Chapter Twenty-Five
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
April 2028
“IS THIS PUNISHMENT FOR working too much? For going back to work?” I look up at the bathroom ceiling, clutching the edges of the bathtub. It has been four days since the discovery of the Jeep at Mount Achor trailhead and we’ve had three full days of search activity on the mountain. But tonight, a combined decision was made between Sheriff Wilson and Sergeant James Warren, the leading State detective, to end all search efforts. Beau tried to convince them to give it one more day, but they couldn’t be swayed. Even if they were giving up…I wasn’t.
I’ve already decided to ask Beau for his help tomorrow. First, we both need a shower and some sleep—two things we haven’t gotten much of in the last few days.
Stepping into the house earlier, I dragged my tired and sore body to my bedroom without a word to the others. I stripped out of the clothes caked in sweat, blood, and dirt from hours on the mountain and climbed into the bathtub. The hot water felt amazing against my muscles, and I wondered why I hadn’t done this sooner.
Most of the guys from Alex’s bachelor party have left already. Cole, Jeremy, and Elijah left yesterday morning. Dean left last night when we returned from Achor, apologizing profusely the whole way out the door I pushed him out of. I appreciated their help but having that many people under one roof was enough to drive me insane. The family alone was enough to send me into a spiral half the time. Nick would have loved it. He always loved having everyone together. His dad says Nick is like his mom in that way. Don’t get me wrong, I love our family, but sometimes they can be…a lot.
“He isn’t gone,” I say to the empty room, but I’m not sure who I’m trying to convince with my words—me or the big guy upstairs. “So, why can’t I find him?”
The room remains silent and still. Despite my desperate pleas for answers and help—not just tonight but this entire time—they go unanswered, leaving me feeling helpless and hopeless. A heaviness settles in my chest as a sob builds. The warmth in my eyes begins to blur my vision. Thickness coats my throat.
My phone buzzes against the vanity.
Who the fuck? It can’t be Elena. She’s still in Florida, it’s too late for her to be awake, and I already talked to her earlier. She will be arriving in Haven with her grandfather in two days, and I’m no closer to finding answers about her dad today than last week. The thought of my impending conversation with her makes me sick to my stomach.
The call ends but picks back up immediately.
Climbing out of the tub, I pull my robe over my shoulders and pick up the phone.
Beau Turner.
“This better be important, Beau.”
“Nina…went back…I…trail.” His voice cuts out every few words and it makes my heart race. Is he still out on the trail? It’s well past ten o’clock, he shouldn’t be out there. He was supposed to be right behind me when I left earlier.
“Beau, you’re cutting out. What’s wrong?”
The call goes dead and when I try to call him back, it only rings until it reaches his voicemail. I curse under my breath. How am I supposed to make out what he was saying or know where to find him? My phone vibrates again, but this time it’s a text message.
My heart drops.
They found something? What does he mean they found something? I thought the search was off.
Shedding my robe, I run to the closet to pull on jeans and Nick’s sweater from the Jeep. We got the car back this morning after the State police finished running tests. They said they would have the results by the end of the week, but it was only slightly comforting to know they hadn’t found any initial traces of blood or a struggle inside the vehicle. Straightening out my bun, I pull on boots as another text comes through.
That single word stops me in my tracks.
The lake.
They found something…in the lake?
The parking lot where the search camp had been set up is clear, minus a few remaining vehicles. Two have searchlights on, lighting up the dark lot, and I can see four figures huddled over the hood of another.
Beau glances over his shoulder when I call his name, motioning for me to join them.
I recognize Sheriff Wilson, Sergeant Warren, and Deputy Max Johnson, one of Beau’s deputies, as the other men with him, and they all take turns looking my way. Their expressions are unreadable, unlike Beau’s—or maybe I’ve gotten better at reading him.
A paper map is spread out over the hood of the police truck with a large red X drawn near the lake, but not the one I thought Beau was talking about.
“Nayda?” I ask. Lake Nayda is a smaller lake at least half a mile east of the trailhead, past the dead end of the highway.
“Recognize these?” Beau doesn’t waste time, pointing to the evidence bags on the hood. Each one contains a separate item: a phone, a shoe, and a torn piece of fabric. Even from this distance and the shadows cast by the lights, I recognize the shoe as one-half of the missing pair from our closet. And if I tapped on the screen—if the phone works—I’m sure there will be a photo of me and Elena staring back.
I nod.
“You the know the code for the phone?”
“It works?”
Beau lifts the phone and taps the screen through the translucent bag. Sure enough, it lights up with the photo of Elena and me from last June, bright smiles on our faces. However, a large crack down the center stems from an impact point near the top right corner.
“I thought you said it was in the lake.”
“Beau and I found it a couple hundred yards south of Nayda,” Max says, motioning down the road.
“It was the only place I hadn’t personally looked,” Beau adds. “The only place we didn’t look. I didn’t realize it until Max and I were about to pull out and I just had this feeling…We went to do one final sweep. It reflected off our flashlight near the first bend.”
