When she got into the house, she ran up the stairs to avoid running into Hugh. She closed the door to her bedroom, turned off all the lights, and got under the covers. Emery held the covers tightly around her, hoping that cocooning herself in them would take her troubles away. She felt the anxiety inching its way back up her throat.

  What was happening to her?

  There were too many questions, too many pieces that she couldn’t fit together. She needed to know more, needed to find everything that was missing. All she had right now were theories, doubts, and Matt’s dumb conspiracies.

  Whatever was going on, she couldn’t talk to Grayson about it. She couldn’t even mention her suspicions until she knew for sure what the hell was going on.

  A knock sounded on the door and she jumped involuntarily in the covers.

  Grayson opened the door and stood in the doorway. “Em...? I tried calling you. Hugh said you ran up to your room. What happened?” Grayson came in and crouched in front of her by the bedside.

  She stared at him as she laid down, determined to act as normal as possible. “They’re never gonna find them,” she whispered.

  “Find who?” he asked as he brushed her hair out of her face.

  “The person who killed my family. They said they’d never find them—that it is a lost cause—that I should give up. Now, I have to live with that.” Emery felt tears prickling the backs of her eyes for the first time in months, but she couldn’t give into them. Not now. She had to get to the bottom of this and if she started crying now, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever find the strength to stop.

  Grayson didn’t say anything as he took his shoes off and climbed in bed behind her. He held her up against his body and Emery could feel his warmth. Emery knew that Grayson could potentially still be hiding something from her, but despite everything she was thinking, she still needed him.

  She was so tired. So unbelievably exhausted.

  Grayson stayed with her for what seemed like hours. He played with her hair, rubbed her back, kissed the top of her head. All the while, Emery looked up to her mother’s painting and reread the quote over and over again, pushing back the tears, and trying to sleep—if only for a little while.

  Chapter 31

  Emery woke to an empty room. She sat up suddenly and looked around for Grayson. He wasn’t there. So, she pulled back her curtains to look outside. It was dark. She wasn’t sure how long she had slept, but it was definitely longer than it felt.

  She tried calling Grayson, but he didn’t answer. Emery knew she could just leave him alone until tomorrow, but she needed to see him. It didn’t matter what theories and doubts she had in her mind, she didn’t have any evidence against him. She loved him and she couldn’t just let Matt’s words drive a wedge between them.

  Emery hurried down the stairs, grabbing her coat along the way. She took her keys and got into her car, driving quickly to Grayson’s house.

  When she got there, the front door was unlocked. “Grayson?” she called.

  With no answer, she continued to search the house. It didn’t seem like anyone was home. Until she heard Grayson cry out.

  She ran to the back door and saw Eric standing in the doorframe, watching as he took a swig of his beer. Outside, there was what appeared to be a small bonfire. Grayson was shouting as he threw his wooden figurines into the fire.

  “I bet he told you he was okay, didn’t he?” Eric said, flames dancing in his eyes as he took another drink, never once looking at Emery.

  Emery was disgusted with him. She pushed past him quickly, running to Grayson’s side. He was about to throw another armful of figurines into the fire until Emery pushed him gently away. She grabbed his arms, forcing him to drop the wooden carving into the grass. Grayson was sobbing, tears streaming steadily down his cheeks. It broke Emery’s heart.

  She threw her arms around him, squeezing him, letting him know that she was there. He was shaking violently and it scared Emery to death. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” she whispered soothingly into his ear. She ran her fingers through his hair as he sobbed.

  “I wanted... to be strong... for you.” Grayson could hardly get the words out of his mouth as he cried. “I wanted to be strong.”

  Nearly two hours later, Emery finished extinguishing the fire in the backyard. She had helped Grayson to bed an hour earlier, kissing him goodnight and praying that he would be okay in the morning. This outbreak scared Emery. It scared her more than the thought that Eric had something to do with the accident.

