“I know that. But other people don’t. And right now you’re not here to tell them otherwise.”
Rowan closed her eyes.
Vince hadn’t threatened her with words. He hadn’t needed to.
The earring wasn’t evidence against her.
It was a leash that could control her.
“Rowan.” Tessa’s voice sharpened. “Talk to me. I cannot help you if I don’t know what I’m working with.”
Rowan pressed her lips together. Tessa was in her corner—she believed that. Whatever Rowan said would stay between them until the pressure became too great. But Tessa operated in Vince’s world. She needed relationships in that world to do her job.
She couldn’t risk that. Not yet.
“I didn’t have anything to do with Thayer’s death,” she said again. “That’s the truth.”
“I believe you. But belief doesn’t fix this crisis.”
“I know.” Rowan exhaled. “I’ll call you back. Just give me a little time.”
“Rowan—”
“I promise.” She ended the call before Tessa could push further.
For a long moment she stood there, the phone warm in her hand.
Do the right thing. Even when it costs something.
She’d heard those words her whole life. They’d always sounded simple.
Now they felt anything but.
Wes wrapped up the call and pocketed his phone.
He turned back toward the house, and his gaze automatically found Rowan. She’d stopped at the edge of the yard, her back to him and her phone in her hand.
He took a step toward her then stopped himself.
He still needed to tell Sheriff Sutherland about the toothpicks—and he needed to do it before the bag in his pocket becamean afterthought. He pulled out his phone again, got the sheriff's number from Caleb, and then he shot off a quick text to him.
After he sent it, he looked at Rowan again.
Her chin was up. Her shoulders were back. One hand gripped her opposite arm just below the elbow. She wasn’t standing like someone holding herself together, but like someone holding herself still long enough to think.
He’d seen that look on her once before. The night she’d told him she was leaving for Hollywood. She hadn’t cried. Hadn’t wavered. She’d looked him in the eye and told him exactly what she was going to do and why. Her voice had been steady the whole way through.
He’d asked her to stay. He’d known it wouldn’t matter. He’d asked anyway.
She’d listened. She’d said she was sorry.
Then she’d left with the forward momentum of someone who had already been gone in her mind for a while.
At that moment, he’d understood just how determined she was. She might appear carefree and like the life of the party on the surface. But beneath that was one of the most motivated people he’d ever met. Once she decided something, there was no changing her mind.
Looking at her now, he understood something else. He understood that whatever she’d just decided while standing at the edge of the yard, she meant it the same way she’d meant everything else she’d ever set her mind to.
Thatwas the Rowan he’d always known.
