Chapter 22 Lara
Lara
The truck was long gone, Sarah on her way to safety and freedom, and I was still left wishing Cassius had given me time to ask what he’d meant.
I doubted it could be about anything other than my sister, but how would he know what Rachel had been through?
Why would he insist the blame shouldn’t be laid at Calder’s feet?
The thought dug like a splinter into my mind. The more I picked and pulled and tried to work it out, the deeper the notion of Calder’s innocence was buried.
“Lara!”
My head snapped up, my gaze having fallen to my feet marching along the path between the Stone house and Callum’s Watchtower. My gait faltered, seeing Calder walking toward me.
He didn’t move like a man injured. At least, not physically. The darker shadow of his short beard, the hollows under his eyes, and the firm line of that oh-so-dangerous mouth told a different story.
We both slowed and then stopped. The foot and a half of space between us was almost comical, considering his tongue had been down my throat and I’d been grinding on his lap, on his thick arousal, last night.
“Are you okay?” I asked, searching for any sign otherwise.
“Fine. Are you?” His husky voice confirmed he hadn’t slept as soundly as I had.
“Me? I’m not the one who was stabbed by a crazy man,” I blurted out, to which he stared and folded his arms, clearly still expecting my answer. My lips pinched tight before I huffed, “Yes, I’m fine. I ate. Your dad made breakfast, and he just left to take Sarah to the airport.”
Calder nodded. “She said she wanted to go home.”
“It’s for the best.” My eyes dipped, catching the breeze ripple his shirt right where his blood had splotched his scrubs last night. “Can I take a look at your wound, please?”
“It was superficial. I sterilized and bandaged it. It’s fine—”
“And as the medical professional, I’d like to confirm that.”
Calder didn’t budge. Damned stubborn man. The sun glinted harshly off his gold-chipped gaze, but I wasn’t going to back down. After a minute, he blew out a hard exhale and, wincing at the effort, hauled up the edge of his shirt.
The V. Those abs . . . But as soon as my eyes locked on his wound, I went from internally drooling to doctor mode.
I went to him, spanning my hands over his abdomen and hearing his low hiss. Forcing myself to ignore it.
His skin was hot under my fingertips as I palpated around the three-inch-long cut.
“Lara—”
“I need to check for infection,” I repeated, looking up to catch Calder’s jaw as hard as flint and his gaze as sharp as steel. One wrong move and I might cause him to spark.
I leaned closer and carefully focused on my purpose.
The skin didn’t look puffy or inflamed. No sign of infection or bruising from deeper internal damage. He’d used butterfly bandages to pull the sides of the gash together and hold them tight, but he hadn’t used a bandage on top.
I squinted. “Did you put superglue over this?”
He grunted. “Easier than taping a bandage.”
Fair. I swallowed, the doctor in me convinced he’d treated himself sufficiently, but the woman in me . . . the woman in me couldn’t be convinced to stop touching him.
“Satisfied?”
I stilled, heat toppling over my skin. Bad word choice.
I straightened slowly, a breeze blowing, bending around us rather than going between. Like there was so much tension and ache piled up between me and Calder that not even the air had room to squeeze by.
All my life, I’d been following a path—one that had taken me away from the life my mother had led, kept me safe from the kinds of relationships that had failed her and made me self-sufficient and independent, but this time yesterday, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you where I wanted that path to lead.
Today . . . today, I knew exactly where I wanted it to go: right to the center of his warm embrace.
There were so many things we needed to talk about, but the only thing on my mind was those moments in the rain when he held me.
Those minutes in the tent when we’d kissed.
It wasn’t just nature or desire; it was a natural disaster.
Forceful. Unstoppable. It destroyed everything we said we were. Every lie we’d told ourselves.
How did I even begin to talk about something that had changed everything?
“Sarah didn’t know anything else about Eden’s Children,” Calder said, saving me from sounding like a fool.
A fool who knew better.
