My phone rings.
Detective Barnett.
I answer. “Yeah.”
“We’ve been tracking him since he left your office yesterday,” Barnett says. “We haven’t located him yet, but we found his car abandoned in the woods about twenty minutes out of town.”
Chapter 19
Ella
I’ve seen her name twice now.
Once at dinner, right after we laughed—actually laughed—in that way that makes you forget you’re supposed to be protecting yourself. The second time was later when things were… heated. Closer. When I was stupid enough to think we’d crossed some invisible line into something that might almost resemble real.
I press my palms into the dough harder than necessary, folding and turning and pretending I’m focused on the rhythm of it instead of the way my chest still tightens when I think about how easily he left.
Taylor Pierce.
Again.
The memory of his phone lighting up comes back uninvited. The way his body had gone still. The way his attention had already left the room before he did.
I told myself not to read into it. I told myself I didn’t care.
I’m a liar.
I punch the dough once, then immediately regret it when flour dusts up like a tiny explosion of my own bad decisions.
It’s been days.
No call. No text. No explanation.
Which would be fine if I weren’t standing here wondering when exactly I started caring this much about a man who is clearly good at leaving.
I leave the dough to rest under a damp towel and step out to the front.
Ashton is behind the counter with the satisfied air of someone who knows something I don’t.
She slides a coffee toward me. Extra cream. No warning.
“So,” she says. “I looked her up.”
I stop. “Who?”
“Taylor Pierce.”
Tension snakes through me in a way that feels entirely disproportionate to a name. “You did what?”
“She has a public Instagram,” Ashton says quickly. “I didn’t hack anything. Or stalk. Or commit any crimes.”
“That’s not the reassurance you think it is.”
“She posted yesterday. Juice bar. Caption:Detoxing after a toxic week.”
Of course she did.
I don’t reach for the phone. “You think that’s about Nathan?”
