Chapter 55 Braedyn
brAEDYN
Everything hurt. Like I’d been shot with countless miniature bullets that had embedded themselves beneath my skin. But also like I’d run two marathons back-to-back. And I was not a runner.
The ATV bumped along a trail that didn’t seem all that established, thankfully not going too fast. But every divot and ridge sent a fresh wave of pain through my system.
Breathe, Brae. Think.
I gave myself simple commands, knowing I needed to take stock of everything around me. My hands were bound in front of my face, the plastic zip ties digging into my skin, and I could feel something similar around my ankles. My memory of being put on the ATV was fuzzy. But one thing wasn’t.
Travis.
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood. Travis was one of the few people willing to help me from the beginning. Kind. Caring. Dedicated to his job. I’d baked him fucking cookies.
My mind swirled, trying to put the pieces together. Was he part of the marijuana growing outfit? Something else? Something darker?
Nausea rolled through me, and I did my best not to empty the meager contents of my stomach along the dirt trail. My gaze flicked up to the man I thought I’d known. I couldn’t see his face, but maybe that was for the best. It would’ve been a stranger’s anyway.
Taking a deep breath, I threw all my weight toward the rear of the ATV, hoping the force would be enough to toss me clear off the vehicle and over the wheels—and just maybe enough to break the zip ties around my ankles.
Instead, I came up against different restraints. Ropes. Travis had tied me to the rack on the back of the ATV.
A low chuckle came from in front of me. It was hard to tell if it was even a laugh over the sound of the engine, but Travis’s gaze flicked over his shoulder. And the look on his face…it was pure glee.
“You know, I had a feeling you’d be a fighter. That’s gonna make it so much more fun. I’ve been gettin’ a little tired of the lack of challenge lately. Haven’t had a nice competitor since your bestie. But she lost that fight pretty damn quick.”
The nausea was back, almost painful in its ferocity. Nova. He was the one. He took her.
I told myself to breathe, but it didn’t do any good. My breaths tripped and tangled. Nova.
Her name played over and over in my mind. Tears burned my eyes as a sob clogged my throat, but I did everything I could to shove them down.
“How?” I croaked. I wasn’t even sure he’d be able to hear me over the engine. But he did.
“Come on, Brae. You’re smarter than that. I’ve been keeping tabs on you since the moment you moved to Starlight Grove. Having access to law enforcement databases and software, I could triangulate your cell phone’s location anytime. And your boy toy taught me a few tricks without even knowing it.”
Dex’s hacking and computer prowess. It had put ideas in an already-twisted mind.
Travis slowed the ATV, the sound of the engine easing a bit.
“Honestly, I should thank you. I knew I’d take you.
I just needed an opportunity. Miller being an even dumber fuck made it all the more perfect.
I get to blame his death and your disappearance on the pot ring.
I was just waiting for someone to find out and get Miller’s ass fired, but dead is better. Maybe I’ll even run for sheriff.”
My breaths came faster as I tried to play out possibilities in my mind. Dex would be at the trailhead by now. He would be looking for me. But I wasn’t sure there’d be enough clues to point him in my direction.
The ATV slowed as an old but well-maintained cabin came into view.
I remembered Cora mentioning that Travis lived in one of the few cabins on National Forest land that had been grandfathered in to still having inhabitants.
Was this where he had Nova? How? Cora, Roger, Travis’s friends and family—they would’ve known.
But Travis didn’t stop at the house. He drove past it a hundred yards—maybe more—and then he slowed. The building looked like a large shed. The kind you’d maybe keep snow equipment or gardening gear in. Big enough to fit the ATV, but Travis shut off the engine and hopped off instead.
He rounded the vehicle so he was standing near my head, that damn grin still on his face. And then he pulled something from his pocket. The handle was black metal, but a gleaming silver blade popped from the housing when he pressed a button. “Welcome home, Brae.”
I railed against the ropes, trying in vain to get free. Tears leaked from my eyes, though not from grief or even fear. From frustration.
Travis gripped me by the hair, lifting one of the tears with his thumb and licking it. “The taste of fear. There’s nothing like it.” His gaze narrowed on my face as he showed me the blade. “Tell me you’ll be a good girl.”
That nausea was back, but I forced myself to nod. In three quick flicks of his knife, Travis was hauling me to my feet. The zip ties around my wrists were still in place, but the ones around my ankles were gone. I rolled one foot and then the other, trying to revive the blood flow.
Travis gripped my hair again, pulling it so tightly I had to bite back a scream. “You even think about running, and I’ll gut you like a prized buck. Alive or dead, you’ll serve the same purpose for me. But alive would be so much more fun.”
