Page 14 of Trip Through Your Wires

“What about them?” Cruz asks curiously.

“They found a body last night.

“They what!” His eyes scream open.

“They don’t know who it is,” I add quickly. “It’s badly decomposed. But they’re running tests.”

The four of us look at one another, and I know what each is thinking. “It can’t be him,” Cruz shakes his head. “It’s been too long. There wouldn’t even be a body.”

He’s right. And when Jake said the same thing earlier, I knew he had a point. Seven months would be a long time for a body to still be intact. But the chances of one with a bullet in the chest is a coincidence I can’t ignore.

“They found a bullet,” I add. “From what my brother said, CCPD wants to run tests on it, but I think it’s Royce. Given how long they think the body was in the water and the bullet…”

“Shit.” Ellery makes her way over to the couch and sinks down onto the cushion. Cruz follows and sits down next to her.

“That’s not all.” I chew on my thumbnail, looking at Jake nervously. “Richardson is on his way to Cherry Cove as we speak.”

“He came out of hiding?” She looks up at me, eyes narrow. “How do you know?”

“Caleb’s mom works at CCPD.” I make my way over and stand next to where she’s sitting. “She told him and he told Travis. I was at the store when he called to tell my brother. That’s why I came a day early. As soon as I heard I went home, changed my flight and came straight here.”

Ellery grabs my hand and holds it tight. “Well, if it is Royce and they trace it back to us, we say it was self-defense,” she says confidently. “He tried to—”

“The gun was registered to my brother,” I cut her off. “If the bullet matches, Royce’s father could go after him for first degree murder. He could seek the death penalty, Elle. My brother could die for what I did.”

“Well that’s not going to happen,” she straightens. “Because it’s not him. There’s no way it can be.”

“And if it is? What are we going to do?”

Ellie looks at Cruz with fierce determination. “What we should have done all along. We let the past take care of the present.”

“Meaning?” he asks.

“We tell the world who I am and what Royce tried to do to me. No jury—”

“Hell no,” he cuts her off, shooting the idea down cold. “No way.”

Cruz would do anything for Ellery, except go along with any idea that would put her in harm’s way. And what she’s just proposed would do just that.

“He’s right.” I look at Cruz, nodding in fierce agreement. “You can’t tell the world what happened that night or who you are. It will put your safety at risk, not to mention cast suspicion our way around Royce’s disappearance.”

“How?” She looks from me to Cruz. “Petrov already claimed credit.”

“No,” Cruz says a second time. “We aren’t telling the world what that fucker tried to do to you, Ellie.”

Telling the world she is the Davenport heir wouldn’t just put her on the radar of every news outlet across the country, it would put a target on her back to anyone who saw her as either a threat or an opportunity. But it wasn’t just that he worried about. Dredging up the truth of what happened that night would open wounds I knew were still healing. Ellie has her own nightmares from what Cal and Royce tried to do to her.

“Didn’t you say you would stand beside me if and when the time came?” She looks at Cruz, her expression serious.

“Yes,” he replies slowly. “If it didn’t include you going to war with the father of the son of a bitch who tried to kill you.”

She lifts her chin in defiance, jaw tight. “I’m not scared of Langston Richardson.”

He sighs, pinching the skin at the bridge of his nose. “Baby…”

“Cruz is right,” I nod. “He’s bad news.”

“Bad news or not,” she straightens, “the truth is the truth. Royce was going to kill me. He had a gun pointed at my head and had you not shot him, he would have. It was self-defense, plain and simple.”

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