WINSLOW
The blood trail coating half of my face made opening both eyes almost impossible. With my hands bound behind my back, there was no way
to wipe my eyelid clean. Every blink was sticky. Every breath strained. Every step excruciating.
“Rain—”
“Shh.” She poked her knife at the gash in my head. The metal tip barely made contact with my flesh, but even the graze was enough to send me to the dirt.
The crack of my knees against the rocks rang through my bones like the vibration of a bell, but instead of a beautiful chime, it was agony. Sheer agony.
My head spun in a dizzy circle, like a spinning top the moment before it collapsed. Blackness tickled at the edges of my consciousness but I shoved it away, forcing a breath into my lungs. Breathe.
I’d had the wind knocked out of me countless times in physical training or karate. I’d strained muscles and earned thousands of bruises. But this was my first concussion. Each move was sluggish, and all I wanted was to sleep. Just for a minute.
I leaned forward, the ground beckoning, and twisted enough so that when I dropped, I hit my shoulder and not my face. Wrong move. The
second I crashed, pain ripped through my arm. Either my shoulder was dislocated or I had a fractured bone.
When I’d been unconscious, Rain had done something to my arm. Maybe, when she and Frank had been loading me in the Jeep, she’d dropped me. Maybe she’d stomped on me or used the meat mallet again. Something was definitely wrong because my muscles didn’t want to work right and any strength in my left hand was gone, stolen by the ache.
But before I could close my eyes and succumb to the dark, Rain’s knife was back, the tip digging into the smooth skin at my neck.
Pain had a way of cutting through the haze.
“Up.” She gripped my elbow and forced me to my feet. I swallowed the urge to puke as I stood. “Please.”
“Shh.” She shoved me up the trail. “Walk.”
One foot in front of the other, I rushed nothing. For every step, I took two breaths.
Think, Winn. My brain didn’t want to think. My brain wanted sleep.
Wake up. Fight. “Why are you doing this?” “Stop talking.”
“Rain, please.”
She lifted the knife to my head, to the place where the blood felt thickest. “Quiet.”
I clamped my mouth shut and nodded, taking another step. Up and up Indigo Ridge.
To the end.
Was this how Lily Green had died? Forced to make this miserable climb? Was this the path that Harmony Hardt had walked too? What about the others?
It hadn’t been suicide. I was right. All this time, my instincts had been pushing me to this conclusion. But those same instincts had failed me too.
They’d failed me for not suspecting Frank. For not seeing the monsters who’d lived next door.
Now it was too late.
The sky was the purest of navy blues above my head. The stars appeared to be dancing in a dizzy circle, but it was my fuzzy head playing tricks on me. The one spinning was me.
Rain had slammed that meat tenderizer into my skull and, in a blink, there’d only been black.
I hadn’t even raised an arm to block the strike. I’d be disappointed in myself later. If I survived this.
That had to have been hours ago. I’d woken in the back of her Jeep at the base of the ridge. When she’d waved a vial of smelling salts under my nostrils, only the faintest of golden glows had been left on the horizon. The light was nearly gone now. And there was just enough moonlight to see the narrow trail that loomed ahead.
Rain didn’t relent for a moment. She pushed me up that trail, step by step. My lungs were on fire and my legs burned. She breathed like she was lounging on a couch, not hiking to the apex of a cliff.
Rain. How had it come to this? Who was she? The pain in my heart made this all so much harder to believe.
“I thought you loved me,” I whispered.
“Loved you?” she scoffed. “Liked you. Yes. You go too far with using that word. You’re like my cheating husband. Always spouting words of love.”
“He loved them?”
“He was obsessed with them. Leaving them notes. Arranging their secret rendezvous. Even when he promised me he’d stop, he didn’t. So this is his punishment.”
“You could divorce him.”
“That’s too kind. Did you know this used to be one of his favorite hiking spots? He proposed to me here. Now he can hike this ridge and think about what he’s done. About what he’s made me do.”
“I never touched Frank.”
“No, you asked questions.” She shoved my elbow, nearly knocking me off-balance. “You should have let it go. They got what they deserved. So did he. And it could have ended there if you had done what everyone else in this goddamn town has done for years and believed what you were supposed to believe.”
That these girls, at least some of them, had killed themselves. And yes, everyone had simply believed.
“I told him to stop this.” Rain’s seething words seemed more for herself than for me. “I told him the last time had to be the last time or I’d bring him up here next.”
