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)
Uncovered is a curious choice of words, but I leave it alone for now. It only solidifies my suspicions that Jensen’s ranch is a front and his crew is involved in criminal activities.
But right now that’s the least of my damn worries.
I sigh, sucking my lip between my teeth, trying to make sense of everything all at once and coming up with nothing. I want to be angry at his selfishness. I want to hate him for keeping this from me, for leading me astray, for lying. But far beneath my anger is a current of understanding. That terrible weight of responsibility. The impossible choices we make to protect what we love. Even if my anger is driving me right now, I get him on some level.
Doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Fuck. Lainey.
The thought of her is visceral, a knife to my heart that leaves me flayed.
He knew her. He brought her here.
He lost her here.
“So you let them vanish,” I say, swallowing hard. “You let my sister become just another missing person statistic. Another cold case.”
Colder than ice, I think.
“I’ve regretted it every day,” he says, his brows knitting together, voice choked with pain. The guilt is etched into every line of his face. “When you showed up at the ranch, when I realized who you were…I thought maybe it was a chance to make things right. To give you the closure I couldn’t give Lainey. I thought maybe it could be absolution for us both.”
“By taking my money.” I can’t keep the bitterness from my voice. “And saying nothing.”
“By finding out what really happened to her,” he protests. “And yes, by using the money to save my ranch, my mother’s care. I’m not proud of it, Aubrey. I’ve never been proud of the man I’ve become. But I need you to understand. These mountains…they hold onto their secrets. They protect their own.”
“Their own,” I repeat. “You mean the…hungry ones. The transformed. The things that took Hank. The things that took Lainey and Adam.”
He nods. “I believe Lainey found what she was looking for that night. Her connection to the McAlisters, to Josephine, to the hunger. I think she found her family. What I don’t know is what happened next. Whether she died or…”
The implication hangs unspoken in the air between us.
Whether she was killed by them in the end…
Fuck.
She can’t…she can’t actually be out there still, can she?
No. I can’t let myself think that way. Not even for a minute.
I rise from the table, unable to remain still with the storm of emotions raging inside me. Betrayal, grief, rage, shame—they swirl together like the snow outside, blinding in their intensity.
Betrayal by Jensen, who lied to me from the start. Who knew all along what might have happened to Lainey but kept it from me, who led me into a potential death trap.
Betrayal by Lainey, who never shared the truth of her obsession. Who kept me at arm’s length from the very thing that defined her life and ultimately claimed it.
And shame. Deep, burning shame that I didn’t see through the deception. That I, an FBI agent trained to notice inconsistencies, to read people, to find the truth, had been so utterly blind.
I had missed all the signs.
“You should have told me,” I say, my back to him as I stare into the fire. “From the beginning, you should have told me.”
“Would you have believed me?” he asks quietly. “If I’d told you your sister hired me to guide her on a quest to find her cursed ancestors who live in the mountains as flesh-eating monsters? Would you have believed that?”
“I would have believed she told you that,” I admit, the truth bitter on my tongue. “Doesn’t mean I would have believed Lainey.”
“I thought the same about Lainey at first,” he says. “Until I saw them with my own eyes and knew that she was right.”
A tear slides down my cheek, hot against my cold skin. I brush it away angrily, but more follow. “All this time,” I whisper, feeling choked from the inside out. “All this time I’ve been looking for answers. Feeling like I failed her. Like if I’d just been more attentive, more present, I could have saved her. And honestly, I was right. I did fail her. I could have saved her.”
“That wasn’t your fault,” Jensen says, rising to stand behind me. His presence is both comforting and infuriating as he lays his large, capable hands on my shoulders. “Lainey made her choices. She followed the path she felt compelled to follow.”
“And it got her killed.”
“But we don’t know that,” he says gently. “Not for certain. That’s the thing.”
I turn to face him, fury bubbling up through my grief. “What, you can’t seriously think she’s still out there? That she turned into one of those…things? Those hungry ones? You think my sister is some kind of mountain zombie preying on people?”