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“None of us want that, least of all her. I know that much.”

She’s right, and I hate that she’s right. And I hate more that I said it out loud.

“Go home, get cleaned up. Dustin’s on his way. He’ll keep watch until you get back. She can come do a shift in the cafe when she’s awake. We won’t let her out of our sight.”

I wait until the lull before closing, when there’s only a couple of people left, and Ellery’s wiping down tables. She looks up when the door chimes and turns away again just as fast.

“Can we talk?” I ask quietly.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Nick.” She stuffs the cloth into her apron pocket and puts back the napkin holder, then the salt and pepper, without looking up. She skirts around me and past the counter. I follow her into the storeroom.

“Please, let me explain. All of it.”

“We’ve been over this before. It goes nowhere.” She grabs the mop bucket and starts filling it in the sink.

My hands clench. “One last chance. That’s all I’m asking. You never have to speak to me again after that if you don’t want.”

The tap goes off. The bucket sits there half-full. “Fine. Tomorrow night. I’ll come by the office.”

“What about now?”

“I’m working. Tomorrow or nothing.” She jabs a finger into my chest. “And you will tell me everything.”

“Yes, I swear. Just…stay inside after dark, okay? Don’t go anywhere alone.”

“Why?”

“It’s not safe right now.”

She rolls her eyes and grabs the mop. “Right. But you can’t tell me why.”

I reach for her wrist and stop with my hand in the air between us, close enough that I can feel the heat coming off her skin.

“Promise you’ll be careful.”

She watches me take it back.

“I feel like I’m being managed, Nick, and I am so done being managed.”

She’s right, and it’s the second time she’s put me in a room with her parents.

“The truth. All of it. Tomorrow,” I say.

Luca comes through the back door with the empty trash cans, and I go back to the alley. Ten minutes later, she climbs the stairs to her apartment, unaware I’m still there. Her light goes off a little after one, and her heart slows twenty minutes after that. Nineteen hours until I tell her everything, and I spend most of them working out where to start.

Chapter 29

Ellery

The nerve of Nick telling me to stay inside. I was about ready to give him a piece of my mind, but the shadows under his eyes gave me pause. He was worried. Genuinely worried, and that was enough for me to hear him out. If he keeps his word, he’ll be answering all my questions tonight.

It’s almost noon when I wander down to the newspaper office to continue reading through the archives. The paper has been around practically as long as the town, and is home to a filing cabinet full of historical documents that go back even further. Something to occupy my mind and keep my thoughts from drifting to that kiss and standing in Marthe’s driveway and watching him leave with Dustin. All of it.

“Afternoon, Mrs. Thorndale.” I set up at the desk opposite hers, which is starting to feel like my own. “Shall I put some tea on?”

“Afternoon, dear.” She’s got her eyes glued to the large picture window that overlooks Main Street.

“You all right?”