Icy tendrils of fear wrapped around me, but I did everything I could to battle them back. I thought of Owen, Dex, and the family I was building in Starlight Grove. Breathe, Brae.
“What purpose am I serving?” I rasped, my voice raw.
Travis’s fingers tightened even more. “Do you know how boring it is working for the sheriff’s department in this town?”
Confusion washed over me as I tried to put that piece in place.
“Don’t get me wrong. I was fucking fascinated by Edmond Archer—all those women he stalked, tortured, killed—and being so close to that kind of power by befriending his sons.
But it was Cora who really showed me what I was meant to do.
When her mom went missing in high school, I thought…
this. This was what I needed. To be in on the action, the search, the high of finding someone and holding their life in my hands. ”
The sickness roiling inside me intensified as the picture became a little clearer.
“But you know what’s even better?” Travis’s smile widened, entering into manic territory. “Working the case while knowing exactly where the person is. If they’re dead or alive. Watching people scramble like ants, knowing I’m pulling all the strings.”
Dead or alive. He’d hurt people. Killed them. Nova.
“I’ll never forget the first one. Dumb bitch sniffling at a campsite parking lot.
Got in a fight with her boyfriend and wanted a ride back to town.
” His creepy grin got even wider. “I offered to take her where she needed to go. Straight to a grave right over there.” Travis pointed with his knife to a field with a mix of wildflowers and grasses.
I struggled not to vomit.
“I killed her, and I got to work the case. I got to watch her mother sob and her brother fall apart. I got to feel their pain, control it. Because I had all the answers. It was even better when Cora got involved with that little Compass crew.” A low chuckle left Travis’s lips, grating against my skin.
“I got to hear all about their little sobfests. Even talked my way into attending a few meetings.” He shook me hard. “A total fucking high!”
“Nova?” I croaked.
I needed to know. The truth. Finally.
Travis just laughed harder. “Wanna see where your bestie lived? Where she cried out for you when I told her you weren’t looking? All those stupid articles. You didn’t know she was right here for so long.”
He dragged me by the hair toward the shed, my feet scrabbling in the dirt, trying to right myself. Travis hauled open the door, but there was nothing out of the norm. A space for the ATV, normal tools. And then I saw it. A door in the floor. One with a complicated, expensive-looking lock.
Travis bent, pressed his palm to it, and then threw it open. Dark. So dark I couldn’t see a thing. And then Travis hit a switch on the wall. Fluorescent lights flickered on, bathing the space in a fake, blue glow.
Bile surged up my throat. Metal stairs led to a room of nightmares.
The space was finished in the sort of material garage floors sometimes were.
There was a hole in the floor that looked like a makeshift toilet and some sort of shower next to it.
A stained mattress lay against one wall.
And it smelled. But worse, there were chains with what looked like shackles.
“I tried keeping one alive before Nova. Alma from your little support group? Her daughter. But she had no fight. Starved herself to death before a month. But Nova…” Travis’s hand tightened in my hair.
“She wanted to live. And goddamn, it was fun. Using her phone and some stupid software to call you while I got to watch in the damn bar.” Glee filled his voice.
“Making her record the audio to put with the dummy. Priceless.”
It took everything I had not to throw up or fall apart.
“Made it just over a year. You were so close yet so far.”
Pain—unbearable, soul-crushing pain—swept through me. Nova. My Nova had been alive all this time. I’d almost gotten to her in time. But I’d failed her. It took everything I had not let my sob free. But I refused to give him that pleasure.
“Now, it’s time for a new toy. Welcome to home sweet home, Brae,” Travis singsonged.
The hell it was. Rage like I’d never known before spurred me into action. I hauled myself upright, barely feeling the pain in my scalp.
Surprise lit Travis’s gaze, but my knee was already moving—that same skill I’d used on Vincent but with a hell of a lot more power.
I hit true, my knee striking his groin with enough force that Travis’s eyes went wide in pain and shock, and the knife clattered to the ground.
He managed one brutal blow to my ribs as he went down, but it didn’t matter; I was already running.
I had no idea where I was. I just knew I needed to find cover. I ran straight for the trees, pushing my muscles as hard as they would go. But they hurt, cramped so badly it stole my breath. It had to be the aftermath of the Taser shot, but I kept pushing.
Cursing sounded behind me, and a fresh wave of panic hit. I pushed harder, leaping over fallen logs and around brush. My skin burned where branches tore at my flesh, but I didn’t stop.
The sound of the river hit my ears. I moved toward it as if it could save me. Closer and closer, the roaring water getting louder and louder. I’d take it for escape, even at the risk of drowning.
Fingers snagged in my shirt, hauling me back in a vicious jerk. “You’re going to pay for disobeying me,” Travis snarled. “I’m gonna kill you, and I’m gonna make it hurt.”