Her heart felt like it was going to hammer out of her chest as she sat on Matt’s snowmobile outside Cole’s cabin. It was freezing. She’d been sitting here for five minutes, unable to move.

She knew that it was beyond stupid to even be here. After what she’d heard from Mabel, she should probably get a restraining order, call him up and demand that he never speak to her again.

That last part, at least, was what she planned to do.

He’s a murderer.

Everyone knows it.

Since stumbling out of Mabel’s earlier that day, Tali had been unable to get the images out of her head—the blood-soaked room, Cole dragging a body out to the docks, a limp corpse floating in the water.

It was all just so fucking far removed from the Cole she knew. His sleepy smiles in the morning...the way he’d winked at her over the pool table before failing once again to sink his ball...the gentle touch of his fingers when he brushed her hair from her face as she lay in his lap and talked for hours about Ella, or Matty, or crepe recipes she wanted to try…

How he’d told her he’d loved her. He’d seemed so genuine.

Was anyone really that good of an actor?

Psychopaths, Tali, a voice in her head told her. You’ve watched more than enough crime dramas to know that yes, plenty of people are, and plenty of fools get duped by them every day.

And yet there she was, at his home in the middle of nowhere, about to go look him in the eyes to tell him it was over.

Well. She hoped the Lifetime movie they made about her tragic death would at least be halfway decent. She wondered who they’d get to play her. Hopefully someone cute.

She sighed heavily, dropping her head forward to rest against the steering wheel. She couldn’t put this off. Even though every rational part of her brain told her that she should break up with him over the phone, or at the bar, somewhere public...she couldn’t do that.

She had to do it now, and she had to look in his eyes as she did it.

She had to see what the rest of the town saw in him.

She jumped with a start when his cabin door swung open and he walked out. Shirtless, in plaid pajama bottoms and construction boots.

“Tali?” he called out. “What in the hell are you doing out there...? Did that rust bucket finally die on you?”

The truck had indeed needed to go in for repairs earlier that morning, hence the snowmobile, which she did not love.

Not saying anything, she jumped off it and walked quietly through the snow, stopping about six feet away from him and staring.

How had he done it? With a weapon? With his hands? She hadn’t asked. She hadn’t been able to formulate questions. But he’d really gone to a man’s room and taken his life. That’s what Mabel said. What Hudson said. They were honest people. She couldn’t think why they’d lie to her. And Cole had clearly been withholding information from her since day one.

“Tali, what’s—?” he started, confused. Then she saw a look of realization cross his features. The wind was howling, but she heard his very quiet: “Oh.”

She stared at him. Glared at him. That’s it? That’s all he had to say?

“I guess you’ve....heard something, then. About me. Something to make you look at me like that.” He sounded so quiet. So small. It made her want to punch his face in.

“Yes, Cole,” she said, as evenly as she could. “I have. So.. you’ll understand, I think, that this thing between us is over.”

Those eyes. Dark brown, with those little flecks of gold. They didn’t look like the eyes of a murderer. They just looked sad.

“Tali, won’t you let me explain?” he started, taking a step toward her, but she immediately took one back. This was the distance she was comfortable with. Even though she knew realistically if he wanted to charge at her, force her inside, do anything, he could. She had a knife in her pocket, but she knew it would be useless and it would more likely hurt her than him if she tried to use it.

He didn’t do any of those things though. As soon as he saw her step back, he froze, put his hands out, palms up.

“You should have explained weeks ago, Cole,” she said, her voice harsh. “Before I had to hear that everyone in town has been chatting about how I’ve been boning a murderer for the past month! There’s nothing you can say to make this okay.”

“Fuck,” he muttered, rubbing at his face. “Fuck. Tali, I know. I know that I should have—”

“Is it true?” she demanded.

“Wha—”

“Is. It. True? Did you kill that man? Did you kill the man they say you did?”

He fell silent for a moment, giving her that long, penetrating stare.

“Yes,” he said, and her mouth fell open, her hand clapped over it. “But Tali, you don’t…you don’t understand—”

“There is nothing,” she said, “nothing about that I need to understand. I came here to ask you to stay the hell away from me. There is nothing you could say that would make this okay.”

She was yelling. She was yelling, and he was a murderer and she should not be yelling at a murderer alone in the wilderness.

But he just looked devastated. Resigned and devastated.

“Tali, I know I don’t deserve it,” he said, sounding just as strangled as she had. “And I’m not going to try to stop you, but if you would please just give me a minute to tell you—”

“No!” she cried, tears falling from her eyes once again. “I don’t want to talk to you. Not now. Not ever. Please, just…just stay away from me!”

She turned and ran through the snow as fast as she could, leaping onto the snowmobile. He wasn’t following. He just stood there, shirtless in the snow, his shoulders hunched, looking absolutely forlorn. With a wretched sob, she turned from him, turned on the ignition and slammed her foot down on the gas.

“Tali, slow down!” she heard him yell over the dull roar of the vehicle, but she didn’t. She couldn’t.

Evergreens zoomed by her in a blur, merely shapes. She wiped at her eyes every few seconds, but they just kept filling with hot, salty tears.

He admitted it. He fucking admitted it.

He’d killed a living person. There was someone in this universe who was dead because of the man she’d just spent the past month falling in love with.

It was a nightmare.

She should feel free of him, but instead of anything remotely like closure, she was full to the brim with aching confusion. Longing.

She continued to speed down the hill, sobbing, snotting, a complete mess. All she wanted was to be back at Matt’s, a bottle of liquor in one hand and her phone in the other as she sobbed to Cass about everything that had happened.

She hadn’t even told Cass about Cole yet. Maybe deep down, she’d known something about him was wrong. Why else would she not have told her best friend in the world about her gorgeous, amazing boyfriend? She’d talked about every other thing. About Ella, about their fight, and the progress that came after. About Mabel, and the bar and all the weird, wonderful people who came to the Foxhole.

But she’d never talked about Cole, even though his weird thing about discretion didn’t really apply to people thousands of miles away.

He’d gotten her under his spell. She was weak. He’d made her weak, changed her—

BAM!

She felt the front of the snowmobile slam into a tree, and a moment later white-hot pain exploded in her head as she launched forward and collided with the rough bark. She slumped and fell to the side, landing in the snow in agony. Her gloved hand went up to feel her temple, and came away soaked with blood. Her neck ached too.

Fuck, she thought, lying there for a long while, too wounded to move.

This day could not possibly get any worse.

She got to her feet slowly, using the snowmobile for support, but her legs were wobbly, her head dizzy, spinning.

She looked at the front of the snowmobile and saw it was dented hard. Still, she gave the ignition a try, a try that proved futile.

She shut her eyes.

Why? Why was this happening to her?