Chapter 22
Ethan scanned the article on his phone. Above it sat a photo of Priya Tan.
Fuck.
He strode past the gazebo. It had been three days since they’d found her body. He was surprised it had taken them so long to write about her death in the local paper.
What had happened? Had the person who’d pulled her from the car drowned her? Why?
They had no idea because there was no evidence. No fingerprints or forgotten items.
He was about to shove his cell into his pocket when a message popped up.
He frowned. It was a Facebook message. He never used Facebook Messenger. And it was from Maggie.
Maggie: Hey.
Ethan: Why are you messaging me here?
Maggie: Because I’m working and my laptop’s open and it’s easy.
Maggie: I miss you.
Ethan: Because the two hours since we woke is too long?
Maggie: Only two hours? Feels like longer.
Ethan: How are you feeling today?
She’d been playing it off like she was okay since that night with her aunt, but she wasn’t. Not completely. Lilith had wanted to mess with Maggie’s head, and she’d done exactly that.
There was a small pause before she responded. He almost messaged her again when finally, her response came through.
Maggie: I feel good. How could I not? I have you.
“Ethan.”
He shoved his cell into his pocket and looked up to see Maureen. She wore a deep purple flowy dress. With her silver curls, she looked every bit the town’s self-proclaimed psychic. “Hi, Maureen. How are you?”
“After hearing about Priya? Not good.” She touched his arm and lowered her voice. “I had a dream about her.”
“A dream?”
“I saw the river. I felt the water. It was cold and moving fast. And I felt her fear. But also anger. I’m not sure if it was anger from her, or the person who did this to her.”
He nodded, even though he didn’t believe any of the psychic stuff. “Thank you, Maureen. My team and I are working with Ward to figure this out.” Working with Ward was a stretch. They were working in the same area, that was about it.
“Okay, but if you need my help, you let me know. Because I get the feeling this wasn’t an accident, and the person who did this—they’re not done yet.”
For some reason, his skin prickled.
Of course they weren’t done. If someone had intentionally run her off the road and drowned her, they probably thought they could get away with murder and would do it again. “I’ll let you know if we need help.”
She patted his arm. “Good. This is my home, and I want it safe.”
Ethan continued down the street. His phone vibrated again. He was disappointed when it wasn’t Maggie again.
Ryan: Reminder—team training at 0600 tomorrow. That’s six in the morning, Joel. Don’t pretend you don’t know that.
Ethan’s lips twitched. He liked that his team could still make him smile with everything going on.
Joel: Bold of you to assume I’ll be asleep before then.
Ethan threw his head back and laughed. If anyone liked to mess with Ryan, it was Joel. Or at least, he tried to.
Ryan: Bold of you to think you won’t need sleep for what I’m going to put everyone through. It’ll probably be raining so bring layers.
Zac: Just a heads up, someone left what looks like an old burrito in the fridge. It’s mutating so not completely sure.
Joel: That’s Jay’s.
Zac: It just winked at me.
Connor: Shoot it.
Zac: Jay says it’s Joel’s. She also wants to know when she gets into this group chat.
Joel: When she stops blaming me for leaving old food in the fridge. Food wastage is a crime and not something I’m capable of.
Ethan: Is anyone actually working?
Ryan: Me. And who took the spare radio from the tech kit?
Joel: Define took.
Ryan: Removed without asking or putting back.
Joel: Definitely Connor.
Connor: You had it this morning, asshole.
Ethan chuckled, but the smile slipped when a woman walked around the corner, heading directly toward him.
Shit.
Lilith stopped in front of him. “Hello, Ethan.”
“I’m on my way somewhere, Lilith.” He stepped around her.
“Did you help her break into my home?”
He stopped and turned. “Excuse me?”
“I assume you did, because how else did she close the bedroom window? She always used to leave it open when she was sixteen and pulling off her great escapes.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face.
Walk away, Ethan. Don’t participate in this.
But fuck he was angry. “Maybe if you’d created a home where she felt welcome, she wouldn’t have felt the need to escape when she was a teenager.”
Lilith lifted a brow. “You’re saying it’s my fault. Hm. Is it also my fault my niece broke into my home?”
“I’m saying you know exactly what you’re doing every time you hurt her.” He inched closer. “And you lost the right to call her your niece a long time ago.”
Lilith straightened. “I kept that girl out of foster care.”
“Maybe foster care would have been better than whatever the hell you gave her.”
She gasped. “Well, I never!”
“And if you ever infer or even hint that her mother’s death was even slightly her fault again, you won’t like what I do.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“I’m warning you. Stop hurting her.” Without waiting for a response, he continued down the street, only stopping when he stepped inside Bloom to see Gerome standing over Maggie.
Then Ethan saw red.
“I’m so scared to go out after dark,” a woman fretted behind Maggie, making her pause in her typing.
Bloom was busy today. Some customers were standing by the flowers, choosing a bouquet.
Others were reading books on the couches in the corner with hot drinks.
Most seemed completely fine. But the table of women behind her had been talking about Priya Tan since the moment Maggie had opened her laptop.
“Don’t forget, it’s not just Priya,” a second woman said. “Two women went missing before her. Two. If Priya’s dead, they probably are too.”
“Is that serial killer status yet?” a third voice gasped.
Maggie forced her attention back to her work. Her business was officially launching in a week. That should be her focus. She’d already let all her followers know what she was doing. She’d started marketing. And potential clients had already started contacting her.
