Page 99 of When It Reins
“Well, let’s just start driving. We’ll have Thea check the restaurant. We’ll call the ranch and see if she showed up there, and send someone up to your property,” Stetson offers, shrugging his shoulders. “We’ll check everywhere.”
Weariness threatens to drag me under, but I push through, knowing that if I just give up, something worse than death could be headed straight for Juniper. “If her car is here, then she’s with him, Stets. She’s not just walking to work or the ranch or wherever.”
“I know. It’s just…” Stetson sighs, pulling his ball cap off and running his hands through his hair roughly. “I just want to help you find her, man.”
“I know.” I nod my head, biting my lip hard. Where the fuck would he take her?
He is wanted in this town. The sheriff has been notified that Aaron is the one who blew up my cabin, that he is the one who tried to take Juniper out, and that we are all looking for him. Wondering when he is going to show up.
So…he would leave. He would take the most direct route out of town and make a break for it.
“We need to go,” I say, marching out of the apartment and down the stairs. CT hangs up his phone when he sees us.
“Logan is driving this way. He was heading down the mountain to take Lue to something and turned around.”
I nod as we hop in the truck, and my leg moves restlessly. I think about every place he could take her. There are too many options if he wants to hide. If he were smart, he would have a place ready for them, some place secluded that no one knows about.
But judging by the way things have been going with him, how careless he’s been with his actions, I am guessing he didn’t think that far ahead.
As a matter of fact, I am certain his plan hadn’t involved taking Juniper at all.
It was his Hail Mary. His only card he had left to play to feel any kind of redemption for losing what he had. I am ready to show him what losing really feels like.
“Logan’s calling,” CT says, pressing the button on the screen of his truck to answer. “Hey. We’re just past?—”
“CT.” The graveness of Logan’s voice has my heart stopping cold. The pit of my stomach falls, and I already know what he’s going to say.
“You found her.”
48
mitch
The scene issomething my worst nightmares couldn’t have conjured.
CT drove as fast as he could. All the while, my brothers stayed silent in the back seat, and my heart was lodged in my throat.
“The car went off the side of the road. The front end is completely smashed. I’m going to try to get down there and see…”
My big brother’s words were haunting my every thought. The front end was smashed. They went off the road on a mountain highway. There are only two options when that happens. Either you hit the mountain, or you fall off of it.
I jump out of the truck, ignoring the new falling rain that is pelting my face, and rush to the car that I can barely see the brake lights of. Logan is sliding down the side, but I am quicker and more careless given the circumstances.
“Juniper!” I scream her name, the energy that is pulsing through me needing an outlet, and I beg silently to hear her call back.
The bank is already slippery with wet grass as I slide down, my brother grabbing my arm and holding me before I can get too far.
“Mitch, stop. You don’t want to see this.”
His voice has my eyes shooting back to his, and I see the graveness in his gaze. “You think she’s dead. She’s not dead!”
“Mitch.” His voice is stern, but I am angry. So angry that I can’t possibly listen to what he is saying to me.
“Starling!” My voice echoes around the empty mountain. The rain falls harder, making it nearly impossible to see. I yank out of my brother’s hands and slide down to where the car is lodged against a rock.
Glancing inside, it is probably a blessing in disguise that I can’t see well, given the rain. I see Aaron’s head slumped against the steering wheel, not moving.
Then I see Juniper. She is curled up halfway on the floor of the car, her body bent sideways. My heart falls, and the tears I tried to hold back escape, a ragged sob escaping me at the sight of her body.
