Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Forrest’s jaw clenched, his eyes flicking off the road to meet mine for a second. “I’m not going to apologize for wanting to protect you,” he said.
“Yeah, well, I’m not going to apologize either. I get that you want to take care of me. I even like it. But in this case, you need protecting more than I do.” I squeezed his hand. “I’m not buying his bullshit. You know that, right?”
“Cut me a little slack, Sterling,” Forrest said, letting out a huff of air. “Half an hour ago, we were locked in that root cellar, and if I couldn’t get through that door, we were both going to die of exposure. Maybe not tonight or tomorrow. But…” He glanced at me, his eyes hot with emotion. “I’m not ready to lose you again.”
I squeezed his hand and laced our fingers together. Shifting in my seat, I leaned to rest my head on his shoulder. It was a little awkward with the center console between us, but I needed the contact.
“You were going to get us out, Forrest,” I reassured him. “I watched you with that rock. You weren’t giving up. We weren’t going to die down there.” I could still smell the dank must of the cellar. “I need a long, hot shower and clean clothes. And to never go underground again.”
My phone rang, the familiar tone sharp in my ears. I looked down to see Hawk’s name on the screen. “Signal must be back,” I muttered as I picked it up, bracing for the lecture to come. Hawk was not going to be happy.
Chapter Twenty-Six
STERLING
“What the fuck, Sterling!” he barked before I could get a word out. “Are you okay?”
“We’re both fine,” I said, giving him a quick rundown of the hours since we’d left Heartstone Manor.
“You fucking left to follow a clue without letting anyone know where you were going?” Hawk roared into my ear.
When he put it like that, it sounded a lot worse than when I came up with the idea. And I couldn’t deny that was exactly what had happened. “Yes, we did. And we’re fine. We’re headed back to Heartstone now. You and Griffen can both yell at me in person when we get there.” Before he could say anything else, I hung up the phone and put it facedown on my lap.
“Hawk or Griffen?” Forrest asked with the hint of a laugh in his voice.
“Hawk,” I said, shaking my head. Sometimes, it felt like I had a million older brothers. I wasn’t complaining. A text popped up on my screen.
Come straight back. Griffen’s office in 30m.
I checked the map on my phone. We’d be pulling into the driveway in twenty-eight minutes. I replied with a thumbs-up emoji and put my phone down, sliding my fingers into Forrest’s again.
“I’m sorry you didn’t like how things went with Callum Leary,” I said. “But I’m not sorry for protecting you. And I am one hundred percent sure that you were going to get us out of there if the Learys hadn’t shown up. Everything’s okay, so don’t be mad.”
He let out a half chuckle and raised our twined hands to his mouth, pressing a kiss to my fingers. “I’m not mad, Sterling.”
“Okay,” I said and let it go, falling into silence.
I spent the rest of the ride back to Heartstone, running through the possible suspects in my mind. Who had access to the peppermint tin? Who knew about the Jefferson cipher? Who could have done this to us?
The answer, depressingly, was almost anyone in Heartstone Manor. I’d talked about the cipher wheel with Ford in the billiards room, a room that had two open doorways in two separate hallways. Anyone could have been lurking, out of sight but close enough to eavesdrop. I already knew Brax had been nearby, but there was no reason to think he was the only one.
Except that out of everyone, he hated me the most.
And I’d left the tin in my room, the door unlocked. Not for days on end, but for good chunks of time. Nothing in my room had been damaged or disturbed, which was almost an argument against Brax. He’d never been able to resist screwing with me.
My gut was shouting it was him, but I didn’t have any proof, and my gut wasn’t exactly reliable where Brax was concerned.
“Hey,” I said as a thought occurred to me, “when we get back…”
“We need to talk to Griffen and Hawk,” Forrest said.
“Yeah, Hawk said he wants us in Griffen’s office straight away. But I’m going to text him and tell him I need to change. They’ll give me a few minutes for that. Before anyone knows we’re home, we need to search Brax’s room. If his car isn’t in the garage, we should be clear.”
“Why do we need to do that first?” Forrest asked. “Hawk didn’t sound patient.”