16. Selene
16
Selene
T he morning light streams through the kitchen window, spilling golden streaks across the table where Celeste is seated, her perfectly manicured fingers wrapped around a steaming mug of coffee. Across from her, Orion leans back in his chair, sharp gaze darting between us as Celeste and I gossip about last night.
“You’re welcome. If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have had a cute little cookie cutter date. See what I did there?” Celeste says with an exaggerated wink. “Did the sexy Theo impress you with his kitchen skills or were you too busy making googly eyes to notice?
I shoot her a mock glare, but I can’t stop the blush creeping up my neck. My heart is still tangled up in last night, in the way Theo looked at me, touched me, kissed me. “It was… nice.”
Her head falls back as she lets out a delighted laugh, “Nice? That’s all you have to say after you came upstairs all red-faced and flustered? Come on, Sel, spill. Did he kiss you after I interrupted his first attempt? Because if he didn’t I’ll have to reconsider his place in the universe.
“Celeste,” I groan, dropping my burning face to the cool table. The memory of his lips against mine, the way he held me like I was precious, makes my stomach flip all over again. I hadn’t expected it to hit me so hard, but here I am, still reliving it like some smitten schoolgirl.
Orion clears his throat, his brow furrowing. “Do I need to hear about this?”
“Yes, you do,” Celeste says firmly, turning her attention to him with an exaggerated look of innocence. “It’s important for a big, bad, protective brother to know who his sister is swooning over.”
I groan again but the memory of Theo’s kiss, the heat, the sweetness, the way he held me like I was the most important person in the world, sends my heart racing all over again. I take a deep breath, trying to push away the ridiculous giddiness curling through me. “Fine,” I mumble. “Yes, he kissed me.”
Celeste gasps, clapping her hands together like a kid on Christmas morning. “I knew it! And? Were there fireworks? Was it life-changing?”
I hesitate, glancing at Orion, who’s now staring at me like I’ve sprouted a second head. I should probably downplay this. I should probably act like it was no big deal, but the truth is, it was. And I have no idea what to do with that.
“It was…” I trail off, chewing on my lip before finally admitting, “It was really good.”
Orion exhales sharply and rubs his temple. “Okay, great, you’re in love. But can we move on to a more pressing matter?”
The tone of the room shifts immediately. Celeste sets down her mug, her playful expression sobering as she looks at him. “What’s up?”
“I’ve been thinking,” Orion says, sitting up straighter. “It makes the most sense to have the meeting here. Neutral ground, but also controlled. Less chance of surprises.”
I frown slightly, considering his words. “You think something might happen?”
He shrugs, but his expression is serious. “I don’t think it will, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
I nod slowly, the weight of reality settling back in. The warmth of last night, the fluttering excitement, it all feels distant now, overshadowed by a heavier emotion. “Okay, we can have it here. Tonight?”
“Tonight,” he confirms.
And just like that, the bubble bursts. Whatever lightness I had left over from last night slips through my fingers. Because tonight isn’t about me and Theo or stolen kisses in a quiet kitchen. It’s about a larger threat, something more dangerous. And as much as I want to let myself get lost in the happiness of last night, I know better.
I have to be ready for whatever comes next.
After breakfast, I dive into cleaning the house, my mind drifting back to last night more often than I’d like to admit. I’m scrubbing the counters when the memory of Theo’s voice—low and teasing—sends a shiver down my spine. The way he looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered, is burned into my brain.
And then there was the kiss.
I pause, the sponge in my hand forgotten as I replay it in my mind. The way he grabbed the back of my neck, his touch firm but gentle. The way he kissed me, hard and fast, only to soften it, like he couldn’t help but savor the moment. My lips still tingle when I think about it, and my heart does this stupid little flutter that makes me groan in frustration.
“You’re doing it again,” Celeste calls from the living room, where she’s lounging on the couch, doom scrolling through her phone.
“Doing what?” I ask, resuming my scrubbing with unnecessary vigor.
“Thinking about him,” she sing-songs. “You’ve got that dreamy look on your face. Admit it—you’re hooked.”
“No, I’m not,” I say, a little too quickly, a little too forcefully. My hands pause for half a second before I scrub harder as if sheer determination can erase the warmth creeping up my neck.
“Sure, you’re not,” she teases, but she doesn’t push further, for which I’m grateful.
Instead, she stretches, tossing her phone aside as she saunters into the kitchen as I start prepping a charcuterie board for tonight.
Is it unnecessary?
Absolutely.
Am I going to do it anyway?
Of course.
She grabs a carrot from the cutting board and bites into it, watching me with that knowing expression that makes me nervous.
“So,” she starts casually, too casually. “Are you staying?”
I blink at her. “Staying?”