“If you want to take me to town and collect him instead, I won’t argue.” She laughed, the musical, sweet laugh that I’d known since childhood.
It sent a chill up my spine. “Keep going, Winnie.” “Rain, please.”
“Don’t beg. It doesn’t suit you.”
I gritted my teeth and took another step. Then another before I stopped.
Why was I making this easy on her? Screw this bitch. With a smirk at my lips, I dropped to my knees, the pain unbearable but I grunted through it. Then I shifted and sat on my ass.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking a breather.” I lifted one shoulder, stretching my neck in an attempt to wipe some of the blood off my face. It hurt like a mother, but when I straightened, there was a red smear on the strap of my white tank.
“Get up,” she barked.
“No, thanks. I’m good here.” My head throbbed, but my focus was sharpening. I let it wake me up. I let it push me to fight.
At the dojo where I’d trained in Bozeman, my senseis, Cole included, had always said the best way to learn was to face an opponent better than you. Rain was better positioned. She had the knife. I had a concussion.
But I couldn’t lose this fight. I couldn’t die on this ridge.
“Get. Up.” Rain kicked my ankle, the sole of her hiking boot scraping the skin raw.
I winced, took that pain and added it to the rest, embracing it as fuel. “No.”
“I will kill you here.”
“And drag me the rest of the way?” I huffed. “Even a rookie cop would be able to tell that my body was dragged. So unless you want everyone in the county to start asking the questions I’ve been asking for months about these alleged suicides, no, you won’t kill me here.”
The air was lodged in my lungs as I waited for her to respond. A bold move, asserting myself, but at this point, what did I have to lose?
Griffin.
I would lose Griffin.
Find me, Griff. When I didn’t show up for dinner, he would go looking, right? He’d find my car. He’d ask Pops. Hopefully they’d go to Frank’s place and see through that bastard’s bullshit.
Griffin had been right about Frank, and I’d been too clouded by family history to see the lies.
“Did you put Harmony’s purse and Lily’s wallet on the trail for Briggs to find?”
Rain kicked my hip and it took every ounce of my willpower not to cry out. “Get up.”
“Or maybe you put them out there for me to find, hoping that I’d think Briggs had killed them.” I shifted as I spoke so my body would shield my hands.
The dirt was like sandpaper against my fingertips as I clawed at the ground, searching for a sharp rock or edge that I might be able to use to break the zip tie at my wrists. Cops preferred cuffs because even behind the back, a person could break the ties. All you had to do was make some space and slam down hard. But I couldn’t lift my shoulder, not with enough strength to break the tie.
“It almost worked. I did suspect him.” “But you did nothing.”
“You didn’t leave me enough evidence,” I sneered, at her and the trail.
This spot where I’d plopped down was smooth.
“Up. Now.” Another kick. Another wince. But otherwise, I didn’t move. “Did you hit them over the head like you hit me? Was that how you got
them out here?” “Shut up.”
“I didn’t find any blood around Lily’s car. No signs of a struggle. What did you do? Trick her into thinking she was meeting Frank?”
Rain’s glare narrowed. “Stop. Asking. Questions.”
“That’s a yes,” I muttered. “Let me guess. You wrote a note—you said that’s how Frank contacted them.” Which was why I hadn’t found anything in Lily’s text and call history. “Lily came out to the country expecting Frank. Maybe you promised a little late-night stargazing. A romantic picnic and—”
“Shut up!” The knife’s blade glinted silver as it whipped out and slashed through my bicep.
My cry was swallowed up in the night. There was no one but her to see the tears, so I let them fall. Angry, desperate tears. But I would not be silenced. Not tonight.
“You hit them, like you hit me. That was why there weren’t any traces of drugs in their system.” Any injuries caused by her knife or a wound to the head like mine had been covered up by the sheer brutality of their
deaths. When all that remained of a person’s skull were fragments, piecing them together to see a prior injury was nearly impossible. “Did you make her walk up the trail too? When did she take off her boots?”
“Why do you care?”
“Tell me. Before we end this, the least you can do is give me the truth.” Her lip curled. “She kept slipping in those boots.”
“You should have left them on her feet.”
She nudged my tennis shoe. “I’ll fix that mistake with you.”
“Good luck,” I deadpanned. “No one will believe I committed suicide.” “You’ve had such a hard time, though, haven’t you? Struggling to fit in.
That awful breakup with your fiancé. The folks at the station have been unwelcome at best. You’re alone and rumor is that Griffin Eden is about to dump you too. He’s been in love with Emily Nelsen for years.”
