Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Milo
Entering the charred remains of my life’s work was more painful than I anticipated. As much as I wished Eden were at my side, her cousin Rob was both patient and cheerful, which helped to soothe the ragged, gaping wound inside my soul as we picked our way through the ash-covered rubble.
After dropping me off, my mom headed to pick up Carter from school to make up for him not being able to hang at the shop with me, so at least she didn’t have to endure the lingering smell of smoke while Rob and I figured out what needed to be done.
Fortunately—if any aspect of this disaster could be considered fortunate, apart from my unlikely survival—my assailant was not an experienced arsonist. The blaze had been focused on the area between my body and the front corner of the store, since she ran out of gasoline before dousing the rest of the shop.
The smoke and water damage, however, were extensive.
I tried not to cringe at the destruction as we picked our way through the mess of waterlogged books and singed game sets. My family had come in once the fire department gave the green light, but there wasn’t much they could do apart from boarding over the shattered windows.
Again.
I still couldn’t believe Eden had made it through this experience largely unscathed. The small burns had healed quickly, and more importantly, she hadn’t withdrawn emotionally.
That was the biggest success to come out of all this.
“This might be an inappropriate time for this,” Rob said as he dusted a layer of soot from the cover of a graphic novel, “but I feel like I should ask your intentions toward my cousin.”
A strangled, slightly hysterical laugh erupted from my throat, but Rob looked completely serious, so I answered in kind.
“I intend to make her happy for as long as she’ll let me, hopefully for the rest of our lives.”
Rob held my gaze for a long moment, then grinned, warmth filling the dark eyes he shared with his sister. “Excellent.”
And that was that.
We made our way through the store, Rob pausing here and there to jot down measurements in a little notepad he kept in his back pocket. When I described what Eden and I discussed the night before, a slow smile crept across his face.
“That’s Eden for you.” His tone was full of affection. “Show me the wall. I’ll see what we can do.”
While Rob poked around in the storage closet, which was barely big enough for two people—if you didn’t count the time I’d dragged Eden in there for a brief makeout session while Carter finished his math homework—I stood in the hallway feeling useless.
“I’ll need to take a look at the other side, but this should work,” Rob called over his shoulder.
At his words, I sent a silent note of gratitude out into the universe—not for the spare room I might be able to add to my store, but for Eden first coming into my life, then saving it. My existence before I met her had been fine, but now?
It was so beautiful I had to pinch myself at times to be sure it was real.
Rob tucked his notebook away and we headed out the front door toward Garden of Delights.
I blinked in surprise at a little blue sedan that was parked where Eden’s SUV had been when I arrived.
The forecasted snow was falling heavily now, coating the sidewalk, but I took a minute to glance in either direction down the street before following Rob into the shop.
Adelaide was alone behind the counter.
“Hey sis,” Rob said, tipping an imaginary hat at her. “Where’s Eden?”
“I have no idea. She said she was just running out for a minute, but that was half an hour ago. I texted her twice about picking up coffee on her way back, but she didn’t answer.”
My heart plummeted straight through the floor. “I’ll see if I can reach her.”
Addie shot us a worried look as she turned to help the next customer, but Eden’s phone went straight to voicemail when I called.
I let Rob usher me into the back of the shop, though whether he wanted to get me away from the prying eyes of customers or prevent me from freaking his sister out even further, I wasn’t sure.
I paused outside of the breakroom as I tried for a third time to get through to Eden. There on the table was her laptop, still open as if she’d rushed out of there in the middle of something, though the screen had gone blank. It was Rob who broke the silence as we both stared at it.
“I’ll look, if you want plausible deniability.”
Invading her privacy wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I wasn’t sure it made a difference which of us did the deed. I shook my head, pocketed my phone, and hit the touchpad to activate the laptop screen.
When a map of the area popped up, I frowned, sinking into the chair Eden had abandoned. The search bar showed she was looking for a warehouse along Route 104. Two results were marked with red dots on the map.
“What the hell?” I muttered.
“Look,” Rob said, pointing to a second tab open in the browser.
I clicked on it and found the website for the Church of Eternal Light in Cortland. Air rushed from my lungs as I realized she hadn’t rushed out to go on some cutesy errand like finding wine to bring to my parents’ house tomorrow.
Eden was trying to find the woman who attacked me.
“Shit. We need to go after her,” I hissed.
“Snow’s getting worse, but my truck has four-wheel drive. She’s gotta be heading to one of those locations, right?” Rob snapped a photo of the screen and zoomed in on the two dots.
I rubbed my forehead, wincing when I hit the edge of the remaining bruise. “I would think so.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” he demanded.
Nothing, apparently. Maybe the injury had left my decision-making skills sluggish, but at Rob’s question, conviction flooded my veins.
We had to find her before she rushed headlong into danger.
I closed the laptop and followed him back out to the shop, where he gave Adelaide some bullshit excuse as we hurried past the front counter—we didn’t have time to go into detail, not if we were going to catch up to Eden.
Addie didn’t look like she believed him for a second, but we somehow managed to get out onto the sidewalk without fully explaining the situation.
“You’ll have to teach me that trick,” I said under my breath.
