“Rory,” she said again, “my name is Detective Josie Quinn. I’m here to help you, I—”
Again, she heard the telltale sound of a branch snapping and her words stopped in her throat. This sounded like a bigger branch. Closer. She took a quick look around but saw nothing. Her gaze went back to Rory. He stood up straight, moving a step away from the tree, to his full height, which was easily a foot taller than Josie. The fine hairs on the back of Josie’s neck stood up. She had the sense of someone or something watching them. Closing in on them. Rory’s eyes were brown, the same as Lorelei’s. Buckley was right. Aside from the white forelock, he was the spitting image of his mother.
Slowly, his index finger lifted and pressed against his lips.
Hush.
Josie felt a thin ribbon of fear wrap itself around her spine. Footfalls, soft and careful, came from behind her. She whipped around and they stopped. No one was there. When she looked back toward the oak tree, Rory was gone.
“Pax?” Josie called. “Rory?”
Reflexively, her hand went to her holster, but it was empty. Patting her back jeans pocket, she felt the reassuring square of her phone. Except she might not get service out here. She’d have to go back to Lorelei’s house if she hoped to get any bars. But perhaps Pax didn’t know that. She slid the phone out of her pocket and held it in the air. “I’m calling my team,” she yelled. “They’ll be here in a few minutes. It’s best if you come out now and talk with me before they get here. We can work this out, you and me.”
A gunshot shattered the air. Bark from the oak tree Rory had just been leaning against exploded. Josie dropped down to a crouch and started running. No conscious thought drove her body forward, only a primal instinct to get away from the direction of the gunshot. She ran until her lungs burned, her knees ached, and her ankle throbbed mercilessly. When she could barely catch her breath, she stopped, folding herself down beneath a tree trunk that had fallen over a small gully. She tried to listen for footsteps over the sound of her own breathing. She took out her phone and checked for service. One bar.
She didn’t want to make a phone call. Not if Paxton or Rory were still out there—one of them armed. Instead, she sent a text to the team. She watched the little circle next to the text spin as her phone tried to send the message. Seconds later, a red exclamation point appeared beside her message. Failed.
“Shit,” she muttered.
Two more attempts to send the message failed. Josie staggered to her feet. She couldn’t stay out here forever. Her phone wouldn’t send or receive data at the moment, but her GPS still worked. She pulled up the app and studied it, trying to orient herself. Once she had a pretty good idea of where Lorelei’s house was, she began walking in that direction, trying to stay quiet and alert for any noises around her.
She had almost reached the clearing she believed to be Lorelei’s house when she saw a flash of red ahead of her. She raced ahead, weaving among the trees until she saw a figure walking ahead of her in a red shirt and jeans. His head hung low. Paxton Bryan. He had changed clothes since she last saw him. Josie snuck up on him, drawing parallel to him. His hands were empty. He didn’t seem to notice her presence at all, unless he was just pretending. Josie fell back and shifted directly behind him. She waited until there was a small clearing ahead and then tackled him to the ground.
He went down hard, crying out. Josie straddled him and twisted his arms behind his back. “Stop!” he cried. “Stop!”
“Where’s the gun, Pax?” she demanded.
He twisted his neck, trying to look at her. “What gun? I don’t have a gun.”
“What did you do with it?”
“I don’t have a gun.”
“You shot at me.”
“No, no, I swear. I didn’t. It wasn’t me. Please, let me up.”
“Were you following me?”
“What? No.” His voice was pleading.
“Then what were you doing out in the woods, Pax?”
“I was—I was—I can’t tell, okay?”
“I know about Rory,” Josie said. “You can stop lying.”
He said nothing.
“Were you looking for him?”
Again, no response.
Josie sighed. “I’m going to let go of you now. Do you promise not to hurt me?”
“I wouldn’t hurt you. I promise you. I wasn’t doing anything.”
Josie stood. She took a few steps back and watched as he got to his knees and then his feet. He brushed dirt and leaves and pine needles from his pants and shirt. Josie was startled to see tears glistening in his eyes. She watched his Adam’s apple bob a few times as he swallowed, pacing in a tight circle, until he calmed down.
“Pax,” she said. “What are you doing out here? Where’s your dad?”
He kept pacing, eyes down. “He’s back at the market. It was busy so I snuck out.”
“You went to Lorelei’s house,” Josie said. “I saw your bike there. Were you looking for Rory?”
He nodded.
“What were you going to do when you found him?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just needed to talk to him.”
“You knew about him, but your dad didn’t.”
He stopped pacing and met her eyes. “Yeah.”
“How is that possible?” Josie asked. She wondered how she hadn’t known he was there when she visited.
“Rory spends most of his time in the greenhouse. That’s his thing. He kind of lives out there. He doesn’t like being around the girls, so he just stays