My chest caved in on itself, hot hope deflating like a burst balloon. No matter what Cassius had hinted at, I knew this was the part of Calder that had sent my sister spiraling. The part that was stoic in the face of her wanting more. In the face of me wanting more.
I buttoned my arms over my front like they were a business suit, dressing me for a part I was reluctant to play.
“Did Callum find anything about its location?” I countered, at least confident I could match his cold practicality.
“No.” Calder’s masseter fired against his cheek, and he muttered, “We should walk. The sun’s already pretty high, and you’ve got nothing on your face. The cool breeze is deceiving.”
I followed his orders, but sensed he was holding back. “What is it?” I demanded.
Another pause. “The authorities just found Trent’s body.”
Trent’s . . .
I stopped short and strangled the words from my throat. “He’s dead?”
Cold crinkled over my skin, wrapping me in a frozen fabric of dread. Calder had said Trent was beat up pretty badly last night and that Matthew had taken him away, but not that he was dead.
Calder returned in front of me, his height blotting out the sun. “His body was recovered near a popular but difficult hiking trail in the park.”
“What?” I choked out, confusion shredding my comprehension. “I don’t understand. Did they leave him there without medical attention? The police should be able to see evidence of trauma—of the fight. If we tell them we know who attacked him and where—”
“His body was found at the bottom of a fifty-foot ravine. They won’t find any evidence of what Ben did to him,” Calder said tightly. “Or what they did to hide that evidence.”
I pressed my hand to my stomach, feeling it cave and crumble. I’d seen countless traumatic injuries, from motorcycle accidents to stab wounds, come through the ER, but nothing had made me physically ill like hearing this. A murder made to look like an accident.
“Last night, after attacking Trent, Ben said something,” Calder continued. “He told Sarah she would thank him one day for knowing how to get rid of Trent. I was focused on other things, but now . . .”
My eyes rounded. “You think . . . they’ve done this before?”
“Remember how Sarah mentioned she wasn’t concerned with the waivers or taking out life insurance to join Eden’s Children?”
“Yeah . . .” My eyes bulged. “No.” My head swung side to side. “If they are killing people and getting paid for it, I think someone would’ve noticed by now.”
I knew a little something about how insurance worked. Health insurance, life insurance . . . they were all the same. A business. A for-profit business that employed every trick in the book to not pay on claims.
“Killing people, yes. But death by misadventure . . . not much wiggle room.”
Misadventure . . .
“Is that what they’re calling kinky sex? Or is that what happens when you get a Christmas tree–shaped ornament stuck too far up—”
“It’s what happens where the insured party voluntarily took a risk that resulted in their death, which”—he stretched out his arms—“happens a fair amount out here.”
My gaze rolled along the peaks and valleys charting an EKG into the horizon, the whole picture coming into view. A murder made to look like an accidental death. “You think what they did to Trent . . .”
“I think they’ve done it before.”
I lifted my hand to my throat, feeling my screaming pulse. “Did you . . . Did Callum find proof?”
“Creighton used to work closely with the coroner for Teton County. I told him about Trent’s connection to Rachel’s disappearance, so he’s on his way there now to get a list of all the deceased whose deaths were ruled as ‘death by misadventure’ in the last three years.
” His masseter drummed against his cheek.
“Sarah remembered the policy was with UnitedLife, so once we have those names, we can confirm with the company if they had policies for the deceased, and if Adam Eden was the beneficiary.”
“Will that help us find Rachel?”
His voice sank. “Not directly.”
“What if we called the police? Told them Trent’s death wasn’t an accident? Told them about the retreat—”
“We have no proof, Lara,” he growled. “And if they decided to get rid of him—get rid of his body—I’m damn certain they got rid of any evidence back at the retreat.
On top of that, the second we send law enforcement near there, Maxwell, the retreat, Eden’s Children .
. . they’re going to pack up and disappear, and take Rachel with them. ”
“So we just keep the knowledge that they’re killing people for insurance money to ourselves?”
