Sable Peak (The Edens)

“Mateo, I—”

“Not yet, Vera.” I stalked down the trail, careful not to go too fast so she could keep up.

We’d been walking for a while, probably a mile, maybe more, and though she was ready to talk, I was not. The fury coursing through my veins was a vicious beast, and I needed more time to put it on its leash.

What was she thinking? What the hell was going on?

I’d give her credit for a stealthy escape this morning. She’d been quiet. But not quiet enough.

I hadn’t woken when she’d slipped out of bed or left the house. But that old Honda’s engine didn’t exactly purr. It had been enough to rouse me from sleep, and when I’d realized what was happening, I’d shot out of bed, making it to the front door just in time to see her taillights disappear.

By the time I’d gotten dressed, then woken up Alaina to change her diaper before loading her into the car, I hadn’t known exactly where Vera might have gone, but I’d had a hunch. So I’d dropped Allie at Mom and Dad’s place, grateful they were able to babysit, then hustled to Sable Peak, hoping like hell I’d find Vera on her hike.

Locating the Honda had been easy enough. But Vera?

I’d followed the trail, hoping I’d be able to outpace her and catch up. But damn it, she was fast. And then she’d abandoned the trail.

If not for all the mud, I would have missed the spot where she’d veered off the path. Luck had been on my side, and I’d spotted a footprint. They’d been few and far between, but I’d managed to head in the same direction.

She’d whistled. If not for that, I wouldn’t have found her. I’d lost her trail and had been going in a different direction entirely when I’d heard the shrill noise in the distance. Then she’d yelled.

She’d yelled for her fucking father.

Deep down, I’d suspected this. That these hikes were tied to Cormac. But I didn’t want to believe it. Was she searching for him? Or had she found him already? Maybe, if I’d waited a bit longer, I would have caught them together.

Fuck. Was she hiding him? Helping him? After all he’d done, how could she?

It was no coincidence that she’d come out here today, the morning after that FBI agent had arrived in Quincy. And instead of telling me about it, she’d just run away. Would she ever drop her guard and talk to me? Or would she always keep me in the dark?

My hands fisted and unfisted, and by the time we made it back to our vehicles, I was still really fucking pissed.

I dug my truck’s keys from a pocket and unlocked the doors, opening the passenger side first. “Get in.”

“But my car—”

“Can rust out here for all I care.”

She frowned. “Mateo.”

“Get. In.”

“Don’t be mad at me.”

“Mad?” I scoffed. “You fucking scared me, Vera.”

Her face blanched. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t ever do that to me again. Don’t ever leave without telling me where you’re going. If something is wrong, talk. To. Me.” I jabbed a finger into my chest with each word.

That was the real problem here. Not that she’d gone hiking alone, though I didn’t like it. Not that she’d snuck out of bed and my house. If she kept holding these secrets, if she kept setting me apart, we’d never survive it.

“I’m sorry, Mateo.”

The regret on her face eased some of my anger. “You’re searching for him.”

She nodded.

“Why?” There was venom in my question.

Vera swallowed hard. “He’s my dad.”

Yes, he was her dad. She loved him still, didn’t she? After everything he’d done, she loved him. Had he brainwashed her or something? I didn’t know how to deal with that. I didn’t know how to deal with this. Hell, this was fucked up. Absolutely, incredibly fucked up.

How did I fix this? I dragged a hand through my hair. “Have you been seeing him?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“But you’ve been looking for him. For how long?”

“Two years. Since we came back to Montana.”

Two years? Well, I’d give Vera one thing. She was stubborn as hell.

Was that why she’d moved to Quincy with Vance? I’d assumed it was to stay close to Vance and Lyla. But she was really here to find her father, wasn’t she?

“How do you know he’s in Montana?”

“I don’t but …” She dropped her gaze, eyes closing. “This is where we were living.”

That, I knew. But it was only a fraction of the story, wasn’t it? How exactly had she ended up in Idaho with Vance? What did my sister know that she wasn’t telling us?

Whatever story Vera, Lyla and Vance had been spinning was probably bullshit. My sister had been lying to me, to all of us, for years.

It hurt. Our family was better than that. But I’d give Lyla the benefit of the doubt. I’d give her the courtesy she hadn’t extended to me. If she’d lied, it had to have been for a good reason.

Probably for the sake of the woman at my side.

“Time for the truth, Peach. The whole truth.”

Vera’s shoulders sagged, like the weight of that truth was a heavy burden. When was she going to realize that she didn’t need to carry it alone?

