Page 95 of To the Grave

I stared at it. “You have agunin the house?”

“More than one, but we should probably talk about that later.” He looked at Ruth. “Were you followed?”

“I didn’t think so,” she said. “But… it’s so dark out there and I… I was so scared.”

Otis went to the window and pulled back the curtains. “Fuck.”

I stood. “What?”

“Three cars just pulled up outside. Looks like six guys, but hard to say with this fucking storm.”

“There’s something else,” Ruth said, grabbing my hand. “Something I haven’t told you.”

My heart was beating like a war drum in my chest, panic clawing at my chest. “What is it, Ruth? Come on!”

“The guy I was seeing…” She hesitated. “It was your boss.”

I blinked, confused. “Piers?”

She shook her head. “His son. Gray.”

Chapter 69

Otis

Iwalked to the mantel clock I’d finally fixed and turned it around, then yanked the handgun free of the tape I’d used to secure it to the back of the clock. When I turned around, Daisy was staring at me with a mixture of panic and shock.

“We’re here to protect you. Did you think we wouldn’t be prepared?” I didn’t wait for her to answer. This wasn’t exactly the time for conversation. I crossed the room and put the gun in her hand. “Take it upstairs and hide. Don’t come out until I tell you to.”

She looked down at the gun in her hand. “I don’t… I don’t know how to use this.”

Her hands had started shaking and I closed one hand around her wrist. “This is the safety. Take it off like this.” I flipped the safety. “Then use your finger to squeeze the trigger. Nice and easy.”

“I don’t think I can do this.” There was panic in her voice. “I can’t leave you down here alone.”

There was a thud at the front of the house, breaking glass in the kitchen. We were out of time.

I looked into her eyes. “You can. Now get the fuck upstairs.”

It was Ruth who got Daisy moving, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the stairs.

Daisy’s eyes met mine and I knew this was love, this feeling that I’d do anything — give anything, even my life — to protect her. I saw it in her eyes too. For maybe the first time in my whole fucking life I knew for sure what someone else was feeling.

Love. For me.

She disappeared up the stairs and I moved out of the living room, toward the dark kitchen.

Chapter 70

Wolf

Iwas driving too fast for the weather, rocketing through the darkness, rain covering the windshield faster than the wipers could clear it. There were moments when I couldn’t see a thing, when I was driving on nothing but a hope and a prayer, hoping that in the seconds when the windshield was wiped clean I wouldn’t be staring at a brick wall or an oncoming semi-truck.

The road was slippery in places, the temperatures plummeting in the night, creating treacherous icy patches that would have slowed me down in any other situation. Now all I could think about was Daisy, alone with Otis at the house, Piers Cantwell clearly playing some kind of fucking game.

Because it wasn’t an accident that he was back in Blackwell Falls. It couldn’t be. And it wasn’t a coincidence that he was building a resort there, that he’d hired Daisy — Nory’s daughter — to work for him.

I kept seeing the yearbook picture, the one where Mac and Nory had looked so happy, a universe of two, while Arlo and Michael looked on, both outsiders.

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