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I tear it open and pluck the pieces of paper from inside. Combining them to read the message.
“What’d you find?”
Noah glares at me from across the booth at the Inn. “You really want to talk about this today?” he asks.
“Yes.”
Noah sighs. “Things aren’t adding up in Kyle’s case so that’s going to take a little more work. But with regard to the other thing, I’ve been tracking some leads and think…I might have found him.”
“Him?”
“There’s no telling if Pepper’s mother is with Robert Woods. I’m assuming so. I’m also assuming that a Robert Smith contacted the courts and attempted to post bail for Kyle three years ago and was denied. Since he refused to come in person and there was no evidence of where the money was coming from.”
“You think it’s him?”
“I did some more digging—and yes, I think it’s him.”
“And there’s no way to reach them?”
“I might have ways…but…if we do…”
“They’ll be compromised and…arrested.”
He nods slowly and twists his palms toward me. “What do you want to do?”
I sink in my chair as my skin crawls. Remembering the state I’d found Pepper in at the site of their supposed accident. The attacks she regularly suffered because of their abandonment.
My chest aches at the memory of her words. How hard she tried for them and how much she loved them.
“They left her.”
I remember her telling me the reason she was attracted to Troy in the first place. He’d waited for her. He knew she was scared and waited for her. To take her down a goddamn elevator. No matter how long she’d be.
“Maybe it’s for the best.” My brother snaps me out of my daze.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t owe her anything anymore. Hell, I’m not even sure it’s them. We’re all going on instinct here.”
Instinct is enough for me.
“I do owe her the truth.”
Noah leans forward. “Chase, she humiliated you. She played you for a fool.”
I shake my head. “She wasn’t playing me. I think she was asking me something.”
Noah nods condescendingly. "Yeah. To let her go."
I shake my head. "She said she saved something for me. And I think it's something Pepper wouldn't get married without."
Noah watches me, then smirks, pointing to the television. “You better hurry.”
I look up over the bar. Several patrons are tuned into the wedding happening across town. The first snow of the season began today and they’re calling it a winter wonderland wedding. The seated guests on either side of the aisle are a blur, but I can tell they’re not from around here. A big evergreen arch is at the far end in front of snow-dusted trees. And the man I pictured smashing hard into the boards on several occasions—since it’s the only way I know how to fight—is standing at the far end, waiting for his—no.
Waiting for my bride.
I race out the door and onto my bike. Praying they don’t say their vows in the next fifteen minutes.
