Chapter 59
Haven
Deputy motherfucking Thatcher is standing on our porch.
He’s not in his uniform—unless it’s hiding somewhere beneath his beanie, scarf, mittens, polar fleece puffer jacket, thermal pants, or insulated snow boots—but he’s still the deputy of Agony Hollow.
On our porch.
In Montana.
“Good fucking lord it’s cold out here,” Thatcher says, glowering first at Bastian, then Kai, then me. “Why’d you half-ass it when you could’ve moved to fucking Alaska?”
My heart is hammering so loud in my chest, it feels like it’s going to crack my ribs. “What…?”
Kai steps in front of Bastian and me, arms held out, and puts his body between us and the deputy, like shielding a serial killer and the girl who gutted a man with a carving knife is just another Christmas morning.
“I did it,” he says, voice flat and steady and completely fucking terrifying. “I killed all of them. If you’re going to arrest someone, arrest me.”
There’s a beat of silence.
At least, as much silence as there can be in the wilderness.
Then Thatcher laughs, glancing past Kai at Bastian. “So you kept it a surprise after all, did you?”
Bastian huffs out something that might have been a chuckle, and reaches past Kai to grab Thatcher’s arm. “You going to come inside, or freeze to death on the porch, Fox?”
“Freezing to death wasn’t on my bingo card this year,” he says.
I stare at Kai.
He’s standing like he’s grown roots—arms out, chest rising and falling, hands shaking.
He just confessed to murder on Christmas morning without hesitation.
For us.
“Kai,” I whisper.
He doesn’t move until Bastian puts a hand on his shoulder and physically guides him aside. Even then, his eyes don’t leave Thatcher, tracking the deputy the way a dog tracks a stranger near its family.
“Haven. Kai.” Thatcher gives Kai a nod as he squeezes past him through the doorway. Me and Kai turn to watch him go inside our cabin, then turn to stare at each other.
We both mouth, “What the fuck?” as we follow him inside, Kai shutting the door behind us.
Outside, the birds chirp, and sunlight sparkles on the mounds of snow, turning it into diamond dust.
And the woods watch, their shadows just as dark, just as deep as ever.
Ready and waiting, if we ever need to hide in them again.
But that day—if it ever comes—is far off.
Through some miracle, the three of us broke again and again, but we never shattered. We’re still capable of love…if you can call this strange and dark thing between us ‘love.’
And now that we’ve found it, now that we’ve found each other, none of us need to hide alone in the woods again.
We can hide together now.
Together, forever.