I scoffed. “I hadn’t heard that one yet.” But I had no doubt that rumor had been started by Emily herself.
“Oh, I’ll concede that Emily is a fool, but she’s been after Griffin for a long, long time. There will be some people in town who’ll believe she’s finally caught his eye for good. Combine that with the tragic death of your parents, and it’s no wonder you’ve been so depressed.”
“It’s a stretch. Too big of a stretch.” “I’ve been stretching for years.”
I looked up and met her cunning gaze. “It didn’t work with me.” “Almost. It would have worked on Tom Smith.”
“But Tom Smith isn’t the chief.” I jutted out my chin. “I am. And I will see you rot in a prison cell for this. For those girls.”
However many she’d killed.
The knife shook in Rain’s hand. “I will kill you here. I will drag you if I must.”
“Fine.”
Her hand came to my hair, bunching it in her fist. True to her word, she began to drag. The pain was excruciating and I screamed again, the sound so raw and brutal it ripped through my throat just as a clump of hair tore loose.
“Stop.” Tears clouded my vision as my limbs shook. “I’ll walk.” That only made her pull harder.
“I’ll walk!”
It took Rain a moment to let go, and when her fingers peeled free from my hair, the relief drew another flood of tears.
I staggered to my feet, my head spinning worse than it had before. The trail was wider here than it was in most places but it was still narrow. Maybe she wouldn’t have to push me over the edge. Maybe the gash in my scalp and these unsteady feet would kill me for her.
God, if I did fall, I hoped Griffin wouldn’t find me. I didn’t want my broken body, my death, to haunt his nightmares.
“Move,” Rain commanded, the knife by her side. Its blade dripped with my blood.
I started the climb, glancing over my shoulder once. I could run. It wouldn’t be easy with my hands tied, but I could race her down this ridge. Maybe if I bought myself enough time, someone would come searching.
“You’ll never outrun me,” Rain said, reading my thoughts. She moved to stand behind me, blocking any attempt to escape. If I tried to bowl her over, I’d probably trip and roll down the trail.
Step by step, Rain urged me forward. Her knife bit into the small of my back when I didn’t move fast enough.
She’d have to cut my wrists free at some point, right? If she wanted this to look like a suicide, she couldn’t keep my hands bound. She must not have bound Lily’s at all because there’d been no tie marks.
The cuts on my wrists from the ties stung and throbbed. I’d pulled hard enough for them to dig in, just not break. It was a small comfort, knowing
that I’d fought enough for my corpse to raise more questions.
Maybe she’d climb down after pushing me off the cliff and cut the ties then.
Before. Please, let her cut them before.
That would be my only chance to fight. It wouldn’t be much of an opening, but it would likely be the only one.
The trail curved and with it my stomach twisted. The top was near. Except getting there was going to be a bit more difficult.
Griffin had blockaded the trail.
I laughed when I spotted the fence. It was tall and sturdy. The only way past was to climb over the top. When had he done this? If I survived this night, I’d kiss him for it. I’d kiss him for the rest of my life.
“What is this?” Rain spat the words as she took in the freshly dug fence posts and braces between them.
“A gift from Griffin.”
She studied it, looking it up and down. “Go.” “Where?”
“Over.” The knife jabbed my bicep. “Climb it.” “There’s barbed wire at the top.”
Rain didn’t give a shit if I cut myself to pieces, but she’d have to climb this too. She looked forward, then behind us. “Go. Up.”
I opened my mouth to refuse but past her shoulder a flicker of light broke through the night.
She followed my gaze, her own widening. “Help!” I screamed.
“Winslow!”
Briggs. He was coming this way from the trail that led to the cabin. The light must be a flashlight.
“Bri—”
“Shut up.” Rain lifted the knife to my throat. “Go. Down.”
I didn’t argue as she shoved me back the way we’d come. Down was a move in the right direction.
She pushed and pushed, so fast we were practically jogging. When we passed the place where the two trails merged, her knife stayed on my pulse, its blade slicing tiny cuts into my skin.
“Faster,” she hissed.
I searched frantically for Briggs’s light. It was on the trail, but he was still yards away. Too far to stop us as we passed.
He’d be chasing us down the mountain.
My knees ached as she pushed, and I braced each time my heel landed, worried the last shreds of my strength would unravel and I’d fall forward.
“Stop.” Rain’s hand wrapped around my elbow.
