Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
The next week is a whirlwind.I’m a robot before, during, and after work. My staff, somehow, just knows to pick up the pieces. They don’t ask too many questions, and part of me wonders if they assume Lincoln and I broke up… not that we were ever officially together.
He hasn’t come by like he used to, thanks to my request that he give me some time. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t parked his car outside of Firefly after Lucy goes to bed, all to watch over my building until five in the morning. Then he returns home, gets Lucy ready for school, works, and comes back for his nighttime shift.
I refuse to let him in. I’m still grappling with his lie. Still trying to make sense of the fact that he—Foster—has been out there the whole time while I’ve been scouring the internet for any sign of him. In a way, I’m angry that he’s let fourteen years go by without confronting me. Maybe a little embarrassed too. I was the closest link he had to Carley after his family rejected him, yet he never came to check on me. Never wanted to know how I was doing.
Foster and Lincoln are beginning to blur into the same person, making the man I fell for so hard and fast into a complete stranger. How does that happen?And how do I get past this? Or worse, do I get past this? I have so many questions but no one to help me find the answers. I won’t go to Lincoln, and I still can’t get ahold of J.D.
Frustration rushes through me as I look at the time, knowing what I must do. It’s four in the evening on Thursday. That’s three hours until Kyle’s shift ends, giving me just enough time.
After letting Kyle know I’ll be back, I skip out the front door and quickly tap into my rideshare app. Ten minutes later, I pull up to J.D.”s driveway, but no cars are parked in the drive. I let my driver leave anyway, determined to wait as long as I need to. I’m not leaving until I speak to him.
I approach the front door. When I raise my fist to knock, I stop myself, knowing that I’m risking a repeat of the events of last time, that Gena will open the door and turn me away. There needs to be another way to get to J.D.
“Come to the back,” a male voice whispers.
My heart catches in my throat and I look around, trying to find the owner of the voice.
“J.D.?” I ask, still searching the open space around me.
“He’s watching you.” Another whisper, this one more haunting than the first.
I look behind me and notice the same faded black car across the street. Holy shit, someone is watching me.
“We don’t have much time,” the voice says.
Tearing my eyes from the black car, my heart begins to beat fast. I should run—just take off at a sprint and get the hell out of here. But while I know spending one more second here is only sending me into a deep end when I’ve never learned to swim, I’m so desperate for a chance to speak with J.D. that I don’t listen to my own warnings.
A stone path circles the house, overgrowth sticking up between the rocks. I follow it blindly, my mission to see J.D. surpassing any regard for my safety.
At the back of the house, nothing is fenced in. It’s just an acre or so of land and woods surrounding it. A chill snakes up my spine as I turn back to the house.
“He can’t know we’re talking,” whispers the same voice from the front of the house. It seems to be coming from a screened window.
The lump in my throat is leaving little room to swallow. “W-who?” As if I need confirmation. He could only be talking about one person.
“Why are you here, Evelyn?”
I squeeze my eyes shut, finally recognizing the familiarity of the voice, even in a whisper. J.D. was my only comfort for so many years, besides Patrick. “I need to talk to you,” I whisper back. “There’s no one who understands me like you do.”
“What about Doctor Reed?”
I let out a shaky breath. “You mean Foster Pruitt?”
Silence fills the air. “I’m sorry, what?” J.D.’s voice rises slightly.
I nod, looking in the direction of the window. Now that I can finally place it, I can see an outline of a figure behind the screen. “Foster Pruitt is Doctor Lincoln Reed. The Pruitts were his adoptive family, but when he went to jail, they reversed the adoption. He’s been tracking his sister’s killer from campground to campground since he started to connect the dots. He thinks the Firefly Man lives here. In Bryson City.”
More silence fills the air, and chills explode all over my body.
“I think he might be right,” J.D. says.
I balk, confused how he could know such a thing. “What? Why would you say that?”
J.D. pauses again, and now I know he’s just trying to choose his words carefully. “Because… I fear the killer is one of my patients.”
Fear seizes me—the killer is so close and possibly someone I know. Even worse, it’s someone who has sat on the same couch as I have with J.D. and even possibly Lincoln. But my fear turns into dread, then into anger.
I ball up my fists, tired of the game being played by the two men I’ve trusted most in my life. “Tell me what’s going on. Please.”
“I can’t, Evelyn,” J.D. says. I can hear his desperation. “Just be careful. Please. You’re not safe. No one is. Not until the Firefly Man is caught.”
I squeeze my lids together, confused at what to do with this information. “If you think the killer is one of your patients, can you at least tell me who?”
Several beats pass before he speaks again. “He’s coming.” The rushed whisper makes all the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “Go, Evie! Leave now.”
The image behind the screen disappears, and I’m left with panic beating at the walls of my chest.
All I can do is run.
“You sure you don’t need me to help?” Janessa asks when she swings by to get her paycheck later that evening.
I’m trying so hard to not show the jitters I still feel long after leaving J.D.’s house. I raise my hand to wave while my head stays down as I wash the remaining dishes. “I’ve got it. Have a good night, and thank you for everything this week.”
Janessa grins and walks out the door. I turn off the hot water and wipe my hands, intending to lock up behind her. Before I can make it halfway to the door, Lincoln slips inside and pushes his back against the door.
I halt in my tracks.
He raises his hands in instant defense. “Please, Evie. Can we just talk for a minute?”
Everything J.D. said earlier rushes back, my chest swarming with conflicting emotions. “I’m not ready, Linc.” Even his nickname feels foreign to me now. “I’m still so confused.”
He lets out a breath and nods. “I know. And I’m sorry I’m the reason for it all. I don’t deserve your forgiveness. I don’t deserve your understanding. What I feel for you is real, Evie, and while I don’t expect you to see that after everything I’ve told you, I do need your help to find Carley’s killer.”
His eyes plead with mine. “Please, Evie. Let me help you remember.”
After everything I’ve learned in the past twenty-four hours, I didn’t expect for him to ask for my help. At the same time, I’m relieved he asked. “I do want to remember.”
His eyes widen, illuminating the forest green I love so much. “So you’ll let me help you?”
I let out a breath and nod. “On one condition.”
He nods. “Anything.”
I search his eyes, building the courage to ask for what I really, truly want. “Tell me who you really are. Tell me everything. No more secrets.”