🗝️Detective Ryker Viltarin must uncover dark secrets before he loses not only his heart but also his life.🗝️
You're on your own, far from home
The wind is blowing in the top of the pines
A gloomy sky where the sun never shines
Deep...
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Ryker's thoughts whirled, and he felt like a ship on the high seas, tossed mercilessly back and forth by the rising waves of a storm. The door crashed shut behind him.
His eyes darted back and forth, searching for anything that might give him a clue. But there were only the empty streets of the tiny town.
He sucked the air deep into his lungs. He needed to calm down, to think.
Ryker took another deep breath, opening and closing his hands repeatedly. He could feel the tension slowly leaving his body and his heartbeat calming down, at least enough for the gears of his mind to start turning again.
He knew how important this store had been to Eve. Now, she hadn't gotten it. Despite all her confidence. Despite all his efforts. A stroke of fate that was not unfamiliar to him. She must feel terrible. And she was all alone.
He had experienced that more than once. The moment the Seals discharged him as unfit for duty. When he learned that his parents had been killed in the accident. He knew the pain, the disappointment. What had he done in those moments? Where had he fled to?
He looked around, searching.
The little town was no place of refuge. You couldn't tear down the walls here. You couldn't give in to the pain. You needed peace for that. A place where you could be sure of escaping the eyes of the curious. A place where you were undisturbed.
He turned his head and looked into the distance. Down the road, they had come. Could it be...? No. But where had she gone if she wasn't on her way back?
His gaze kept wandering and finally caught on the shimmering surface of Everbreeze Lake, which looked like a bit of treasure in the fall sun.
"You idiot," he snorted softly as the scales fell from his eyes. "Of course..." His body immediately tilted forward, and he hurriedly directed his steps down the narrow path toward the shore of the lake.
Peace, quiet, unobserved and alone.
All these desires that a disappointed and wounded soul yearned for were united at the lake. At this time of year and in this cool weather, the lake, with its reflective, rippled surface, offered precisely the refuge you were looking for. You were alone and could let your thoughts and feelings run free.
