Page 66 of Rangers Last Promise

For the first time, Hampton’s expression changes.

Only slightly.

But I see it.

“You don’t know where it is,” I say.

His silence answers me.

Mom moved it.

And Hampton has been looking for it too.

“You searched my mother’s house.”

“I did.”

“Today?”

“Yes.”

“You were inside while I was upstairs.”

“You nearly caught me.”

The floorboard.

I remember standing in the hallway, listening to the silence.

Hampton had been close enough to reach out and touch me.

My skin crawls.

“Why didn’t you take the journal?”

“I couldn’t find it.”

“Because Mom hid it.”

“Your mother was very good at hiding things.”

The way he says it makes something cold settle in my stomach.

“You knew my mother?”

“I spoke to her once.”

“When?”

“After Grant died.”

My weapon remains trained on his chest.

“What did you say to her?”

“That her son had gotten involved in something he didn’t understand.”

“And what did she say?”