  Emery watched the last of the embers fizzle out as she kicked around in the ashes. None of the figurines that Grayson threw in the fire were salvageable. She sighed and picked up the ones that she made him drop in the grass. She carefully took each one and lined them back up on the shelves.

  Inside the shed, she saw just how much Grayson had destroyed. Almost everything was gone. Including the carving of the hooded boy.

  She left the shed feeling defeated. She thought about how long he had been out there before she came to find him. She also thought about how long Eric had stood watching Grayson burn everything he had ever cared about without Eric doing a thing about it.

  Emery thought about Eric for a long time before deciding something.

  Officer Frank was wrong. Finding the person who killed her family wasn’t a lost cause, and Emery was going to find the son of a bitch who did it.

  Café Rev was packed for a Saturday night. Emery didn’t care, though. She needed to sort out her thoughts and Zoe promised that she’d be there soon. Emery had bought a coffee for her and for Zoe, but she couldn’t even stomach a sip of her own. At least it helped her to blend in, though.

  The door dinged as a customer walked into the café. Emery turned in her chair to see Zoe walking up to her. Zoe’s hair was pinned into a neat bun on top of her head and she was wearing gray scrubs.

  “So, I actually got lucky,” Zoe started as she sat down across from Emery. “They let me off early because we were so quiet, which is ridiculous for a Saturday night. What’s up? You said you wanted to talk?”

  Emery handed Zoe the coffee and Zoe thanked her as she took a huge swig. “I forgot you were working at the hospital,” Emery said, ignoring Zoe’s questions. “What do they have you doing?”

  “Oh, you know, basic stuff. Fetching coffees, data entry, that kind of thing. I think I can actually type faster than I text now if you can believe that,” Zoe laughed. “But enough about me. What’s up? Your texts were a little... weird.”

  “Zoe, I think I’m going crazy,” Emery said. She was trying hard to hide her anxiety and her nerves, but she knew she wasn’t successful. Emery started at the beginning and told Zoe everything from Grayson hiding Eric to the day that Grayson’s mom died. She made sure to emphasize how creepy Eric was being and how he just stared at her.

  “Grayson just freaked out,” Emery continued, talking about what had happened that night. “He looked like he wanted to burn the whole place down. He scared the hell out of me.”

  “You said his mom died, right? He’s still grieving, Em. Just like you,” Zoe said as she reached across the table to hold her friend’s hand.

  Emery squeezed Zoe’s hand and kept going. “I don’t know. Everything that Matt said just keeps repeating in my mind. It’s making me go crazy.”

  Zoe shook her head. “Matt doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Grayson is a great guy, Em. He makes you so happy.” Zoe paused for a long time. “But I will admit, Eric is freaking creepy. Something is off about everything dealing with that guy. You need to be careful around him. Just in case.”

  Emery nodded. She wasn’t going crazy, after all. Even Zoe thought Eric had something to hide. Emery just needed to find out what that something was.

  Chapter 32

  Emery was making a pot of coffee the next morning when she heard someone knock on the door. It was barely even eight o’clock and Hugh was still asleep, so she had no idea who it could be that early on a Sunday morning.

  When she opened the door, she saw Matt standing at the doorstep looking frantic. Emery quickly looked over her shoulders, scared that Hugh might walk by at any moment. She took a step out of the house and closed the door behind her.

  Emery crossed her arms and shivered. The wind blew coldly around her and she wrapped her robe tighter around her body. “Matt, what the hell are you doing here?”

  “Is he here? Is he here with you?” Matt said. His eyes were bloodshot as if he hadn’t slept in days.

  “My uncle?” she asked, confused.

  “No!” Matt said impatiently. “Grayson. Is he here?”

  Emery stepped back closer to the front door, away from Matt. “Matt that’s none of your business,” she said even though Grayson wasn’t in the house. She reached for the door handle, but Matt grabbed her wrist.

