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Dad’s jaw flexed. “You should’ve called.”

“Yeah,” Ben said quietly. “I should have.”

Something cold moved through me. The roads. The trails. The miles I ran alone because running had always been the thing that belonged only to me.

Dad’s face emptied.

Riot stopped with his thumb over his phone.

Marion whispered, “Oh, God.”

Sunshine came to me. She reached for my hand, then stopped when she saw Declan holding me and settled hers against my arm instead.

Nobody told me it was going to be okay.

I was grateful.

Dad turned back to Ben. “Did he threaten her?”

“Not in words.”

“What did he say after that?”

“Nothing useful. I told him to get off my property.” Ben’s mouth twisted. “He smiled.”

That sounded like Wade.

I didn’t know why.

I had almost no memory of him.

But something in me knew it anyway.

Dad and Riot changed.

Riot started making calls. Dad asked Ben questions in a clipped, controlled voice. What had Wade been driving? Which direction had he gone? Exactly how long had he been there? Had Ben seen anyone else?

Ben answered everything he could.

No one else spoke.

I stood inside Declan’s arms and listened.

The fear kept getting bigger.

Because if Ben was right, then Dad and Riot were wrong.

Their guy was wrong.

The person they trusted to put eyes on Wade was wrong.

And Wade Mercer was not somewhere far away being watched.

He was here. In Briar. He knew Ben coached me. He knew I ran.

I looked at Dad. “Friday night.”

His questions stopped. “What?”