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“Yeah, he thought it would be bad for the family's reputation. Her going to parties with older guys, and bringing home the girl who went missing the next day isn’t ‘mayor's daughter behavior,’ apparently.” She shrugs back at me.
“He did it. That fucker did it.” I point my finger at her and feel my anger for him push through my veins.
“We don’t know that, I have other leads to go on. There was a girl who she was—”
“What do you mean, you have leads? Savannah, you ain’t a detective. Maybe Wade’s right, you need to leave this alone. Walker's dead, he can’t do any harm now,” I tell her what everyone around here keeps telling me. Doesn’t stop me dreaming about all the ways I’d have liked to end him though.
“And what do you suppose I tell that poor girl's mother, Cole?‘Sorry we think the mayor probably killed her but don’t worry, he’s already dead,” she bites back at me.
“That ain’t what I’m suggesting, but what I do know is that you can’t tell Leia about this. It’ll set her right back and Wade will lose his shit. That girl already knows far too much about what her father did, she don’t need to add anything to his list of sins.”
“What do I do, Cole?” She shakes her head and looks up at me helplessly.
“You try and get that woman to leave town, she’s not gonna find her daughter here. We both know that.” I drop my head, wishing I had a better option for her.
“I promised Leia I'd go on a door knock with her tomorrow. Esme’s Mom is speaking to the local authorities and seeing if they can look back into some old rescue cases. I can’t just make this stop, they both really want to find her. They aren’t ready to give up hope.”
“Well eventually, hope runs out. Do what you have to do with Leia, but you make sure she doesn’t get any kinda inclination that her father was a part of this.” I hate protecting the man, he deserves every ounce of his daughter’s hate, but at the same time I know how important Leia is to Wade, and that outdoes my petty needs right now.
“And what if someone we speak to tomorrow did see something?”
“Savannah, if someone saw somethin’ they would have spoken up about it four years ago.”
“Karina didn’t.” She frustrates the hell outta me by making a very good point.
“Okay then, you tell Leia what you know about this girl she was talkin’ to online and you tell her that she was heading south to take those pictures. That way you will be avoiding anyone who might have felt obligated to keep information to themselves. You’ll have to let Karina tell her sister everything about the day she met her in the diner, so she can know about the girl. But that’s where it ends, no parties, no going back to her house, and no mention of her dad. Okay…?”
“I hate lying to Leia, she’s become a friend,” Savannah admits, and something tells me that barring Maisie, she hasn’thad many friends before. Maybe that's something we do have in common.
“I know it’s hard, but keep in mind that you're doing this for her.”
“It’s a good job I'm good at keeping secrets.” Savannah bites her lips as she steps closer to me, her hand reaching up and stroking over my bristly jaw, the comfort it brings don’t fuckin’ belong and yet I allow myself to take it in.
The barn door opens and when I look around and see Dalton, I quickly clear my throat and put some space between us.
“You folks okay?” My brother looks between us with that dumb assed smile on his face.
“Yeah, we’re good, I just caught something in my eye is all.” I rub my finger into my eye socket and watch from my other as Savannah finds humor in my awful acting skills.
“Well since you got it handled I better head back to the house. Someone’s gotta pick up the slack for Josie not being around.” She sways her hips as she passes Dalton and steps back outside.
“You know what, Cole, I think you do got something in your eye.” Dalton takes a closer look at my face. “Looks like horse shit to me.” He smirks before grabbing the rope he came in here for and throwing it over his shoulder.
Mitch seems different to usual when I meet him out in the yard. His horse is saddled up and ready to go and he’s barking out his orders to the bunkhouse boys that are working around the yard. Finn gives me a strange look when I join them, one that tells me he’s picking up on the same thing.
“You ready to ride out?” I place my hand on Mitch’s shoulder and he’s looking real tired when he turns his head and nods back at me.
“What's up?” I ask once we’re both out the yard and heading for grid 2 where the cattle are.
“Spread too thin as usual,” he answers.
“You know, if taking care of the girl’s becoming a problem we could get Finn or Tate to take a shift.”
“Me and Josie are coping just fine,” he tells me firmly.
“Josie is only there for a few hours a day while you help run the yard. You are stuck up in that cabin for far too long with a girl who’s batshit crazy. You don’t look like you’ve slept in days.”
“That’s because I haven’t. The girl doesn’t sleep, she has night terrors that sound like she’s being dragged into Hell, but she ain’t crazy. She’s damaged.”
