The car door jerks open, and I’m greeted by Tanner’s wild eyes and flushed expression. “Let’s go,” he hisses, his tone gripping my chest in a vicelike hold.

I look around, refusing to move until I get some answers. It’s dark outside, but we’ve somehow managed to drive through a narrow path in the woods, unpaved and clearly unfrequented. The headlights from the car illuminate the space in front of us, and I try to make sense of my surroundings. After a moment, it hits me where we are.

Why did he bring me here—to the abandoned cottage in the middle of the woods where I first saw Jaxon paint? Jaxon said he’s purposely left it for the wild animals to roam. It’s the one property in all the fifty acres that hasn’t been maintained. Surrounding it, all I see are trees and brush, but I know Hollow Falls is just over that hill.

“This is Jaxon’s property,” I say suspiciously. “Why are we here?”

“You’ll find out in a minute, Miss June.”

“It’s Aurora,” I say through gritted teeth.

It’s not that I have a problem with my last name. I’ve always loved it, in fact. But the way Tanner is saying it is in direct correlation to how he feels about my father, and that I hate.

My eyes follow his flashlight as he moves it around the woods in search of something, I’m not sure what until it illuminates a white SUV positioned between two trees like it was put there on purpose. It’s Scott’s SUV, parked neatly with no sign of damage.

Ice fills my veins. Why would Scott venture into the woods? Why is he still here? Does Tanner think Scott has something to do with the missing girl? That’s just—strange and wrong. Scott couldn’t possibly have anything to do with that. If anything, he’s still here because he’s holding out hope for me. For us.

But his car is in the woods, Aurora.

“Tanner.” I try to control the shake in my voice. “This has got to be a mistake.”

His jaw hardens, and his eyes narrow. “Get out of the car, Aurora. You need to see something else.”

Emotion clogs my throat, but I fight past it to ask what I need to know. “Is he okay?”

“We haven’t found him. Get out of the car. Don’t make me tell you again.”

My pulse quickens, and my head grows light. My veins fill with dread, and I clutch the handle of the door. “Why? Should I even be out here right now? Aren’t you all looking for that girl? Just take me back.”

“Get out of the damn car!” Tanner reaches for my wrist, but I pull it away and slide to the other side of the seat.

“Don’t you dare put your hands on me, asshole,” I spit. “I’m not under arrest. You brought me out here, but I came willingly. And if I want to get out of this car, I will walk out on my own.”

Tanner throws up his hands and steps back. “Fine. While you throw a princess fit in the back of the squad car, a young girl might be dyin’. Hell, I don’t even know why I care. She’s probably dead already.”

He stalks off, and blood boils in my chest. I scramble out of the car after him, slamming the door behind me. Anger swirls around me like a tornado ready to annihilate anything standing in my path.

“Tanner, what the hell is going on?”

The glow of the headlights shines on him. His back is to me as he takes a deep breath and releases it loudly. He spins to face me, then places his hands on his hips. “Look. I’m just trying to get to the bottom of whatever the hell is going on out here, and I’m doing it my way. Not my father’s or the town’s. My way.”

“Why?”

He shakes his head. “I can’t tell you. But I need you to work with me. Trust me. I have a really bad feeling about all of this.” He points to the SUV. “I ran the plates. You used to live with this guy? This Scott Turner?”

I nod without hesitation. “Yes. We lived together as friends.” Tanner turns his nose down at me like he doesn’t believe me. “We dated a little in the end, but it was nothing. We’re just friends.”

“Then why did he come to Balsam Grove, Aurora? Why do I have witnesses telling me he offered a young girl a ride at the bar last night after she stormed off from her boyfriend? And why the hell is his car here in the middle of the woods near our old stomping grounds?”

I swallow, scanning Tanner’s eyes for any clue about what his theory is. “He was checking up on me. I didn’t exactly tell him I was leaving Durham. It was shitty of me to do. He cares about me a lot, but I couldn’t bear to say goodbye. So I left, and he found out where I was and showed up. I thought he left yesterday.”

“Is that the last time you saw him? Yesterday? When?”

I exhale heavily, trying to remember. So much happened yesterday. “Um. He showed up at the café around seven p.m. It was before Canvas and Wine. He saw Jaxon, freaked out, and left. Like I said, I thought he left town.”

“Did he leave angry?”

I open my mouth to respond. That’s an easy answer. Yes. Scott was madder than hell, but I’m afraid of what Tanner’s fishing for. “He was upset, yes, but wouldn’t you be given the situation? He didn’t yell or anything. He just left.”

“But he didn’t. He was supposed to check out of his room this morning. The hotel’s been trying to call him, but nothing. He just—poof—disappeared. We’ve been investigating all out-of-towners and locals all day, but this isn’t looking too good for your friend, Aurora.”

