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Before I speak, a deep, older man’s voice echoes in the distance. “Amelia, are you out there?!”
“I’m here!” She rotates to the blanket of fog. I’ve been gone too long, and I can’t distinguish the mystery voice.
“You called him?” Parry questions Amelia.
“I just shot a guy. I had to.”
Colt is pinching his eyes. “We’re all fucked—scratch that, those of us named Durand are fucked.” And then I realize who’s approaching moments before the tall, muscular figure slips through the fog.
Sheriff Carmichael is here.
CHAPTER 33
Zoey Durand
Once Sheriff Carmichael checks out the cliffside and Anna Roberts arrives with more police, this part of the Edge of the World is taped off as a crime scene. Rain pitter patters against the tree branches, and even though I look like I was literally dragged through the mud—Brian, Parry, Colt, Babette, October, and Amelia are splattered with dirt like they tripped and fell to reach me.
Like they never slowed. Like they gave everything.
I’m also not sure if their bedraggled appearance is incriminating. I’m not a fucking lawyer, but Ashton falling over the edge was partly an accident. That should be obvious, but most of us are still tense.
Us, Durands, especially.
We all hang around a primitive campground with a picnic table and ashy firepit until we’re told we can leave. Hopefully that’ll happen soon.
Parry is doing a good job of forcing Brian and Colt away from the cops. My brothers—or rather, my uncle (scratch that—I’m never calling Colt that) and my dad (still strange)—are eager to tell their side of the story so the town doesn’t skew everything. But they need to wait to give their testimony of the events until they’re asked.
“Is she going to lie and say Brian shot him?” I ask October while she picks dirt clumps out of my hair. We’re watching Amelia speak to her mom and Sheriff Carmichael. She’s detailing the events, and they all keep glancing over at me like I caused an earthquake in Mistpoint Harbor.
“No, she’ll tell the truth.” October sounds assured.
Amelia Roberts saved my life. I never thought that square on my Bingo card would be filled.
I owe her. Or at the very least, I need to thank Amelia. I might be at the bottom of the cliff if she hadn’t slowed Ashton down.
I blow out a breath, still a little rattled from being chased and dragged. I try not to think about Ashton’s body. His death. October hasn’t left my side. I lean into her and rest my cheek on her shoulder.
October shakes dirt off her fingers. Before she tries fixing my hair again, I catch her hand in mine. “You don’t have to, Kenobi.” I look up at her.
“I want to,” she whispers, and my heart swells before she asks, “Have you wondered how we all knew you were here?”
“It hadn’t crossed my mind yet,” I admit. “But now it definitely has.”
She plucks a twig out of my hair. “I asked Amelia to track your ex. She called me and told me what was happening this morning.”
Holy shit.
“Okay, I really owe her,” I mutter out loud, and I laugh to myself. “Your best friend is kinda awesome.” I wince. “Unless she sells us out right now.”
October only seems uneasy when Amelia starts arguing with her mom, and my mind is reeling. I pull a little back from October. Just to meet her narrowed, focused gaze.
“Where did you go this morning, if you weren’t the one who left me the note to meet you here?” My stomach sinks. Was she leaving me without saying goodbye?
Was she turning herself in while I was sleeping—just so I couldn’t be there with her?
Her face falls seeing my hurt build. “Zoey—” She cuts herself off as Amelia approaches us.
“Amelia,” I start to share my gratitude.
“It was nothing.” Amelia shifts her body to block me out and speak solely to October.
But I butt in, “Why did you have a shotgun?”
“I always bring one to the Edge of the World,” Amelia says like it’s the only rational thing to do. “You never know what animals might be in these woods.”
Right.
Amelia continues, “The better question is why you came here with nothing. Not a knife, not a gun, not a taser or even a pen.”
A pen?
October shoots her best friend a look to stand down. “Zoey has been in Chicago.”
“So everyone in Chicago has no common sense?”
“I have common sense,” I chime in. “I just thought I was meeting October.”
“In the woods?” Amelia says like I’m a total idiot.
She doesn’t know what my heart was feeling. She wasn’t there last night! “You wouldn’t understand!” I shout in frustration and so loudly birds squawk and fly from treetops. Brian, Colt, Parry, and Babette glance over at me. I mutter out, “I’m fine.”
Amelia whispers hotly, “I just tracked you two miles through the woods and shot your ex-boyfriend for you, so I understand something.”