“No, we keep digging into the theory that this is what they’re doing while we keep looking for the compound. At some point, Maxwell is going to go back to the Garden.”
My jaw dropped. “We can’t wait another two weeks to figure out where Rachel is.”
“We’re not,” Calder clipped and started walking toward the house again.
“Then how are we going to find them?” I jogged to catch up.
“Eden didn’t just wave a wand and a compound appeared.
Not in the wilderness. There are certain nonnegotiable components needed to live somewhere, even in the wilderness.
Water. Shelter. Energy. Food. If they’re living off the grid, some of those things can be found or foraged, but energy can’t be.
They’d need some way to create it outside of the power grid, and the cheapest way to do that is solar. ”
My brows knotted. “So Callum’s going to send a drone out looking for solar panels in the forest?”
Calder sent me a flat look over his shoulder. “No,” he grunted and kept moving. “When we were getting in the Jeep to go to the retreat, I noticed solar panels on the roof of the Wilderness Within building. They were the same brand as the ones Callum put on his house: Peak Energy.”
“And you think they bought the same ones for Eden’s Children?”
“I think it’s highly likely,” he muttered.
“Even if they did, what are the chances they’ll have records after everything Eden’s Children has done to remain hidden?”
“They’ll have to. Solar panels are highly regulated by the government for tax purposes. They’ll have to have a record of the purchase to him or Eden’s Children if they want the tax credit. Once we find that, I’ll be able to follow the trail.”
“We.” I stiffened and corrected him, “We’ll be able to follow the trail.”
I stared at his back—at the give and tug of his trapezius and deltoids as he walked away—and then, against my better judgment, I insisted, “Wherever she is, I’m coming with you to find her.”
Calder spun around, a surprising amount of anger on his face. “Lara, did you just hear what I said? They might be killing people for life insurance money; they definitely killed a man because he knew too much—”
“I don’t care. I’ll be careful. I’ll do what you tell me to do. Stay where you tell me to stay. Be silent. Be still.” I charged forward until I was in front of him again, fury jutting my chin out toward his towering form. “But what I won’t do is stay behind. Not after everything—”
“And if I don’t give you a choice?”
I sucked in a breath. True, Calder had not only the opportunity but also the skills to simply take the information and slip into the wilderness and leave me behind . . . Rage fringed my view in red. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. I wouldn’t let him.
“Is that really what you’d do? Just up and leave me?” I dared him to admit it—dared his stubbornness to go toe to toe with mine.
Heat bubbled off him like molten tar, sticking to my skin, staining my veins, and hardening me to him with every passing moment. Gold-green eyes bored into mine as though he could stake me to the ground right here, right now, and not have to worry about answering.
“Dammit, Lara.” His hands rose to frame my face, and I swore with his exhale, I felt the crumbling of his reservations.
He wouldn’t go without me. He wouldn’t leave me. My lashes fluttered against my cheeks as his head lowered. He was going to kiss me.
I welcomed the warmth of his breath on my skin, the press of his fingers on my face. I welcomed the way, even when we were arguing, his touch chased the tension from my body.
But instead of his mouth touching mine, it was his forehead that pressed to my own, and a strained groan that caressed my lips instead.
“I’ll do whatever I have to to keep you safe . . . even if you hate me for it.”
Hot and cold crashed like two oceans meeting inside me, churning and lurching my senses until I didn’t know up from down.
How could I both ache for someone to care about me the way he did but also hate him for it?
I jerked out of his hold, anger toppling all rationality. “Is that what you told Rachel when you left her? Because I can promise you, it didn’t help her at all.”
I spun around and stalked back to the house, burying the brief glimpse of pain I’d caught when it marred his beautiful face.
It was hard to think of Calder Stone as the kind of man who could be wounded, but the look on his face, the one imprinted onto the backs of my eyelids, was evidence that I’d accomplished the impossible feat. Like David taking down Goliath.
Only, by the time I closed Colby’s bedroom door behind me, I worried it wasn’t a giant I’d taken down with my harsh words, but a good man.