Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 119746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
A flush rushes through me and I swallow hard, my breath shallow. This close, I can see the pulse beating in his neck, the yellow streaks in his hazel eyes. “You don’t know anything about me.”
And I’d like to keep it that way.
“Don’t I?” His voice drops an octave, rough and intimate. “I know desperation when I see it. And I know just what desperation does to a person.”
For a moment, I can’t breathe. Can’t think beyond the heat of his body and the intensity in his eyes.
Then he backs off and goes back to tending to the stew, as if nothing happened.
I stare at him for a moment, my heart slamming hard in my chest, a prickle of perspiration at my brow.
I clear my throat, not wanting to succumb to the awkwardness.
“Have you figured out what route we’re going to take?” I ask, my voice sounding pitchy.
He pauses and glances at me over his shoulder. “Can’t plan a route until you tell me more about your sister.”
Right.
“Okay. Well, what do you want to know?”
“Everything,” he says firmly before he turns back again. “Why she came here. What she was looking for. Where you think she might have gone.”
I sigh and lean back against the counter, not sure where to begin. It’s hard to talk about Lainey, not because I break down in tears (I’ve gotten pretty good at compartmentalizing my emotions), but because it’s impossible to not keep it at surface level. Which means Jensen is going to hear every ugly little detail about our lives and he’s someone who the less he knows the better.
But I launch into it. I talk about Lainey’s obsession with the Donner Party, about her mental health issues, about my mother’s death, then my father’s (though I left out the part of how he died, since I don’t want Jensen to know he was a cop), and how it took a toll on her. Then I talked about the men she was always with, ending with Adam, whom I always had a bad feeling about but couldn’t really articulate.
“A bad feeling?” Jensen asks. “How so?”
I chew on my bottom lip for a moment. “Let’s just say I have experience with certain types of men and he seemed exactly that type. Charming and seemingly easy-going, but controlling and quick to temper. I only met him twice, had them over for dinner, before she started declining and making excuses for him. I started to get the feeling he was isolating her, but it was hard to tell since they were both addicts.”
He nods, still busying himself. “So what do you think happened? Do you think he had something to do with her disappearance?”
I sigh. “I don’t know. As I said, Lainey’s obsession ran deep. Her dreams, the calling—she knew she needed to be here. But it wasn’t just that she wanted to experience what being on the trail would have been like. I don’t think that was it, not this time. It wasn’t historical reenactment, it was something else.”
“Do you think Adam encouraged it?”
“Possibly. I wish I’d gotten to know him better.”
He clears his throat and heads to the fridge. “Beer?” he asks as he opens it.
I really shouldn’t but I nod anyway, needing to take the edge off. “Please.”
He studies me for a moment, as if doubting what I said, then snaps the cap off via an opener nailed to the wall and hands it to me. Our fingertips brush against each other, and though I don’t feel literal sparks, I have to suppress a shiver from running down my spine, which is just as bad.
“Thanks,” I say under my breath, wishing he wasn’t staring at me so intently. It’s like he’s looking for something more than what I’m giving him, even though I’m trying to be as open as possible.
Finally he turns around and goes back to the stew. “So, Lainey and Adam come here and there’s no trace of them in town. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t in town. Could mean the cops didn’t do their job following up.”
“Yeah, well, that’s a given,” I tell him tiredly before having a sip of beer. It’s ice cold and hits the spot. “Cops are fucking idiots and girls like Lainey are never their priority. Not to mention if there had been any domestic violence between them, they’d probably choose Adam’s side. Seen it happen time and time again.”
“Have you now?”
His tone is innocent enough but I know innocent is that last word I’d use to describe Jensen McGraw. “It’s the Wells family curse,” I say, half-joking.
He seems to stiffen at that and I worry he thinks I’m lying and will probe further. The thing is, I’ve had good luck in relationships in that I’ve never been in an abusive one (probably because my idea of a relationship is a one-night stand) but I’ve seen far too many women go missing or killed because of them. So many times the cops have been called and the man has found a way to spin it, calling his girlfriend “crazy.” They always take his side.