“Are you sure you don’t want to come into town with us?” Maisie asks, and I plaster a fake smile on my face.
“Yeah, I just want to get some stuff unpacked and settled in,” I tell her, hoping that she doesn’t see that I’m lying.
“Okay, well, I have my phone; call if you want us to bring you anything.”
“Sure.” I accept a kiss to my cheek from her and ignore the look that Jade gives me. As my best friend, I know she knows something isn’t right, but I’m thankful that she hasn’t confronted me. That said, I know she wants to; we just haven’t had time alone for her to do it. “You guys have fun, and you should totally go to the Root for lunch.”
“We might do that.” Maisie grabs her bag while Jade picks up hers.
“We’ll be out in a couple hours.”
“I’ll be here.” I walk them to the door and wave them off before heading to the bedroom and changing out of my shorts and into a pair of jeans.
With Tanner and Bernard fishing and Jade and Maisie out exploring town, I know this might be the only moment I have alone for the next few days. After I slip on a pair of flip-flops, I grab my keys off the hook near the front door and leave the house, making a beeline for my Bronco.
Once inside, I start the engine and take comfort in the smell of the interior that reminds me of my mom before I put the gearshift into drive. I turn onto the main road into town, trying not to freak myself out, even though I’m already freaked out. My period is late, and every day, I’ve woken up more tired than I was the night before when I went to sleep, feeling nauseous. Always nauseous.
Thankfully, no one else has noticed (or no one has said anything), but if I’m right and I’m pregnant, I won’t be able to hide what’s going on for very long. When I get to Target, I head inside, not even bothering to look around, which is something I would normally do. Instead, I go straight for the pregnancy tests, and since there are so many brands, all of them proclaiming different results, I decide to grab a few.
With my hands full, I start for the checkout but stop dead when I hear a voice nearby that sends a shiver down my spine. With my heart suddenly pounding, I tiptoe to the end of the aisle and look around the corner. Standing just feet away is a man with a cart, while the woman he’s with searches through a bin in the middle of the aisle. As I study him, my heart feels like it’s going to come out of my chest.
Because without a doubt, he’s one of the men I saw in the woods weeks ago.
One of the men who killed the elk and then shot at Tanner and me.
As if he senses me, his head lifts, and his eyes meet mine.
“Shit,” I hear him say, and without thinking, I take off, still carrying an armful of pregnancy tests. When I hear his feet pounding the ground behind me, I run faster and head right for the automatic doors and out, ignoring the alarms going off as I run outside.
“Stop!” I hear someone shout, and tears fill my eyes as I book it toward my Bronco. When I finally reach my door, I fumble with the handle, the tests in my hands falling to the ground while someone crashes into me from behind. The impact causes the air in my lungs to leave on a whoosh.
“I won’t tell anyone I saw you. I swear I won’t tell!” I scream as I spin around, ready to fight to the death if I have to.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but the cops are on the way,” a kid younger than me, wearing a red polo shirt, says and then grabs my upper arm.
I blink. “What?” I pant for breath, scanning the area for the guy who I swear was chasing me.
“The cops are coming,” he says again as I hear the sound of sirens getting closer.
“I . . . I thought—”
“You have to come with me.” He latches onto my wrist, then bends to pick up the boxes on the ground at our feet.
“This is a mistake. I didn’t try to steal those. I . . . there was a guy chasing me.”
“Yeah, I was chasing you.” He drags me back into the store and into a small office where there are dozens of TV monitors lining the walls.
Chapter 25
TANNER
With Bernard at my back, I head into the lodge so I can show him around, even though I’m ready to be home with Cybil after spending the day on the river fishing with him. Cybil said I shouldn’t bring up him and Maisie moving here, but after having them around this last week and seeing how happy she’s been, I’ve made a point to show all of them everything this area has to offer. I’m also hoping that if they decide to move this way, Jade will follow.
“Gotta say I’m impressed, son,” Bernard says as we step into the great room in the center of the lodge. “You and your friends have done good for yourselves.”
“Thanks,” I say as my cell phone in my pocket rings. When I pull it out, a number I don’t recognize is on the screen. Not sure if it’s a client, I put it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Is this Tanner Carson?”
“It is.” I meet Bernard’s gaze, and he raises a brow.
“This is Officer Thomas Swans. I’m sorry to call you, but I have a woman with me who asked that I phone you before I take her down to the station—”
“Cybil?” I cut him off as I start moving toward the front door of the lodge, swearing I hear someone crying in the background.
“Yes, she said you’d be able to explain why she tried to steal four pregnancy tests.”
I stumble and just catch myself by latching onto the railing before I can fall down the steps outside the lodge. “What?”
“Sorry, she’s very incoherent. She also said something about a shooting and an elk.”
“Where is she?” I bark into the phone as I run toward my truck, hoping Bernard is keeping up, because if not, he’s going to get left behind.
“We’re in the Target parking lot.”
“Do not leave.”
“Sir, I can’t—”
“She must have seen the person who shot at us, the person who poached an elk almost two months ago. Call the sheriff and warden. They’ll confirm my story.”
“Fuck,” he mutters before sighing. “All right.”
“I’ll be there in twenty, tops. Please don’t leave.” I hang up as I start the engine of my truck.
“What’s going on?” Bernard asks, and I grit my teeth. I forgot he was here. Fuck.
Not wanting to repeat what the cop said about Cybil trying to steal pregnancy tests, I tell him a half truth. “I think Cybil saw the person who shot at us, and she’s with the cops.”
He doesn’t say a word, and I’m thankful for the silence as I drive, because my mind is whirling with thoughts of Cybil pregnant with our child and scared out of her mind in the back seat of a cop car.