“Mm-hm.”
The water began bubbling over in the pot behind me, so I took the distraction as an opportunity to gather my thoughts. We never considered the Grangers as suspects in the missing girls cases. Although, for some reason, they became closely intertwined with the Quarters around that time, who were everyone’s first thought when the girls went missing.
Had I been wrong about them all along?
Tabitha had been helping me try to track Rayner down since everything happened in the woods. Was that just a distraction? Had I been working with the devil this whole time?
Blaire’s calm voice slammed the brakes on the wheels turning in my head.
“I wasn’t involved in their disappearances. But they won’t stop talking about them.”
I slowly turned to face her. “Who won’t?”
I began assessing her physical appearance before even realizing it. Maybe she was just high and rambling. Maybe she really was as crazy as everyone said. She didn't seem bothered by my examination, either.
Her braid had been secured with the black hair tie she was wearing around her wrist, so her hands sat awkwardly in front of her, as if she didn't know what to do with them.
A slender finger traced circles on the countertop when she explained, “The girls. Most of them want to be found so their families can heal.”
“You aren't making any sense. What girls? The ones who have gone missing?”
The timer I set for the boiling noodles went off. Reluctantly, I turned away from her once again to strain them. I made quick work of adding the extras in and fixing her a large bowl, realizing that I needed her to sober up if she was going to start explaining herself more clearly.
“I think I can help you. I don't want to, but they aren't leaving me alone, and I want so desperately for them to go away.”
She raised those ethereal eyes to meet mine, and they glowed so bright they practically lit up the kitchen. Once again, she showed me a side of her that no one else in Beacon Grove bothered to look at. One that reached its hand out and drew me into her.
“How do you think you can help?” I whispered.
All my reservations about her disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
What is she doing to me?
Something shifted in her. I could practically see the walls rising back up around her. I watched her expression harden as she shook her head and then turned away from me, giving me the side of her face. Those long lashes fluttered down like a shield as her chest slowly rose and fell while she recovered from whatever had just happened.
“I have to go.”
“What? Why?”
She ignored me and started for the door with a small frown, as if I hadn’t even spoken.
“Thank you for the food. And the talk.”
I watched in stunned silence as she dragged her feet toward the door, slipping through it without bothering to look back.