  “Please, just listen to me!” Matt shouted. “They showed on the news this morning a jeep being pulled out of the river a couple miles from where the accident happened. It was reported stolen four months ago on the same day as the accident. It is his jeep, Em.”

  Emery could feel her face drop. Her heart felt like Matt had just ripped it out of her chest. “What are you saying?” she whispered.

  “Em, don’t you see? He must have pushed it into the river after he hit your car.” Matt sounded hysterical.

  “Matt, listen to yourself! You sound insane. I don’t want to listen to your conspiracy theories anymore.” Emery shoved Matt away from her, hard. She was terrified. She was so afraid, and she knew she had said that she wanted to know the truth, but now, she wasn’t so sure. “I don’t wanna ever see you come here again. I swear, Matt, if I do—”

  “What if he’s dangerous?” Matt asked, reaching for her hand.

  Emery pulled away from him, opening the front door. “Stay away from me. Stay away from Grayson, too.”

  Emery squeezed in through the front door and locked it behind her, sliding to the floor. She leaned up against the door, putting her head in her hands. Her breathing was completely uneven and she couldn’t even say how fast her heart was beating.

  Matt didn’t know anything. He didn’t know Grayson and he didn’t know what he was talking about. The only problem was, Emery wasn’t even sure what she believed anymore. She knew he was telling the truth about the jeep—about when it was reported stolen—he wouldn’t lie about something like that. He was drastically wrong about one thing, though: the jeep wasn’t Grayson’s.

  It was Eric’s.

  Emery had to go to him. She had to go see Grayson. She couldn’t stop herself from seeing him after what Matt had just said. Not to mention the way Grayson had acted the night before still scared Emery to death. She needed to check on him, to make sure he was okay, but she also needed answers.

  When she got to Grayson’s house, she reached out and turned the doorknob. The front door was still unlocked from the night before, which made Emery grateful in an odd way. She didn’t want to have to knock and hope that it wasn’t Eric who answered.

  Inside, it was pitch black. Barely any light came out from behind all of the drawn curtains. Emery had to reach her hands out in front of her as she walked to make sure she didn’t run into anything. As she approached Grayson’s room, though, she could hear two people arguing.

  “You can’t see her anymore,” she heard Eric say. His voice sounded slow and drawled.

  “You can’t tell me what to do, Eric.” That was Grayson.

  Emery took a step back from Grayson’s room, feeling like this was a private conversation, but then she remembered why she was there. She moved closer.

  “She’s just going to hurt you. Nothing good can come out of this, Grayson.” Eric sounded angry, insistent.

  “She is the only good thing that has come out of this!” Grayson shouted.

  Emery jumped at his sudden increase in volume. It got quiet then, and Emery decided that it was best to hurry away from the door. She didn’t want to be caught spying, so she slipped out of the front door and rang the doorbell.

  Her heart was beating erratically in her chest and she made herself take a few deep breaths to at least look composed.

  Grayson answered the door and Emery let out a sigh of relief. Then, she remembered what he had been saying to Eric.

  “Emery,” he said with a sheepish grin. “I’m really glad you came. About last night—”

  “Don’t apologize, Grayson,” Emery said, cutting him off. “You’ve gotten me through so many moments like that. I—” She shook her head and just pulled him into a hug. Emery wanted to cry. Everything was happening so fast and she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to fix this.

  “Hey, hey,” Grayson said, pulling her away from him. He must have noticed her distress. “I’m okay, I promise.” He held her face gently and kissed the top of her head.

  “Can we—” Emery started. A lump formed in the back of her throat and started choking out her words. She swallowed forcefully and squeezed her eyes shut. Emery grabbed her mother’s necklace, praying for strength. “Can we go to your room? To talk?”

  Grayson looked down at her, suddenly more concerned than he had been. “Sure, Em. What’s wrong?”

  Emery shook her head. Grayson looked behind him, understanding why she wouldn’t speak. “We could go to the cemetery?”

