I could feel her body tensing beneath my arm, and she tugged the blanket shut tighter.

“I’ve been inside of it,” she said weakly. “It was dark and terrifying and . . . cold. I remember it was really cold.” She grew quiet and sat forward, out from under my arm. She stared out the front window of my house. The light was on in my dad’s bedroom, but the house was quiet.

Then she turned to face me. Her cheeks were pale white, and her eyes were glassy. “You let me out. There was a big hatch door and it lifted. I was sure whatever monster had trapped me inside was coming back to kill me. Then there was this face.” She touched my cheek. “You asked if I was all right. You lent me your hand, and I pulled myself out. Then you told me to run. ‘Run away from this place’. And I did. Just like tonight, as fast as my feet could carry me. But who put me inside the shelter?”

I shook my head. “To tell you the truth, all these years I thought my brother had done it for fun. He did some crazy shit when he was young. But it wasn’t him. That’s why I need you to remember anything you can about this ‘pussycat’ man. I think he knows how you ended up in the shelter.” I swallowed to relieve the bitterness in my throat. “No doubt Everly has told you about the missing girls.”

She nodded. Then it seemed to dawn on her why I’d brought it up. “I was going to be one of them.”

“I think so.”

She crawled back into my lap, and I wrapped my arms around her.

“You saved my life back then.” She cuddled against me. “You seem to be really good at that.”

“So far I’ve kept a good record, and I want to keep it that way. I know you want to push what happened tonight out of your mind, but I need you to think. Is there anything you can tell me that would help?”

She was quiet in my arms for a long time, and I thought she’d drifted back to sleep. But then moisture dampened my shirt. She was crying.

“Tash? What is it? Did you remember something?”

“His eyes, the ones I saw in the window, I’d seen them before.” Her body shook with a sob. “He was staring at me through the cracked windshield of my dad’s truck. I’d been sleeping in the compartment behind the seats when I felt as if I was falling. I must have still been limp with sleep when the truck rolled. That must have been why I wasn’t hurt.” She sniffled a few times and buried her face into my shirt.

“Anything else? What color were his eyes?”

She shook her head but didn’t pull her face from my shirt. It was as if she was hiding from something, a terrible memory, it seemed.

“What was he doing outside your dad’s truck?”

A long shuddering breath came and more tears followed. “He was hitting my dad in the head with a rock. There was no fire. My dad had survived the accident, but that man killed him.”

She shrank down in my arms. I’d released her from the trappers’ shelter, not even understanding the danger she was in. All the grim truths about this town would soon be on full display. For all these years, the ugly shit had been buried, until now, until Tashlyn walked into town. And that was why someone was trying to kill her.

“God, I’m so sorry, baby. I knew this town had a lot of closet skeletons. I just didn’t know how many. You don’t need to think about it anymore tonight.”

She buried herself tighter against me as if she couldn’t get close enough. “The way he says ‘pussycat’.” Her words were muffled against my chest. “Cat always sounds funny. Like he has an accent. It sounds long and flat. Like a—”

“Like a splat.” I finished for her.

She lifted her face to look at me. Her nose was pink from crying. “Yes.”

I nodded and wrapped my arms tighter. It was Draven. Fucking Draven. But there was no way he’d been controlling my dad all these years. There was more to it, and I knew just who to ask.

Chapter  29

Tashlyn

Jem had given me strict instructions to stay close to Everly all Saturday morning until he returned from his errand. He’d insisted I was safe as long as Everly was near. I wasn’t completely sure why he was so confident about it, but I’d told Everly I was bored and would help her stock shelves this morning.

My knees were sore. I’d made up a lame story for Everly about tripping on the way to the mailbox. Jem had told me not to say anything more to her until he got things figured out. My one clue about the way the man talked had been all Jem needed. His name was Draven, and Jem hadn’t seemed too surprised to find out he was behind the attacks. I’d seen Draven once in Gregor’s Market on my first night in town. Everly’s uncle had basically shooed him out of the store that night. Just thinking about the man produced a cold knot in my stomach. I crossed my arms around me.

“Are you cold? You could borrow my coat,” Everly said. “The storeroom gets pretty chilly.”

“Nope, I’m good.”

Everly looked pointedly down at my knees. “Except that you’re walking like a hundred-year-old woman with those knees. I still can’t believe you fell that hard.”

“Oh, you can believe it. I’m clumsy as heck.”

We strolled along the sidewalk to the store. The scenery was like an oil painting, beautiful and serene. But I knew behind the picturesque landscape, the worst kind of evil lay waiting for its next victim. It had been several years since the last accident at Phantom Curve, but I wondered how long until the next death. I knew now that my dad hadn’t veered off the road. He’d been forced to pull over by thieves and murderers. His truck was filled with valuable cargo—alcohol. And my dad had died because of it. If he’d been transporting something less valuable, he might still be alive today.

“You didn’t ask me about last night,” Everly said in a teasing tone.

I looked over at her. “Did Finn kiss you?”

She smiled.

“Oh my gosh. Details.”

Her thin shoulders lifted. “It wasn’t quite as good as I’d expected, but I think he was nervous. But it was a real kiss.”

“I’m so happy for you, Ever. And he’s such a nice guy. He’s almost good enough to deserve you.”

We reached the store. Landon Gregor always looked a little surprised to see me.

“Tashlyn is going to help me in the storeroom.”

He hesitated, and I wondered if there was some insurance rule that wouldn’t allow it.

“That’s fine,” he said haltingly. “I’ll be back there in a minute to show you what needs to be done.”

Everly and I headed to the backroom. “Don’t worry, I’ll do the stuff that requires you to kneel on the cement floor.”

“Good idea. I’m pretty sure if I kneel, the scrapes will start bleeding again, and I’m already down one pair of jeans.”

Everly took a box cutter from the toolbox. “Did you tell your aunt about your little accident?”

“No, everything worries her.”

Landon came into the backroom. He was wringing his hands together, and they looked extra shaky. He smiled weakly at both of us. “There’s a lot to do, so I guess it’s a good thing you have a helper. After a long morning stacking beans and noodles, Tashyln is going to want to head back to her hometown, what’s it called? The Grog. Funny name.”

“I don’t mind a little hard work,” I said.

“Jeez, Uncle, you are psychic,” Everly said with a shake of her head. “I never told you about the place Tashlyn lived. How the heck did you know about The Grog?”

He stuck his shaky hands in his apron pockets. “Of course you told me, Everly. You just talk so darn much, you don’t remember all the topics.”

I looked over at Everly and expected her to be laughing about his comment, but she looked utterly mystified as if she was certain she’d never mentioned it.

“Ever, I know I told you to just come in for a few hours to stock shelves,” Landon continued, “but I’m not feeling well today. If you could cover the afternoon that would be great.”