She forced her breathing to slow. Forced her hands to open and shoved the bracelet deep in her front pocket, where she wouldn’t lose it.
Stay alert. Make a plan. Get out. Grieve later.
She stood.
The door at the top of the stairs creaked open.
No. Shit. It was too soon. She still needed a weapon. Still needed to plan. Still needed?—
Footsteps came down.
She backed up until she hit the wall farthest from the stairs and waited for the monster to reveal himself.
But… it wasn’t a monster.
Cody Simms stepped into the light at the bottom of the stairs.
“Cody?”
For a half second, she stupidly thought she was saved because Cody Simms was a good man. Well-liked, a respected member of the Solace business community, married to and still wildly in love with his high school sweetheart. He’d sat beside Greta at every missing persons committee meeting for ten years. He’d squeezed her shoulder at the candlelight vigil on the fifth anniversary. He’d brought her coffee at the SAR base on bad weather days and told her, “We’ll find her, Greta. I know we will.”
He’d given Logan a job.
And he’d told Logan yesterday afternoon that he was closing the shop and heading up to his cabin to check on flood damage.
His cabin.
Oh, God.
Thiswas the cabin.
Her stomach turned.
Cody looked like he hadn’t slept. His jacket was buttoned wrong over a belt that jingled with a heavy keyring. His hands opened and closed at his sides and his eyes were too bright.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
She shook her head. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t.” The word came out like a whip. “Don’t pretend. Don’t do that.”
“Cody—”
“Where’s Alice?”
“What?” she breathed.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t understand. She’s… she’s dead. They found her bones on Evander Cole’s land. I buried her. You were at the funeral.”
“That wasn’t her!”
Her heart hammered so hard in her throat she could barely squeeze words out. “The… bones… weren’t… hers?”
“No, of course not! Those bones were someone else. From before. They weren’t Alice, and you know it.”
From before.
