Ruby reached across the table and covered Rowan’s hand with hers. “You are not facing this alone.”
Rowan looked dangerously close to crying. Then she blinked quickly and looked away before it could happen.
Wes understood the instinct. Some emotions felt safer outrunning than surviving.
“The less oxygen this gets, the better,” Sheriff Sutherland continued.
Rowan gave a distracted nod.
Wes watched her as Sheriff Sutherland ended the call.
She looked exhausted. Not physically, but emotionally. She appeared as if the walls around her life were narrowing one piece at a time.
After Sheriff Sutherland ended the call, Wes remained where he was, with one hand wrapped around a cup of coffee that had long since gone cold.
Everything felt normal. The kitchen still smelled like biscuits and bacon. Outside, sunlight covered the mountainside.
It should feel peaceful.
But it didn’t.
He watched Rowan as she sat at the table.
She still looked wound too tight beneath the surface, like one hard pull would snap something loose.
Her coffee remained untouched. So did most of her breakfast.
Remington lifted his head as Wes’s phone rang.
The number on the screen made Wes straighten.
Hollow House Bed and Breakfast.
He answered. “This is Wes.”
“Mr. Bennett?” Maggie sounded flustered as she said his name. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I thought you’d want to know this right away.”
“Know what?”
“I think . . . well, I think someone’s been in your room.”
CHAPTER 29
Wes walkedtoward the back door. “What makes you think that?”
“Our housekeeper found your door cracked open,” Maggie told him. “The inside looks . . . well, it looks messy. Not normal messy. Like . . . ransacked messy.”
“How?”
“Drawers are open. Clothes are everywhere. A pillow has been shredded. We can only assume you didn’t leave your room like that.”
“Of course not.”
“I just called the sheriff.”
Wes’s grip tightened on the phone. “Thanks for letting me know. Listen, don’t touch anything else. I’m on my way.”
He ended the call and turned back toward the Kings.