“In town,” she clarifies, waving a hand. “You know, since there’s a whole serial killer situation happening? Are you sticking it out, or are you considering heading back home? Or…” She gives me a slow, wicked grin. “Do you want me to recommend a new town entirely? I’ve been to some fantastic places. You could start fresh.”
The question lingers in the air between us, heavier than I expected. I keep chopping vegetables, my grip tightening on the knife as I mull it over.
Leaving had crossed my mind, hadn’t it? I mean, who in their right mind stays in a town with a murderer running loose? It’s the logical thing to do, the safe thing to do. Pack up, move on, find somewhere else where death isn’t lurking around every corner. It’s what I would’ve done before.
But now? Now it’s different. I have Valkyrie and a house I’ve made my own.
I swallow, pushing that thought down. “I don’t know,” I say finally. “It’s… complicated.”
Celeste hums, unimpressed. “Complicated how? Because of a certain sexy baker?”
I shoot her a look. “Because this is home.”
She tilts her head, studying me. “Home is wherever you make it. You don’t have to stay here.”
“I know,” I admit. “But things are different now.”
She leans against the counter, watching me closely. “Well, if you do decide to go, I can hook you up with some of the best spots. A hidden gem of a town in the mountains? A beachside retreat? Hell, I know a place with the best damn coffee and the weirdest bookshop owner you’d ever meet.”
I chuckle despite myself. “That does sound tempting.”
“But…” She presses.
I sigh, wiping my hands on a towel and finally meeting her gaze. “But I don’t want to run anymore.”
There is a shift in her expression, her teasing demeanor softening just a little. “Good,” she says after a beat. “Because I think you belong here.”
At some point, we move on to prepping dinner, Umbra’s new music is playing in the background as she hums along. She practices while we cook, and I lose myself in the rhythm of chopping, stirring, and tasting. The day wears on, and the meal starts to come together. So does my resolve.
Tonight’s meeting is important, and I need to stay focused. But as much as I try to keep my thoughts in line, Theo’s smile, his laugh, and the way he kissed me keep sneaking back in.
I shake my head, determined to push it all aside. Tonight, I remind myself, is about solving a mystery, not reliving a kiss.
Even if it was the best kiss of my life.
* * *
The doorbell rings as I finish arranging the table. I take a deep breath, smoothing down the front of my comfy vintage shirt. If there was ever a day to dress for comfort, today was the day. My stomach twists with nerves—not just because of the meeting, but because of Theo. Last night’s kiss is still fresh in my mind, lingering like the taste of sugar on my lips, and I don’t know how to act normal around him now. Not when I can still feel the heat of his hands on my skin.
The only other relationship I was in started while I was in high school. It’s been so long since I’ve felt like this in a new relationship.
I open the door to find Theo standing there, his warm eyes locking on to mine. My breath catches, just for a second. Does he feel it too? The way his lips curve into a smile, slow and easy, makes my chest flutter. Almost like he’s also reliving our kiss last night.
“Hey,” he says, his voice low and casual, but there’s a knowing look in his gaze.
“Hey, yourself,” I reply, stepping to the side to let him in, suddenly hyper-aware of how close we are in the doorway.
He lifts a small bag he brought with him, “I thought I would help contribute to the snacks. Don’t judge me but I’m not willing to share the cookies we made last night so I brought some from the cafe.”
Laughing softly, I shake my head, “You’re off the hook… This time.”
His grin is quick and easy, making my heart do a stupid little flip. For a moment, the tension of the upcoming meeting fades, replaced by the warmth of our easy banter. He drops a few things in the living room for later, and I steal a glance at him, still reeling from the fact that this is real—whatever this is between us.
Morgan arrives shortly later while we’re all at the kitchen table. Orion goes to answer the door, we hear her say “So, the friend of a friend is Selene’s big brother?”
Celeste and I yell at the same time, “Little brother!” As we exchange annoyed looks.
It’s the curse of the oldest sibling to be the smallest, but it is still annoying because Orion started to outgrow me in the fourth grade.
They walk into the room together, the air is heavy between them, charged with an unspoken tension. I glance at Theo who raises an eyebrow but doesn’t voice his thoughts. Celeste and I share a look that lets the other know we are on the same wavelength and we will be bringing this up after everyone leaves tonight.
Then I notice Morgan brought someone with her.
My stomach tightens. The easy banter in the room fizzles out like a candle snuffed by the wind. Theo doesn’t look surprised—if anything, there’s a quiet resignation in the way he greets the interloper.
“Cousin.”
Wait. What?
My mind stutters over the title as I stare at him, my thoughts trying to make sense of this sudden shift in reality.
“Bennett is your cousin?” My voice comes out slower now like my brain needs extra time to process. The travel blogger? The guy I met at the cafe?