“What do you think he did?”

“If anything happens to that girl, he’s a suspect.”

I whip my head to face him, my eyes stinging with new tears. “Scott would never hurt anyone. Ever.”

“You said the same thing about your daddy, didn’t you?”

I gasp, his words slamming me hard in the chest and pushing the emotion higher up my throat. “Go to hell.”

Tanner lets out a frustrated growl. “What did I tell you about coming back here? It was a mistake. A big fucking mistake, Aurora.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “How am I the enemy here?”

“Seven years,” he says through his teeth, spit spraying from his mouth in frustration. “This town has been safe for seven years. Not a single missing hiker. Not a murder, not even a death outside of natural causes. You see how this looks, don’t you?” He shakes his head. “I warned you this would happen.”

My jaw drops, anger swirling inside me like a cauldron finally ready to bubble over. I’ve had enough. “And why would you have warned me to stay away when the murderer was caught and put away years ago? It makes no sense. The town wanted my father convicted despite the lack of hard evidence, and they got it. Y’all got what you wanted. Now he’s dead.”

“And now you’re back—for what? For revenge?”

A half-growl, half-scream rips from my throat in frustration. “Jesus, Tanner. First you accuse Scott of hurting someone, and now you think this is all some sort of revenge plot? Did it ever occur to you that the girl’s boyfriend had something to do with it? Or one of the other dozens of hikers that came out this week? No? Why not? Why are you dead set on targeting me and the people I care about? I can’t make sense of it.”

A cold hand grips my wrist, and before I can stop the force, I’m being yanked toward Scott’s SUV. Tanner shoves me toward a tree on the left side of the car, so close that my nose is pointed into the bark just where the wood has been carved. The glow of the headlights illuminates the small space.

“What the fuck is that, then, Aurora? Who carved that?”

I gasp and jerk back against Tanner, who releases his grip on me.

“M.R.?” Her initials come out on a breath. I whip my head toward his, ice filling my veins. “Is that her? The missing girl?”

“M.R. Melody Roberts. Look at the tally marks.”

A chill scrapes my spine as I turn again toward the tree. And there they are: eight familiar tally marks carved in the wood.

“Th-this doesn’t make any sense. Are you sure this was just carved today?”

“Look down.”

Tanner aims a flashlight at the ground where he wants me to look, and I see shavings everywhere.

“But how?”

He gives me a long stare before letting out a heavy sigh. “Let’s just say I’ve been conducting my own investigation over the years. You said you have no memory from those three days you were taken, right?”

I nod, then swallow. “Nothing. It’s all just…empty.”

“Is there anything you’ve been able to remember since then? Anything at all? A motive, maybe?”

I shake my head before I even give it a thought. “No, I can’t—”

“Think hard. Anything at all. A smell. A feeling. A moment. Something you never told anyone before.”

Letting out another breath, I shake my head. When I think of those three days, all I see and feel is a darkness I can’t seem to find my way out of. My eyes snap up to his. “Darkness.” I swallow. “I remember the darkness.”

Tanner lets out a sarcastic laugh. “Well, that’s helpful.”

Trying not to steam at his words, I think back to last night, which brought me closer to those three days of darkness than ever before.

I can’t tell Tanner that I painted a cave because I don’t remember doing it, and I’m not sure what it represents. And I definitely can’t tell him that I dreamed about it, too. He’ll just laugh at me again.

“Why, Tanner?” My voice rattles through my anger. “Why does any of that matter? It was so long ago.”

His eyes move toward the woods. “I don’t think your dad killed those girls. And I don’t think he was the one that tried to kill you.”

A laugh bubbles up my throat. Tanner always did have a thing for conspiracy theories—politics, natural disasters, you name it. He always wanted to believe there was something beneath the surface, which I probably would have appreciated if he hadn’t been one of the voices in town accusing my father of the hateful things he was tried and committed for.

I’ve spent the past six years after my father’s guilty plea convincing myself of what he was charged with. I thought I’d finally come to terms with what my father was, in fact, capable of, no matter how wrong it felt in my heart. And now, here’s Tanner telling me it was all a lie. A setup.

“Okay,” I say, throwing up my hands. “I’ll bite. Who did it, Tanner? Who framed my father and murdered all those girls and hid their bones? Tell me. I’m dying to know.”

Everything about Tanner should terrify me right now. The glow of the headlights that casts a halo around his lean, uniformed body. The seething look of hatred on his chiseled face when he stares down at me from his six-foot frame. The glint of satisfaction in his eyes because he knows he’s gotten under my skin. The rough brush of his sweaty palms wiping against his pants. And the odd combination of musk and patchouli that brings a rush of familiarity and hits me right in the gut.

