I follow, pulse hammering. My legs feel made of lead, but my lungs burn, my gut screaming this is bad, this is worse than bad.
Outside, our usually peaceful clearing is chaos.
Red and blue lights pulse, washing the trees in violent colors. Three cop cars sit heavy on the gravel, sirens cutting out one by one. Uniforms spill out, hands hovering near holsters.
And then?—
The last man I expect steps out from behind one of them.
Expensive jacket, check. Slicked-back dark blond hair, check. Smug tilt of his jaw, god-check-dammit.
A face that used to whisper I love you into my ear while squeezing the life out of me with every hateful gesture.
My breath stops.
“Brandon?” His name rips out of me, sharp and cracked.
Knox hears it.
Knox sees him.
He whips around, stares at me for a stark, livid moment. Turns back to the man daring to approach with a cocky smile pinned to his face.
And my Bear goes wild.
It takesall six cops to restrain him, one holding a Taser to his bare skin.
A scream rips through the clearing, and it takes an insane, frantic second to realize it’s mine.
“Stop! Please,” I plead, even though Bear barely falters. My voice cracks, but it’s the sound—my sound—that freezes him, stops him from hurling one of the cops clear across the compound.
He’s breathing hard, chest like a war drum, but his eyes never leave me as he lets go and allows the cops to shackle him.
And then I turn to the instigator of all this carnage.
“What the hell are you doing here, Brandon?” My voice is shaking but loud. “And how the hell did you find me?”
He straightens his expensive jacket, looking like a man stepping out of an office and not into a trap that’s about to eat him alive. “Lily, you’ve been gone for weeks. I’ve been searching for you. Waiting for you to come to your senses and come home.”
“The note I left you in the car,” I hiss. “The dozen texts I sent before I dumped my phone? They should’ve been clear enough.”
Brandon waves a hand, his smile a thin slice of condescension. “You’ve always been impulsive. I knew you’d cool down once you’d thought things through. When you didn’t come home, I was worried.” He glances around with clear disgust. “With just cause, it seems.”
“Worried?” My laugh is a brittle blade. “That’s new. And you still haven’t told me how you found me. Were you… were you tracking me?” Ice sheets drench me even before he answers.
He doesn’t deny it. Just flicks his eyes to his phone, thumbs a screen, and then lifts his chin toward the trees where the clearing starts. “Hmm. Curious. The necklace’s signal seems to be… over there.”
Knox’s head whips toward the direction Brandon points. His lips peel back. “That’s where I tossed it,” he snarls, voice a rumble that vibrates through the clearing. “Should’ve fucking ground it to dust.”
Brandon finally looks at Knox properly. His nose wrinkles in disdain. “So this is what you ran off to, Lily? Shacking up with Bigfoot?”
“Don’t you dare talk about him—” The words rip out of me before I can think. My hands shake. “And what do you mean about the necklace?”
“Just what I said, dear,” Brandon replies smoothly, though his eyes are glittering. “All this foul mountain air turning you loopy?”
“You tagged me like some kind of animal?” My voice breaks. “Who does that?”
“Concerned fiancés whose lesser halves don’t have the sense of?—”