Rob threw me a grin as he shifted the truck into gear. “Somehow I don’t think it’ll work on Eden, but you’re welcome to try.”
Visibility in the snow wasn’t terrible yet, but the roads were getting worse by the minute as we made our way out of town. When Rob passed me his phone, I pulled up the photo and wondered which of these was Eden’s destination.
“What was she thinking, going out there alone?”
“Milo, if there’s one thing I know about Eden, it’s that when she has an idea in her head, she fights like hell to make it happen. She’s been like that since she was a toddler. Not impulsive, just…determined.”
A memory of the look on her face that night when she approached me in the hotel bar, vulnerable but so beautifully bold, flashed through my mind.
Determined was a good word for it. In this instance, it was hard to appreciate that trait, but I had so little insight into Eden’s childhood that I thought a little bit of information might take my mind off the danger she was diving straight into.
I scrubbed a hand over my jaw and muttered, “Determined. Yeah. I’ve noticed.”
“And also stubborn as a mule. Honestly, I’m willing to bet that was why her parents fought so hard to shut her down at every turn. If Eden knew how powerful her own will truly was, she’d have left them in the dust years earlier.”
“She was just a kid.”
Rob laughed bitterly. “A kid, yeah. A kid who could have moved mountains. I’m thankful every goddamn day that they never managed to crush her spirit. They certainly tried hard enough.”
Christ, I hated that. I had to close my eyes against the urge to scream at the injustice of it all. When I finally had a handle on my temper, I forced myself to ask the question I knew I should be asking Eden.
“Did they hurt her?”
After a harsh exhalation, Rob said, “No. Not physically. Our parents considered suing for custody, but there was no evidence of anything they could use in court. Just the religious stuff, the criticisms, cutting her down. My mom knew if they tried and failed, we’d never see Eden again.”
“And then she’d have no one,” I murmured.
“Exactly. For years, they kept a journal where they wrote down anything Eden mentioned happening at home, in case it came to that, but she was healthy, if not happy. She did well in school, even if she had no real friends besides us.”
“What about her brother?”
Rob didn’t glance away from the snowy road, but he made a face. “Isaiah stayed in his lane. He wasn’t an asshole, not to Eden, but he didn’t do a thing to make her life easier.”
“She was afraid he had something to do with this,” I said quietly. “Do you think he’s capable?”
The immediate shake of his head was more of a relief than I anticipated. “No. He had plenty of opportunities to drag her back under their thumb when she was a teenager, and he never did. I think…”
“What?” I prompted when he trailed off.
“I think he wanted to show her it wasn’t all bad.
Even if their parents took it too far, Isaiah’s one of those people who just has that faith, you know?
Less fire and brimstone and punishment, more love and forgiveness.
I think he was shackled too tight by his dad to be able to share that with Eden back then. ”
It broke my heart to think of the child she’d been, friendless and alone apart from the occasional visit with her cousins.
Now, though? She had all of those things she’d been missing out on—a life she’d created, friends and family all around her, a home where she was happy. And she’d chosen to run off in a snowstorm to face down a woman who was like a specter from her past.
For me.
My lungs felt too tight to take in enough air as panic crawled up my throat. “Rob, we need to tell the police where she went. I should’ve thought of that before we even left. I just hoped we’d catch up to her at one of the buildings.”
“Call them,” he said immediately, peering through the snow that now fell like a curtain over the road in front of us. “Call them now, because we’re almost there.”
Before I could choke on the threat of what we might find when we arrived, I set Rob’s phone in the cradle on the dash so he could see the map, pulled up Rose Hanson’s contact on my own phone, and hit the green button.
“Milo, what the hell is going on?” she demanded as soon as she answered the call.
Surprised by her response, I said, “Eden went after the woman who attacked me.”
“Where are you now?”
I glanced at the map on Rob’s phone. “On 104, heading to the old Juniper Canning warehouse. Eden marked two options on her laptop, but I don’t know where she headed first.”
“Listen, the woman who came after you is named Sandra Billings. She’s Isaiah Campbell’s sister-in-law. He called us about ten minutes ago.”
“Shit. Are they working together?”
“No. His wife said her sister had been talking about devils and games opening the gates of hell. She thought it was just senseless rambling.”
“Jesus,” I muttered. “What about the kid?”
I heard muffled talking in the background, then Rose’s voice gentled.
“It was Eden’s niece, Eve. She was spending her school break with a friend in town.
They played some Dungeons & Dragons, I guess, and she was curious about your store.
She was going to come in, but she saw you closing up and thought she’d missed her chance.
That’s when she saw her aunt show up and hit you over the head. ”
Her niece had saved my life just as surely as Eden had. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, hoping the two of them would be able to get to know one another when this was done.
Rose murmured some directions to somebody, then said, “Eve just got home today, and when the pastor from Cortland called Isaiah to say he thought Eden was in trouble, Eve told her parents everything. Isaiah called us immediately.”
Rob sent me a quick glance with his eyebrows raised. Maybe Isaiah Campbell had some redeeming qualities, after all.
“Look, we’re on our way to you. Do not do anything stupid, you hear me?” Rose said sharply, but I wasn’t going to waste time arguing.
Eden was in trouble, and we might just be the only ones who could reach her in time.