Chapter 8
Ace
The tavern door slammed shut behind Tessa hard enough to rattle the windows.
For a second, nobody moved.
Then the noise started back up.
Quiet at first.
A chair scraping.
Someone clearing their throat.
Whispers rolling low across the room.
I hated every damn second of it.
“Alright,” I said flatly.
The room stilled again.
“Show’s over.”
A few people suddenly found their drinks real interesting. Others looked away too late to pretend they hadn’t been staring.
Cowards.
I dragged a hand over the back of my neck and glanced toward the flowers scattered across the floor where she’d dropped them.
Purple petals crushed beneath someone’s boot.
Something sharp twisted low in my chest.
Because none of that felt right.
Not the accusation.
Not the way she reacted to it.
And definitely not the look on her face when she ran.
I’d seen guilty people before.
Hell, I’d spent years reading liars for a living.
Tessa hadn’t looked guilty.
She looked cornered.
Like she’d been dragged back into a nightmare she already knew how to survive.
Blaze leaned both forearms against the bar. “Hell of a morning.”
I looked over at him. “Who was that guy?”
Blaze shrugged once. “Passing through maybe. Never seen him before.”
Convenient.
Too convenient.
“You heard what he said,” Blaze added carefully.
My gaze snapped to his.
“Yeah,” I said. “I heard him.”
The tavern quieted again around us.
Everyone pretending not to listen now.
“And?” Blaze asked.
I didn’t hesitate.
“I don’t buy it.”
The words came out rough.
Certain.
Because nothing about Tessa Bloom lined up with the picture that guy painted.
Not the woman who remembered old ladies’ coffee orders.
Not the woman who handled flowers like they mattered.
Not the woman who flinched every time someone raised their voice around her.
Blaze studied me for a second. “She didn’t defend herself.”
My jaw tightened.
“I noticed.”
“She just…” He frowned slightly. “Shut down.”
Yeah.
Exactly.
That was the part clawing at me.
People who were lying usually fought harder than that.
Got loud.
Defensive.
Angry.
Tessa looked like somebody had reached into her chest and crushed the air out of her lungs.
Like she’d already fought this fight before—
and learned nobody listened anyway.
I grabbed my jacket off the back of the chair.
“Where you headed?” Havoc asked from one of the tables.
I shoved my arms into the sleeves. “Out.”
That earned me a look.
Didn’t stop me.
The mountain breeze hit my face the second I stepped outside.
Main Street stretched quiet in front of me now, sunlight glinting off parked trucks and shop windows.
No sign of Tessa.
Damn it.
I scanned the street anyway.
Like maybe she’d still be there if I looked hard enough.
Nothing.
I stood there for a long second, replaying everything in my head.
Six years.
Prison.
Confession.
The pieces fit together too neatly.
Too clean.
Real life wasn’t clean.
And neither was the look in Tessa’s eyes every time she talked about people leaving.
My jaw flexed hard.
“Not happening,” I muttered.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and scrolled to the number I needed.
Ranger intel.
If there was more buried in Tessa Bloom’s past—
I was going to find it.
Every piece.
Every lie.
Every truth.
Because somebody taught that woman she had to survive the world alone.
And standing there in the middle of Main Street, staring toward the flower shop she disappeared into—
I decided I was done letting that happen.