Page 8 of Branded Souls (Ember Hollow Romance #3)

Fox

I hadn’t been on a date in years, and I wasn’t sure why I was starting now.

Emersyn had pushed me into it, which caught me off guard because she never seemed the type to meddle in other people’s personal lives.

Maybe it had been because of my shitty mood since running into my ex a week ago, but somehow I’d been set up with a girl from Emersyn’s yoga class.

I had no idea why I’d agreed. Part of me wanted to get Emersyn off my back, and part of me wanted a distraction.

I immediately regretted everything.

Lakelyn was perfectly nice—pretty, even—but she loved to talk.

Sometimes that worked out for a guy like me who didn’t say much, but it was exhausting to listen to the flood of words coming out of her mouth.

I wondered whether it physically tired her to speak that much. I felt like it probably should.

We were at the Ember Hollow Brewery, a casual establishment that didn’t feel too overwhelming for a first date.

The place had exposed brick walls, polished concrete floors, and string lights casting a soft glow over reclaimed wood tables.

It was bustling with movement and bodies, and it took longer than I’d hoped to get a table.

Lakelyn wasn’t fazed, though. She droned on about nothing in particular while we waited for our drinks.

By the time I had a beer in hand, I drank it faster than I intended.

I made small comments here and there when Lakelyn paused long enough to take a breath, but otherwise I sat, my brain struggling to stay in the moment.

I was on my second stout beer when the edge of a buzz had my skin tingle with warmth.

It’d been awhile since I’d had more than one beer in a sitting.

The sound of my name had me glancing up from watching the condensation roll down my glass. I blinked at Lakelyn, trying to focus. She pursed her lips, like she finally noticed I hadn’t been paying attention.

“What?” I asked, probably too flatly.

“Did you not hear me?” She frowned, glancing at our surroundings. “It is kinda loud in here tonight…”

I was vaguely aware of the door opening, more people pouring into the brewery. But something pricked the back of my neck. It was as if I sensed her. Without thinking, I looked over.

And there she was.

Skye Adler, with a large bag slung over her shoulder. Her steps were slow as she scanned the room like she was looking for someone. She tucked a lock of her dark, short hair behind her ear.

I waited for the anger I’d clung to all week to flare up. But it didn’t.

My stare bore into her, assessing. There was something off about her.

Her shoulders were too stiff. There was something hollow in her expression. Something raw. Something…wrong.

It took everything in me to stay in my seat.

“Oh my God,” Lakelyn whispered, pulling my attention briefly. “Is that Skye Adler?”

I clenched my teeth and didn’t say anything. Skye’s gaze moved around the room and for a second, I thought we might make eye contact—but she stopped on a table in the corner. A man stood up, smiling as she approached.

My brow furrowed.

The man’s smile was too wide. Too pleased. Something sharp lit in my chest. A feeling I hadn’t felt in years.

Jealousy.

“Isn’t that a detective?” Lakelyn whisper-shouted, craning her neck to watch.

I nodded stiffly as Skye sat down with Detective Brandon Whize.

My skin crawled, my will to stay in my seat being challenged as Skye leaned forward across the table. Whize looked too damn happy to see her.

“Do you think they’re on a date?” Lakelyn leaned toward me across the small pub table.

I clenched my beer glass too tightly, afraid it might shatter in my hand. I shouldn’t care about what Skye was doing with Whize. It shouldn’t bother me that she was here to see him. Whatever Skye chose to do shouldn’t bother me at all anymore.

Besides, I was here on a date. I forced myself to look back at Lakelyn. She leaned in with a conspiratorial gleam in her eye, resting her elbows on the table and offering a not-so-subtle view of her cleavage.

I focused pointedly on her face.

“Have you heard that she’s making a documentary about the Shadow Stalker?” she whispered.

“I’ve heard,” I muttered.

“Has she contacted you? Or your brothers? I heard she’s looking to interview people.”

Hastily, I lifted my glass, drinking the rest of my beer before flagging down the waitress for another. “I haven’t spoken to her.”

She glanced between me and Skye, until she settled on me. Her brows rose. “I’ve heard that she’s staying in the Millers’ cabin outside of town.”

My spine straightened. That cabin was out in the middle of the woods. Secluded.

“You seem to hear about a lot of things around town,” I mused.

She laughed, a high-pitched, almost brittle sound that grated on my nerves. “It’s a small town.” She shrugged. “It’s hard not to hear things.”

I had a feeling it was more than that. She struck me as the kind of person who liked sticking her nose where it didn’t belong.

I glanced back toward Skye on instinct.

She was leaning closer to Whize. The detective watched her intently, their heads bowed in what looked like a serious conversation.

My stomach twisted. It shouldn’t bother me. She had left me long ago and hadn’t looked back.

Still…when Whize reached out and touched her shoulder, I felt like I was going to crawl out of my own skin.

The waitress dropped off my beer, and I drank it in three gulps.

The pint glass hit the table too hard. My date flinched.

“Um…is everything all right?” She looked truly concerned for the first time.

“Yes,” I said automatically.

Silence settled between us. The longest one yet .

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Skye chewing at her thumb. Her knee bounced in a frantic rhythm under the table.

My heart sank.

She wasn’t okay. I couldn’t see clearly from here, but I remembered what her nail beds looked like when she was stressed—bleeding, cracked, picked until raw.

My hands balled into fists. My own knuckles still ached from that unwise round with the punching bag. I’d covered the lingering bruises and scabs with a pair of leather driving gloves. I felt slightly silly in them, but they weren’t too conspicuous peeking out from my long-sleeved shirt.

I swallowed hard. My skin burned. My muscles twitched with the need to get up. To go to her.

I forced my gaze back to my date. “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice low and strained. “I’m—I’m not feeling well.”

She blinked, looking slightly shocked. “Are you okay?”

I pulled out my wallet and dropped some cash on the table as I stood. “I think I should go home.”

She put her hands on her hips. “We didn’t even order our food yet,” she complained.

“You can stay if you’d like.”

“Fox…” she started.

I let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, reminding myself that this really wasn’t her fault. “But I’m going to call a cab. I’ll gladly pay for one for you too, if that’s something you want.”

She stared at the money on the table, and then at her unfinished drink. Something seemed to click into place. She glanced back at where Skye and Whize were seated, still leaning in too close to each other .

Her eyes widened. “Oh.” She looked back at me. “Didn’t you and her have a thing once upon a time?”

My back teeth ground together. I barely knew this woman, but somehow I wasn’t surprised she knew about my past. Even if it was a long time ago, Skye and I had been an item around this town back then.

I ignored her comment. “I have to go.”

Her nose crinkled in annoyance. “Seriously? After all this time, you’re still getting bent out of shape about her?”

I wasn’t about to explain myself to her. I could barely explain it to myself.

“Are you going or staying?” I asked, deadpan.

She rolled her eyes, grabbed her drink, and drained the last of it in a few gulps. “What a disappointment this was.” She sighed. “I hope she’s worth it,” she muttered as she stepped around me and headed toward the door.

I let her words hang in the air as I watched her walk a few paces before I followed behind. It took more willpower not to have one last look at her as we exited the brewery.

Skye wasn’t worth it. That’s what I’d tried to convince myself of a thousand times over since the day she ran away from everything we could’ve been.

But Skye Adler was back in Ember Hollow.

The reality was, whether I wanted to or not, I was already unraveling.