I didn’t touch it. “What if I don’t like tea?”
“Then just wrap your hands around the mug. It’ll help.”
I had the burning urge to stick out my tongue at him. But as I wrapped my hands around the ceramic, and the heat sank into my palms, something in me eased. “You’re very overbearing, you know that, right?”
He shrugged and blew on his tea. “Everyone has to have a character flaw.”
I snorted. “I’d say you have a few.”
“Never claimed to be perfect.”
I stared down into the swirling liquid. “Perfect’s boring anyway.”
“Very true.” Hayes was quiet for a moment, letting the silence swirl around us the same way the liquid in my cup did. “You going to tell me what happened?”
I sighed. It was clear he wasn’t going to leave me alone until he got some pieces of the puzzle. “I had a run-in with my brother. Just brought up some bad memories.”
“Okay…” He was quiet and, for a moment, I thought he wouldn’t push. “What’s the status with your family?”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you been in touch with them since you left Wolf Gap?”
I dunked the tea bag a few times before taking it out and resting it on a spoon. “I lived with my older sister in Seattle until I moved out for college. But, no, I haven’t talked to the rest of my family since I was twelve. Allen and Ian paid a couple of visits to Seattle when I first moved there.”
Hayes’ jaw worked back and forth as if he were working out a math problem in his mind and having trouble. “They harass you?”
“They made their presence known. But once we moved, they didn’t put any real effort into finding us.”
“And your mom? She didn’t put a stop to it?”
I gripped the mug a little tighter, my mother’s face flashing in my mind. “I think she lost her fight.”
“You were her daughter.”
“And I cost her the love of her life.”
Hayes’ gaze bored into mine. “Was that really how she saw it?”
“I honestly don’t know. All I know is that she couldn’t break free of that life. My sister, Jacey, tried to get her to come with me, and she wouldn’t. She didn’t want that freedom for herself.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand your family. The people they’ve tied themselves to.”
I traced an invisible design on the table. “I won’t lie, there’s some ugliness. Hate. But some of the paranoia comes from how they were raised. My grandparents on my dad’s side were the same way. They’ve been preached to about the government being out to get them. Other preppers wanting to pillage and steal. It skewed their outlook. But there’s good in that community, too.”
“I know that. Some folks simply want to live off the land or protect their families in case the worst happens. But that’s not…”
His words fell off, but I finished Hayes’ sentence for him. “That’s not what my family is.” I looked up to meet his gaze. “My childhood wasn’t all bad. And my parents taught me things that I’ll forever be grateful for.”
There was heat in those dark eyes. It blazed as he swallowed. “But you’re different from them. Always were. Or you wouldn’t have ridden that horse into town all alone.”
I’d tried time and again to think back and see what might’ve made me do that. To break free of everything around me. I’d never exactly figured it out. “While my dad always looked for danger, I saw beauty—in the land, in other people. In all of it. As much as he tried to school me, I could never get my mind to work that way.” Not even after Ian’s attack.
Hayes took a sip of his tea. “Shows a strength of character.”
I let out a mock gasp, my hand flying to my chest. “Hayes Easton, was that a compliment? Careful, I might start to think you actually like me.”
That familiar scowl returned. “I never said I didn’t like you.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I didn’t.” He adjusted the collar of his shirt. “But I did make you feel unwelcome. And for that, I truly am sorry. Do you think we could have a do-over?”
“A do-over?”
“We’re fond of them in my family. If someone messes up, they can ask for a do-over to start fresh.”
A fresh start. Wasn’t that exactly what I was trying to foster here? For myself. Hopefully, for a whole lot of animals. So, who was I to deny Hayes the same? I extended my hand. “I’m Everly Kemper.”
Hayes’ large hand engulfed my smaller one, the rough calluses on his palm sending a skitter of sensation up my arm. “I’m Hayes Easton. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Everly. Welcome back to Wolf Gap.”
He made it seem as easy as taking an eraser to a chalkboard. But I knew it wasn’t quite that simple for either of us.
14
Hayes
I stared down at the report in front of me. I’d been poring over our cases from the past couple of months, and the closest thing we had to abduction was a botched mugging a few weeks ago that had left a female tourist with a shiner. I couldn’t help feeling like we were missing something. A piece of the puzzle that would at least give us a direction to go in. I scrubbed a hand over my face. Maybe it was because I’d slept like shit last night that things weren’t adding up in my mind.
I’d tossed and turned and had finally given up sometime around three. The same image haunted me over and over. Everly curled over as she struggled to catch her breath, fear wafting off her.
I didn’t know much, but something bad had happened with her family. Something beyond her father’s mental illness and him kidnapping Shiloh. I’d wanted to sit with her all afternoon, to pry every last secret out of her. But I’d barely gotten that fresh start. I didn’t want to ruin it with too many questions, too quickly.
I had to hope that she’d open up with time. And I’d give her that time. I’d be helping her on my weekends off whether she wanted me to or not.
My mouth curved at the memory of her calling me on my crap. I’d never thought I would be drawn to that, but somehow, I was. Maybe I’d been going after the wrong kinds of women all these years. Most of the ones I’d dated had been softer somehow, not willing to rock the boat. I liked that Everly didn’t back down.
I blinked at the words on the paper as everything in me locked. Thinking about pursuing anything more than a friendship with Everly wasn’t in the cards. There was too much painful history there.
A knock sounded on my open door, and I looked up to see Young. Grateful for the distraction from my spiraling thoughts, I motioned her in. “You’re early for your shift.”
She came to a stop behind one of the chairs opposite my desk, shuffling her feet. “I wanted to run something by you.”
“All right. Hit me with it.”
“I went back out to the crime scene first thing this morning.”
I straightened in my chair. “Alone?” She winced, and that was all the answer I needed. “I thought you were smarter than that. A woman a few years younger than you was taken from just that spot, and you thought it was a good idea to go out there alone?” Just saying the words made me realize I needed to have a conversation with both Hadley and Shiloh. Everly, too. None of them should be going off alone until we figured out who was responsible.