Chapter 46
Kinsley
Chapter Forty-Six
The music drummed around us loudly while Thomas pulled me closer to him. We were at Braxton’s Fourth of July party, and I noticed the host himself while I rested my back against Thomas’s hard chest. Braxton was in the middle of the yard with a bottle of gin in his hands, dancing. He was wearing sunglasses even though it was already dark outside, and he looked pretty drunk. Hopefully he kept to our plan and was only pretending for the audience.
“Do you see her?” I asked Thomas, who leaned down before talking so I could hear him.
“No,” he rasped into my ear, causing goose bumps to spread over my body. “And do you see him?”
I shook my head. I didn’t see anyone familiar besides Braxton, and it worried me. After we discovered not just Lizzie’s ring but a picture of Josh, too, it was obvious who was behind all this. We just still didn’t understand why.
“We should go and help them look for them,” I added, and Thomas grumbled.
“That’s not the plan, Sage, you know it,” he said, and I shrugged.
It felt maddening to just stand here and keep an eye out.
“It’s a stupid part of the plan,” I argued. “Besides, I will die of boredom if something doesn’t happen soon,” I added, and he chuckled into my ear.
“It’s still a no,” he murmured, and I scoffed. “We are so close, Sage,” he added, his voice husky, and I shivered.
He was right; we were close. Last night, after we got back to the lake house, we made up a plan. Connor called Braxton about the discovery we made, and he made sure that Samantha was coming to his Fourth of July party. I had no idea how he did it, but I believed in his charm; I had to admit, he knew what he was doing. After Braxton promised us she would be there, we just had to catch her. And her brother, who would probably show up too. After all, he was always there lurking in the shadows. It all made sense now. How the ring got to Braxton’s house, how she knew exactly when we weren’t home, and she even knew about my phobia after Kevin told her, for which he couldn’t apologize more. Well, he could have, but it was okay.
“Show me again,” Thomas said, and I pulled out my phone, unlocking the screen.
As soon as the picture of his mother’s ring on that woman became visible, his body tensed against mine.
“I tell you what,” he rasped with a sigh, and I looked up at him curiously.
His eyes darkened as he looked down at me from under the shield of the black baseball cap that Braxton had given us. Mine was fixed to the waistband of my denim skirt.
“We can look around.” His hold around my waist tightened while he scanned the crowd, and my heart jiggled excitedly in my chest. “But do not under any circumstances tear away from me,” he said, dropping his eyes to me once more, and I nodded.
I pushed myself away from him, and we moved into the partying crowd. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and when I reached in to pull it out, I felt something else in there too. I forgot I had the ring with me. My phone buzzed again in my hand, and I unlocked the screen.
CORA H.
She’s here
Cora H. started sharing location with you.
I reached after Thomas to show him the text, but he wasn’t standing next to me as I thought he was. I looked around the crowd, but it was full of unfamiliar faces, even Braxton had disappeared. So much for “don’t tear away.”
I was about to push the ring back into the safety of my pocket, when I felt something on the loop of it that I hadn’t before. I put the ring under the light of my phone and furrowed my brows. Could that be…?
I forwarded Cora’s text to Thomas, then hurried toward where the red pin showed her on the map at the edge of the woods.