His dark eyes flicker toward mine, with a hint of sheepishness.
Morgan clears her throat. “Yeah… about that. Bennett isn’t just some travel blogger. He’s Theo’s cousin.”
My mouth goes dry, my thoughts tripping over each other in an attempt to fit this new knowledge into the larger picture. If he’s Theo’s cousin, then why the hell was he sneaking around town, pretending to be some random writer?
“Then what was with the cloak and dagger at the cafe?” I ask, my voice sharper than I intend.
Theo exhales beside me, rubbing a hand down his face before crossing his arms across his broad chest. “Yeah. Turns out my dad’s brother had a son no one ever knew about. And Bennett is his son.”
Bennett shifts his weight like he’s suddenly hyper-aware of everyone staring at him. He rubs a hand along the back of his neck, a tic I recognize from our brief interactions before.
“I didn’t know either,” he says. “Not until an ancestry DNA test from my adopted mom led me to Theo’s dad. When I was going through her things after her death I found login information for 23+Me. I saw the message from my uncle and messaged him back. When he didn’t respond after a week I started digging. He died the day after he messaged me, and it didn’t sit right with me, so when I hacked into some old records—”
“Wait, hacked ?” Orion narrows his eyes, his voice sharp with suspicion.
Bennett shrugs, completely unfazed. “It’s one of my many talents.”
I blink. My brain is short-circuiting. The charming guy from the cafe is not only Theo’s long-lost cousin but also a hacker. And he didn’t come here for some fake blog—he came here to investigate his family?
Theo runs a hand through his hair, clearly still grappling with the whole situation. “The TL;DR of it all is he found out his dad died, he still doesn’t know who his mother is, and we’re cousins.”
Bennett nods, his expression grim. “And considering how things have been going around here, I figured I should stick around. Looks like I was right.”
Silence smothers the room.
The air feels thick—like we’re all waiting for the ground to crack open beneath us, for some unseen force to make sense of what we just learned. My gaze flickers to Theo, his jaw tight, his eyes clouded with emotion he doesn’t reveal.
Without thinking, I reach out under the table, brushing my fingers lightly against his hand. Just enough to let him know I’m here, that he isn’t alone in this.
His fingers press back, a brief but steadying touch.
One thing is certain: tonight’s meeting just got a hell of a lot more interesting.
But the moment shatters when Bennett speaks again, his tone brisk. “With that out of the way, let’s get to it.”
We gather in the living room, the coffee table between us piled with notebooks, printouts, and mugs of steaming coffee. My fingers tighten around my mug, the heat grounding me as my mind spins from everything we just learned.
Bennett isn’t just some passing traveler, and he isn’t writing a damn travel blog. He’s Theo’s cousin, and he’s been digging into his family’s past because he thinks the story doesn’t add up. My stomach twists at the thought. How many lies have been circling this town? How many secrets are buried under the surface, just waiting to be uncovered? How many of those center around Theo’s family?
Orion clears his throat, snapping my attention back to the present. His posture shifts into full business mode, the tension sharpening the air.
“Let me just start at the beginning, then we’ll go from there. I was going through all the records the department has on Theo when I noticed a detail in his statement given to police the night his parents died.”
I glance at him, watching as his grip tightens on his coffee mug.
Orion’s voice is calm, measured— too measured. “You said your mom was screaming before you hit the patch of black ice. You told officers that she was trying to shake your dad and get control of the wheel because he, and I quote, ‘fell asleep’. Do you remember that?”
Theo looks like someone just reached into his chest and pulled the thread loose. His voice is distant, almost hollow. “I honestly don’t know anymore. I remember telling the police something and they would tell me I was misremembering because of the trauma of the night.”
Orion exhales, nodding like he was expecting that answer. “Misremembering or not that’s why we’re here today. I looked into their autopsies and noticed the coroner found hydrocyanic acid in his stomach. Internally, he had brain hypoxia, which would have caused him to lose consciousness while he was driving.”
A strange, uneasy pressure builds in my chest.
Hydrocyanic acid. That sounds familiar. Too familiar.
I swallow hard and say the first thing that comes to mind. “Not everyone has a fancy college degree, Orion. Care to clue the rest of us in on what that means?”
He does that annoying little brother thing where he speaks to me like I’m a child. “It means that it was a cyanide-related compound in his system that caused his brain to swell, then it made him pass out.”
My blood runs cold.
Cyanide.
I glance at Theo. His fingers are white-knuckled around his mug, but he doesn’t say anything, almost like he already knew.
Orion continues, “Your parents were cremated so we aren’t able to exhume them so we move to the next bit of information we have. George’s death. It was the evening after his and Aubrey’s wedding, they were on their honeymoon. Somehow a ski instructor was so hungover, or potentially intoxicated that he skied directly into a tree. It was ruled as an accident and even though they did an autopsy and found hydrocyanic acid in his system that was somehow looked over and eventually ruled an accident. He was also eventually cremated.