She scanned through her emails. She’d reached out to so many hotels and businesses in the travel industry to inquire about deals they could offer her customers, and most were open to collaborating.
The seat legs scratched across the floor opposite Maggie.
“I love this store,” Polly gushed, setting an iced matcha in front of Maggie and a sliced croissant in the center of the table. “I really do, but you know what I need?”
“A croissant and a coffee?”
“Yes. But also a project.”
“What kind of project?”
“The renovation kind.”
Maggie frowned. “The Wandering Bloom is perfect. What would you possibly change?”
The shop was beautiful. The perfect combination of vibey, laidback library and modern coffee-shop aesthetic.
“I know,” Polly gushed. “But I’m bored. And the office is brown and dull and depressing. Maybe I’ll renovate that.”
“Well, if you need help, I’m great with a paintbrush.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, I plan to put you to work. I’ll pay you in matcha.” She picked at the croissant. “How’s the business thing going?”
“Good. I’ve already had a ton of inquiries.”
“Of course you have. Your followers love you. What did you end up doing about that comment?”
It was hard for Maggie not to stiffen. “Well, I went to block them, but they’d already deleted the comment and their account.”
“Good.”
Was it good? She’d been hoping Ethan would be able to do his super-tech thing and figure out who was behind the fake account. Now they had nothing to go by.
The voices behind grew louder. “What if it’s one of those new guys in town? Gerome was saying some of them were dishonorably discharged from the military.”
Another woman gasped. “I heard that too! Apparently, one of them killed someone.”
“Probably PTSD-induced psychosis. You know that Ethan guy got here a year ago. His timing works.”
Maggie spun around. “That’s not true. Any of it. And if you were smart, you’d ignore anything Gerome Ward says.”
The blonde frowned. “Are you listening to our conversation?”
“I can’t exactly not listen when you’re right behind me and speaking loud enough for the entire café to hear.”
The brunette huffed. “We’re done anyway.”
Thank God.
As they packed up their things, Maggie turned back to Polly. “Sorry. That probably wasn’t good for business.”
“The fewer dumb customers, the better. Anyone who would assume Ethan or his team would do this obviously has bricks for brains. Those guys are great. Well, most of them. Do you know what Joel started calling me yesterday? Sunshine.”
“Is that bad?”
“Yes, it is, because I’m not sunshine. Not to him. That’s why he uses it.”
“Uh, so he’s being ironic.”
“He’s being a jerk.”
Maggie bit her bottom lip to stop the grin.
Because she swore there was barely a conversation with Polly these days where her best friend didn’t mention Joel by name.
And honestly, she couldn’t remember a time when Polly had spoken about any guy this much.
Polly prided herself on not being affected by men.
“And you know what else—” Polly stopped, her gaze catching on something by the door. “Oh, brother.”
“What?” Maggie turned and groaned at the sight of Gerome and one of his friends stepping into Bloom.
They went to the counter, but of course when he finished ordering, Gerome turned and went straight to Maggie and Polly.
Maggie started to pack up her things, because clearly she was not getting work done in here today.
She was too slow.
Gerome stopped beside the table. “Hey, ladies. How are your big brave soldiers doing? That dead girl must have put a real dent in their armor.”
“At least they found her. It’s more than your dad did for the other two missing women.” Maggie stood and slung her laptop bag over her shoulder. “And you’d do well to stop spreading lies about them.”
“Lies?”
“Yeah. Don’t tell people they were dishonorably discharged when they weren’t. Or spread lies about them killing people.”
“They were SEALs, of course they killed people. And I was making an educated guess on the discharge.”
“You’d have to be educated to do that.” She went to step around him, but he sidestepped in front of her, and she almost hit his chest.
“You think you can call me uneducated then run off?”
Polly stepped beside Maggie. “I think it’s time for you to leave, Gerome.”
The guy lifted a brow at Polly. “You’re kicking me out?”
“No. I’m asking you to leave.”
The café door opened, and Ethan stepped in.
Crap.
Gerome turned his head and smirked, like the sight of Ethan excited him. “Oh, hey, sailor boy. You here to save more of Deep River?”
Ethan stood beside her, so close his entire side pressed to hers. “Does Maggie need saving?”
One side of Gerome’s mouth lifted, and when he looked at Maggie again, his gaze swept the length of her body.
Ethan tensed, and she gripped his arm, a silent “I’m fine.” Gerome wanted a reaction out of him, and he shouldn’t give it.
“Guess not,” Gerome finally said. “Not right now, anyway.”
Polly’s employee called to Gerome that his order was up.
The jerk grinned at them. “That’s me. See you all later.”
Ethan didn’t take his eyes off Gerome until the guy disappeared outside. Then he turned to her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. He was just being a dick. He’s spreading rumors around town that you and your team were dishonorably discharged.”
“No one with half a brain would believe anything he says,” Ethan growled.
Except it sounded like the girls behind her had.
Polly squeezed her arm. “I’m going to help at the counter.”
Maggie nodded before turning back to Ethan. But when he continued to watch the window, she stepped closer, weaving her arms around his waist. “I missed you.”
Finally, he seemed to give her his full attention. “I think you said that already.”
She frowned. “I did?”
“Mm-hmm. But you can say it again. I missed you too.” Then he lowered his head and kissed her, and in that kiss, she could almost forget. About Gerome. The missing women. And the fact that the killer was still out there.
Almost.