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He told me during dinner that he was going to call the State police for advice tomorrow. See if they have an opinion on what we should do moving forward. Now it’s just a waiting game, we’ll see if two criminals will be taken off the street and I get justice, or if the system will fail and they roam free. Best case scenario, I wake up tomorrow and I see on the news that Tony and Bub have been arrested. I don’t know how that would happen, but it’s just wishful thinking. Then, this nightmare would be over.
Then, what?
I just go home?
Return to Tennessee and pretend like nothing happened. That doesn’t seem plausible. I’m forever changed by what happened to me. I’ll never feel safe traveling alone again, I’m never going to trust strangers. I don’t want to live in constant fear, but Tony and Bub took that choice from me. They ruined the sense of security in my life, and that makes me so angry. How dare they?
How do they think they have the right to do what they did and get away with it? Fucking psychopaths.
Then there is Nathan. When I tell him goodbye is it going to be like we never met? Go back to being perfect strangers even after he’s carved a piece of my heart out. Part of me feels like that piece will always be here, with him. Once I leave these mountains, I’ll never truly feel whole again.
Still gazing out the window, I jump when I see a bright light sweep across the front yard, dragging me from my pity party. The yellow light bounces off the trees until it comes to a stop, leaving the woods aglow across from the direction it’s coming from. I scamper to the front door, peeking out the peephole.
I see the headlights from a car idling in the driveway, just at the edge of the yard, flanked by the wood line. The creeping feeling on the back of my neck tells me this isn’t good, it’s too late for anyone to be stopping by. But, this is Nathan’s home, maybe he was expecting someone and didn’t tell me. The car slowly starts forward, getting closer to the cabin like a scene from a scary movie.
I don’t hesitate, running down the hallway to get Nathan, half-yelling his name once before I even reach his bedroom door.
“Nathan…” I shout again, raising my hand to knock.
Before I can even make contact, his bedroom door swings open. My hand freezes in midair, stunned to see him standing in front of me shirtless. His hair is still wet from his shower, a towel wrapped around his waist. Temporarily forgetting how to function, all I do is stare at him.
“What’s wrong?” He asks, clearly concerned.
“A car… There’s a car… Outside,” I choke out finally, stumbling on my words a little.
“What the fuck?” He disappears behind his door for no more than five seconds, cluing me in that he was not expecting anyone, and this likely isn’t a social visit.
Nathan returns wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants, grabbing my hand and pulling me down the hallway toward the kitchen. I don’t have time to process what’s happening before he drops me off behind the kitchen island. “Get down, stay out of sight.” His tone leaves no room for questions.
He goes to the front door, looking through the peephole just as I did, and that’s when I see the handgun sticking out at his lower back, tucked into the waistband of his sweats. Storing the mental image of how incredibly sexy that is for later, I look away, too nervous about what’s waiting on the other side of the door. Nathan glances back at me to make sure I’m hidden, eyeing me when he sees I’m standing here still just staring at him. I startle after realizing he’s waiting on me, making me crouch down so fast I fall on my ass.
He opens the door suddenly without ever hearing a knock. “Sheriff.”
His voice is low, but loud enough that I can hear. I breathe a silent sigh of relief, thinking for some reason I was found by Tony and Bub, even though logically I don’t know how they would’ve even found us.
Almost as quickly as I have that thought, it dawns on me that the Sheriff would be the way they would find us. The Sheriff is the only one that would know and could easily tell them. I can barely breathe, and my heart is beating so loud in my ears it’s hard for me to hear the conversation happening at the front of the house.
“I’m looking for the girl,” the Sheriff states.
“Why?”
Sheriff Donahue, “None of your concern, boy.”
“She is my concern.”
I shiver, hearing those words and how seriously he said them, putting a lump in my throat. Maybe he truly cares about me. Or maybe he’s just faking it for the Sheriff’s benefit.
There’s a long pause, I imagine them standing there, sizing each other up. God, I don’t want this to turn into a shoot-out. Not over me.
I should show myself. The Sheriff will get what he wants and then leave. It’ll keep Nathan from doing something crazy just to protect me. From getting hurt.
“She never filled out her statement. It’s a problem,” the Sheriff counters Nathan’s earlier response. His callous tone keeps me from budging, my ass is practically glued to the floor.
The rational part of my brain knows to listen to what Nathan said and stay hidden. He has done nothing but keep me safe since the moment he met me, I know I can trust his judgment. If he thought it was safe for me to confront Sheriff Donahue he wouldn’t have told me to stay hidden.
“I told you we’d come in tomorrow,” Nathan gives a curt response, clearly annoyed.
“I’m startin’ to believe she made up the whole thing. She’s not turning out to be a very reliable source,” Sheriff Donahue says, arrogance lacing his words.