She walked to her car, climbing up on the Honda’s hood. With her backpack stripped and resting behind her, she pulled her knees into her chest.

That familiar defensive position.

Someday, she’d learn she didn’t need it. Not with me.

I sat on the hood beside her, the heels of my boots braced on the bumper. Then I gave her the minutes she needed to tear down the walls guarding the truth.

“Dad grew up in Alaska. He became a cop and when he moved to Idaho, he worked for a backcountry unit because he loved being outside. He always said that he was born out of time. That he would have loved to have been on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He was into survivalist stuff, always researching how to make different snares or traps. He could look at any berry and tell you if it was poisonous or not. And he said that someday, he wanted to apply for that show Alone.”

If Cormac had been a survivalist, no wonder they’d lived off the grid. There was no way an average person could stay alive. But if he had the skills? Yeah, he could live off the grid for a long damn time.

“I don’t want to talk about that night.” More walls. Walls that were not coming down, not today.

“All right.”

“He didn’t kill them.”

My gaze whipped to her profile. What? Cormac was innocent? How was that possible?

Vera sat perfectly still, barely breathing, as she stared into nothingness. “My sisters. He didn’t kill them.”

Then who?

“But he did kill her.” Vera’s voice was ice.

Her.

Her mother. Norah Gallagher.

Cormac had killed her mother. Why?

Was it because Norah had killed Vera’s twin sisters? Oh, fuck.

This wasn’t a little secret. This was the secret.

Her mother had murdered her sisters. And for years, the world had believed Vera had drowned with them.

My brain struggled to rewrite everything I’d thought I’d known. Everything.

If Cormac had murdered her mother, he was far from harmless. But if her mother had killed her sisters, well … maybe he’d had a reason. What the fuck? What the hell had happened that night?

“Dad took me away,” she said. “He loaded up everything he could in a hurry. His gear and guns. Clothes. Boots. Medicine. Not a lot of my stuff, not so much that people would notice my things missing, but enough. We stopped at an ATM for cash. I stayed out of sight. And then we left Idaho. We drove all night and made it to the Olympic National Forest before dawn. We ditched the truck at a gas station, then started walking. I lost track of time, so I’m not sure how long we went before he finally let us stop. That first year is kind of blurry.”

Blurry? He’d taken her the night her mother had drowned her sisters. Yeah, that time would have been blurry for me too.

So Cormac had kept Vera with him. Why? He had to have known how hard that lifestyle would be. Why hadn’t he let her go and walked away?

Stupid question. A team of wild horses couldn’t drag me away from Allie. And if he had murdered Norah, his choices were to run or go to prison. The former meant staying with Vera. Maybe he’d thought the best place for her was at his side. I couldn’t exactly fault him for it.

Well, she wasn’t brainwashed. That was something. She’d stayed with her dad because … he was her dad. Maybe not quite the villain I’d thought minutes ago.

But he shouldn’t have taken her. He should have left her behind. Vance would have helped her. He could have gotten her into grief counseling and therapy.

Cormac had taken a traumatized teenager and isolated her from the world. He’d done it to keep her close. Because he hadn’t wanted to lose her.

I wouldn’t have wanted to part with Allie either. That I could understand. But everything else? Despite Vera’s love for her father, Cormac was far from blameless. It was going to take some time for this to sink in. To make sense of it all.

“We moved around a lot,” she said. “Stayed hidden. Stayed in the mountains.”

There was no shortage of remote locations in the Pacific Northwest. Hell, if Cormac knew what he was doing, he could have just bounced from national forest to national forest. From Idaho to Washington to Oregon to Montana. There were thousands upon thousands of acres of untamed wilderness, most of which had never seen a human being.

“It wasn’t horrible.” Vera shrugged. “Dad did his best to make it comfortable. We kept moving, kept biding time.”

“Time for what?”

“Time to be forgotten. Dad’s goal was always to get to Canada. He thought maybe if we traveled far enough north, we could set up in a small town where no one would recognize him. But he was worried that crossing the border would be a risk. Even though it’s relatively unguarded, he worried there might be surveillance equipment, like drones, or thermal imaging cameras. Maybe the roads had embedded sensors. He just didn’t want to chance it too soon, so we waited. Kept moving. Kept hiding. And eventually, we came to Montana.”

To Quincy.

“I got sick about four years ago. We’d had a few weeks where there wasn’t a ton to eat. My body was worn down, and I think I was dehydrated. It wasn’t anything serious but Dad didn’t want to risk pushing too hard. We’d just made it to Montana. He found a place tucked far away and let me rest for about a month. He built us a shelter. Hunted a lot. Once I started feeling better, I didn’t want to leave. I was tired of always being on the move. So we stayed.”

