
So many years had passed since he’d last seen her. He’d tried to date other women. Good women. Women who seemed like a smart fit for him.
But there was no one like Rowan. Though he’d known he had to let her go, his heart seemed to have a different idea.
He turned his attention back to the job at hand.
