🗝️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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The gravel crunched under the wheels. Small stones clattered in the wheel arches, sending a pattering noise reminiscent of a downpour through the jeep as it turned into the cottage's driveway.
The sound mirrored the chaos of emotions raging inside Ryker. A storm, like the one the night before, that had ominously rattled the windows and made his composure falter. Restlessness constricted his chest. Panic-stricken fear numbed his fingertips, making them feel ice-cold as if he had been wandering for hours in the freezing cold. Anger completed the wild battle raging inside him – anger at himself for having fallen for this cheap trick like an amateur.
He stared fixedly at the terrace and practically leapt out of the car, hoping, no, praying that the door would open at any moment and Eve would step out smiling. That Liam was peeking out behind her and finally jumped up to tell him they had found Chief, and everything had just been... a stupid misunderstanding.
They must have noticed the car. The screeching of the brakes had undoubtedly been loud enough to wake Riona from her deep sleep and give the old woman in the attic room a reason to peek curiously out of the dormer window. But instead, the door remained locked, the curtains motionless, and the cottage unusually quiet – too quiet.
"Kaylen!" Dylan's call sounded next to Ryker and made him flinch. A new tone shaped Dylan's voice rougher, and Ray recognised a fear that had been foreign to him in connection with his comrade. "Kay, please! Come out!"
In a different situation, Ray would probably have felt pity for Dylan. But now, it sent a cold shiver down his spine and intensified the queasy feeling that had been in his stomach since their departure.
Never before had Ray wished so hard that the door would fly open and Eve would stand in the doorway with a gun, chasing her ex away again. The strange thing was that Ray was sure Dylan was wishing the same thing at that moment. As long as they saw her beautiful face, they would have welcomed Eve's anger with open arms. But the door stayed closed.
"Stop it, Dylan," he cut off Dylan's next scream with a growling voice like sharp scissors through a silk ribbon, just as the latter took a breath to call out for his ex-wife again. "It's no use. If we're lucky, she's still with Liam, looking for Chief." He wanted to believe that too. But he couldn't manage to convince himself of it. "We have to check and make sure."