If they’d arrived in Montana four years ago, that meant they’d been living out here for two years. Two goddamn years. I loved camping. Give me two weeks, even two months, and I’d be happy. But two years? Damn.

“Is that the longest you stayed anywhere?”

She nodded. “I liked it here.”

“Where?”

Vera pointed north. “About ten miles from here. I’ll take you there someday. It’s not exactly easy to get to, but it was close enough to town that I could go in for supplies.”

I blinked. “You came in to Quincy?”

“About once a month.”

Had we crossed paths? Huh.

Vera probably knew the mountains around Quincy better than me or my brothers or even Dad. It made me feel better about all the hiking she did. Not great, but it eased a few fears. No wonder Vance never objected to her hikes.

“This is where Vance found you, isn’t it?” I guessed. “You didn’t just show up on his doorstep in Idaho.”

“Yeah. They were partners. Did you know that? He never gave up on finding Dad. Not because of their friendship. Vance thought, like everyone else, that Dad had killed us all.”

Vance had come to Montana for justice. After Lyla was attacked, the police had put out a bulletin describing Cormac. His build. His red hair. The scar across his face. Vance had seen the APB and come here.

“I’d come to town for supplies. Vance saw me. Chased me down. I took him to Dad.”

“Then what?”

“Dad told him the truth. Lyla was there too.”

I blinked. “What? Vance let that motherfucker around her after he tried to kill her?”

Vera flinched and guilt flooded her gaze. “I didn’t know what he did to her. Not until after Vance found us. I’m sorry. He shouldn’t have done it. He promised he wouldn’t have let it go too far, he was just trying to scare her enough to buy himself time and get away. He was worried that someone would find me. I’m not making excuses for him. I’m just … I’m sorry. I wish it had never happened.”

“And what does Lyla think about all this?”

Vera gave me a sad smile. “She has Vance.”

If Cormac hadn’t attacked her, Vance never would have come to Quincy.

And he never would have found Vera.

Son of a bitch. I’d still hate Cormac for what he’d put Lyla through. But damn if it hadn’t changed everything.

“You know the rest,” Vera said. “I left with Vance. We knew it would be impossible to convince people he didn’t murder my sisters, so we didn’t bother trying. We decided to tell everyone I’d left him in Idaho. Let them keep thinking he’s a monster. Better that than have the FBI in Montana.”

Well, they were here now. “You came out today to try and find him and warn him away.”

“Yes. He should leave.”

“How do you know he’s here?”

“I don’t.” She hugged her knees tighter. “I just … hoped. I didn’t think he’d really leave me.”

If Cormac had kept Vera hidden all these years, if he’d been determined to keep her close, my guess was he hadn’t gone far.

“He’s all I have left, Mateo. I know he’s not perfect. I know he’s done some horrible things. But he’s my family. I need to find him.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “He’s my dad.”

“Hey.” I cupped her cheek in my hand, forcing her to face me. “He’s not all you have. Not anymore.”

She sniffled, her chin quivering. “I’m sorry. I know I should have told you a long time ago but … how? It wasn’t like I could show up at a family dinner and say, ‘Oh, remember that time my dad almost killed Lyla? Yeah, it’s cool now.’”

How the hell could she make me want to laugh right now? This woman. I wrapped her up, hauling her into my chest to kiss the top of her hair. “From now on, we go out here together.”

“W-what? You want to help?”

“Yeah. And I don’t want you out here alone. Not anymore.”

Her eyes softened. “Thank you. But I have to come out here alone. If he sees you, he won’t show himself.”

“Oh, I think he will.” I was banking on Cormac’s protective instincts to come roaring to life. If he saw me with Vera, his curiosity might get the better of him. He’d want to meet the man sleeping with his daughter. “Am I a part of your life?”

“Yes.”

“Then he’s got to meet me at some point.”

“But—”

“Just say yes, Peach.”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“No more hiking alone. Promise?”

“Promise.”

I bent and dropped a kiss to her mouth, then slid off the hood of the car and held out my hand. “Let’s go get Allie and head home.”

She set her hand in mine, but not to climb off the hood. Her grip tightened. “Mateo?”

“Yeah, darlin’.”

Her chin quivered. “Thank you.”Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

With a tug, I pulled until she was on her feet and in my arms. Then I held on to her. There wasn’t much else to say, not until I could puzzle it all out in my head, so I just held on to her.

Tight enough that maybe the next time she thought about going it alone, she’d remember there was no need.