“I parked out back,” he tells me in a cold tone.
I follow him around back, and when we arrive at his SUV, he opens the passenger door for me. Once I hop in, he closes it, rounds the front, and climbs into the driver’s side.
As soon as the door clicks, he yanks his fingers roughly through his hair. “Aves, I’m trying to understand what you were thinking, but I can’t get there. Can you please explain it to me?” His gaze collides with mine.
“I didn’t do the drugs,” I assure him as I rotate in the seat to face him. “Camilla set me up.”
“I’m not talking about with the drugs. I’m talking about you dropping your bag and phone and taking off with someone who could’ve been a murderer.”
“It was Camilla. She’s not the murderer… Although…” She did tell me some very questionable things, such as that she chose to be part of the hunters.
But is it really her fault if she was choosing to survive and had no other option? Survival is a potent emotion that can make a person do things that they wouldn’t normally do. Dark things. Brutal things.
“Although what?” he hedges, but then swiftly shakes his head. “No, let’s finish the first conversation, then we can go back to that.” He looks me straight in the eye. “I know you want to figure this out, and I get it—I do. But risking your life to get to the truth isn’t worth it. I need to know that you’re on that page with me or else I can’t have you involved in this anymore.” A defeated sigh leaves his lips before he adds, “Maybe I shouldn’t have ever pulled you into this. It’s too dangerous.”
I place a hand on his arm. His skin is cold, likely due to the chilled temperature outside, caused by the rainstorm. Star Meadows can get chilly, even on the brink of summer.
“I need to help with this. I know it’s dangerous—I get that. And I can see why it was a mistake to get into the car. I won’t do anything irrational like that again. I just wanted answers, and I don’t know… my brain became centered on just that. Trust me, now that I’ve got drug charges against me, I realize how badly Imessed up.” I slump back in the seat and blow out a breath. “Big time.”
He remains quiet for a while before finally reaching out and tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear. It’s the first time he’s followed through with the move, probably because I touched him only moments ago.
When my heart leaps in my chest, it’s not necessarily startling. Maybe I’m getting used to his touch?
He withdraws his hand and rests his arm on the console. “What happened with Camilla?”
I open my mouth and spill the truth like flying petals in the wind. Again, it’s another first for me, and it’s the most freeing I’ve felt, even after just being released from jail, even after leaving Jason. The latter was laced with too much terror, though, like I was a fly that somehow escaped a black widow's web. It’s not so frightening anymore, but sometimes I swear I can feel the indents of where his fingertips pressed against my throat.
By the time I’m finished, Ellis is shocked; his lips are parted, and his eyes are wide. But between his brows, a crease has set.
“You look confused,” I note. “Does something not make sense?”
“Not confused. I’m just trying to put all the pieces together, but it feels like some are missing.” He gives a short pause. “Not on your part. From what you told me, I don’t think Camilla told you everything.”
“I don’t either,” I agree. “But I don’t think she lied about anything. Just omitted details.”
He smashes his lips together for a calculating second. “Aves, if what she said is true, then?—”
“I already know what you’re going to say,” I interrupted him. “And while I’d like to say I’m surprised: I’ve already thought about it… About my father being part of this.” My stomach ravelsin knots. “I’ve often questioned what went on in the woods that day, and I feel like I have an answer now. But I kind of wish I could go back to not knowing.” I look at him. “That probably makes me sound like a coward.”
He promptly shakes his head. “No, it doesn’t. I get it. There are times I wish I didn’t suspect my sister was murdered. Then maybe I wouldn’t be carrying around this obsessive need to find who did it to her.” He rotates forward in the seat. “But then that’d mean she overdosed, which is a tragedy too. Any way you look at it, it is. All I can do is get answers, even if it’s horrifying to hear them.”
He opens and flexes his hands. With the way he stares out the window, it’s like he’s trying to start the rain on fire. “You said Camilla used the word hunted?”
I nod. “She did.”
“And that place in the woods is owned by a hunting tour guide business.” He glances at me. “Logically, I assumed it meant hunters for hunting animals, but what if it’s a coverup for some sort of human hunting business?”
I want to be more shocked than I am, but… “I’m not sure about the business, but from what Camilla said, that’s what it sounded like.” I take a breath, collecting myself. “That day—or days—in the woods, I remember running a lot. I remember being chased. I assumed it was because I was trying to escape, but maybe I was running for other reasons, and I happened to make it out alive. Or maybe they just let me because of…” I take another breath. “Because my father is part of it. Or was anyway.” I stare at the raindrops on the window. “Camilla said the person who murdered those girls—the ones the public knows about—wasn’t part of this group. And then there’s my father’s murder… She didn’t say any specifics about that. Although, does that even matter? With all the horrible things he did… Maybe he deserved to die.” It crashes into me then, like a kick to the stomach.
All of this.
The lies.
The deception.
The brutality.
My chest constricts with regret that I didn’t put it together sooner. Was it even in my hands, though? Maybe if I hadn’t been drugged to forget, I could have existed to remember. Or perhaps I wasn’t strong enough to find my way out of the drug-induced haze.
