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I set down my book for the third time in ten minutes. The words blurred together, meaningless. Code sat at his monitors, completely absorbed in whatever digital rabbit hole he'd disappeared into.

We couldn't keep doing this. The kiss last night, the way he'd looked at me first thing this morning, we couldn’t keep pretending everything was normal.

Nothing was normal.

"I need to move." The words came out sharper than I intended.

Code's fingers paused. He turned in his chair, those light green eyes assessing me.

"What?"

"I need to run. Clear my head. Do something physical that doesn't involve sitting and waiting and thinking." I stood, already moving toward my bedroom to find workout clothes. "You run, right? Military training?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Let's go."

"I need to grab clothes from Jase's first,” he called after me.

"Fine. We'll stop there."

Five minutes later, I climbed into Code's rental car. The late afternoon sun slanted through the windows, warm against my skin. I'd changed into running leggings, a tank and a t-shirt over it. I’d pulled my hair into a high ponytail.

The drive to Jase’s seemed to take longer because Code was quiet, radiating tension. His hands gripped the steering wheel too tight, his jaw set in a way I recognized meant he was working through something difficult.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye. The muscle jumped in his jaw. The way he kept checking the rearview mirror, hyperaware of everything around us. This wasn't his normal vigilance. This was something else.

"Code?" I kept my voice gentle.

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

His eyes cut to me, then back to the road. "Nothing."

"You're holding something back. I can tell."

He pulled into Jase's driveway and killed the engine. For a long moment, he just sat there, staring at the house.

"There's been a stranger in town." His voice stayed level, factual. "Pearl spotted him two days ago at the diner. He's been asking questions about Jasper Creek. Who owns what businesses, whether new people move in often, that kind of thing."

My stomach dropped. "You think he's connected to Russell?"

"I don't know. Could be coincidence. Could be reconnaissance." He finally looked at me. "Pearl's instincts are solid. She called Nash, the sheriff. The guy disappeared yesterday morning. No sightings since."

"And you're just now telling me this?"

"I'm telling you now because you asked." His eyes held mine. "Katherine, I could have kept this from you. Made up some reason why you needed to stay close to the Inn. But you deserve to know what we're dealing with."

The honesty hit harder than I expected. He’d listened to what I said the night before. He was treating me like an adult, like a partner, not some fragile thing that needed protecting from the truth.

"Thank you."

He nodded once and climbed out of the car.

I followed him inside. The house was quiet, lived in. Shoes, sports equipment and two backpacks were scattered across the living room floor, a pile of mail on the kitchen counter, Scout's water bowl by the back door.