Page 34 of Saving it with My Best Friend's Brother

In the hallway, Amelia clutched the letters to her chest like a shield. “We need to get these somewhere secure.”

“My place,” I decided. “They won’t expect that.”

She nodded, then surprised me by stepping into my arms. I held her close, breathing in her familiar scent, feeling her heart race against my chest.

“I’m scared,” she whispered.

“I know.” I pressed a kiss to her hair. “But we’re close to something. They wouldn’t be this desperate if we weren’t.”

Her phone buzzed. Another text, but this time with a video attachment. Security footage from the hospital parking lot showed us arriving earlier, our every move tracked.

The message read:Found what we needed. Check your car.

We raced to the parking lot. Under my windshield wiper sat an envelope identical to the one delivered at Pine Haven. Inside, another cut-and-paste message:Nice try with the festival. But we’re done playing games. Those letters won’t save you. Nothing will.

Ask Hunter about October 15th, the night his father died. Ask him what happened to the brake lines.

You have until midnight to cancel everything. Or we take away the things you love.

One.

By.

One.

Below the message was a photo I’d never wanted to see again—my father’s car, wrapped around a tree. And in the background, barely visible, a figure I recognized.

Me.

Amelia’s sharp intake of breath told me she saw it, too. Her hand tightened on mine, but I felt a slight tremor in her fingers.

“Hunter?” Her voice shook. “What aren’t you telling me?”

The answer stuck in my throat. The truth about that night—a truth I’d buried so deep I’d almost convinced myself it wasn’t real—could destroy everything we’d built.

The trust in her eyes, the way she’d kissed me on the deck, how she’d let me hold her through all of this... it could all vanish with one explanation.

This photo brought it all back. The rain that night. The sound of squealing brakes. My father’s voice on the phone telling me to meet him that he’d discovered something about Crystal Ridge. Something that would change everything.

I’d arrived too late.

Or so I’d let everyone believe.

The truth was worse. Much worse.

And Crystal Ridge knew it.

They’d been waiting for this moment to use my past to destroy my future. To destroy Amelia’s trust in me just when she needed it most.

The distant sound of a car door slamming made us both jump. We were too exposed here in the parking lot, too vulnerable.

But the real threat wasn’t from Crystal Ridge anymore.

It was from the secrets I’d kept, even from myself.

And now they were coming for everything I loved.

Chapter Nine

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