“1-0-3-0,” I say, still staring at the screen that has since darkened.
My birthday.
Beau types in the number and the screen opens.
“Well, that confirms it’s his,” Sheriff Wilson says, rubbing his chin.
“Because the photo didn’t?” I ask, earning a sigh from Beau and a glare from Wilson.
Sergeant Warren rolls his eyes but continues the conversation, trying to ignore the tension between me and Sheriff Wilson. “Why was it over at Nayda? Does he usually go out that way?”
“This is only the second time he’s been out here. He doesn’t usually hike here,” I say.
Max curses under his breath and gives Beau a worried glance, but Beau’s focus remains on the phone. His finger skims across the screen as he searches through it. “The last message to go out is…a failed message to Nina.” His eyes meet mine before he extends the bag toward me and I only look at it, glancing between the phone and him. I’m scared to know what the message says, but Beau nods, pushing the bag into my hands.
I look down at the green bubble with a bright red exclamation point beside it indicating it was undelivered.
I smoother the sob that escapes my lips, trying not to break here and now, and look up to meet Beau’s sympathetic eyes. My bottom lip trembles and I pull it between my teeth to settle it, but it doesn’t work as tears build in the corners of my eyes.
“Let’s give her a minute,” Beau suggests, beginning to usher the others away from me.
“N-no.” I clear my throat and dab my eyes. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I take a settling breath. I will not break right here in front of them. I can’t. “No. What else did you find?”
“Nina—”
My voice raises when I have to repeat my question. I won’t like whatever it is, but it doesn’t matter. Now is not the time to tiptoe around my feelings. “What else did you find?”
The sergeant picks up the third bag with the piece of fabric and hands it over to me. “You recognize this?”
“I mean, it could be from one of his shirts. He has a few long sleeves this color, but I don’t know for sure.” Lifting the bag into the light, there’s a splotch of something darker on the fabric. “What is this?”
“We need to test it, but it looks like blood.” Beau doesn’t sugarcoat it this time.
“This was with the phone?”
“Not far from it.”
Gone are the tears and hurt, replaced by pure anger. “We have been here for days and you’ve only now found this shit? You were about to call this off! No, you did call it off. You gave up before you’d searched everything!” Beau tries to interrupt me, but I hold my finger up. “Shut up, Beau. Not one more word from you or I’ll have your job before the sun rises in the fucking east.”
His mouth clamps shut.
I toss the evidence bag back on the hood and meet each one of their stares. “My advice? Figure out what is going on. I am done with the fucking games. I want to know what happened to my husband and where he went. And if you can’t do that, then you all better start looking for a new career path.”
It’s barely past five in the morning when I walk back into the house. The officers plan to do a final extensive search of the area later today, but they need to get back to their respective offices and make a few calls first. Beau had released Max from duty but told him to be on standby. They’d probably need him, considering the amount of ground that would need to be covered before the end of the day. Sheriff Wilson tried to argue everyone needed to get some rest before the search—no one would be any good if they were exhausted. Sergeant Warren smirked and shook his head before he patted Beau on the back and climbed into his SUV. Wilson tried to reason with Beau, with me, but the plans were clear, and they weren’t changing. Before I left, I told the sheriff of Puck County that if he didn’t want to do his job, I would find someone who wanted to. I was done playing by his rules, it was time we played by mine.
“You’re up early,” Kai says, entering the kitchen. I can hear his muscles pop and stretch, a few cracks here and there, as he stretches out and rubs his eyes.
“Just got home.” I fill a mug with fresh coffee and lean back against the counter, inhaling the scent.
“You just…You just got home?” My brother’s mouth hangs open. “Nina, please tell me they didn’t—”
“It wasn’t him.” I take a deep breath, another inhale of the rich, warm aroma emanating from the mug in my hands. “It was his stuff, and his shirt had blood on it.”
Looking up to the ceiling, I chew on the inside of my cheek, willing the tears to go away , but this time they refuse to retreat. “What am I supposed to do, Kai? He’s my best friend. My other half. I don’t…I can’t do this without him.”
“You won’t have to,” Kai reassures me, but he hasn’t seen what I’ve seen. “We’ll find him, Nin. We will.”
I swallow back the thickness coating my throat and finally look at him. “I hate you.”
“I know. I hate me, too.”
“This is all your fault.” A sniffle. “If you had just—You should’ve called me.”
“I know that, Nina. I never thought…Had I thought it would turn out like this, had I thought he was actually missing, I would have called. The second I realized it. But none of us thought that’s what was happening.”
In my heart, I know Kai didn’t mean any malicious intent by what’s happened. He would never do anything that he thought might potentially harm Nick or me or our family, but it doesn’t make the sting hurt any less. It doesn’t bring Nick back. Finding out the truth sooner may not have changed anything, but the thought still plagues my mind.