And then the whistling begins from behind me.

Fear could grip me. It could whisper irrational warnings in my ear. But I learned years ago that fear kills faster than courage. Something tells me I’m going to need all the courage I can muster tonight.

“Everything okay out here?”

My heart stops, and my head whips toward the familiar voice; toward where the whistling stopped. His voice is slurred, like he’s come straight from the bar.

Sheriff Brooks.

“Everything is fine,” Tanner cuts in as he grabs my arm, his other hand on his holster. “Get back in the car, Aurora.” He looks up at his dad. “We’re heading out now.”

Brooks’ eyes widen as he takes in the SUV Tanner and I are standing in front of. “How did that get out here?” Just the casual tone of his voice bristles the hair on my arms.

“It belongs to a Scott Turner, a friend of Aurora’s,” Tanner says, gripping my elbow again. “I was just questioning her, Pops, but we’re done here for the night. Taking her to the station now. I’ll be back for the search in the morning.”

“Wait, you aren’t searching for them tonight?” I jerk my arm away from Tanner again as I turn to face him. His eyes dig into mine, as if he’s begging for me not to argue. I don’t understand.

Brooks lets out a deep laugh. “Search parties take place during the day. You should be familiar with the process, Miss June. It’s not safe at night for us to dispatch an entire rescue team into the woods at this hour. We’ve just got a private team out searching tonight.”

A private team? What the hell is Brooks talking about?

“Just the deputies and myself, Aurora,” he says in response to my confused face. “But seeing as you know the boy who’s managed to park his car in our woods, perhaps you should join us. You tried calling him?”

“I don’t have a phone.”

Brooks’ face twists in half-amusement, half-intrigue. “Well, ain’t that unfortunate?”

“Alright, Pops, that’s enough. I’ll get Aurora back to the station, and I’ll join you after she answers some questions. I’ll radio you any leads I get. You good out here?”

Why does Tanner sound like he’s in a rush to leave? The dynamic between him and his father has never been something that’s made sense to me. Growing up, Tanner seemed terrified of his father, but that didn’t stop him from constantly getting into trouble. Despite the issues between them, Brooks would somehow find every loophole in the book to get Tanner off the hook for his crimes.

“Actually, son, I think I’ll take Aurora off your hands. You head on back to the station now.”

Tanner’s grip on my arm strengthens, making me wince. “Ouch,” I hiss before shaking from his hold.

“Pops, you’ve been drinkin’. You shouldn’t be out here. Let’s all head back now, and we’ll reassess the situation in the morning.”

Brooks’ eyes grow wild. “You don’t give the orders around here, Deputy.”

“Don’t I have a say in this?” I cut in, staring between the two men. “Look, I’ll call Scott again once I get to a phone, but right now I need to get to the hospital. Claire might lose her baby, and Jaxon’s waiting for me.”

And that’s when I hear the click of a safety being unlatched, and I can almost feel the gun pointed at my back. I turn, despite the rise of panic in my chest, to see Brooks’ holster empty, his gun raised in his hands toward Tanner and me.

My heart leaps up my throat.

“Pops, what the fuck?” Tanner yells.

“Move away from her, son.” Brooks waggles his gun in a gesture for Tanner to move.

But Tanner doesn’t budge. Instead, he yanks me against his chest. “Get in the car,” he whispers through his teeth while reaching for his belt with one hand and pushing me behind him with the other. “Aurora’s got people looking for her, Pops. She’s leaving with me.”

Brooks lets out a laugh, his back arched and protruding belly pointed outward. He eases his laughter as he shakes his head, the unsteady barrel of his gun still trained on us. “You don’t seem to understand what’s going on here, boy. Aurora and I have unfinished business to attend to. Now run along before you find a bullet between your pretty blue eyes.”

I gasp, only getting a glimpse of Brooks over Tanner’s shoulder. He wouldn’t shoot his own son. But unfinished business? What does that—?

“What the fuck did you just say?” Tanner grabs his own gun from his holster. “You forget I’ve been putting up with your bullshit for twenty-eight years. No more. I’m not leaving here without Aurora.”

“You know better than to sass me, boy. Maybe you won’t leave here at all.” Brooks’ eyes narrow and his jaw hardens, and I swear I see his body sway slightly, bringing another image to mind.

It’s now that I remember the odd friendship Brooks struck up with my father. The secrets between Jaxon and me that somehow made it to my father’s ears. Brooks knew Jaxon took my virginity. He knew we’d been sneaking off together. Painting together. And on the night I went missing, my father confronted me about all of it.

Air stops in my throat as, piece-by-piece, memories surface and lock back into place. And just like that—I remember.