It had been more than a little disturbing that we could almost see the shed where Shiloh had been held for five nights. The mountain seemed to taunt us, even now. But the range was still beautiful—that beauty was simply haunted.
I opened one of the French doors, and Koda bounded over to Shiloh. She sat on the end of a lounge chair, and Koda put his paws on her shoulders. She’d always loved animals, but after her kidnapping, she’d started to spend more time with them than anyone else. Koda licked the side of her face, and Shiloh laughed.
There wasn’t a better sound than my sister laughing, a confirmation that she was happy and safe. And now I had to ruin it.
My dad’s hand clamped down on my shoulder in greeting. “What’re you doing out here? I thought you were on duty tonight.”
“I switched my shift to tomorrow.”
Mom joined us on the back deck. “Hayes has something to tell us, and it’s serious.”
Dad’s gaze turned assessing. “What’s going on?”
I shot a sidelong look at Shiloh, who picked up on it immediately, her spine stiffening. She’d developed this built-in radar for people looking at her or whispering, an ability finely honed over years of living in a small town where she was the biggest story to gossip about. My jaw worked back and forth as anger heated in me again. “Everly Kemper is back. She’s living at their old property.”
My mom froze, her gaze drifting to the Kemper property up on the mountain. “I didn’t think she’d ever come back.”
“Neither did I.” The words came through clenched teeth, and Mom’s gaze drifted back to me.
“There could be a lot worse news.”
I glanced at Shiloh, who seemed lost in a world of her making, imagination or memory taking over. “This is pretty damn bad in my book,” I hissed at my mom, inclining my head towards Shiloh.
My sister startled from her haze and sent me a death glare. But as usual, she didn’t say a word, simply took off for the barn, my dog following in her wake. I muttered a curse. “That was what I was worried about.”
My mom rubbed my back like she’d done when I was a little boy. “Nothing about the path Shy has had to walk has been easy. The gossip mill is bound to kick up, and that pisses me right off. But since you’ve given her a heads-up, Shiloh will steer clear of town for a bit.”
“She shouldn’t have to,” I gritted out.
“You’re right, she shouldn’t. But life isn’t fair. It certainly hasn’t been for Everly Kemper.”
I bit back the words that wanted to escape. Dad watched as Shiloh disappeared into the barn. “I can’t imagine how scared that little girl must have been. Only eleven. Riding down that mountain in the dark to do the right thing. And her whole family turned on her.”
I tried to push the image out of my mind. I didn’t want to see Everly as a little girl, scared and alone. I didn’t want to think about her or her family at all.
My mom took hold of my arm, giving it a squeeze. “How’d you hear about this, anyway?”
“Calder heard that someone had bought the place, but I guess he was wrong. I went up there to introduce myself, and there she was.”
She gripped my biceps harder. “Hayes Easton, please tell me you were warm and welcoming to that girl.”
Heat crept up the back of my neck. “She doesn’t need warm and welcoming. She needs to go back to wherever she came from.”
Dad set his barbeque tongs down with a clang and turned around to face me dead-on. “That girl saved your sister’s life. A couple more days and she could’ve died of dehydration. She risked everything for someone she didn’t even know.”
“Her father kidnapped Shiloh!” I couldn’t believe my parents were taking this in stride. So happy to have the memory dug up and
salt poured into every wound.
“Hayes…” My mom’s voice grew quiet, thick with emotion. “It kills me that Shy will never be the same because of the actions of a sick man. But none of it was Everly’s fault. You need to open your eyes a little more. You’ve always seen things in black and white, but life is shades of gray.”
I pulled my keys out of my pocket, fisting them so the bite of pain would keep me in check. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up. I’m going to head back to town now.”
Mom laid a hand on my forearm. “Hayes, don’t do that. Stay. Have dinner. Shy’ll be back when she’s ready, and we can all eat together.”
I couldn’t refuse. Not when there was so much hurt in my mother’s voice. She might not recognize it, but that pain was there because Everly had returned. Stirring things up just like I’d feared. We’d be lucky if Shiloh had only retreated to her loft above the barn. If it was a bad episode, she’d grab her horse and her pack and disappear for days, leaving us all worried half to death.
I just couldn’t see Everly as a hero. Couldn’t erase her ties to the man who’d destroyed so much of the heart of my family. I simply wasn’t built that way.