Page 149 of Ballrooms & Blackmail

Then she looks back toward the house.

Toward the lights.

Toward the people.

Toward the family she’s not truly part of.

River’s hand slips into mine. “Do you think she’ll ever stop running?”

I watch Angela disappear into the night, hear the soft rumble of a car engine starting up. Then I look down at my heart standing outside my body and thank my lucky stars that I’m able to be right here.

“Maybe,” I tell her as I watch headlights drift along the dark road. “Maybe if she finds somewhere worth staying.”

Angela

The road sign appears just after midnight.

WELCOME TO CEDAR HOLLOW

Population 1,812

Where love is the only currency that matters.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mutter.

Only Pascal would send me somewhere like this.

Love. Ha.

Power. Money. A spine of steel.

That’s what matters.

Rain drizzles softly across the windshield as I take the final curve of the mountain road, the dark pine forest that had been on either side of me for miles fading away, revealing a town…

That’s empty.

Much like the last year of my life.

Just silent. Just empty. Just…uncomfortable.

I drive along the quiet street that’s lined with adorable storefronts. Flower boxes sit beneath windows, flags hang from streetlights, a bookstore’s window still glows faintly despite the late hour.

All the while, Pascal’s instructions replay irritably in my head.

Lay low. Maybe do something fun for a change.

How the hell can I lay low in a town of less than two thousand people?

And there sure as hell won’t be any fun happening.

I park outside a small inn near the center of town and step out into cold mountain air, the scent of cedars and smoke in the wet air.

For a moment, I simply stand beside the car listening to the quiet, something loosening in my chest.

No one knows my name. No one knows what I’ve done.

A bell jingles softly behind me, and I whip around to see a man coming out of the back of the bookstore.