Page 127 of Scent of Home

“Help!” I shout.

The doctor is beside us in a second. “Exhaustion, hypothermia, pick him up and bring him to the hotel. Hurry!”

I pick up my beta and, naked as the day I was born, carry him down the street.

I glance around for Erin, but I don’t call out for her. I don’t want anyone to see what she’s doing.

The walk to the hotel takes forever, and I’ve got my teeth clenched so hard they’re threatening to break. My muscles are screaming, but Finn is safe. I move into the warm hotel air, leaning heavily against the wall, while Doctor James checks Finn and Locke. Betsy rushes to get a room ready.

And then we’re in a cherry-coloured room, laying them down on the beds. They are too pale, too still. Fear wraps itself around me, squeezing my throat closed. Holding me immobile.

“What do we do?” I whisper.

Shane grips my stiff fingers, the scent of pine easing the panic only a fraction.

“We do whatever needs to be done.”

Chapter thirty-nine

Erin

“How far are yougoing to go, Erin? What are you prepared to do?”

The questions keep replaying in my head, over and over. Delilah stares up at me through the water. I don’t see her.

I see Locke, frantic against the bedroom wall. I see him crying and begging me to save him. Locke throwing himself over a bridge and into icy water.

My patience wears thin as I wait until there’s no chance she can come back. Until it’s just me in the dark with a corpse.

“Now, you’ll never hurt him again,” I say to her. “He was never yours. He was always mine, and no one hurts what’s mine.”

I turn towards town.

While we searched, I’d put a few things together in my head. A couple of vital clues that I’d missed. My blood simmers with such a deep rage that I’ve gone cold.

My feet are freezing, and the bottom of my dress is muddy and wet, but I don’t let it stop me.

I make it back to town and head for the hotel. I slip inside and immediately get grabbed by Alma and Eustice.

“Oh, it’s just terrible, terrible. You’ll want to see him. He’s in room 12. Just head up there, now.”

“Give those poor boys big kisses from us.”

“I need something else first,” I say and try to put some warmth in my voice.

“Oh, what do you need?”

“I need to see the sign-in book for the hotel.”

Alma frowns and exchanges a look with Eustice.

The younger woman walks around the desk, grabs a big, thick book, and puts it in front of me. I open it and start from the back.

I flip through the pages, dismissing names until I find the one that stands out in that it’s perfectly ordinary in every single way.

Room 9. Paige Wiles.

“Thank you, ladies. Can you keep everyone down here?”

---