Page 79 of Taken Away

He should have been annoyed. Instead, he found himself listening. Really listening.

The realization hit him like a body blow.

Most dinners over the last six years had been obligations. Charity events. Industry functions. Well-meaning setups engineered by Mabel and half the women in Jackson County. He’d spent most of them counting the minutes until he could leave.

Tonight had disappeared before he’d noticed.

Bennett glanced toward the passenger seat.

Aubrey was looking out the window now, a faint smile lingering on her lips as the dark shadows of the pines swept across her face.

He shifted gears, his grip tightening on the wheel as the dark iron gates of Blackwood rose out of the shadows ahead.

Somewhere between the burgers, the beer, and that rooftop, the line had blurred. He wasn’t just protecting Mabel’s legacy anymore, and he damn sure wasn't just entertaining her niece.

He wanted her. And for the first time since coming to this mountain, that was going to be a problem.

NINETEEN

Asheville, North Carolina

Buncombe County Forensic Pathology Lab

The morning sun didn’t reach the basement of the Asheville forensic facility. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, washing the room in a sterile glow that smelled faintly of formalin and disinfectant.

Dr. Vivian Cade, Chief Medical Examiner for Western North Carolina, sat behind her brushed-steel desk with reading glasses perched low on her nose. A mug of lukewarm black coffee rested beside her tablet as she worked through the stack of death certificates requiring regional sign-off.

She tapped the next file.

Case File: 26-08942-M

Decedent: Blackwood, Mabel Augusta. Age 69.

Location: Sylva, NC — Jackson County.

Attending Pathologist: Kincaid, Aris.

Manner of Death: Natural.

Cause of Death: Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Vivian paused.

Mabel Blackwood.

She knew the name from the regional agriculture board. Sharp-tongued. Stubborn. A formidable woman. Smart, direct, and not easily intimidated."

She opened the report, expecting to confirm the obvious.

Aris Kincaid was fresh out of residency, still learning how deceptive rural death scenes could be. He’d caught the case during the massive June storm—power outages across three counties, a dark house, an older woman with hypertension found dead in bed.

On its face, they were easy boxes to check.

With a new ME, Vivian made a habit of rereading the early cases.

She sighed and pulled up the external scene photographs.

“Let’s see what you missed, Aris.”