  “No,” she said. “I just—” Emery trailed off, trying to come up with a good excuse. “I just want to be here with you.”

  Grayson nodded. He didn’t ask any more questions as he held her hand and led her down the hall. Emery watched closely, looking at each of the doors, trying to decide what was a bathroom and what was a bedroom.

  She looked at one door and tried to sound nonchalant as she said, “Is that Eric’s room?”

  Grayson nodded, not noticing how tense she was. “Yeah, that’s where he basically stays all day.”

  “Does he ever leave?” Emery asked, this time sounding more contemptuous than she meant to. She tried to play it off. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  Grayson shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. He comes off really strong, but he’s a really good guy. He just hasn’t been doing so well lately.”

  He opened the door to his bedroom and led Emery inside. Emery sat on the edge of the bed, hoping he’d answer the question she had asked so she wouldn’t have to ask again.

  Grayson sat down next to her and remained quiet for a moment. “He’s actually going to try going back to work tomorrow. I’m really—I’m worried that he’s going to screw it up.”

  Emery reached for his hand and comforted him. It was almost like a reflex now to reach for his hand. It felt so right to Emery that she wasn’t even sure how she could go on in distrust like this.

  “What did you want to talk about, Em?”

  Shit. She had to come up with something to say now. She had already asked all the questions she needed to hear about Eric. Now, Grayson thought she had this big ordeal to talk about and she had nothing to say.

  “I just—” Emery stammered. “I just really wanted, I mean, I just wanted to make sure you were really okay.” She felt horrible. Emery was lying straight to his face while she sat in his house—in his room—on his freaking bed.

  “I’m gonna be fine,” Grayson said sadly. “It just might take a while.”

  Emery scooted back on his bed and laid her head against his pillows. He looked so damn sad. “Come here, Gray,” she said softly.

  Grayson came and laid next to her, facing her on his side. Emery adjusted herself to where she was on her side as well. She looked into his eyes, pleading with him without saying words. She held her hand up and ran her fingers through his hair. Their bodies weren’t close enough to touch, but Emery thought that was for the best.

  “Do you ever wish you could go back and just change something?” she asked, staring into his brown eyes. She took a deep breath and smelled the earthy pine scent that followed Grayson everywhere he went. Her chest constricted and she wanted to cry.

  “All the time, Em,” he said, watching her every move. It was almost as if he wanted to tell her something. “Sometimes, I think if I could go back, I’d change everything.”

  Emery thought about what he had said to Eric:

  “She is the only good thing that has come out of this!”

  What had he meant when he had said that? What were they referring to? What was “this?”

  “There’s so much I would change,” Emery said, turning over on her back to stare at the ceiling. “I would make sure that I never led Matt on. I would treat Zoe better. I wouldn’t go downstairs and ask my dad who he was cooking for. I would make sure that I never knew about his affair. But if I could only change one thing, I would go back and make sure that my family never got in the car that day.”

  Chapter 33

  Emery had left Grayson’s house shortly after that conversation. She had told him that she wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to go home to sleep it off. Grayson hadn’t argued, he simply just asked if there was anything that he could do for her.

  It made Emery feel terrible. She just wanted to talk to him, tell him everything: hearing that he was at the funeral with Eric, his mother dying the same day as hers, overhearing his and Eric’s argument, and that jeep. That had to be the most damning thing of all. Emery knew she could explain it away. She knew that the jeep really could have been stolen and the person simply dumped it in the river, but why would they just dump it in the river? Don’t car thieves take the vehicles to sell them? Eric’s vintage jeep must have been worth some money, so why get rid of it?

  There were too many things that seemed like coincidences. Emery didn’t like it at all. It made her sick to her stomach just thinking about it.

  When she unlocked the door to Hugh’s house, she walked in and immediately smelled lunch cooking. Hugh—ever-present in the kitchen—popped his head around the corner.

  “You hungry, kiddo?” he asked.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21