Her gaze whipped behind us, checking to see if we were alone.
So focused on jogging forward, I hadn’t kept track of where we were on the trail. The slope beside us was the steepest along this path except for the cliff itself. The face wasn’t a sheer wall of rock like it was at the top, but the vertical drop was enough to make my stomach plummet.
Bushes cluttered the slope, their leaves gray against the growing moonlight. They’d hurt but they probably wouldn’t kill me. No, it would be the rocks hiding beneath those shrubs that would break me.
Rain would push me over, then race to the bottom and disappear before Briggs or anyone else could catch her.
Her knife came to my side. She nudged my arm, sending another wave of searing pain through my body as she eased in close, her voice a whisper in my ear. “Think you’ll fly, little bird?”
“Fuck you,” I whimpered.
“Let’s find out.” Her knife left my side and her free hand pressed between my shoulder blades, ready to shove. She was fast.
But I was ready.
Summoning every ounce of my strength, I twisted away, my feet sliding on the dirt path. My arms were heavy and my legs tired, but I managed to kick at the back of her knee, forcing her off-balance.
“Goddamn you,” she shouted.
But I was already moving, stumbling to my feet and pushing my legs to run.
“I will catch you,” she threatened, the sound of her footsteps close behind. Her hand reached out and brushed my hair.
I slipped, skidding more than running, but the momentum was in the right direction as I rounded a slight curve.
A new light flickered in the distance. Headlights.
I pushed faster. Harder. If I could just get to the bottom, Briggs would— Rain’s hand clamped on my scalp. One of her fingers slid into the sticky, slick gash above my temple, and the pain was so blinding there
wasn’t anything to do but slow.
And fight.
I whirled on her, my knee raised. Years of training came to my rescue.
My kick snapped fast, right into her stomach.
I wasn’t dying today. I had things to live for. I had to move into Griffin’s house. I had to learn how to ride Jupiter. I had to spend more sunsets in his rocking chair and nights curled in his bed.
Rain grunted but kept her balance. She swung out with the knife, slicing toward my belly.
I dodged, barely, my footing unsteady. My second attempt at a kick missed her hip by inches.
And when she swept the knife again, her strike was true. Agony erupted through my stomach. Red seeped through my shirt, hot and wet.
“Winn.” Griffin’s voice sang through my mind.
“No.” Rain stabbed again, the blade sinking into my side. I gasped, the pain blending with the rest.
She took my wrist and pulled, hard, dragging me past her body in an attempt to fling me over the edge.
I dropped to a knee, my skin tearing against a rock. “Winn!”
Griff’s voice rang through my mind again. Or maybe it was Briggs. Rain’s gaze flickered over my head to the base of the trail.
I followed her eyes, twisting as best I could. The headlights. The voice.
He was here.
Fight. I gritted my teeth, squaring my shoulders and planting my toes beneath me. Then I shot forward, like a spring, and slammed my shoulder into her ankles.
Rain stumbled.
And then it was her time to fly.
Over the edge. Her screams dying at the first clash with a rock.
Then there was silence. Sweet silence as I collapsed onto the ground, tilting my gaze to those swirling stars.
“Winn.” Griffin’s voice came louder and louder, then he was there, picking me up.
“You found me,” I whispered.
He shifted, digging into his jeans for a pocket knife. One flick and the tie at my wrists was gone.
I tried to lift an arm to touch his cheek but I didn’t have the strength. “Winn. Baby. Stand up. We need to get you to a hospital.”
I sagged against him as his arm wrapped beneath my shoulders.
“Oh, fuck.” His hand pressed into the wounds on my stomach. “Okay, I’m going to carry you.”
He made the move to stand and the pain that lanced through my body conjured one more scream.
“Fuck. This will hurt. You have to stick it out for me, okay?” He looked up the trail. “Briggs!”
“Coming!”
“Hurry!”
Briggs could hurry. Griffin could run. But I wouldn’t make it. He might carry me down this mountain and drive into town, but Rain had won.
There were words to say. Apologies to make. Promises to ask him to make. But in the end, I had no time.
“I love you.”
“No, Winn. Don’t say it.” He shook me as he stood. His boots began pounding down the trail. “Stay awake.”
“Say it back. Just once so I can hear it.” “No.”
“Griffin.” My voice cracked. “Please.”
He didn’t slow. “I love you. Fuck, but I love you.” “Thank you.”
Then I let out one more breath. And the stars vanished.
