"I'm not," Alan insisted, his voice breaking. "Tell her... tell her I'm sorry. I just wanted…”
The door clicked shut behind Wade as he led him out, and Parrish clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Well, one mystery solved, but the notes? That 'forgotten past' bullshit? Feels like someone else digging into her history. We'll keep pushing."
My teeth ground in frustration. I hadn’t even been able to get one solid punch in. I glared at Parrish. “You’re a dick.”
He shrugged, completely unconcerned. “He wasn’t good for it, and he’s going to get punched enough in jail.”
That cheered me up. My mind already raced back to Sage. Maybe she needed space, but I was going to keep trying every way I knew how. Resolving this for her was just one of them.
Alan’s going to be charged for grabbing you at the gas station. He isn’t the sender of the flowers, but he was the person behind the incident at Creekside. Just so you know … you’re welcome to come out to the house anytime. To check out the work in the greenhouses or whatever.
I waited a minute. Hesitating over the text.
A whole team of gardeners was coming from Seattle to work on the plans Sage had given me. There was a lot of grunt work to be done in both greenhouses, and I didn’t expect her to want to do it all, even if we were together. Another team was coming to overhaul the watering systems to see if we could upgrade everything to modern standards. I wanted both things ready for planting when she was.
I could see the three little dots pop up and then disappear. After an agonizingly long wait, her text came through. One word.
Sage
Maybe.
Frustrated, I texted Ellis and made sure he knew I’d murder him slowly if he let her out of his sight. Not that I needed to. He was literally being paid to keep her safe, but he’d also do it just because he knew what she meant to me.
“You going to punch me before Wade comes back or what? Let’s just get it over with.” Parrish was already picking up the file and paperwork he’d brought with him. “I’m sorry if you’re pissed.”
The urge to hit him rose, and resisting it wasn’t easy. “Wipe the smirk off your face. You’re supposed to follow orders, not take the guy to the police station,” I grumbled.
He shrugged. “Well, this gets you an extra in with the soon-to-be brother-in-law, right? I did you a favor. And the guy wasn’t really good for it anyway. He’s not the real problem. The flower guy is the problem.”
“I don’t think Wade’s going to be my brother-in-law anytime soon.” It wasn’t easy to admit that marriage was something that I might have wanted, but I’d already fucked it up. Again.
“Is she still pissed about Catherine?” His brow furrowed. “You explained, right? That shit wasn’t your fault. That woman is crazy.”
“I told her, but there’s been a lot going on. She’s a little overwhelmed. I think the whole thing with Catherine was the last straw, you know?”
Parrish didn’t seem to really get it, but I wasn’t going to explain my relationship, or lack of one, to him. He seemed like he wanted to say something else, but I waved him off. I wasn’t in the mood to talk about it.
Wade opened the door just in time to save me from having to make more small talk. “Come on, you two. We can talk more in my office before I finish booking him and get started on the paperwork.”
I knew we had to go over the plan to figure out how to find the stalker. Wade had his police resources; we had Redhawk, but we needed to talk to Hattie. Everything seemed to be spiraling out of control, and my connection to Sage felt like it was bubbling underneath my skin.
Parrish and I ran Wade through the facts of the new delivery and the background information we’d pulled up, watching his mouth tighten.
“Hell.” He pulled out a Jolly Rancher and twisted the plastic. “I didn’t know anything about her family before she came to live with us. She definitely doesn’t.”
“She didn’t seem to.”
He nodded tightly. “We were all mandated to go to therapy when we were kids. When Sage got to the Holts, she had a lot of nightmares. Sleepwalking out into the garden and shit. We’d find her out there covered in dirt. It was one of the reasons that Maggie got her into plants and growing things. It really seemed to help her. I don’t think Maggie or Levi knew anything about the home invasion either. Most of us were placed with them from the state, but I think Sage was different.”
Parrish handed him the file on the Gavell family home invasion as I tried to reason out why Sage might have been sleepwalking, covered in dirt.
“Do we tell her about this stuff?” Wade looked at the paperwork, jaw ticking. “What about the rest of the family? If this stuff is all connected?”
“Well, Alan was definitely from that time period, but Sage seemed hesitant to revisit anything from her past. We can see if she’s interested in learning more, but she should have control over that,” I said cautiously. Wade knew the Holt family better than I did, so I hesitated to make a suggestion, but opening the door to more trauma for Sage wasn’t my first choice. “I know it’s hard to keep things from the family, but she needs to be the one to want to hear the information about what happened before shecame to Maggie and Levi. We should respect that as much as we can.”
“I agree.” He closed the manila folder. “My sister is strong, and I know she could handle it, but it has to be what she wants.” He swallowed. “Knowing about what came before isn’t always a blessing.” He tapped the folder again, and I wondered who he was really talking about. “What’s the plan then to find the person sending the flowers and creepy notes?”
“We’re calling in everything we have. All the favors. I’ll talk to Hattie about calling in some of her former squad members. We don’t want to leave stones unturned.”
