Page 178 of Heresy

My father huffs out a breath. “I know he did. Because I have video of him doing it.”

Video? I shake my head because despite how I try to wrap my mind around it, I still can’t believe it.

Or maybe I can.

Shane warned me he wasn’t a good guy.

Is this what he meant?

It seems like every answer I get only leads to more questions.

I change the topic again because I can’t stop digging for more information. “Where are we? Is this the safe house you told me about years ago?”

Crossing the room to look out a window, I pull a curtain aside. There’s nothing out there but fields as far as the eye can see. That and an old, lonesome tire swing hanging on a tree branch. I follow the rope all the way up to see it’s frayed where it scrapes across the rough bark. Maybe three threads are left holding it on there.

“Your mother loved that swing,” Dad says from behind me, his voice tender and calm like I remember it.

Maybe I was right about him keeping her old house. It gives me hope that Taylor was able to track that information down.

“This is Mom’s place from when she first moved here, right?”

“It is,” he admits, a long, tired breath leaking out of him.

Silence falls like a heavy blanket between us. But then my father speaks again, as if his mind is chasing a memory.

“She had two houses before I met her. One she rented for a while and the other she bought after working for a year. The one she bought was eventually sold when we got married. From what I know, it’s been torn down since. But it was this house she loved the most. I should have demanded they sell it to me before she died so I could give it to her. But life didn’t work out that way.”

His memory jogs my own, and that one thought I couldn’t quite reach about my mom when I spoke to Taylor finally comes to me as a whisper of her voice.

It’s not what you own that makes you happy in life, Brin. Sometimes, it’s found in the places, people and other things that you only get to keep for a season. They were never meant to be yours, but that’s what makes them so special. Because when they’re gone, you understand that true happiness isn’t found in what you get to keep forever. No. It’s in the moments that are so fleeting you can’t believe you were lucky enough to have experienced them at all.

Mom had told me that on a hot summer day, my little eyes tear soaked and red because my dog had passed away.

She’d gone on to tell me about this house, how despite getting married and having me after leaving it, she missed the quiet moments spent on its front porch. About a tire swing she would watch softly swaying in the breeze.

My mother, in turn, was nothing more than a fleeting moment. I certainly didn’t get to keep her for long. And when I think what my life has been until recently, I realize the most happiness I’ve had is in my memories of her.

It worries me that Shane will become another happy memory, one so quick and fleeting that I didn’t realize what I had until it was gone.

Scott’s voice drags me back to the present, and I abandon the swing to look at him.

“You’re lucky we found you. I’m still pissed that you ran back to those guys after I picked you up from the auto shop. I swear, you’re as dumb as my sister. I should have locked both of you up as soon as I had my hands on you so neither of you could go back to them.”

That’s new.

I recall Jase losing his shit over Everly, but the conversation never got around to why.

“How did you find me, and what do you mean both of us?”

Dragging a wooden chair away from where it’s tucked at a small breakfast table, Scott takes a seat, kicks his feet out in front of him then crosses one ankle over the other.

“Your boyfriend drives a rare car. Very rare. It wasn’t hard putting out feelers when I suspected he was driving down to Georgia. I have a lot of friends here, Brinley. I grew up in this state. A lot of them are law enforcement now. As soon as he was spotted crossing the state line, he was trailed straight to the hotel.”

That explains that, but I won’t let go of the other question. “What did you mean by both of us?”

“I was getting to that.”

Okay, I think. Get faster.

---