Page 134 of Swept for Forever

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Five minutes later, both our phones lit up, beeping in perfect sync.

Noah looked over. I was already checking mine.

We had identical alerts, missed calls, and a flurry of texts. From Claire and Maya.

Autumn’s gone. She left without saying anything and took Noah’s truck. Call me. Now.

“Fuck!”

We sprinted the rest of the way back to the trailhead.

My truck sat where I’d left it. I pressed the unlock button even before we got there.

I reached the truck first and froze.

There was scuffed dirt along the driver’s side—fresh and smeared in a pattern I didn’t recognize. It was not mine.

I climbed in fast, my eyes scanning the cab. Nothing looked out of place. There was no broken glass and no torn upholstery. Everything was exactly where I’d left it.

Except…

“My coin,” I muttered, looking around the dash and floor.

It was gone.

Noah ducked his head in, checking the door frame. “Noforced entry. No scratch marks. Whoever it was? They knew how to get in clean.”

I stared at the empty dash. “It was just a fucking coin.”

Noah’s tone dropped. “Not to you. And not to them either, not if they took it.”

They watched us. They knew what mattered, and they used it.

“We need to get back to The Lazy Moose,” he said.

“I swear,” I muttered, firing up the engine, “if they laid a hand on her?—”

The rest didn’t need saying.

I wasn’t the courtroom man anymore.

I was hers.

And someone just made the worst mistake of their life.

37

AUTUMN

The coordinates led me to a side road just outside Buffaloberry Hill. It was barely a shoulder, with no signage. It was the kind of place no one would drive past unless they had a reason.

I parked the truck and waited. Every second, my skin tightened.

And then, they stepped out.

It was not Stiff-Neck but two men. The first one only looked short because the other one was huge.

That behemoth, I recognized him. Pickle. The coffee-fetching, definitely-not-an-intern bouncer.

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