Page 53 of Begin Again
“After I got mad when he scratched it up, he started swapping it out with a silicone band,” I say.
“Sounds more like a classic getaway, if you ask me.” Wilson chuckles.
“Well nobody asked you.” My words are laced with enough venom to drop an elephant if I choose to strike, but Beau steps in front of me, shielding the other sheriff.
“Nina,” he warns, pushing me back a few paces. “Keep your thoughts to yourself, huh? This isn’t just you and me talking. This is a different ballgame now.” I refuse to answer, but I know he’s right. I can’t lose my cool. If I want to find Nick, I need to keep it together, but as soon as we do, all bets are off. “So, no wallet, right?” Beau asks, turning back to Wilson who shakes his head. “Thank God,” Beau says, earning a confused look from me. What does that mean? “Look, if Nick has his wallet and ends up in a hospital or something, they can identify him.”
The older sheriff looks out over the tree line across the road. “Or if someone finds him on the—”
His words falter when Beau shoots him a glare that saysShut up. Like I don’t already know what Sheriff Wilson is thinking. It’s been a week, and assuming the weather hasn’t been the best, someone is more likely to find Nick’sremainson the trail. And if he happens to have his wallet on him, we won’t have to rely on physical appearance, or what’s left of it, to identify him.
“How soon can we organize a search of the area?” Beau asks.
“I’ll make a few calls,” Sheriff Wilson says, returning to his truck. “I can probably get everyone out here first thing in the morning. Gonna have to call State now that it’s crossing county lines.”
“I called them already, got ahold of Warren.”
“Just what we want. State breathing down our necks.”
Beau shares a knowing chuckle with his counterpart before he looks at me. “Stay put, I’m gonna make a few calls, too.”
A bird calls from somewhere up the mountain, catching my attention. Another squawks in reply before a black cloud swarms the sky as the flock takes flight from the trees. I watch them until a small movement below catches in my peripheral. My gaze sweeps across the tree line, following the dirt path through the overgrown field and a small opening in the tree line, but I don’t see anything. There’s absolutely no movement, everything is deadly still, which seems…odd. Come to think of it, there hasn’t been much movement or even the normal sounds of nature the entire time I’ve been here. Those birds are the first sign of life I’ve noticed all day. The wilderness calls to me like a siren song, but something tells me not to go. And this time, I heed the warning.
A touch on my shoulder sends me five feet in the air, my fist poised and ready, but I stop when I realize who it is.
“Whoa, there!” Beau puts his hands up. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Sorry! Sorry, I was just—Sorry.”
Sheriff Wilson rejoins us. “Alright, folks, we’re all set to start first thing in the morning. Turner, I assumed you’d want to be here, too, so I told the guys we’d have some extra hands in the field.”
“You’ll have me and as many deputies as I can spare,” Beau confirms.
“And me,” I say.
Wilson looks between me and Beau before a smile creeps up on his face. He rubs at his stubbled jaw. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, Mrs. Villa, but we don’t need you out there getting hurt and causin’ any—”
“I said, I’ll be here. I’ve been on every one of the searches up until now and that’s not going to change because we’re inPuckCounty.”
“That’s right, you are in Puck County, and I don’t know what kind of show y’all run over in Spruce, but we don’t let civilians run the roost around here.”
“Alright,” Beau says, stepping between us. “You both can put the rulers away. Rhett, if Nina wants to come along on the search, she can stick with me. That’s worked out fine the past few days anyway. And Nin”—Beau turns to me with a tight-lipped smile—“just try to behave, okay? We’re making progress. It may not seem like it, but this is good. We’re one step closer to finding him.”
This may be one step closer to finding him, but in what capacity?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
April 2028
“IS THIS PUNISHMENT FOR working too much? For goingbackto work?” I look up at the bathroom ceiling, clutching the edges of the bathtub. It has been four days since the discovery of the Jeep at Mount Achor trailhead and we’ve had three full days of search activity on the mountain. But tonight, a combined decision was made between Sheriff Wilson and Sergeant James Warren, the leading State detective, to end all search efforts. Beau tried to convince them to give it one more day, but they couldn’t be swayed. Even if they were giving up…I wasn’t.
I’ve already decided to ask Beau for his help tomorrow. First, we both need a shower and some sleep—two things we haven’t gotten much of in the last few days.
Stepping into the house earlier, I dragged my tired and sore body to my bedroom without a word to the others. I stripped out of the clothes caked in sweat, blood, and dirt from hours on the mountain and climbed into the bathtub. The hot water felt amazing against my muscles, and I wondered why I hadn’t done this sooner.
Most of the guys from Alex’s bachelor party have left already. Cole, Jeremy, and Elijah left yesterday morning. Dean left last night when we returned from Achor, apologizing profusely the whole way out the door I pushed him out of. I appreciated theirhelp but having that many people under one roof was enough to drive me insane. The family alone was enough to send me into a spiral half the time. Nick would have loved it. He always loved having everyone together. His dad says Nick is like his mom in that way. Don’t get me wrong, I love our family, but sometimes they can be…a lot.
“He isn’t gone,” I say to the empty room, but I’m not sure who I’m trying to convince with my words—me or the big guy upstairs. “So, why can’t I find him?”
