“Izzy,” Cash said, which wasn’t an answer. She wanted to grip him by the collar of his shirt, haul him into the air, just like he’d done with Mia.

“Is. Mia. Here?” Izzy repeated, patience long ago worn thin.

“She was. But she left. Maybe an hour or two ago?”

“Shit.” The curse was wrenched from her, and Cash shifted back as if it had been a slap.

“Did you ever see the body?” Izzy asked, her eyes on his face.

He blinked, but in surprise. “From the bay? The reporter’s? No.”

Izzy glanced around. There was no one to overhear the conversation. She weighed her options. There was a good chance Mia was at the diner or at the store or back at Jimmy’s. But there was an uneasiness in her gut that was telling her that wasn’t the case. If Lacey had Mia, Izzy would need help. She licked her lips, turning back to Cash.

“I need you to tell me where you were that night,” Izzy finally said. “I need you tell me, and I need you not to lie. Do you understand?”

Cash swiveled his jaw, opened his mouth, closed it. His gaze flicked past her, out to the bay. They stood like that, in silence, for far too long. But she didn’t push.

Finally, he nodded once.

“I was at the lighthouse.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

MIA

The snow gave way beneath Mia’s bare feet, the frozen crust shattering so that it sliced at her skin. She knew it should hurt, but it was nothing more than a nuisance—the crimson drops a breadcrumb trail that would make her easier to follow.

Mia tripped, went down on a knee, and the world spun out from underneath her even as she remained still, frozen where she’d crouched. Her chest was tight, her head thick, filled with heavy words and blurry thoughts. The heartbeat that should have been thundering at her pulse points was weak, thready when she found it with the tips of fingers that scrambled at clammy skin.

Soon everything would be numb. Then warm.

It was animal instinct more than anything else that had her stumbling back up to her feet, to keep moving forward, even as her palms caught, ripped along the sharp barbs of the fence lining the gardens.

The dramatic black rock cliffs fell off into the ocean to her left, the Bell mansion stood in the distance to her right.

The forest. It wasn’t far. She could lose herself in it, find some kind of shelter.

The lighthouse, her traitorous mind whispered.

And she was running again.

Wind lashed against her, a whip biting into flesh. Her skin burned. She kept running. The trees would protect her. Get to the trees.

A wall of silence slammed into her when she made it to the woods—the waves, the wind, her blood all silenced.