“Then more recently we have Gabe’s murder. He also had hydrocyanic acid in his system. The working theory is that he vomited so hard that he lost his balance and tripped. When he fell forward he was too weak to catch himself and he hit his head and lost consciousness leading to his coma and then his death.
“All we have from all of these murders is a theory and the physical reports. Everyone was cremated so we can’t do additional testing to see how they were poisoned with the cyanide.”
Morgan exhales sharply, adding to Orion’s point. “We’re between a rock and a hard place if we can’t prove that they were poisoned.”
I nod, gripping my mug a little tighter. That’s the crux of it, isn’t it? Proof. Without it, everything we know—everything we suspect—is just smoke in the wind.
Bennett shifts, his expression unreadable. Then, he says, “Can we talk about the other elephant in the room? All of these deaths circle something else too. Me.”
A chill snakes up my spine. I turn back to Theo, but his expression is carefully neutral.
Orion frowns. “What do you mean?”
Bennett continues, “I did the math and George was murdered a couple of months after I was conceived.” He lets the words sink in before continuing. “I did genetic testing, and I know for a fact that he’s my father.” His voice tightens. “Which means I had to have been conceived before their honeymoon.” A pause. Then, quietly, “Do you think Aubrey was pregnant? Do you think that’s why she got married at seventeen?”
The room is silent, thick with the weight of his words. My heart pounds as I glance between them, trying to process what he’s saying.
Theo and Morgan exchange a look, unspoken words passing between them. Finally, Theo exhales and shakes his head. “I don’t think so. From what I heard George was about to leave for the military and she was planning on going with him. I’ve heard you don’t have to stay in the barracks if you’re married. Maybe he got someone else pregnant and they felt betrayed when he married Aubrey?” He pauses, his brow furrowed. “Do you think the jilted lover could’ve poisoned him at the wedding or the day he died?”
The idea sends a ripple of unease through me. The thought of someone lurking in the background, watching, waiting, filled with enough anger to kill—it makes my skin crawl.
Bennett shakes his head. “It’s possible. But I think it’s more likely that Aubrey is my mother. That the wedding was rushed because she was pregnant.”
Theo looks skeptical. “I don’t know.” He hesitates, choosing his next words carefully. “Have you confronted her about it?”
Bennett drops his gaze, his fingers tightening into a fist against his knee. “I haven’t. Not yet. I don’t know if I can. Not until we figure this thing out. I mean…” He swallows hard. “If she’s guilty, I don’t want a relationship with her. But if she’s innocent…” His voice drops to a raw edge. “I don’t want to miss out on that, either.”
The conversation continues, but my mind fixates on one thought, a relentless whisper at the back of my brain: Someone is trying to destroy Aubrey. And we need to figure out who before it’s too late.
By the time the meeting wraps up, the tension is thick enough to suffocate. No one says it, but it’s written all over their faces—we’re standing on a knife’s edge, and one wrong move could send everything crashing down.
Morgan and Bennett say their goodbyes as Theo gathers his things to leave. I follow him to the door, my heart still racing from everything we’ve uncovered. My stomach twists, my mind replaying Bennett’s words, the endless questions swirling in my head.
“Hey,” he says softly, turning to face me. “You okay?”
I want to say yes, to brush it off like it’s nothing. But the weight of everything we’ve learned presses heavy on my chest. “Yeah,” I whisper, though my voice betrays me with a slight tremor.
He studies me, his gaze searching mine, and then, without a word, he takes a small step closer. His fingers brush against mine, the touch grounding, steadying.
“We’ll figure this out,” he murmurs. “I promise.”
The emotion in his voice makes me believe him, and for the first time all night, I feel a flicker of hope.
As he turns to leave, he pauses, his shoulders stiffening slightly. Then he spins back around, closing the distance between us in a heartbeat.
Before I can respond, his hand is on the back of my neck, pulling me into a kiss that’s hard and fast, like he’s been holding back all night. My breath catches, and just as quickly, the kiss softens, his lips moving against mine in a way that’s deliberate, almost tender.
When he finally pulls back, we’re both breathing heavily, and I can see the faintest hint of a smirk tugging at his lips.
“Goodnight, Selene,” he murmurs, his voice low and rough.
“Goodnight,” I manage to whisper, my voice shaky, a smile on my lips.
His warmth lingers even after he steps away, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the uneasy feeling that things are about to get much worse before they get better.
As he walks away, I close the door behind him, my fingers brushing my lips, and one thought lingers in my mind.
This isn’t just about solving a mystery anymore.